“The Woman Who Loved the Moon”
Elizabeth A. Lynn(1981)
Although ElizabethLYNNis not one of the most pro-
lific fantasy writers, her work is highly regarded in
the field, and she has won two World Fantasy
Awards, for the novel Watchtower(1981) and for
this short story. Lynn’s work often contains a very
strong feminist viewpoint, although she never allows
the subtext to overpower her story’s entertainment
value. This particular story, which has very much
the flavor of a classic fairy tale, is no exception.
Kai Talvela is one of three sisters from Issho
who have trained themselves as fearless and feared
warriors, each specializing in a different weapon.
They would normally have many suitors, for they
are all beautiful, but each has vowed never to marry
a man who cannot best them with their particular
chosen weapon. Since each is unsurpassed, they
keep mostly their own company. Although they are
not particularly boastful, others speak freely about
their beauty, insisting that even the moon pales in
comparison, a challenge to the gods not unlike
those sprinkled through Greek mythology.
One day they encounter a stranger, another
female warrior who identifies herself as Sedi.
When one of the sisters challenges her to a
friendly match with quarterstaffs, the others expect
her to win as she always does. Surprisingly, she not
only loses but receives a blow that wreaks such in-
ternal damage that she dies within the day. A year
passes, the surviving sisters encounter Sedi again,
the second sister challenges her with spears, and
within the hour she is lying dead on the ground.
Only Kai is left, and it is she who learns the truth,
that Sedi is actually a personification of the moon,
incarnated on Earth because she was offended by
her unfavorable comparison to the sisters.
Kai sets off to find Sedi, resigned to her own
death, but this time the outcome is different. Sedi
falls in love with Kai and allows her to win, and
the two become lovers, living isolated in time
from the rest of the world. When Kai finally de-
cides that she wishes to see her family, only her
mother is still alive, a very elderly woman, al-
though Kai herself has not aged during the 50
years that have passed. Sedi reluctantly allows her
to leave, and Kai returns. Her mother dies, and
she finds herself alone among a people she does
not know and who are nervous in her presence.
Her loyalty is proved, however, because even after
she herself dies her ghost returns periodically to
help protect the people of Issho. Lynn packs a
surprisingly large amount of story into relatively
few words and describes complex interpersonal
relationships economically and with a feeling of
genuine emotion.“The Women of the Woods”A. Merritt
(1924)
Abraham MERRITTwas the author of a half dozen
of the best early fantasy adventures, most of them
novels about lost civilizations. He rarely wrote
short fiction. Most of it was relatively minor, but at
least one of his stories is powerful enough to rank
with his novels. The story is told from the point of
view of McKay, an ex-airman recovering from
trauma experienced during the recently ended war.
He is vacationing in a rural part of Europe, a
mostly forested region with a small inn and,
nearby, the decaying lodge of the Polleau family, a
father and two grown sons.
McKay loves the trees, particularly those in
one region where they seem to have human per-
sonalities and where he experiences visions of
them as men and women, and he sometimes be-
lieves that they speak to him, that they are seeking
his help. He also notices that the Polleaus are sys-
tematically destroying the trees, either by cutting
or burning, and realizes in time that there is an an-
imosity between the family and the forest that he
openly compares to warfare. In fact, one might in-
terpret his visions as illusions brought on by his
disturbed mental state.
The situation escalates quickly. While cutting
down a tree in McKay’s favorite area, one of the
Polleau sons is hit by a stray branch and loses an
eye. Spectral women, manifestations of the trees,
urge McKay to kill the woodcutters, but he recoils
from that idea and instead attempts to purchase
that portion of their land that is most precious to
him in order to keep the trees safe. The Polleaus
refuse, the patriarch openly asserts that McKay is
under the influence of the trees, and eventually
McKay is goaded into killing one of the sons. His
guilt is concealed by a fallen tree that wipes out“The Women of the Woods” 389