Silverlock and The Moon's Fire-Eating Daughter by John Myers Myers
"Silverlock and The Moon's Fire-Eating Daughter" features two distinct narratives centered around the exploration of literature and myth. The first book, "Silverlock," follows A. Clarence Shandon, nicknamed Silverlock due to a streak of white in his hair, who becomes shipwrecked and drifts into a fantastical realm called "The Commonwealth of Letters." There, he encounters numerous characters from global folklore and literature, although his lack of literary knowledge leads to comedic misunderstandings and challenges. His journey culminates in a quest facilitated by the god Apollo, ultimately transforming him into a wiser individual.
The sequel, "The Moon's Fire-Eating Daughter," presents Dr. George Puttenham, an economic geographer and a well-read character. His adventure begins when he is driven from his apartment by a misquoting mynah bird and encounters the goddess Venus, who tasks him with surveying "The Road," a metaphor for the evolution of civilized literature. This second narrative showcases Puttenham's transformative experiences through various historical and literary epochs, culminating in his return to Earth armed with newfound poetic abilities. Together, these works celebrate the richness of literature while exploring the interplay between knowledge, civilization, and personal growth.
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Silverlock and The Moon's Fire-Eating Daughter
First published:Silverlock (1949) and The Moon’s Fire-Eating Daughter (1981)
Type of work: Novels
Type of plot: Fantasy—cultural exploration
Time of work: Approximately mid-twentieth century
Locale: Primarily Earth, with brief visits to other planets
The Plot
Although Silverlock was fairly well received by critics, it was largely ignored by the reading public when it first appeared and remained out of print for many years, despite a brief renaissance in 1966. The novel later was “discovered” by science-fiction fans, who were responsible for persuading Ace Books to republish it in 1979, with a number of subsequent reprintings.
The novel is the story of A. Clarence Shandon, a man disillusioned with his life who is nicknamed “Silverlock” for a streak of white in his hair. He is cast adrift by a shipwreck and clings to a piece of mast already occupied by a stranger who gives his name as Golias. They drift together for some time before beaching on an island. Silverlock is not well read and thus does not suspect that he is in no ordinary circumstances when the mast drifts past a ship in wild pursuit of a white whale. He does not realize the implications when, after abandoning Golias unconscious on the beach, he finds that the island is inhabited solely by a lovely, mysterious, woman with a bunch of pigs. Naturally, Circe enchants him and turns him into a pig.
After Silverlock is rescued by Golias, they swim to a nearby island, where they steal a boat from Robinson Crusoe’s cannibals and set out to sea again. Picked up by a Viking ship, they participate in a raid on the mainland and thus reach “The Commonwealth.”
The Commonwealth of Letters contains people, places, and animals from various myths, folktales, legends, and pieces of literature from everywhere in the world. In Silverlock’s journeys, he meets many of them. Because of his ignorance of literature, he fails to recognize them for what they are, frequently causing him problems.
Although Silverlock is separated from Golias in the raid, they had agreed to meet at Heorot. His adventures on the way there include sharing a meal with Natty Bumppo, a night with Robin Hood, and a visit to the Mad Tea Party, among other things. These adventures help to acclimate him, though he remains ignorant of the circumstances involved with the people he meets.
After being reunited, Golias and Silverlock undertake a mission to help a friend of Golias. As they journey across the Commonwealth, their adventures and the characters they meet keep them busy. While visiting an oracle, Apollo gives Silverlock a quest that leads him through a number of harrowing adventures, including a descent into Hell. Rescued from Hell by Golias, he resumes his quest until, finally, he drinks from the spring of Hippocrene, which bestows upon him the privilege of both remembering and returning to the Commonwealth. Pegasus then bears him out to sea, where he can be picked up by a passing ship and return to the mundane world as a wiser and better man.
The Moon’s Fire-Eating Daughter was written in response to the popularity of the 1979 edition of Silverlock and has been advertised as a sequel to it. It is not: John Myers Myers does not believe in sequels, and the two books have nothing in common except a love for literature and copious references to it.
The hero is Dr. George Puttenham, an economic geographer who is exceedingly well read, exactly the opposite of Silverlock. He is driven out of his apartment one day by a mynah bird in the apartment below that continually indulges in egregious misquotations. Taking refuge in a bar, he meets the goddess Venus, who effectively kidnaps him so that he can undertake an assignment for her, a new survey of “The Road.” As with “The Commonwealth,” no further explanation is given, but events prove that this is the Road of Civilized Literature, the written material that both defines a civilization and survives even after the civilization has perished.
First, Venus assigns her aide to take him to Aldebaran, in a swan-drawn vehicle, so that Puttenham (disparagingly referred to as “It” for much of the book) can be judged worthy of the assignment by Apollo. At this point in the book, all the gods and goddesses are called by the names of their Sumerian counterparts, because the survey of The Road starts with the earliest civilizations. Names change as civilizations change, which may occasionally confuse the reader but enriches the reading, and learning, experience.
For Puttenham, The Road begins in Sumer, where the oldest surviving piece of literature originated. He is not merely an observer but also a participant in events, and he is not always a human. After witnessing the invention of the written word in Sumer, he experiences the Flood and is turned into an eel, then an oyster, then a lobster, always encountering literary personalities along the way. After several changes and many years, he re-emerges and is whisked off to Mercury, where Apollo gives him the capability of creating poetry before returning him to Earth. A whirlwind tour of many civilizations (not always in chronological order) allows him to use his newly acquired poetic abilities to evaluate the influence of civilization on literature, and vice versa.
After a long and varied journey through a wild mixture of historical and literary events, he is transported to Mercury for a final examination by Apollo. Succeeding there, he is returned to Earth at the time he left it, in time to teach his afternoon class in economic geography. This is the time and place that Venus has chosen for him to give his report, and the resulting exposition on the importance of literary (as opposed to economic) geography meets with her full approval. As a reward, she arranges for him to be given a new post in order to teach the new discipline and unites him with the instructor from the apartment below him, for whom he has a secret love. In a fitting conclusion, it develops that the offending mynah bird is not hers, but merely a bird she was taking care of for a short time.