Copyright: 1977, Terry Brooks
Published: Ballantine Books
Cover Artist: Steve Stone - Tim and Greg Hildebrandt
Dedication: For My Parents, Who Believed
Buy it: Paperback(1995), Hardcover(1991), Paperback(1990 special order), and Cassette(1994).
Flick Ohmsford – (human)Son of Curzad Ohmsford
Shea Ohmsford – (half elf half human)Born in a small Westland community. Adopted by his distant cousins the Ohmsfords. Father was Elven and Mother was Man.
Curzad Ohmsford – (human)Father of Flick. Owns an Inn in Shady Vale
Allanon – (human) Hisotrian of the races. Philosopher, teacher, druid, sorcerer.
Brona aka Warlock Lord – (once human)Renegade Druid behind the Second War of the Races. Lives in Skull Kingdom. Able to bridge the world we live in and the spirit world. Feeds on power of mystic forces he possesses.
“Denying his own death, he held his lifeless body together to achieve the immortality that had escaped him.”
“The truth was that the creature he had supposed himself to be had ceased to exist almost a thousand years before.”
Bremen – (human)famous mystic . an old and highly esteemed elder of the council. Now a shade.
“A lost soul, a being forgotten by this world and its people. He has doomed himself to an existence of half-life that may not end for all eternity.” “He (Bremen) did confront Brona in the end….” “though it was not a battle that was visible to mortal eyes, and both disappeared.” “Doomed to wander in limbo until the warlock lord was finally destroyed.”
Raybur – (dwarf) King of the Dwarfs in the Second War of the Races
Jerle Shannara – (elf) Elven King in the second war of the races.
Balinor Buckhannah – (human) Eldest son of Ruhl Buckhannah. Leader of the Border Legion.
Ruhl Buckhannah – (human) King of Callahorn.
Menion Leah – (human) Prince of Leah, His Mother had passed when he was 12. Excellent tracker, hunter. All around woodsman.
Mist Wraith – (?) Lives in the Mist Marsh
King of the Silver River – (?)His only concern was in keeping the waters of the great Silver River running free and clean for man and animal. Seldom seen by travelers but always there to offer aid or deal out punishment for violation of his domain.
“The strange light in his hand appeared fiercely bright at this close distance, and there was no hint of a flame in its center. Suddenly it disappeared and in its place was a cylindrical object gripped in the old man’s gnarled hand. “
“A toy of people long since dead and gone.”
Skull Bearer – (?)The followers of their old master Brona, those Druids once human in form. The spirit that remained needed only the fire of the Warlock Lord to nourish its hunger.
Siren – (?)Looks much like a willow tree. Lour’s its victim with song and visions.
Border Legion – A professional army relied upon to blunt an invading army.
Pahn –(dwarf)Dwarf soldier.
Hendal – (dwarf)“Had been waging a constant battle with gnomes for years to protect his homeland.”
Black Wraiths – (?) The followers of their old master Brona, those Druids once human in form. The spirit that remained needed only the fire of the Warlock Lord to nourish its hunger.
Eventine Elessedil – (elf) Elven King. Considered the greatest of the Elven Kings.
Durin – (elf)“Quiet Westlander who gave th instant impression that he was a man to be trusted.”
Dayel – (elf) Shy, married, several years younger than Shea
Machine-Beast - (?)“…A grayish, multilegged horror of monstrous size. A nightmare mutation of living flesh and machine..” Bred by the men of another time to serve the needs of its masters…..in preserving its centuries-old existence with bit of metal graphed to its decaying form, it had evolved into a misshapen freak – and worse, an eater of flesh.”
Banshees – (?)Found in the Hall of Kings. No more than voices, but those voices will drive mortal men insane.
Valg – (?)Valg meaning Death in Gnome language. Set in a pool in the Assembly of the Hall of Kings, Serpentine in appearance. Long front legs tipped with deadly hooks. Great jaws with blackened pointed teath. Burning red eyes amid a cluster of bumps and stunted horns on a misshapen head.
Panamon Creel – (human) Thief. From Taihan
Keltset – (rock troll) Friend of Panamon’s. Brona destroyed his family when they refused to join him. Brona ordered his voice be burned out. Bearer of the Black Irix.
Orl Fane – (gnome) A coward, a deserter, a scavenger.
Palance Buckhannah – (human) Son of Ruhl, brother of Balinor
Stenmin – (human) Mystic. “Allanon feels is without honor” Councilor to Palance.
Sheelon – (human) Captain of the Border Legion.
Lord Ginnisson – (human) Border Legion Comander
Lord Fandwick – (human) Border Legion Comander
Shirl Ravenlock – (human) her ancestors were kings of Kern and of all of Callahorn before the Bucannah’s came to power about one hundred years ago.
Janus Senpre – (human) Lieutenant commander of the Border Legion
Fandrez - (human) member of the border legion and knowledgeable of the landscape about Kern.
Acton – (human) Border Legion Comander
Messaline – (human) Border Legion Comander
Lynliss – (Elf) Dayel’s bride to be.
Jon Lin Sandor – (elf) Eventine’s close friend and personal counselor.
Breen Elessedil – (elf) Eventine’s younger brother and next to be King.
Mutens – (?) Misshapen creatures of the Warlock Lords.
Maturens – (troll)Troll commanders.
