However long you travel toward it, it always stays in the distance.
The Farthest-Away Mountain is a 1976 fantasy novel by Lynne Reid Banks that takes a fairy tale-inspired format and shakes a few things up.
A girl named Dakin who has come of age refuses to settle down until she has accomplished three things in life: visit the Farthest-Away Mountain, meet a gargoyle, and find a prince to be her husband. Her family teases her about the impossibility of all three, but when the mountain itself seems to call her and nod, she sets off to fulfill her dreams.
As she crosses the river at the edge of her village and enters the forbidden pinewood forest just beyond, things get strange immediately as the bronze statue she brought with her comes to life. She reaches the foot of the mountain in short order, the first to do so for as long as anyone can remember, only to find it covered in dangers mundane and magical, from jagged slopes and a treacherously narrow mountain path to a giant of an ogre and a witch who has cursed the snow itself. Determined to see things through, Dakin resolves to risk her life for an even greater cause than she set out for.
This books provides examples of:
- Age-Gap Romance: Fourteen-year-old Dakin eventually hooks up with two-hundred-twenty-two-year-old Ravik. Played with in the implication that he is biologically still twenty-two because of the curse and will age normally from now on since the curse was broken, subverting Mayfly–December Romance.
- All Trolls Are Different: The story has four trolls in total and all are well-meaning characters whose descriptions as small bearded men (at least one with a pointed cap) are a dead ringer for the stereotypical garden gnome.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Dakin wanted to meet a gargoyle because she felt that their evil-looking appearance was a result of something they were sad about. When Dakin meets the gargoyles Og, Vog, and Zog who guard the mountain, it turns out that she was right, and her showing them sympathy has them immediately assist her in her quest despite not knowing the password, supporting her at every opportunity from then on.
- Blind People Wear Sunglasses: Dakin mentions that a blind person in her village wears a pair of dark glasses.
- Bottomless Pits: The Lithy Pool is said to be bottomless, although Dakin bluffs that she saw the glint of the Ring of Kings at the bottom as part of her lie that she knows where it is and put it there herself.
- Bright Is Not Good: On top of the mountain is a snow that seems to reflect a rainbow of colors. When Dakin actually gets there, she finds out that the snow is that way as a result of the Colored Snow Witch's vile experiments, and each color of snow indicates a different magical danger.
- Call to Adventure: The first chapter is even called "The Call." Dakin hears a voice in her head calling her to the titular mountain. She questions this at first, but after seeing the mountain appear to nod, she goes along with it. After all, she's wanted to go all on her own for years.
- Cassandra Truth: Subverted. When Dakin returns from the mountain and tries to tell her story, the people of her village don't believe it right away, but as they start to compare notes about all the subtle things that have changed since she went missing they decide to believe her.
- Creepy Centipedes: The green colored snow spawns creepy caterpillars when anything comes in contact with it. Dakin notes that she has no problem with normal caterpillars, but these are larger, almost slug-like and slimy, and have visible, ravenous jaws.
- Crystal Ball: The Colored Snow Witch has a "Witch Ball" that has a variety of abilities, such as casting a greenish light, communicating information about the room it's in, and serving as a Hypno Trinket. It also seems to serve as a bit of a Soul Jar, as the Witch is visibly weakened after its destruction.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: The narration makes a point out of the fact that marrying at Dakin's age of fourteen was completely normal at the time the story takes place and in turn it isn't something she finds odd at all throughout the story and her goals.
- Eldritch Location: The reason it's called the Farthest-Away Mountain is because no matter how far anyone has traveled, the mountain remains the same distance on the horizon. It turns out the only way to approach is to be called by it, like it does with Dakin.
- Enchanted Forest: The Wicked Wood, a forbidden forest beyond the river at the end of her village, is Dakin's first obstacle. Mostly it's so dense that it's extremely easy to get lost in, but when her cap gets stuck on a branch that is somehow far above her, there are implications that the forest might have a bit of a mind of its own. The only other implication is retroactive at the end since, after Dakin cleanses the evil on the mountain, the forest is said to no longer be unnerving at all and even lets more sunlight through its canopy.
