149

H

Haggard, H. Rider (1856–1925)
Henry Rider Haggard was a British writer who
spent six years in Africa, which had a strong influ-
ence on most of his later fiction. A great many of
his novels are lost world stories, a form that lends
itself to science fiction, straightforward adventure,
and fantasy, the former two when the society is de-
scribed in realistic, rational terms such as in King
Solomon’s Mines(1885), the latter when occult
forces or supernatural influences are present, as in
SHE(1886). Haggard’s most familiar character was
Allan Quatermain, a great white hunter who ap-
pears in more than a dozen books. Quatermain was
also revived as a character in the recent comic
book series and motion picture The League of Ex-
traordinary Gentlemen(2003). Haggard did not dis-
tinguish between various genre forms, and
Quatermain’s adventures fall variously into differ-
ent categories. Most of his stories take the form of
a series of revelations to an explorer or traveler
who purposefully or by chance finds himself inter-
acting within an alien culture, which in turn is
usually split into conflicting factions.
His first clear fantasy was She(1886), whose
lost civilization is located in Asia. Ayesha is a
2000-year-old woman who rules an isolated society
and who falls in love with an explorer who stum-
bles into her domain. She offers him immortality,
but at a cost. Haggard returned to her world for
Ayesha: The Return of She(1905), chronicling the
arrival of another group of outsiders who find
Ayesha waiting to meet the reincarnation of her
lost love. Her next appearance was in She and

Allan(1920), but her meeting with Quatermain is

considerably less entertaining than those in the

preceding books. Wisdom’s Daughter(1923) is actu-

ally a prequel, in which the young Ayesha stub-

bornly refuses to abandon a forbidden love and

angers the gods, who sentence her to eternal life in

his absence. Richard MONACOalso added to her

saga with Journey to the Flame(1985).

Haggard was also interested in Norse mythol-

ogy and wrote several historical adventures using

that backdrop. Eric Brighteyes(1891) is a fantasy,

its warrior hero wielding a magic sword. The Wan-

derer’s Necklace(1913) is also a Viking story, a vari-

ation of the story of the Wandering Jew, in this

case a warrior who offends the gods and gets pun-

ished by an endless life of traveling.

Several of the Quatermain novels involve

magic or the supernatural. There is a supernaturally

empowered elephant in The Ivory Child(1916), for

example, although the main plot is mundane ad-

venture. Allan uses a magic herb to travel mentally

back through time to one of his earlier incarnations

in The Ancient Allan(1920) and again in Allan and

the Ice-Gods(1927). There is also some minor fan-

tastic content in one of his last adventures, Treasure

of the Lake(1926).

The Yellow Mask(1908) mixes financial skull-

duggery with the influence of an enchanted mask,

but the plot never comes to life in the absence of

the colorful settings Haggard created for his more

successful novels. In The Ghost Kings(1908, also

published as The Lady of the Heavens) an African

tribe that uses genuine magic is asked to arbitrate