Lord Foul's Bane
Cover of first trade edition
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| Author | Stephen R. Donaldson |
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| Cover artist | S. C. Wyeth |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Holt, Rinehart and Winston |
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Publication date
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1977 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 480 pp |
| ISBN | (USA hardback) |
| OCLC | 33451041 |
| Preceded by | None |
| Followed by | The Illearth War |
Lord Foul's Bane is the first book of the first trilogy of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant fantasy series written by Stephen R. Donaldson. It is followed by The Illearth War.
Thomas Covenant is a young author whose world is turned upside-down when he is diagnosed with leprosy. After six months' treatment and counselling in a leprosarium, he returns home to find himself alone, divorced by his wife Joan, and outcast from his community. His son Roger has been taken to live with his ex-wife. On a rare trip into town, he is accosted by a beggar. The beggar refuses Covenant's offers of charity, including his white gold wedding band, makes several cryptic pronouncements, and leaves Covenant with the admonition to "be true." Disturbed by the encounter, Covenant stumbles into the path of an oncoming police car and is rendered unconscious.
He wakes to find himself in "the Land", a classic fantasy world. He first meets the evil Cavewight Drool Rockworm, who has summoned him to the Land with the power of the enchanted Staff of Law. Drool has been instructed and manipulated by a malevolent incorporeal being who calls himself "Lord Foul the Despiser". Foul reproaches Drool for his arrogance and transports Covenant to Foul's demesne. Addressing Covenant as "groveler", Foul taunts him with a prophecy that he (Foul) will destroy the Land within 49 years; however, if Drool isn't stopped, this doom will come to pass much sooner. He tells Covenant to deliver this message to the rulers of the Land, the Council of Lords at Revelstone, so that they can make preparations to combat Drool Rockworm and recover the Staff of Law.
Covenant is transported again and wakes on Kevin's Watch, a tall finger of rock attached to a mountain overlooking the Land's southernmost region. He meets a girl named Lena, who uses a special mud called hurtloam to heal the injuries from his fall. Covenant is shocked to discover that the hurtloam has also cured his leprosy. This is only the first example Covenant will see of the Earthpower: a rich source of healing energy present throughout the Land. Covenant's loss of two fingers on his right hand, a consequence of the failure to promptly diagnose his leprosy, causes him to be identified by Lena as the reincarnation of Berek Halfhand, an ancient Lord who saved the Land from Lord Foul during a war which occurred in the Land's distant past. His special identity is seemingly confirmed when Lena's mother Atiaran identifies Covenant's white gold ring – in his world a plain wedding band, which he had been emotionally unable to discard notwithstanding his divorce – as a token of great power in the Land.
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