- Enemy to All Living Things: When the Master was young and originally brought to the mountain, it was hoped that the mountain's good would purge the evil from him. Instead his very presence started wilting the land around him.
- Fauxshadow: Dakin is given a password early on but is told that it's almost certainly been changed. She finds out the password hasn't been changed after all just in time for it to not matter because the Big Bad has figured out what's going on and it won't fool anyone at that point.
- Forced Transformation: Every character Dakin meets on the mountain (and one prior) except the Big Bad are the victims of such a transformation. The Master turned Ravik into a frog, three of the troll brothers into gargoyles, the fourth into a bronze statue, and a man and a parrot into an ogre and a demonic beast.
- Gender Bender: The explicitly female Colored Snow Witch is revealed to be the Master, who was born male and is referred to as male in the incorporeal form the witch takes during the day.
- Genius Loci: The titular mountain is the only mountain in the world with a soul, which grants it some abilities, including some sort of telepathy.
- Good Hurts Evil: Early on Dakin is able to drive off Drackamag because he can't handle something positive like laughter. In the end, Dakin ultimately defeats the Big Bad because the evil-warding powers of the Lithy Pool are so strong that the Master literally evaporates upon contact with it. In a sense, this idea was also behind the thinking of Ravik when he brought the magician's son to the mountain. He thought that bringing him to such a righteous location would purge the evil from him.
- Good Is Impotent: The backstory of the mountain essentially revolves around this. Ravik was reckless in bringing an evil boy to the mountain in hopes of cleansing his evil. The other inhabitants of the mountain were cowardly and left the evil to conquer the mountain unhindered. Dakin realizes that good needs to be both wise and courageous in order for that goodness to matter, and by applying those things she finally frees the mountain from two hundred years of evil.
- Good Parents: Downplayed. Dakin's parents go through several stages of dealing with Dakin's obsession over her goals, which at one point included yelling at her. On the other hand, at the start of the story they still clearly respect her choices enough to have not forced her into anything while still caring for her (and as far as they know her first two goals are literally impossible and her third is likely to only disappoint her), and when she comes back from her adventure they are too concerned with her well-being to scold her. Dakin ends up having to force them to punish her in order to get things back to normal after they start praising her for what she had accomplished.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Dakin has blonde hair so pale it's almost white, and she's a kindhearted young soul who shows sympathy for the apparently evil and refuses to be violent.
- Here There Were Dragons: It's explained that the world used to be filled with a lot more magic and supernatural creatures, but one of the only remnants of this age is the titular mountain.
- Honorary Princess: Dakin decides her dream of marrying a prince was a youthful foolishness after actually meeting one, but while the husband she ends up with instead is not any royalty, they're referred to as the prince and princess of the mountain anyway in reference to her dream.
- Hypnotic Eyes: Dakin notes that something about the Master's eyes forces her to answer questions that she would rather not. Shortly afterward this is turned around. When the Master uses her witch's ball as a Hypno Pendulum, looking into her eyes defiantly instead prevents the compulsion from working.
- If It Tastes Bad, It Must Be Good for You: Referenced, in a sense, when Dakin puts the blue bead in her mouth. She notes that it has a "disgusting but healthy sort of taste."
- I Have Brothers: Dakin reveals that her brother Margle taught her how to climb.
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: The Master is so evil and so old that during the day he has no form, traveling the mountain as an invisible spirit, but every night he changes into a witch creating at least a small window of vulnerability.
- Jumped at the Call: Dakin wanted to visit the farthest-away mountain long before it personally asked her to come, making the choice so easy for her that her eagerness gets her to overextend herself a couple of times.
