Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow

Infobox short story |
name = Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow
title_orig =
translator =
author = Orson Scott Card
country = United States
language = English
series = The Tales of Alvin Maker
genre = Fantasy
published_in = "Sunstone"
publication_type = Periodical
publisher =
media_type = Print (Magazine)
pub_date = 1989
english_pub_date =
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow" is a poem by Orson Scott Card. It appears in his short story collection "Maps in a Mirror". Card originally published this poem in the August 1989 issue of "Sunstone" magazine. In (1981) "Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow" won first prize in the long serious poem category at the Utah State Institute of Fine Arts. This epic poem was the basis for Card's The Tales of Alvin Maker series.

Plot summary

This poem is about a young blacksmith’s apprentice named Alvin. One day when there wasn’t much work to do the blacksmith told Alvin to go into the woods to look for berries. In the woods Alvin meets a red-winged bird that makes a "maker" out of him. When he goes back to the blacksmith’s shop he tries to make a horseshoe with the blacksmith’s help. However, he is unable to strike the metal with the hammer to bend it. Later when he is alone he follows the bird's instructions and magically makes a plow of gold. Putting the plow in a bag he sets off to find some soil that his plow can bring to life. At last Alvin comes to a river in the middle of a foggy land and takes his plow out of the bag. The fog begins to clear and he meets a man named Verily Cooper. Together they build a plow frame and when they touch it the plow comes to life and plows the ground.

Characters

*Alvin - main character
*The blacksmith - unnamed
*The red-winged bird - unnamed
*The living plow - made by Alvin
*Verily Cooper - a barrel maker
*Old Mizeray - a river
*Farmers - unnamed

Origins of Prentice Alvin

According to Card he came up with the idea to write "Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow" while attending graduate school at the University of Utah. According to Card he decided to try and write an epic poem after reading “Faerie Queene” by Edmund Spenser in one of his literature classes. [http://www.hatrack.com/research/questions/q0119.shtml Alvin Maker series] "Orson Scott Card's website The Hatrack".] At the time Card wasn’t planning on expanding "Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow" into a novel series. It was originally meant to stand on its own. [cite book
first = Orson Scott
last = Card
title = Maps in a Mirror
location = New York, NY
publisher = Tor Books
year = 1990
pages = pp 540
id = ISBN 0-312-85047-6 ]

Awards

This poem won first prize for "long serious poem" in the 1981 Utah State Institute of Fine Arts. [ [http://www.mormonsf.org/awards.html Authors’ Awards] from Bibliography of Mormon Speculative Fiction.] Card admits that all the entries in this category won a prize (there were two), though his came in first. [cite book
first = Orson Scott
last = Card
title = Seventh Son
location = New York, NY
publisher = Tor Books
year = 1987
pages = Afterward
id = ISBN 0-312-93019-4 ]

References

ee also

*List of works by Orson Scott Card
*Orson Scott Card

External links

* [http://www.hatrack.com/osc/bibliography/index.shtml Publication information for "Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow" available from Card’s website]
* [http://www.sunstoneonline.com/magazine/searchable/mag-text.asp?MagID=72 "Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow"] - available online from "Sunstone" magazine