Lavondyss
First edition cover
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| Author | |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Alan Lee |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Mythago Wood series |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Victor Gollancz Ltd |
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Publication date
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1988 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 367 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 18018373 |
| Preceded by | Mythago Wood (1984) |
| Followed by | The Bone Forest (1991) |
Lavondyss also titled Lavondyss: Journey to an Unknown Region is the second fantasy novel of the Mythago Wood series written by . Lavondyss was originally published in 1988. The name of the novel hints at the real and mythological locales of Avon, Lyonesse, Avalon and Dis; within the novel Lavondyss is the name of the remote, ice-age heart of Ryhope wood.
Despite having a new primary character, Lavondyss is a sequel to Mythago Wood because several characters provide links between the novels; the events in Mythago Wood set into motion events that drive the protagonists' actions in Lavondyss. Reading the novel Mythago Wood will illuminate Lavondyss for first time readers.
Lavondyss is noteworthy because it has both won and been nominated for fantasy literature awards.
Tallis Keeton, the younger sister of Harry Keeton (from Mythago Wood), is the protagonist of the story. Lavondyss starts with Tallis's grandfather and his efforts to write down some of his encounters with the mythagos from the nearby Ryhope Wood; Tallis is still a baby at this point. The story soon jumps forward a few years to where Tallis and her development are concentrated upon - it is at this point that the story shows her developing relationship with the land around her house and the mythagos emerging from Ryhope wood. This development continues throughout the book as periods in her life from baby to child to teenager to young woman are shown to the reader. As Tallis' shamanistic powers grow, she undertakes a quest in Ryhope wood to find her lost brother and undergoes a metamorphosis of her own.
During her formative years, Tallis encounters the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (not a mythago, but real flesh and blood). Tallis sings him a song that she thinks she has made up herself, but the composer identifies its tune as that of a folk song he has collected personally in Norfolk. Slowly Tallis's links with the wood intensify. She makes ten chthonic wooden masks, each of which represents one of the ten first legends in Ryhope wood. Within the context of the story, these masks are talismans that help to engage certain parts of her subconscious and so link her with the characters and landscapes which are forming within the wood. When properly used (especially later in the book), these masks allow Tallis to see things that cannot be seen without them, and they can also be used to create 'Hollowings' — pathways in space and time which allow her to step into far-off places within the wood which would otherwise take days, weeks, or even months to travel to on foot. Tallis makes the masks in the following order:
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