- Magic Is Evil: Not outright stated, but heavily implied. While good creatures have forms of supernatural influence, the witch is an evil magic-user and an offhand mention about the son of the magician (along with another mention of wizards) implies that being a magician is enough for you to know the father was evil as well.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the backstory, it turns out that the current state of the mountain is a result of a hero who knowingly brought an evil to the mountain hoping to cure that evil only for it to backfire horribly.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The flying monster Graw yanks Dakin off the peak of the mountain and carries her back down, either in a failed attempt to kill her or simply just to force her to leave. Not only does this give Dakin the opportunity to bathe in the Lithy Pool, which she had previously missed her chance to, but Graw attacks her again after bathing, bringing her into its master's lair, essentially negating any negative effect it had on her quest.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Dakin is told that bathing clothed in the Lithy Pool will make her resistant to evil. While it does protect her from magic (except seemingly that cast directly upon her), she discovers that it also makes her more physically resilient as well, protecting her not only from Graw's talons, but from bumps and scrapes on the rocky cliffs. However, she is fairly sure it wouldn't be enough to protect her from falling from the cliffs into the valley below or from being crushed to death by the ogre.
- No Entrance: Old Croak's cabin has no doors, only windows. He has to explain to Dakin that she must enter through the chimney. It turns out this is because Drackamag built the cabin entirely so he no longer had to see the Lithy Pool, so he had no reason to let anything in or out (although in that case he still did more than he had to).
- No Immortal Inertia: Dakin considers this might be the case when she can't find Croak after his curse is broken, realizing that since he was once a human, that returning to a human form after two-hundred years might have instantly killed him. Subverted when it turns out that he is fine after all, and he seems to have remained at the age he was when he was first cursed.
- No Ontological Inertia: When the Master is killed, all of his evil influence over the mountain disappears. This includes all of his victims returning to normal, the colored snow dissipating, and the wicked wood becoming less dark and creepy. Played with in the fact that the spell on Gog remains, suggested to be because he was outside of the Master's range of magical influence at the time.
- Our Gargoyles Rock: Dakin wants to meet a gargoyle and ultimately meets three. They appear like architectural gargoyles, only coming out of a cliffside and able to move around it freely. They also have the ability to generate fresh water because architectural ones are used to channel water. They may not actually be a real species in this world, however, since they were originally trolls before being turned into gargoyles as punishment.
- Our Ogres Are Hungrier: Drackamag is an ogre about the size of a typical giant. He is a vile but intelligent enough character who serves as The Heavy for most of the plot. It also turns out that he used to be a normal man before the witch transformed him to be her servant.
- Party Scheduling Gambit: Dakin considers scheduling her wedding to be at the same time as the royal wedding so she doesn't have to attend the latter. Her fiance points out this would put her family in an awkward position as well and that if she doesn't want her reward then she could give it to the poor of her village, so she ultimately decides against the gambit.
- Poor Communication Kills: Dakin is told that it's imperative she bathe clothed in the Lithy Pool to protect herself against evil. Unfortunately, she only finds out what the Lithy Pool is until after she's already been to it, ignored it, and has traveled too far away from it to easily go back for it. Luckily for her Graw inadvertently brings her back to it.
- Prefers Going Barefoot: Early on it's established that Dakin only wears footwear when it's especially cold. She dons boots for her adventure to a snow-capped mountain, but when she's reunited with her boots after losing them for several chapters, she realizes that she forgot she even lost them because going barefoot in the meantime was completely natural for her.
- Prince Charmless: When Dakin finally meets Prince Rally, she discovers him to be a slouching, ill-mannered young man with a hobby she has no interest in. The fact that he turns out to already have his own love interest in mind is a great relief to Dakin.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The pastor of Dakin's village helps subvert a Cassandra Truth. Upon hearing Dakin's story, he looks up the old village records in the church and finds information about Ravik and the magician's son that corroborate her story.
- Despite Dakin's fears that the King and Queen are desperate enough to get the Ring of Kings back that they will harm the statue of Gog to get it back, they don't spare a moment in accepting her condition that they find a way to remove it without harming him.
