Wizard’s Woe
Merlyn’s Legacy Trilogy Book 1
by Marion Athorne & Osbert Norman-Walter
A magical fantasy for teens and adults.
A storyteller discovers that the world of the little people is as real as his own human world, and that it is possible to cross between the two.
304 pages
Product details
Writer and journalist August Autrey arrives in the village of Three Weirs to cover the story of the Forest of Weir, which the villagers have long believed to be the home of a wizard and a dangerous dragon. When he disappears leaving only his empty clothes draped over the seat of a chair, many believe he has paid the price for being too curious.
His landlady’s niece, Ann Singlewood, dreams that she meets the missing journalist living in the forest as a nine-inch-high elfin wizard. Two weeks later, however, August returns and spends three days furiously typing a long manuscript, which he addresses to Ann. The next morning he is found dead.
As Ann reads the manuscript she realises that the magical world she dreamed of is actually real and that August is in love with her. But if she is to join him there, it would mean giving up everything …
Customer reviews
Delightfully imagined and beautifully told.
Geoff Anderson
One of the greatest fantasy novels of the 20th century; up there with Tolkien but without the recognition. A criminally neglected novel.
Kim Johnson
Merlyn's Legacy trilogy - an appreciation
The first book, Wizard’s Woe, introduces the rules and traditions that govern life in fairy land that have seeped into local human consciousness as legends and “fairy stories” told to children. But one such storyteller discovers that the world of the little people is as real as his own human world, and that it is possible to cross between the two.But there’s a catch. At some point he has to choose. Our hero’s dilemma is that he can’t communicate with the woman he loves to find out if she is going to make the same choice.
The whole trilogy raises deeply spiritual and ecological questions.
Spiritually, the world of the fairies and gnomes can be interpreted in this book as a kind of heaven, an Arcadian Paradise. This paradise is not a vaguely drawn heaven where anything goes because the inhabitants are immortal – which they are – but rather one that is governed by strict rules, the breaking of which can result in a “second death”.
So the story prompts readers to consider death and the possibility of an afterlife, without having to steep themselves in any of the world’s ancient religions.*
One of the problems we have in envisaging what heaven might be like is to imagine what the inhabitants do with all the time on their hands. Revelations’ suggestion that we might be kneeling before God’s throne singing hymns of praise forever doesn’t appeal to many people, nor does the popular myth of being a harp-playing angel. The authors of Wizard’s Woe have an intriguing answer to this quandary which, again, may not appeal to all readers, though it gets full marks for sheer audacity!
Ecologically, the reader is prompted to consider the risk we take when we destroy our natural environment for commercial gain, since we may unwittingly be destroying the habitats of creatures we know nothing about. Indeed, it is certain that we are doing exactly that when we destroy the rainforests, for example, which harbour countless undiscovered species, and disrupt the harmony of the planet. Wizard’s Woe is a parable of this risk and therefore speaks to a current burning issue.
Geoff Anderson, author of The Legend of Aranrhod
About the authors
Osbert Norman-Walter, writer, playwright, journalist, and astrological consultant “Seginus” of the News of the World (1937-39) conceived Wizard’s Woe in his twenties around 90 years ago, but could find no publisher. On his death in 1974, his daughter, Marion Athorne, inherited an unfinished trilogy.
Married with three children, ten grandchildren and one great grandchild, Marion eventually found the necessary time to commit to working on a manuscript that comprised more than a million words. She enrolled with the Writers Bureau early in 2004, and studied the new writing techniques. The result? The publication of two articles and a win in a short story competition. This gave her the confidence to author the revised, edited, and abridged version of a now complete trilogy that is Merlyn’s Legacy. She sincerely hopes that Book One, Wizard’s Woe, will achieve the wider readership that her father’s inspiration deserved.