{"id":77,"date":"2005-06-02T19:58:35","date_gmt":"2005-06-03T02:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=77"},"modified":"2021-05-31T19:36:28","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T23:36:28","slug":"tales-of-mithgar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/77","title":{"rendered":"Tales of Mithgar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tales of Mithgar<\/em> (1994) Dennis McKiernan<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Still looking for books to tide me over, I turned to another favorite, Dennis McKiernan. I picked up Tales of Mithgar<\/i> because it’s a collection of short stories, and I love short stories. <\/p>\n

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<\/i>, 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<\/em>, 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 <\/a>\"\"<\/i> but it’s a good tale never the less.<\/p>\n

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<\/i>, which would be the next logical book to read.<\/p>\n

There are some who claim that Dennis McKiernan’s work is derivative of JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings<\/i>. 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<\/i>, 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<\/i>, 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. <\/p>\n

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<\/i>) stand perfectly well by themselves, sometimes it’s nice to have a small sample before you commit yourself to a new author.<\/p>\n

So if you have not yet read Dennis McKiernan, Tales of Mithgar<\/i> is an excellent place to begin.
\nRating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,291,39],"tags":[309,310],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-sword-sorcery","tag-dennis-mckiernan","tag-mithgar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":103,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/103","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":0},"title":"The Eye of the Hunter","author":"Michelle","date":"July 31, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Eye of the Hunter (1992) Dennis L. McKiernan If I remember correctly, this is the second Dennis McKiernan book I read--and the first novel. (The first book was the short story collection Tales of Mithgar.) In The Eye of the Hunter, the Lastborn Firstborns Gwilly and Faeril, join with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/07\/Eye-of-the-Hunter.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/26","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":1},"title":"Red Slippers","author":"Michelle","date":"June 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Red Slippers Dennis McKiernan This compilation of short stories should be the final Mithgar book. As Dennis McKiernan says in the beginning, there were some loose ends that he wanted to go back and tie up, or explain, or stories that were mentioned in passing that he wanted to mention\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/06\/Red-Slippers.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":101,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/101","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":2},"title":"Into the Fire","author":"Michelle","date":"July 30, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Into the Fire (1998) Dennis McKiernan Book Two of the Hel's Crucible Duology The conlusion to the story started in Into the Forge, Phais, Loric, Tipperton, and Beau leave Mineholt North to continue Tip's quest to take the coin to Agron. War continues to rage as Gryphon seeks to dominate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Into-the-Fire.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":105,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/105","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":3},"title":"Silver Wolf, Black Falcon","author":"Michelle","date":"August 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Silver Wolf, Black Falcon (2000) Dennis McKiernan This is the final book in Dennis McKiernan's Mithgar series, where all the loose ends are tied up. We follow the journal of Bair, the impossible child, borne of Riatha and Urus. The reeds speak of Bair as the one to find the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Silver-Wolf-Black-Falcon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":100,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/100","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":4},"title":"Into the Forge","author":"Michelle","date":"July 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Into the Forge (1997) Dennis McKiernan The first book in the Hel's Crucible duology. Tipperton is awakened by sounds of battle outside his door, and thus is drawn into what is to become one of Mithgar's great battles of good versus evil, as Gryphon seeks to dominate not just Neddra,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Into-the-Forge.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":91,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/91","url_meta":{"origin":77,"position":5},"title":"The Dragonstone","author":"Michelle","date":"July 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Dragonstone (1996) Dennis McKiernan This is a good book, but not my favorite Mithgar books. Unlike other books set in Mithgar, there are few appearances by characters from other books: Aravan is mentioned in passing, the great dragons make an appearance, and Vanidar accompanies Arin for awhile, but mostly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Dragonstone.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}