- Ring of Power: The Ring of Kings is a magic ring, though its exact power is somewhat vague. It is apparently required for the royal family to perform royal marriages and acquiring it would allow the Master to extend his evil influence beyond the mountain and into the kingdom.
- Rule of Three: As appropriate for a fairy tale-inspired story there are a few things in groups of threes, most notably Dakin's three primary goals. Played with in a few cases though, since Dakin gives up on her third goal (even if they symbolically fulfill it) and the three gargoyles are just three of four plot relevant brothers.
- Standard Hero Reward: Dakin initially hopes for the prince as a husband as reward for returning the royal ring. After meeting him, she hopes this won't be the case. Luckily for her it does indeed turn out to not be the case, and the prince had someone in mind to marry already anyway.
- Succession Crisis: The problem in this case isn't that the royal family has no clear heir, but that for whatever reason (implied to be supernaturally mandated) they cannot marry without the royal ring, its disappearance dooming the royal line past this generation. This ring is sought out by the royal family in the background, but ends up being more of a MacGuffin for the Big Bad than the protagonist (who doesn't even find out it might show up during her quest until later on) since it would extend their realm of influence past the mountain.
- Suddenly Suitable Suitor: Played with. Dakin realizes she is not a match for Prince Rally at all only to discover that Ravik is alive and well. He wishes to marry Dakin but laments that he is not a prince. Dakin just calls herself foolish for needing her husband to be a prince and accepts his proposal. However, at the end, they decide to try rebuilding a civilization on the mountain and consider themselves the prince and princess of it.
- Swiss-Army Tears: Dakin's tears melt away the dangerous crags on the first slopes of the mountain, and at the end of the story she learns that it was her tears that animated the statue of Gog. It's implied that this is an aspect of Good Hurts Evil.
- Technicolor Toxin: Dakin never finds out exactly what the purple snow does, but notes that it is a very poisonous looking shade of purple and gives off a toxic smell. When she steps through it with magical protection, it fizzles like Hollywood Acid.
- Teleport Cloak: The witch covers Dakin in her cloak in order to teleport the both of them from the top of the mountain back to Croak's cabin and the Lithy Pool.
- The Fog of Ages: Old Croak the frog has been around for at least two hundred years and has forgotten where he came from. It turns out to be relevant that he was alive for things he told Dakin he didn't know.
- The Law of Conservation of Detail: Early on the bronze statue's outfit is described in detail, and the narration goes out of its way to describe how the outfit's belt has no buckle. It turns out this is because it's actually a ring, which becomes relevant much later in the story.
- The Man Behind the Man: In Dakin's second conversation with Croak she learns that Drackamag and the Colored Snow Witch are as much victims as Croak, and there is an evil behind them that orchestrated all of this. It turns out to be the Colored Snow Witch after all, in her true identity.
- The Man in Front of the Man: Dakin eventually tries to discern who the Master is, since as far as she knows everyone on the mountain is accounted for and the Master isn't among them. She's surprised to realize that it's the Colored Snow Witch, seemingly just one of the mountain's evils who even the Master's own servant had dismissed as little more than an annoying eccentric he'd love to be rid of.
- The Starscream: Drackamag fantasizes about killing the Master and taking the mountain for himself, which inadvertently leads to the Master's death when Dakin remembers Drackamag's plan and pulls it off herself.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Downplayed. The Colored Snow Witch doesn't like the color white, which is why she is trying to color all of the snow. She also wears dark glasses to avoid the white glow of moonlight. However, while she will recoil in horror when faced with the color, she recovers fairly quickly, such as conjuring a new pair of glasses instantly if you knock them away from her. However, it still serves as a very useful way to set up a much more fatal weakness.
- Wicked Witch: The Colored Snow Witch is an evil, ugly woman dressed in rags that wields Black Magic and lives in a hole at the top of a mountain forsaken from everyone but other servants of the evil Master.
- Windows of the Soul: Dakin guessed the gargoyles were not really evil because their eyes always seemed sad. On the another hand, she knew Graw was evil to the bone just by looking at its eyes.
