Moonheart by Charles de Lint
"Moonheart" is a fantasy novel that intertwines elements of magic, mythology, and suspense, centered around the ancient Tamson House in Ottawa. The story follows Jamie Tams and Sara Kendell, who uncover an old medicine bag containing mysterious artifacts, leading to a connection with a missing man named Thomas Hengwyr. As the plot unfolds, Kieran Foy, a student of Hengwyr, senses that his teacher is in danger and evades capture by a government agency interested in Hengwyr's work. Sara, after clues emerge during her own police interrogation, embarks on a quest to find Kieran, and they both encounter supernatural forces, including a malevolent entity named Mal'ek'a.
Their journey takes them through time and dimensions, where Sara meets Taliesin, a bard from mythology, deepening the story's exploration of love and destiny. Tensions rise as Mal'ek'a seeks to exploit the connections to Hengwyr, leading to a climactic confrontation at Tamson House. The narrative delves into themes of sacrifice and the struggle against darker aspects of one's lineage, culminating in Jamie's ultimate sacrifice to vanquish Mal'ek'a and protect their ancestral home. "Moonheart" offers a rich tapestry of character-driven storytelling and magical realism, inviting readers into a world where the past and present are intricately linked through familial legacy and supernatural challenges.
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Subject Terms
Moonheart
First published: 1984
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy—Magical Realism
Time of work: The 1980’s and 1990’s, and ancient times in North America and Wales
Locale: Modern Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and ancient North America and Wales
The Plot
The story of Moonheart focuses on Tamson House, an ancient house in Ottawa, and its owners, Jamie Tams and Sara Kendell. While unpacking boxes, they come across an old medicine bag with a gold ring in it, a flat bone disk, and a watercolor painting of a Celtic harper sharing a peace pipe with a blue-eyed Indian. Jamie, Sara’s uncle, sends the bone disk out to be analyzed at the museum. The museum in turn informs the Royal Canadian Mounted Police because the disk is similar in appearance to a bag of bone disks that the museum previously had been asked to analyze. Those disks belonged to Thomas Hengwyr, who is now missing and for whom a manhunt is being conducted.
At the same time, Kieran Foy arrives in Ottawa with a panicked feeling that something has happened to his teacher, Thomas Hengwyr. Kieran discovers that the Paranormal Research Branch wants both him and Hengwyr, and he slips from their grasp. Knowing that he will be followed, Kieran goes underground. Sara Kendell, after receiving clues during her police interrogation with Inspector John Tucker, sets out to find Kieran Foy for herself. The two meet, but Hengwyr’s magical enemy appears. The policeman who had been tailing Sara and Kieran raises his gun to take the two into custody, then turns into a wolflike monster and rushes at Sara and Kieran. They both hear the drumming of the manitou spirits protecting them, then wake up in the distant past.
It is there that Sara meets Taliesin, a mythological bard with whom she falls in love. She stays with Taliesin for a time and is then drawn back into another dimension of this layered fairy world where Kieran has been waiting for her. Kieran accuses Taliesin of being Thomas Hengwyr’s enemy and the evil that is manifesting itself in the present. Ha’kan’ta, a native guide, finds Kieran and Sara and brings the matter before the village council of the Quin’on’a, shamanistic fairy spirits. The charge against Taliesin is dismissed. Sara finds her way back in time to Taliesin, who pledges his love to her and shows her the Way, a magical method that she can use to fight Mal’ ek’a, the name the Quin’on’a give to this evil presence.
Not long afterward, Tamson House itself is put under siege by Mal’ek’a. When the immediate crisis is over, Jamie finds the body of Thomas Hengwyr outside and calls Inspector Tucker. Thomas Hengwyr is battered but not dead, and he is brought inside the house to recuperate.
Meanwhile, high in the bureaucratic echelons, J. Hugh Walters, who has fostered the Paranormal Research Branch in order to discover longevity and power for himself, has decided that the project has gone out of control and realizes that Tucker must be removed. Walters sends Phillip Gannon, an assassin, to Tamson House. Thus, there is an enemy inside the house when Mal’ek’a’s savage beasts put Tamson House under true siege. Hengwyr appears to be the focus of Mal’ek’a’s rage. The house and everyone in it are moved out of this world and into the past, the magical world Mal’ek’a inhabits.
Tamson House, by its own magic, resists the siege. Sara and Kieran both return to face Mal’ek’a, who has taken over the mind of Hengwyr and has entered Tamson House. By this time, Hengwyr is dead, and the survivors are trapped in the tower when they face Mal’ek’a. Both Sara and Jamie realize that Mal’ek’a is the dark shadow of Thomas Hengwyr, their ancestor, and that only one of Hengwyr’s descendants can destroy it. Jamie sacrifices himself, and the evil is vanquished.