A MERLIN VOCABULARY GUIDE

B for
 BLIGHTED LANDS

Parts of the Isle of Fincayra where the land and sky darkened and the earth and forest were the color of dried blood.

After crossing the River Unceasing, Emrys and Shim enter the Blighted Lands.  "The trees, tin and tormented, looked considerably more frail than even the oldest trees in the Druma.  Indeed, those farthest away from the river seemed positively sickly, more ghosts of living things.  We had arrived in the Blighted Lands.   I approached one of the sturdier trees, whose branches draped over the river. Reaching up, I plucked a small, withered fruit.  Turning it in my hand, I puzzled at the leathery toughness, the rusty brown color, the wrinkled skin.  Sniffing it, I confirmed my suspicion.  It was an apple. The scrawniest apple I had ever encountered." (p. 201)

 S. M. Smoller, Cullen Memorial Library, Higgins Middle School, Peabody, MA.  June 2004