Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women Read online

  Produced by Mike Lough

  PHANTASTES

  A FAERIE ROMANCE FOR MEN AND WOMEN

  By George Macdonald

  A new Edition, with thirty-three new Illustrations by Arthur Hughes;edited by Greville MacDonald

  “In good sooth, my masters, this is no door. Yet is it a little window, that looketh upon a great world.”

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  THE MEETING OF SIR GALAHAD AND SIX PERCIVALE SUDDENLY THERE STOOD ON THE THRESHOLD A TINY WOMAN-FORM THE BRANCHES AND LEAVES ON THE CURTAINS OF MY BED WERE IN MOTION I SAW A COUNTRY MAIDEN COMING TOWARDS ME TAILPIECE TO CHAPTER III HEADPIECE TO CHAPTER IV TWO LARGE SOFT ARMS WERE THROWN AROUND ME FROM BEHIND I GAZED AFTER HER IN A KIND OF DESPAIR I FOUND MYSELF IN A LITTLE CAVE THE ASH SHUDDERED AND GROANED TAILPIECE TO CHAPTER VI I COULD HARDLY BELIEVE THAT THERE WAS A FAIRY LAND I DID NOT BELIEVE IN FAIRY LAND A RUNNER WITH GHOSTLY FEET THE MAIDEN CAME ALONG, SINGING AND DANCING,HAPPY AS A CHILD THE GOBLINS PERFORMED THE MOST ANTIC HOMAGE THE FAIRY PALACE IN THE MOONLIGHT TOO DAZZLING FOR EARTHLY EYES IN THE WOODS AND ALONG THE RIVER BANKS DO THE MAIDENS GO LOOKING FOR CHILDREN SHE LAY WITH CLOSED EYES, WHENCE TWO TEARS WERE FAST WELLING HEADPIECE TO CHAPTER XIV I SPRANG TO HER, AND LAID MY HAND ON THE HARP A WHITE FIGURE GLEAMED PAST ME, WRINGING HER HANDS THEY ALL RUSHED UPON ME, AND HELD ME TIGHT A WINTRY SEA, BARE, AND WASTE, AND GRAY SHOW ME THE CHILD THOU CALLEST MINE THE TIME PASSED AWAY IN WORK AND SONG HEADPIECE TO CHAPTER XXI WE REACHED THE PALACE OF THE KING I SAW, LEANING AGAINST THE TREE, A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN FASTENED TO THE SADDLE, WAS THE BODY OF A GREAT DRAGON I WAS DEAD, AND RIGHT CONTENT A VALLEY LAY BENEATH ME

  PREFACE

  For offering this new edition of my father’s Phantastes, my reasonsare three. The first is to rescue the work from an edition illustratedwithout the author’s sanction, and so unsuitably that all lovers of thebook must have experienced some real grief in turning its pages. Withthe copyright I secured also the whole of that edition and turned itinto pulp.

  My second reason is to pay a small tribute to my father by way ofpersonal gratitude for this, his first prose work, which was publishednearly fifty years ago. Though unknown to many lovers of his greaterwritings, none of these has exceeded it in imaginative insight and powerof expression. To me it rings with the dominant chord of his life’spurpose and work.

  My third reason is that wider knowledge and love of the book shouldbe made possible. To this end I have been most happy in the help of myfather’s old friend, who has illustrated the book. I know of no otherliving artist who is capable of portraying the spirit of Phantastes;and every reader of this edition will, I believe, feel that theillustrations are a part of the romance, and will gain through themsome perception of the brotherhood between George MacDonald and ArthurHughes.

  GREVILLE MACDONALD.

  September 1905.

  PHANTASTES A FAERIE ROMANCE

  “Phantastes from ‘their fount all shapes deriving, In new habiliments can quickly dight.” FLETCHER’S Purple Island

  Es lassen sich Erzählungen ohne Zusammenhang, jedoch mit Association, wie Träume, denken; Gedichte, die bloss wohlklingend und voll schöner Worte sind, aber auch ohne allen Sinn und Zusammenhang, höchstens einzelne Strophen verständlich, wie Bruchstücke aus den verschiedenartigsten Dingen. Diese wahre Poesie kann höchstens einen allegorischen Sinn in Grossen, und eine indirecte Wirkung, wie Musik, haben. Darum ist die Natur so rein poetisch, wie die Stube eines Zauberers, eines Physikers, eine Kinderstube, eine Polter- und Vorrathskammer.

  Ein Märchen ist wie ein Traumbild ohne Zusammenhang. Ein Ensemble wunderbarer Dinge und Begebenheiten, z. B. eine musikalische Phantasie, die harmonischen Folgen einer Aeolsharfe, die Natur selbst...

  In einem echten Märchen muss alles wunderbar, geheimnissvoll und zusammenhängend sein; alles belebt, jeder auf eine andere Art. Die ganze Natur muss wunderlich mit der ganzen Geisterwelt gemischt sein; hier tritt die Zeit der Anarchie, der Gesetzlosigkeit, Freiheit, der Naturstand der Natur, die Zeit von der Welt ein . . . Die Welt des Märchens ist die, der Welt der Wahrheit durchaus entgegengesetzte, und eben darum ihr so durchaus ähnlich, wie das Chaos der vollendeten Schöpfung ähnlich ist.--NOVALIS.