Peter Soyer Beagle (born April 20, 1939) is an American fantasy writer chiefly known for his book The Last Unicorn and screenplay of Ralph Bakshi's ill-fated The Lord of the Rings.
Other works include A Fine and Private Place, a fantasy romance set in a graveyard, and the short story "Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros". Also, the non-fantasy but excellent I See By My Outfit, a pseudo-autobiographical road novel.
Is a self-admitted huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Novels by Peter S. Beagle with their own trope pages include:
Films with screenplays by Peter S. Beagle with their own trope pages include:
Other works by Peter S. Beagle include examples of:
- Amnesiac Lover: Lukassa in The Innkeeper's Song, because of her recent death and subsequent revival, can't remember anything of her life or her lover Tikat.
- Author Avatar: Joe Farrell, who appears in "Julie's Unicorn", "Lila the Werewolf", The Folk of the Air, and "Spook", has been described by Beagle as his "literary stand-in".
- Dying as Yourself: In "Two Hearts", the prince dies as a hero, killing a griffin, after his friends rouse him out of a prolonged period of mental and physical decay.
- The Fair Folk
- Fate Worse than Death
- Ghost Amnesia:
- Lukassa in The Innkeeper's Song is brought back from the dead physically, but can't remember anything, not even her lover, Tikat.
- The short story "Spook".
- Gods Need Prayer Badly: The Folk of the Air features a former earth-mother goddess from the neolithic era now working as a therapist in Berkeley.
- Interesting Situation Duel: In "Spook", Joe Farrell has to duel a ghost. Since the usual candidates wouldn't work on an insubstantial opponent, the choice of weapons is "bad poetry".
- Menstrual Menace: "Lila the Werewolf" purposely plays with the similarities between menstruation and lycanthropy."First day, cramps. Second day, this. My introduction to womanhood."
- Noodle Incident: In "Spook", the story of how Joe Farrell learned the poem "A Tragedy" by Theophilus Marziels. Before he recites it, he says, "Remind me to tell you how I learned it — there was a Kiowa Indian involved."
- Odd Friendship: In "Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros", a professor is friends with what he insists is a talking Indian Rhinoceros. It says it's a unicorn. Despite this difference of opinion and other differences, it's a quite close friendship.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: In "Salt Wine", a merman rewards a sailor who rescued him by giving him the recipe for salt wine. It makes him rich, but then it turns out that a small number of those who drink it become transformed into mer-creatures themselves. Here, mermaids are portrayed as wild and inhuman, and they range from supernaturally hideous to supernaturally beautiful.
- Shapeshifting Lover: In "The Tale of Junko and Sayuri", a hunter wounds an otter and takes it home with him to nurse it back to health. Once the otter is healed, it transforms into a woman and becomes his wife, who uses her power to help him move up in life, all the time not knowing what exactly she is. It turns out she's an ushi-oni.
- Stealth Sequel: The Innkeeper's Song includes an elderly wizard that in many ways seems to be an extremely old version of Schmendrick from The Last Unicorn. This is never explicitly confirmed or denied, and when asked in person Beagle responds with a smile: "I don't know; what do you think?"
- Switching P.O.V.: Each chapter in The Innkeeper's Song is told from a different character's perspective.
- Sword Cane: Lal carries one in The Innkeeper's Song.
- Talking Animal: According to the professor at least; the rhinoceros maintains it's a unicorn.
- Unicorn: In "Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros", the talking rhinoceros maintains it is a unicorn. The professor, of course, says it's merely a talking rhinoceros. This is based on how, historically, many exotic animals from Africa were likely mistaken for unicorns.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: In The Folk of the Air, the Olde Englishe spoken by members of a society based on the Society for Creative Anachronism is derided as "Castle Talk". One character remarks, "It's got no rules!"
- "Kings may override grammar!"
