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The Land Of The Blue Flower

by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Hodgson Burnett has received much praise over the last century for "Little Lord Fauntleroy" and "The Secret Garden," but this story has slumbered in obscurity for more than 80 years. It was resuscitated by Griffith, who received a dusty copy from a friend a few years back.

The book has a New Age message of peace and cooperation that's in keeping with its publisher's usual fare, but no one can deny the timeliness of the story's message: Anger deflects us from the important tasks we face."

Book Description
The Land of the Blue Flower was not called by that name until the tall, strong, beautiful King Amor came down from his castle on the mountain crag and began to reign. Before that time it was called King Mordreth's Land, and as the first King Mordreth had been a fierce and cruel king this seemed a gloomy name.

Download Description
Every fair night through the King's earliest years the Ancient One carried him to the battlements and let him fall asleep beneath the shining myriads. But first he would walk about bearing him in his arms, or sit with him in the splendid silence, sometimes relating wonders to him in a low voice, sometimes uttering no word, only looking calmly into the high vault above as if the stars spoke to him and told him of perfect peace.

Card catalog description
Hoping to dispel dark thoughts and evil from his corrupt kingdom, young King Amor proclaims an unconventional law and watches for the expected transformation.

From the Publisher
To our readers: The books we publish are our contribution to an emerging world based on cooperation rather than on competition, on affirmation of the human spirit rather than on self-doubt, and on the certainty that all humanity is connected. Our goal is to touch as many lives as possible with a message of hope for a better world.--Hal and Linda Kramer, Publishers

About the Author
Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in Manchester, England, in 1849. Her father, Edwin Hodgson, dies when Frances was three years old. For several years afterward, Frances's Mother, Eliza Boond Hodgson, supported herself and her five children by running the family's household furnishings business. In 1865, Mrs. Hodgson brought her family to the United States to join a relative in Tennessee. Frances spent many happy hours reading, writing, and observing nature in the woods of Tennessee. At the age of eighteen, Frances began sending short stories to magazine publishers, and in a short time was a successful author. She married Dr. Swan Burnett in 1873. During her long career, Frances wrote a great number of varied works, but she is best remembered for her much-loved children's books, which include The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy. Frances died in 1924 in Plandome, Long Island.

Judith Ann Griffith grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where she spent much of her childhood drawing and exploring the countryside around her home. As a child, she gained from nature a sense of security, wonder, and belonging that would later serve to inspire her work. After graduating from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, she moved to the Midwest, where she worked as an illustrator and experimented with pottery, weaving, and gardening. For the past eleven years she has lived with her beloved husband, Jim, in the woods of Arkansas, spending much of her time drawing by a window which overlooks a river valley and miles of forest.

Excerpted from The Land of the Blue Flower by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Judith Ann Griffith. Copyright © 1993. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
"The Land of the Blue Flower was not called by that name until the tall, strong, beautiful King Amor came down from his castle on the mountain crag and began to reign. Before that time it was called King Mordreth's Land, and as the first King Mordreth had been a fierce and cruel king, this seemed a gloomy name.

A few weeks before Amor was born, his weak, selfish boy-father--whose name was King Mordreth also--had been killed while hunting, and his fair mother with the clear eyes died when he was but a few hours old. But early in that day she sent for her venerable friend and teacher, who was said to be the oldest and wisest man in the world, and who long ago had fled to a cave in the mountains, that he might see no more of the famine and disorder and hatred in the country spread out on the plains below.

He was a marvelous old man, almost a giant in size, and had great blue eyes like deep sea water. They, too, were clear eyes like the fair Queen's; they seemed to see all things and to hold in their depths no single thought which was not fine and great. The people were a little afraid of him when they saw him go striding majestically through their streets. They had no name for him but the Ancient One.

The lovely Queen drew aside the embroidered coverlet of her gold and ivory bed and showed him the tiny baby sleeping by her side.

"He was born a King," she said. "No one can help him but you."

The Ancient One looked down at him.

"He has long limbs and strong ones. He will make a great King," he said. "Give him to me."

The Queen held out the little newborn one in her arms.

"Take him away quickly before he hears the people quarreling at the palace gate," she said. "Take him to the castle on the mountain crag. Keep him there until he is old enough to come down and be King. When the sun sinks behind the clouds I shall die, but if he is with you he will learn what Kings should know."

The Ancient One took the child, folded him in his long gray robe, and strode majestically through the palace gates, through the city, and out over the plains to the mountain. When he began to climb its steep sides, the sun was setting and casting a golden rose color over the big rocks and the wildflowers and bushes which grew on every side, so that there seemed no path to be found. But the ancient One knew his way anywhere in the world without a path to guide him. He climbed and climbed, and little King Amor slept soundly in the folds of his gray robe. He reached the summit at last, and pushing his way through a jungle of twisted vines starred all over with pale sweet-scented buds, he stood looking at the castle, which was set on the very topmost crag and looked out over the mountain's edge at the sea and the sky and the spreading plains below.

The sky was dark blue now and lit by myriad stars, and all was so still that the world seemed thousands of miles away, and ugliness and squalor and people who quarreled seemed things which were not true. A sweet cool wind blew about them as the Ancient One took King Amor from the folds of his gray robe and laid him on the carpet of scented moss.

"The stars are very near," he said. "Awaken young King, and see how near they are and know they are your brothers. Your brother the winds is bringing to you the breath of your brothers the trees. You are at home."

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