History Literature / TheFirebringerTrilogy

* ''Birth of the Firebringer''
* ''Dark Moon''
* ''The Son of Summer Stars''

* FloweryElizabethenEnglish: [[spoiler:The ''daya'' that Jan encounters in ''Dark Moon'']] speak in a Shakespearean dialect, and he's suitably baffled by some of the terminology they use.

* {{Xenofiction}}
* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Averted. [[spoiler:The ''daya'' that Jan encounters in ''Dark Moon'']] speak in a Shakespearean-like dialect (and he's suitably baffled by some of the terminology they use), but said dialect is used correctly.

* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: The wyvern peaceseekers

* SomewhereAnEquestrianIsCrying: The author uses many equestrian terms, usually correctly - but she does not seem understand the terms foal (a young horse of either sex), filly (a young female), and colt (a young male). She uses 'colt' when she means 'foal' and vice versa.

%%* LadyOfWar: Tek. Probably Halla, too, in her day. Also the gryphon queen Malar.%%ZCE, ZCE, ZCE.

%%* OurGryphonsAreDifferent:

* OurWyvernsAreDifferent: Wyverns in these books are wingless, serpentine creatures with two legs at their front, grow extra heads in extreme old age, and have venomous stingers on their tails. They claim to be cousins of the red dragons, but the red dragons deny this relationship.

* OurWyvernsAreDifferent: Wyverns in these books are wingless, serpentine creatures with two legs at their front, grow extra heads in extreme old age, and have venomous stingers on their tails. They claim to be cousins of the red dragons, but the red dragons deny this relationship. They are clearly actually hydras (actual wyverns are similar to dragons, but with two legs rather than four).

* SomewhereAnEquestrainIsCrying: The author uses many equestrian terms, usually correctly - but she does not seem understand the terms foal (a young horse of either sex), filly (a young female), and colt (a young male). She uses 'colt' when she means 'foal' and vice versa.

* Somewhere,AnEquestrainIsCrying: The author uses many equestrian terms, usually correctly - but she does not seem understand the terms foal (a young horse of either sex), filly (a young female), and colt (a young male). She uses 'colt' when she means 'foal' and vice versa.

* OurWyvernsAreDifferent: Wyverns are wingless, serpentine creatures with two legs at their front, grow extra heads in extreme old age, and have venomous stingers on their tails. They claim to be cousins of the red dragons, but the red dragons deny this relationship.

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Two types. The red dragons breathe fire, have jewel-encrusted hides, spent most of their time asleep beneath the Smoking Hills, and don't have wings, save for an unmated queen and her consort. The wyverns are serpentine with two legs at the front, grow extra heads in extreme old age, and have venomous stingers on their tails. The wyverns claim they're cousins to the red dragons, but the red dragons deny this relationship.
* OurGryphonsAreDifferent: See the GiantFlyer section above

* FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler:Korr]] goes crazy because [[spoiler: he thinks Tek and Jan are siblings, which is a ''really'' big no-no among the unicorns of the Vale.]]

* HeroicBSOD: Jan has one of these when Korr [[spoiler: tells him Tek is his older half-sister.]]
* HumansThroughAlienEyes: An amnesiac Jan spends a winter in a city of 'two-foots' in the second book. Much of what they do completely baffles him even after getting some lessons from Ryhenna.

* LadyOfWar: Tek. Probably Halla, too, in her day.
** Also the gryphon queen Malar.

* MushroomSamba: ... sort of. A strange smoke from burning embers, then a wyvern sting seems to send Jan on an out of body experience in the first novel; jellyfish stings make him delirious and amnesiac in the second, and dragon water has him experiencing visions in the third.

* TrueName: While knowing a unicorn's truename doesn't give the user any power over the individual, one's true name is ''very'' private and typically known only by a unicorn and his or her mother, who obviously confers the name. Sharing one's true name with another is a sign of trust, and Tek shares hers ([[spoiler: Telkèlla]]) with Jan to show she means to keep her promise. (And shamed by Tek's sincerity after doubting her, Jan tells her his own: Aljan.)

* {{Unicorn}}: They're single-horned equines with tufted tails, goatees, and cloven hooves, [[spoiler:aside from those who were horses originally, like Jah-lila and Ryhenna, who only have the horn after they drink from the Mere of the Moon]]. They have a longer lifespan than horses, and are implied to be [[MadeOfIron much tougher physically]]. While quite a few (Ses, Lell, Leerah, Teki, Calydor) are partly white-furred to some degree or another, the most common colors seem to be grays, earth tones, and primaries; the only pure-white unicorn mentioned is Dhattar. As for any association with virginity? Well, the daïcha of the human city is some kind of priestess and the only human Jan really bonds with, so she may or may not be a reference to the 'only a maiden may tame a unicorn' part of the legends. In addition, Vale-dwelling unicorns are [[spoiler:(or try to be)]] monogamous and mate for life (Plainsdwellers, on the other hand, will only rarely form lasting pair-bonds; for the most part, they're all about the free love.)

