Introduction..

XVll

Introduction XIX

is totallyrevealed

and hoot-Io'

death, the ATn,,,,,,ch ging, but Increase Unsought

The . isW:1SU" land, its only' thorns,

aO(Jlers and . Onand

.... A .... '....... of the Lake unaided. bys returning to the

house as she had left.e Isle of the Young and the Old obscenely

oreserves the innocence of and the poignantnrA'M"'In'''''T'~1nr&> of childhood: the nOr>rr.""' ....

have been reduced to 'images', scarcely .....,."..." ..0h an than the rabbits in the grass, and their

. to a useless alternation of maundering ande ile content with maundering and mau 1irra~mlents of displaced memory. When changennr~n them, the old man is released into restful death

young begin to grow up. Birdalone's secondmay stimulate some structure and vision of a

four-lobed journey is the structure of theTo deliver the emblem-clothes and ofAurea Atra to their knights, she must sailof Queen's Isles that give the book its title.beautiful, stupid, malevolent traps, worthy of

rn&>it" mistress, and forbidden she lives.Sending ends at the of the Quest,where the maidens were abducted. Like the tales

Earth . e (but m h more . fly/3'''''lolrlO'r1) i has its own mystery imp!'na 've, and on both visi Birdalone impses

story as pierces so to~lJeaK.. of her own.

Introduction XXI

the spirit - or............ u. always to in

following it back tobeauty' seems, to

nihilistic isolation.

lIen in.-"'H""'I. Atra. And

Introduction XXXUl

caresseslove (once she has reassured him about her

It mu is point that M"--,'C"'" of