The Blue Sword (Robin McKinley)

Author Biography

Robin McKinley has won multiple awards for her young adult fantasy novels, including the 1985 Newbery Medal award for The Hero and the Crown. She lives in Hampshire, England.

Published By: Greenwillow Books

Year: 1982

ISBN: 987-0-688-00938-0

Reading Level: Grades 8 and up

Reader’s Annotation:

Stolen from her colony home by the Hill-king Corlath, Harry Crewe is trained as a warrior and discovers great fighting prowess and magic within herself. Can she use them to defend both the Hillfolk and her own people from a demon army?

Plot Summary:

Newly orphaned Angharad “Harry” Crewe has left the Homeland to join her brother Richard, a soldier in the remote desert colony of Daria, known to its natives as the kingdom of Damar. The native Hillfolk, led by King Corlath, are threatened by the invading army of their demonic ancestral enemies the Northerners, led by the powerful wizard Thurra. But when Corlath appeals to the Homelander colonizers for aid, they refuse. Then Corlath’s kelar, a magical psychic instinct that runs in the Damarian royal bloodline, drives him against his will to kidnap Harry.

Treated as an honored guest rather than a prisoner, Harry begins to feel surprisingly at home in the desert tents. Soon discovers that she has a powerful kelar of her own. Seeing her abilities, Corlath has her trained as a warrior and ultimately makes her a King’s Rider, giving her Gonturan, the blue sword of Damar’s legendary warrior-queen Lady Aerin. But as warfare draws near, the stubborn young king resolves to let the Northerners take the Homelander city, ignoring Harry’s warnings that this would spell disaster for the Homelanders and the Hillfolk alike. Does Harry dare betray her new Damarian friends (and Corlath, whom she has begun to love) by setting out to warn her own countrymen? By doing so, can she save both peoples from the Northerners’ deadly threat?

Critical Evaluation:

This 1982 Newbery Honor book was Robin McKinley’s third publication, her first original novel, and her first venture outside of the classic European fairy-tale genre. Set in a fictionalized 19^th century Middle East, it was allegedly written as a feminist response to The Sheik, offering a similar basic plotline (a spirited young Western woman is kidnapped by a charismatic Middle Eastern tribal leader and eventually falls in love with him), but removes everything that made the original work disturbing. The Hillfolk are portrayed in a positive, respectful light. Corlath only reluctantly kidnaps Harry because a magical power compels him. Far from sexually abusing her, he treats her with utmost respect and eventually makes her a soldier. And far from being “tamed” into submissive femininity, Harry ultimately becomes a powerful warrior-wizard who leads the Hillfolk to triumph over their enemies.

That said, the story arguably trades those ugly tropes for another one: the trope of the White Savior, without whom the Middle Easterners would have been lost. Though in all fairness we eventually learn that Harry is mixed-race, with Hillfolk ancestry, and it’s only through Damarian ways that she achieves her victory, not through any Western know-how. The portrayal of the Hillfolk as a “magical” people with wizards, vision-inducing drinks and hereditary powers, as opposed to the “mundane” white colonizers, might also rub some readers the wrong way. So might the book’s slowish pace and the fairly underdeveloped Harry/Corlath romance. But the classic sword-and-sandal atmosphere, the vivid, exciting forays into fantasy, and the courageous, inspiring warrior heroine still hold plenty of appeal for readers of all ages. While not McKinley’s best work, per se, this novel is still an alluring adventure, particularly for young adults who enjoy foreign cultures and feminist fantasy.

Curriculum Ties:

*The Middle East

*Colonialism

*Feminism

Challenge Issues:

*Mild profanity

*Racial issues

Why This Book?

While not perfect either from a writing perspective or a racial one, The Blue Sword’s girl-power sword-and-sandal charm still stands the test of time.