suing visits, culminating with the final one, during
which Nancy tells him that he lost her to Godfrey
only because he refused to fight for her. That night
he learns to fight, because he is pursued by a form
of astral projection from Godfrey that chases him
into a remote part of a slum, where he collapses,
having also been poisoned. Realizing the truth at
last, Loring finally finds the strength to fight, over-
comes the spectral follower, and saves his own life,
although it proves to have been too late for Nancy.
Kirk’s story clearly cautions us not to wait too
long to stand up for our own interests and those of
others about whom we might care. Nancy’s death
is tragic, but out of that tragedy Loring presumably
learns a lesson that will stay with him for the rest
of his life.
Swann, Thomas Burnett (1928–1976)
Thomas Burnett Swann was a poet and academic
most of whose novels are essentially set in our his-
torical past, although a version of the past where
magic works and the creatures of legend all ex-
isted. Swann jumped around considerably in time,
even within series of related novels, but an under-
lying theme of most of his work is that modern civ-
ilization is a very mixed blessing, namely that
technology, nationalism, and modern religions
have driven something valuable from the Earth
and cost us more than we have gained.
Swann first attracted attention with two long
stories, “WHERE IS THE BIRD OF FIRE?” (1962), set
during the founding of Rome, and “The Dolphin
and the Deep” (1963). They were followed by Day
of the Minotaur(1964, also published as The Blue
Monkeys), in which the last minotaur on Earth
tries to live out the rest of his life peacefully in a
magical forest but is constantly intruded upon by
sometimes well-meaning but always distracting
outsiders. Another excellent short story, “The
Manor of Roses” (1965), was followed by his sec-
ond novel, The Weirwoods(1967), set in a prehis-
toric period in which humans are not the only
intelligent species on Earth and a few still have the
good sense to listen to the teachings of an older
but disappearing race.
Swann largely abandoned short stories after his
next novel, Moondust (1968), also set in Roman
times but more properly science fiction since its
shape-changing character is apparently from an-
other planet. The short fiction was then collected
in two volumes, The Dolphin and the Deep(1968)
and Where Is the Bird of Fire?(1970). The Forest of
Forever(1971) recounts the earlier life of Eunostos,
the minotaur, when his situation was happier. The
Goat without Horns(1971), his only novel set in the
20th century, is also arguably science fiction be-
cause it deals with the relationship between a
human and a dolphin in rationalized terms, al-
though the mood is very much that of fantasy.
Green Phoenix(1972) is a loose sequel to The
Weirwoods,describing the last days of the elder
race that faces extinction during the time of the
siege of Troy. In Wolfwinter(1973) a woman is re-
pelled by her husband’s plans for their child and
retreats into a world of magic and fauns during the
days of the Roman Empire. How Are the Mighty
Fallen(1974) is more bitter in tone, set in biblical
Israel and dealing with lost love and disgrace.
Swann’s increasing dissatisfaction with the modern
world was perhaps best demonstrated in his next
novel, The Not-World(1975), in which we discover
that the ancient race that preceded humans has
not become entirely extinct and that a handful
survive in a magically protected miniature world in
a forest in Great Britain, enjoying all these benefits
of the natural world that humanity has lost.
Lady of the Bees(1976) is an expanded version
of “Where Is the Bird of Fire?” that provides con-
siderably more background and deeper characteri-
zation but adds little to the actual story.
Will-o-the-Wisp(1976) casts the poet Robert Her-
rick as its protagonist, suggesting that his verse was
inspired by his ability to sense the existence of
magical alternate realities. A prince sets out on a
magical journey through ancient Egypt in The
Minikins of Yam(1976), and in The Gods Abide
(1976) another traveler seeks the river Styx in a
Europe where Christianity is rapidly replacing the
old pagan religions and banishing magic from the
world.
The Tournament of Thorns(1976) suggests that
magic might have lingered on in some form until
the Middle Ages, but the novel is unusually dispir-
ited and slow paced. Swann’s last significant novel
was much more upbeat. Cry Silver Bells(1977) isSwann, Thomas Burnett 343