The Fire Sword, The Crystal Sword, The Rainbow Sword, and The Sea Sword are magical swords representing the four elements. Classic high fantasy about our heroes on a quest to save the land right out of Campbell. However, these books are from the 1980s and are also clearly second-wave feminist speculative fiction centered around gender dynamics grounded in mythology. Each stands alone, but they function best as a set. So Light vs Dark and battle of the sexes and Freudian issues with parents and journeys of self-discovery.

Each magic sword has a magic sheath made from the skin of the Earth Serpent, the only thing strong enough to contain the power of the swords. And sword and sheath are used as literal metaphors (is that an oxymoron?) for mystical union of man and woman. So each book is about bringing magical artifacts and magical people together into unbreakable union. Yadda yadda. All very heteronormative and reifying plenty of gender stereotypes.

The Crystal Sword opens with the legend of the forging of the 4 magical swords that smacks of Norse myth, Odin, and the worldtree. The story features Eleanor and Doyle's son Dylan, who must travel to Franconia (not France), which is covered in Darkness, to find the woman who holds the sword of the earth element. Sal, his mother's divine friend and his own, shows him a vision of Aenor, trapped underground under a spell of amnesia for unknown years, captive of the fae (known as White Folk here). Eleanor is having none of it. After all, she did all that work in service to the divine, why should one of her kids have to do the same. The goddess wins, of course. Dylan is ready for his own adventure and starts off on his quest having known the minstrels' tales told about his parents and having heard them tell their stories growing up.

The chapters alternate between Dylan's viewpoint and Aenor's. Like his father, Dylan has shapechanging ability and becomes Lord of the Beasts with mystical antlers that sometimes manifest. Aenor has at least one White Folk ancestor, and after years in their underground kingdom has absorbed their magical skills, manifested through song. This book features such creatures as licornes (referenced as unicorns in The Fire Sword) and salamanders that can move through solid rock. No king-making as such in this book, but it does feature royal St Louis who is effectively on crusade to rid Franconia of Dark-infested people. Which takes a lot of killing. Helped along by the crystal sword, once Dylan finds the sheath, rescues Aenor, they get it on, and each wield the magical weapon to save the day. Then exit stage right (to Italy) to make babies and breed horses. ( )