On the advice of Neil Gaiman, I picked up The King of Elfland’s Daughter and looked up some information on the author.
Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Gibbelins eat, as is well known, nothing less good than man. Their evil tower is joined to Terra Cognita, to the lands we know, by a bridge. Their hoard is beyond reason; avarice has no use for it; they have a separate cellar for emeralds and a separate cellar for sapphires; they have filled a hole with gold and dig it up when they need it. And the only use that is known for their ridiculous wealth is to attract to their larder a continual supply of food. In times of famine they have even been known to scatter rubies abroad, a little trail of them to some city of Man, and sure enough their larders would soon be full again.
I was a little surprised at this. I won’t say that my NaNoWriMo attempt is similar but there is something in the stuff I wrote that could be a very faint echo of this, though without the bloodthirsty aspect.
The Elfland book seems to be very good. Strong stuff though, needing to be taken in sips, not great draughts.
Now playing: Humpty Dumpty by Aimee Mann from the album “Lost in Space”