Book Review: Horn Crown by Andre Norton
Elron has holes in his memory, as does every other member of his people that came through the Gate from High Halleck. They know they fled some great danger, and that they agreed to have their memories of that danger as well as some other subjects erased for reasons that seemed like a good idea at the time. The new land they’ve come to is empty of human or humanoid inhabitants, though there are ruins and other traces of the former population. This does not mean, of course, that the land is free of peril.
The various clans separate to take up life in allotted sections of their new country. Elron is a lowly guard in the service of his clan chief Garn, who chooses the northmost dale in the recently explored territory. (The newcomers will eventually be known as Dalesmen.) The clan sets about turning the dale into a new home. Once there is a space to breathe, Elron and other guards start patrolling the territory. On the southern ridge that marks the border of their territory with the less than friendly clan of Lord Tugness is a remnant of the former inhabitants, a mysterious Moon Shrine.
While patrolling that area, Elron meets Gathea, an apprentice wise woman, and her local ally, the great cat Gruu. Gathea has a particular interest in the shrine, and can enter it, while Elron cannot. More worrying, Elron begins seeing Garn’s daughter Iynne hanging around the shrine, instead of staying away from it, as all but patrol guards should do (and even they are under orders to not touch it.) He warns the lady off, and she begs him not to tell anyone, which he foolishly agrees to.
Sure enough, while most of the clan is away gathering food in a distant part of the dale, Iynne vanishes. Elron confesses that he’s been keeping secrets and Garn strikes him from the clan. Now homeless and kinless, Elron decides he should at least try to find Iynne and fetch her back to her father to expiate his error. He heads to Tugness’ land to consult the wise woman Zabina. She hints that Tugness’ son Thorg, an unpleasant fellow, may have had something to do with the disappearance as he’s been pretty desperate for a woman and did not have an arranged marriage to fall back on.
Returning to the Moon Shrine to look for clues, Elron runs into Gathea and Gruu. Gathea is dismissive of the notion that Thorg is responsible, as she was waiting for the Moon Shrine to unlock a greater power in her at the right moment, and Iynne seems to have gotten there first, despite her utter lack of the proper training. Nevertheless, the trail leads west. She has no interest in teaming up with the magicless and ignorant Elron, but he has nothing better to do than continue on his quest. So they start on their perilous journey.
The “Witch World” was a fantasy setting created by Andre Norton in her 1963 novel of the same name. This much later written entry in the series is a prequel which traces the first days of the Dalesmen that the heroes of the chronologically later stories interact with.
Who or what the Dalesmen are fleeing is a mystery not revealed in this book, though it may have played a part in the other entries. One of the effects of the amnesia is that, other than “why we did this”, the newcomers don’t know what it is that they’ve forgotten, and there’s no obvious seams where they can say “this has been removed.”
More important to the current plotline is discovering how the new environment and the mysterious Powers work. It’s not exactly clear where the old inhabitants went or why, but they left behind their magic and the vast Powers that contend between light and darkness. There are places of wonder, and places that are deadly traps.
The first part of the journey has Elron being something of a load, as he knows nothing of magic, and his warrior skills are pointless against the mystic dangers they’re facing. It’s understandable that Gathea is irritated by having to drag him along.
But then the two are separated for a considerable period of time. Elron gets to actually fight a monster and more or less win, comes into contact with the beginnings of his own inner power, and awakens to his heterosexuality.
When the two reunite, it’s clear that Gathea has not been doing well on her own, even with the help of Gruu. She only begrudgingly admits that Elron has grown, and keeps withholding information that could help him to understand and use his powers to best effect. He finally has to bully her into spitting out some exposition that has enough hints to move the plot forward.
And that’s one of the areas where this novel shies away from the typical fantasy journey progression. Instead of the two companions starting at odds and slowly beginning to trust and even like each other, Gathea doesn’t really have positive character development. She’ll “save” Iynne, sure, but only to take back what the other woman “stole” from her. She resents that her training has been step by cautious step, and eagerly seeks out the Power that will allow her to shortcut her magical development. Even when she sees that Elron has a connection to magic, she refuses to give him credit for it, and is not at all happy to have to rely on him.
Eventually, Elron has to do the heavy lifting to rescue Iynne once she’s located, and it’s part of his character development that he realizes that while he’s known her all their lives, he really knows nothing of her internal life or actual personality.
And then Elron rescues Gathea from her preferred life path of celibate witchery as they suddenly realize they love each other. Somehow. I am really not feeling this couple as a long-term relationship.
There’s some interesting ideas here, but I just can’t buy that this is a “happy” ending. Despite being the chronological beginning of the story, this would not be a good place to start your exploration of Witch World.
Content note: sexism, Thorg is a stalker.
