Jerle Shannara

Jerle Shannara is a fictional character from Terry Brooks' Shannara series of epic fantasy^[1] novels. Only mentioned as a long-deceased person in the Original Shannara Trilogy, he is one of the main characters of the prequel novel First King of Shannara.

Biography

Jerle begins the story as captain of the Home Guard,^[2] the elite group of Elven soldiers whose sole duty is to protect the King. Jerle is distantly related to the Elven king, but he becomes next in line for the throne when the Warlock Lord's minions assassinate the entire royal family with the exception of the last son of Courtann Ballindarroch (the king), Alyten, who happened to have been away on a hunting trip,^[2] and two grandchildren of the king who were still toddlers. Soon after the assassinations, Alyten was slain when he mounted a "brash"^[2] mission to hunt down his father's killers.^[2] During the ensuing confusion, Jerle, Tay Trefenwyd, Preia Starle and a few Elven hunters departed Arborlon to find the Black Elfstone. After a long journey, they retrieved it, but two Skull Bearers, accompanied by many Gnomes, caught up with them soon after. In the fight to break free, Tay used the Black Elfstone and defeated all of them--but he was subverted in the process. He killed himself to prevent himself from morphing into something evil. After his return to Arborlon, Jerle married Preia and also was named the King of the Elves.^[2] Furthermore, he was given a magical sword, The Sword of Shannara by the Druid Bremen.^[2] With it, he drove the Warlock Lord into hiding, but because he never could fully accept the truth of his life, he lacked the ability to wield the Sword properly.^[2] The task of destroying the Warlock Lord was then passed on to his descendant, Shea Ohmsford.

Jerle Shannara is also the name of the airship the main characters use to travel across the ocean in The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy.

References