Tales of Mithgar

Tales of Mithgar (1994) Dennis McKiernan

Still looking for books to tide me over, I turned to another favorite, Dennis McKiernan. I picked up Tales of Mithgar because it’s a collection of short stories, and I love short stories.

Set in the “One Eyed Crow” tavern, a blizzard has descended suddenly upon the land, and everyone is trapped where they are. As Warrows love a good story, this book relates some of the tales told by the inhabitants. A single tale wends through the book, the story of Pebble and Petal. Background for Eye of the Hunter, a fairly complicated tale is told in just a few stories. And although this might be seen as a prelude to Eye of the Hunter, there are many other stories in the book, so it does come across as the sort of tales that might be told round the fire, some with seemingly familiar, like the story, “For Want of a Copper Coin.” I’m quite certain I’ve come across that as a folktales, but that didn’t make the story any less enjoyable, and “The Dammsel” is definitely a retelling of a tale I remember from but it’s a good tale never the less.

If I remember correctly, this may have been the first Mithgar book I read, and it is certainly an excellent introduction to Dennis McKiernan’s Mithgar series. There are references to other books, although not in any way that would cause you to feel as if you were missing something without having read those tales, and of course it contains the background for Eye of the Hunter, which would be the next logical book to read.

There are some who claim that Dennis McKiernan’s work is derivative of JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. And to be honest, looking at his earliest book, I can see where they’re coming from. However. By the time he wrote Tales of Mithgar, Mithgar was fully developed as a place wholly different from the lands of Tolkein, and the stories and characters have little relation to what you find in Lord of the Rings, other than the fact that there are different races living upon Mithgar that are similar. But then elves and halflings and wizards are common in a great deal of fantasy.

My point is that this may well be one of the best books pick up the series. It’s well-written, and the story telling is very good. And like many of the books in the series, it’s self-contained. You do not have to have read the entire series to understand where we are up to this point. Although I think that any of the books or duologies or trilogies (with the exception of Silver Wolf, Black Falcon) stand perfectly well by themselves, sometimes it’s nice to have a small sample before you commit yourself to a new author.

So if you have not yet read Dennis McKiernan, Tales of Mithgar is an excellent place to begin.
Rating: 9/10

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