The Complete Compleat Enchanter
| Company type | Anthology |
|---|---|
| Industry | Publishing |
| Founded | 1988 |
| Headquarters | United Kingdom, United States |
| Products | Fantasy short story collection |
The Complete Compleat Enchanter is a comprehensive anthology comprising five fantasy tales authored by American writers L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. This volume gathers content from three previously published books: The Incomplete Enchanter (1941), The Castle of Iron (1950), and Wall of Serpents (1960). It serves as an expanded version of the earlier compilation The Compleat Enchanter, which contained only the first two works, while excluding the afterword—de Camp's essay titled "Fletcher and I." This edition represents the inaugural complete single-volume release of the authors' Harold Shea narrative series and has been issued under three distinct titles.
The initial publication occurred in the United Kingdom through Sphere Books in 1988 under the name The Intrepid Enchanter, featuring a foreword by Catherine Crook de Camp. The first American printing followed in 1989 by Baen Books, titled The Complete Compleat Enchanter, with a preface contributed by David Drake. This version has seen numerous reprints since. In 2000, Orion Books released a UK edition named The Compleat Enchanter as volume 10 within their Fantasy Masterworks collection. The stories originally appeared in periodicals such as Unknown, Beyond Fantasy, and Fantasy between 1940 and 1954.
The Harold Shea narratives delve into alternate realities governed by magic, accessed via a symbolic logic system that aligns the mind to worlds inspired by diverse mythologies, folklore, and classic literary fantasies. Psychologist Harold Shea, accompanied by Reed Chalmers, Walter Bayard, and Vaclav Polacek, journeys through these realms alongside companions Belphebe, Florimel of Faerie, and Pete Brodsky. The five included stories explore themes drawn from Norse mythology ("The Roaring Trumpet"), Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queene ("The Mathematics of Magic"), Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso with a brief interlude in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan ("The Castle of Iron"), the Finnish national epic Kalevala ("The Wall of Serpents"), and elements of Irish mythology ("The Green Magician").
Contents
- "Foreword" (by Catherine Crook de Camp)
- "The Roaring Trumpet"
- "The Mathematics of Magic"
- "The Castle of Iron"
- "The Wall of Serpents"
- "The Green Magician"
Sequels
Following the release of The Complete Compleat Enchanter, the Harold Shea saga was extended through collaborations between de Camp and authors such as Christopher Stasheff, featured in the anthologies The Enchanter Reborn and The Exotic Enchanter.