DARK LEGEND

A valiant attempt by Highwater (Kill Hole, 1992, etc.) to reimagine the Norse saga of the magic ring of the Nibelungenlied by blending elements from Wagner's Ring operas with the ancient Eddic poem, the Icelandic Volsunga saga, and Native American tradition. Highwater sets his darkly lyric tale not in the frozen north but in the steamy tropics of pre-Columbian America. Even more radically, he spotlights female characters and perennial feminist themes: His men (be they dwarves, giants, or gods) lust for absolute power, but that power corrupts absolutely, destroying love and all else in its path. Narrated by a great holy bird, Maira, the story unfolds: An ugly dwarf from the underworld once stole golden treasure from the maidens of the world river. From this treasure, he fashioned a ring that gave him unlimited power—all he had to sacrifice was love and beauty. Later, aware that the ring had cursed anyone who possessed it, yet craving its power, the god of the sky, Kuwai, connived to steal it from the underworld. But pressured by his wife, Kuwai gave the ring to two mighty giants in exchange for Yupara, the goddess of beauty and immortality. Back and forth went the ring, causing misery and destruction, until it came to be kept by a great warrior woman, Idera. Idera valued the ring not as a tool of power but as a symbol of love, for it was given to her as a kind of wedding ring by a great hero. But even the hero succumbed to the lure of power, and Idera had to participate in the destruction of the world so that it might be returned to its rightful place in the river of life. Highwater takes on the mantle of myth-maker here, but his postmodern variant hasn't the organic force of real myth. Though he drums up lots of gore, passion, and heat, he never illuminates the source and nature of the primordial drives that inspire the myths of ancient times. (First printing of 12,500)