Masterworks Spotlight: Thomas the Rhymer

Our second Fantasy Masterworks Spotlight is Ellen Kushner’s World Fantasy Award-winning retelling of the classic legend, with a new introduction by Lisa Tuttle.

A minstrel lives by his words, his tunes, and sometimes by his lies. But when the bold and gifted young Thomas the Rhymer awakens the desire of the powerful Queen of Elfland, he finds that words are not enough to keep him from his fate.

As the Queen sweeps him far from the people he has known and loved into her realm of magic, opulence – and captivity – he learns at last what it is to be truly human. When he returns to his home with the Queen’s parting gift, his great task will be to seek out the girl he loved and wronged, and offer her at last the tongue that cannot lie.

Award-winning author Ellen Kushner’s inspired retelling of an ancient legend weaves myth and magic into a vivid contemporary novel about the mysteries of the human heart. Brimming with ballads, riddles, and magical transformations, here is the timeless tale of a charismatic bard whose talents earn him a two-edged otherworldly gift.

Thomas the Rhymer is available as a Fantasy Masterworks paperback and a Gateway eBook. You can read more about Ellen Kushner in her entry in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy.