The Chalchiuhite Dragon: A Tale of Toltec Times

This fantasy novel of Toltec Mexico was completed more than 55 years ago by Welsh theosophist/mythographer Morris (1879-1937), but is seeing publication only now at the urging of such serious students of the genre as Ursula K. Le Guin. The people of the hidden southern city of Huitznahuacan live peacefully in a moneyless, socialist society, everyone harmoniously working toward the common good. But this tranquility is threatened when Nonohualcatl Totepeuh Camaxtli, king of kings of the Toltecs, glorifier of war, discovers Huitznahuacan and seeks to bring it under his dominion. He is encouraged in his ambition by the dark priest Yen Ranho, hierarch of Teotihucan, because omens indicate that a force coming from the south will destroy his own fearsome and blood-seeking gods. Morris creates a true utopia, infusing it with the tenets of theosophy, but like many utopias it fails to enter the imagination freely. The depiction of the Toltecs suffers a similar fate. While less noble, the Toltecs, too, lie flat on the paper. This effort might better have remained in the files. (Mar.)