* {{Unicorn}}: They're single-horned equines with tufted tails, goatees, and cloven hooves. They have a longer lifespan than horses, and are implied to be [[MadeOfIron much tougher physically]]. While quite a few (Ses, Lell, Leerah, Teki, Calydor) are partly white-furred to some degree or another, the most common colors seem to be grays, earth tones, and primaries; the only pure-white unicorn mentioned is Dhattar. As for any association with virginity? Well, the daïcha of the human city is some kind of priestess and the only human Jan really bonds with, so she may or may not be a reference to the 'only a maiden may tame a unicorn' part of the legends. In addition, Vale-dwelling unicorns are [[spoiler:(or try to be)]] monogamous and mate for life (Plainsdwellers, on the other hand, will only rarely form lasting pair-bonds; for the most part, they're all about the free love.)

* {{Badass}}: Seriously, these unicorns ''will'' kick your ass. Jan leaps a ''castle wall'' from a standing start and is surprised by the mare's shock in ''Dark Moon''. Later, he [[spoiler: has a horn versus blade swordfight with a human king and ''wins''.]]
** Tek, hands down. In a one-on-one fight with the wyvern king Lynex, who is gigantic by average wyvern standards (and your average wyvern is larger than a unicorn), she [[spoiler: ''kills three of his seven heads.'']] And then Lell [[spoiler: blinds Lynex's main head by throwing a burning brand into its eyes and severely wounds another minor head.]]

The trilogy is well-written but not very well known outside a few small (but devoted) groups of fans. They were hard to locate outside the library after they went out of print in the late nineties, but Firebird began publishing them again in paperback in 2003. (According to Amazon, however, the third book seems to be out of print again.)

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/n6655a.jpg

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: The red dragons have jewel-encrusted hides, spent most of their time asleep beneath the Smoking Hills, and don't have wings, save for an unmated queen and her consort.

* HumansThroughAlienEyes: An amnesiac Jan spends a winter in a city of 'two-foots' in the second book. Much of what they do completely baffles him even after getting some lessons from Ryhenna.

* {{Unicorn}}: They're single-horned equines with tufted tails, goatees, and cloven hooves. They have a longer lifespan than horses, and are implied to be [[MadeOfIron much tougher physically]]. While quite a few (Ses, Lell, Leerah, Teki, Calydor) are partly white-furred to some degree or another, the most common colors seem to be grays, earth tones, and primaries; the only pure-white unicorn mentioned is Dhattar. As for any association with virginity? Well, the daïcha of the human city is some kind of priestess and the only human Jan really bonds with, so she may or may not be a reference to 'only a maiden may tame a unicorn' part of the legends. In addition, Vale-dwelling unicorns are [[spoiler:(or try to be)]] monogamous and mate for life (Plainsdwellers, on the other hand, will only rarely form lasting pair-bonds; for the most part, they're all about the free love.)

* {{Unicorn}}: They're single-horned equines with tufted tails, goatees, and cloven hooves. They have a longer lifespan than horses, and are implied to be [[MadeOfIron much tougher physically]]. While quite a few (Ses, Lell, Leerah, Teki, Calydor) are partly white-furred to some degree or another, the most common colors seem to be grays, earth tones, and primaries; the only pure-white unicorn mentioned is Dhattar. As for any association with virginity? Well, Vale-dwelling unicorns are [[spoiler:(or try to be)]] monogamous and mate for life, and that's about as close as it gets. (Plainsdwellers, on the other hand, will only rarely form lasting pair-bonds; for the most part, they're all about the free love.)

* TheChosenOne: [[spoiler:Jan]] as the prophesied Firebringer, though the unicorns treated it more like a [[TheMessiah messiah figure]] before [[spoiler:Jan's]] down-to-earth approach to things mellowed them out.

* NoManOfWomanBorn: One prophetess says the Firebringer "will be born out of a wyvern's belly and sired by the summer stars." Everyone thinks she's crazy. [[PropheciesAreAlwaysRight She's not]], as [[spoiler: Jan's friends drag him to the Mere of the Moon in the wyvern queen's skin after she nearly stung him to death and after being healed by the spring, "rises weak as a newborn colt from the she-wyrm's bellyskin." And Jan's true sire is Calydor, whose name means "summer stars."]]

* FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler:Korr]] goes crazy because [[spoiler: he thinks Tek and Jan are siblings, which is a ''really'' big no-no among the unicorns.]]
* GiantFlyer: Gryphons, who make away with unicorn colts each spring to feed to their own hatchlings.

Not related to the book ''FireBringer'' by David Clement-Davies.