MAGIC ITEMS:
Sword of Shannara - Jerle carried the sword of shannara till his death. His son, then king, had the sword set in a block of Tre-Stone, taken to paranor and placed in the druids keep. Forged by Bremen with his own mystic prowess. The Sword draws its strength from the minds of the mortals for whom it acted as a shield – their desire to remain free and to give up their lives to preserve that freedom. “The power of sorcery is potent only when it is believed, for its power is over the mind. If the mind does not truly find some basis for belief in its existence, then it can have no real effect.” “The Sword of Shannara cannot be an effective weapon unless the one holding it believes in his power to use it. When Bremen gave the sword to Jerle Shannara, he made the mistake of giving it directly to a king and to the house of a king – he did not give it to the people of the lands. As a result, through human misunderstanding and historical misconception, the universal belief grew that the Sword was the weapon of the Elven King alone and that only those descended of his blood could take up the Sword against the Warlock Lord.”
Inscription carved into the block of Tre-Stone that holds the Sword of Shannara:
When the Warlock Lord appeared again in the Northland, a son of the house of Shannara will come forth to take up the Sword against him.
“Neither Brona nor the Bearers of the Skull can personally remove the talisman – it’s mere physical presence is an anathema to their continued existence in the mortal world.”
Shea’s use of the Sword: “Here was an accounting of every hurt he had caused to tothers, every petty jealousy he had felt, his deep-seated prejudices, his deliberate half truths, his self-pity, his fears – all that was dark and hidden within himself.
Allanon, “You had to learn to accept the truth about yourself first before the sword could be of any use to you as a talisman against the Warlock Lord.
“The sword was implanted blad edownwar in a block of re marble and placed in a vault in the center of the gardens of the people’s Park in Tyrsis. Carved upon the storn facing the vault has the inscription:
Herein lies the heart and soul of the nations.
Their right to be free men,
Their desire to live in peace,
Their courage to seek out truth,
Herein lies the Sword of Shannara.”
Three Elfstones – Dark blue stones the size of pebbles.Provide guidance and protection. Balinor “Allanon once told me they could only be used against things whose power lies beyond substance, dangers that confuse the mind.”
Allanon “ The elfstones are no protection against mortal creatures.”
Sword of Leah – Given to Menion by his father.
The Blue Pond of the Stor’s: The Stors made many of their salves and balms from its waters, which was said to have special healing elements that could be found nowhere else in the world.
Hadeshorn - A lake located in the Valley of Shale. Forbidden to mortals. The waters are Poisonous. A place where "the dead, if they appear, offer visions, and the visions speak for them. The dead have no voices."
Hall of Kings – For over a thousand years, none but Allanon had entered the forbidden tomb. Before the first war of the races, a cult of men served as priests for the gods of death. They buried the Monarchs of the four lands, their servants, possessions, and wealth in these caverns. Legend grew that only the dead could survive in the chambers and only priests were permitted to see the dead rulers were interred. The cult died out but the evil instilled in the Hall of Kings blindly serves the priests whose had passed.
Sphinxes – statues in the Hall of Kings carved as half man half beast. If you look into their eyes you will be turned to stone. Their mental commands are strong enough to force you to gaze into their eyes.
NOTES:
“History is rather vague about the origins and purposes of the druids. “
“They were very knowledgeable men from all races, skilled in many of the lost arts of the old world. They were philosophers and visionaries, students of the arts and science all at once, but more than this, they were the teachers of the races. They were the givers of power-the power of new knowledge in the ways of life.”
Some druids broke from the council to form their own group and for some time where forgotten. 150 years later began a civil war within the race of man that widened into the First War of the races.
The Sword of Shannara takes place less than 500 years after the Second War of the Races.
“We must recover the sword at all cost. There is no other choice left to us. If we fail to do this, the whole of the land will be plunged into the greatest war the races have seen since the near destruction of life two thousand years ago.”
Remnants of the race of man managed to survive the great Wars in which the Science of physical power erupted into war which destroyed 90% of all living thing on the planet and causing a series of explosions and upheavals that altered the surface of the land.
Books from before the first war, kept sacred by man, began to crumble. So men memorized the information and passed it down from generation to generation not daring to put there knowledge into written word. Eventually the new races began to quarrel violently over land and petty disputes which turned to armed conflicts. Fearing a regression toward the very thing that had destroyed the old world, a man called Galaphile called together a select group of men who possessed any knowledge of the old books. This was the beginning of the first druid council.
“Whenever an intelligent creature possesses an innate desire to improve its conditions, to unlock the secrets of progress, it will find the means to do so if not by one method, then by another.”
“Human minds are not equipped to face the realities of nonmaterial existence on this sphere” Allanon.
Elessedils became rulers of the elves almost one hundreds years ago.
“Leah! Leah!” The battle cry of a thousand years burst forth as the Prince Charged…”
“Shea still carries the Elfstones. They may also guide him toward the Sword, since they are attuned to it.”
Allanon “…I enjoy special protection from fire…”
“To have a private library and to be able to sit and read any several hundred books at leisure were privileges shared by very few.”
Black Irix –“ highest award and greatest honor the troll people can give. To receive one you must be the living image of everything the Troll nation cherishes and strives to attain. You must be the closest thing to a God that a mortal being can approach.”
“Druids discovered the key to longevity following the first war of the races.”
“Before he became the Warlock Lord, Brona was a Druid. Thus to some extent, at least, he Druids must bear responsibility for what he became.”
LINEAGE:
Menion Leah would return to the border country to be with Shirl Ravenlock, the daughter of kings.