The Spellcoats is the penultimate installment in Diana Wynne Jones’ Dalemark Quartet and it is very different from its predecessors.If Cart and Cwidder is our introduction to Dalemark, and Drowned Ammet is a fleshing out of that earlier exposure, then The Spellcoats is the (pre) historical volume that gives these two their significance in the grand scheme of things. Set 600 years in the past, Spellcoats gives us a glimpse at prehistoric Dalemark, a time before the land was divided by North and South, or into the earldoms that would define Mitt and Moril’s lives hundreds of years later. The story follows a group of orphans who have been outcast by their own people following a devastating war with an invasion force simply known as the Heathen. Unfortunately, this is a time of superstition and the children resemble these invaders and are ostracized and forced to flee down the River during a great flood. The heart of the group, and the narrator of the tale, is the youngest sister Tanaqui (like a few other names in this series, I’m not 100% sure how I’m supposed to pronounce this). She and her brothers Gull, Hern and Duck and her sister Robin flee their riverside home carrying little more than food and three valuable statues that represent the Undying, or what we would most likely call household gods. To save on spoilers, I’ll simply say that old stories reveal great secrets, and Tanaqui and her family discover the truth behind their resemblance to the invaders, shaping the history of Dalemark and the future we have already glimpsed in the adventures of Mitt and Moril.This volume in the series is notably different from the first two, and not just because of the tremendous leap in time. While some reviewers have asserted that the differences in place and time between the volumes are disconcerting, I find the shifts to be one of the more interesting elements in the setup of the series. There is something intriguing about learning the history and mythology of the world later in the progress of the story, filling in the blanks rather than carrying a load of exposition into it to be fit willy-nilly throughout. Stylistically, Spellcoats is unlike the other volumes as well, being told in first person and with a straightforward, slightly formal sentence structure that is intended to reflect the pre-historical setting. The tale is not “written” but rather woven by Tanaqui into a garment known as a “rugcoat,” an object imbued with magic and tradition, and the story itself is a “translation” of this garment hundreds of years later. As far as artifacts and causal chains are concerned, Jones does a fantastic job constructing a story that spans centuries; the story does not seem overtly tied to the rest of the series until the revelations near the end, but it still feels familiar and important. The characters are well developed and multi-dimensional, which is difficult in the first person format and with the mythological overtones, and much of the strength of the book can be attributed to this. The book’s strengths lie with the characters and the overall mythological makeup of the world, which does not depend on magical, non-human species (no elves or dwarves, etc) or elaborate belief structures. However, this book shares the common weakness that runs throughout the Quartet: endings, or a lack thereof. This volume ends abruptly, but this feels intentional, as we are supposed to be gleaning the story from an ancient piece of weaving and the purpose of the rugcoat is not to provide conclusions. BUT the events leading up to the ending are similarly abrupt, and this is not so easily explained away or forgiven. Again, as in the preceding books in the series, moments of great import or suspense happen so quickly you may miss them if you blink; the lead-up is generally good, but nine times out of ten the resolution is a disappointment and things are often solved too easily. I know I have definite suspension of disbelief problems with somehow conceiving that two peoples at war with each other could be united by (view spoiler)[a boy-king with tenuous connections on one side and word-of-mouth on the other (hide spoiler)]
The Spellcoats stands in contrast to the densely plotted and bitingly humorous style I most associate with Diana Wynne Jones (at its most action-y in Dark Lord of Derkholm). It also, for my vote, is the real standout of the Dalemark quartet--paring down from the background politics of the first two books and going back hundreds of years to prehistoric Dalemark results in a smaller, more mythic tale that echoes more loudly for how much more contained it is. Tanaqui and her siblings have always lived by the river and --if they're seen as a little eccentric in their habits-- are still entrenched in the village rhythms. But when the Heathens come to invade the land, they find themselves alienated from the village and forced to take to the river. It's a journey that will take them into the heart of the land and position them into deciding the future of Dalemark against the larger darkness that attacks it. For a "mythic tale", Spellcoats has a very small approach. Limited for a great majority to the perspective of Tanaqui and her family as they drift along, it's the slowness of the setting that works to the narrative's great advantage. The focus on their concerns and squabbles when faced with caring for themselves (and their shell-shocked brother Gull) lends a real heft... while Jones describes the river so beautifully you almost feel like you've lived upon it your whole life as well. It's this smallness, stripped away of the trappings of epic fantasy (maps! and imagined history! and rules!), that allows Dalemark to really finally emerge as a real character in its own right. And I mean so both figuratively and literally, in a crescendo of an ending which lets all the pieces (the history, culture, and magic of Dalemark, and the people) click into place- and brings into focus the real conflict of the series.Diana Wynne Jones never returned to tell a straightforward story "epic" like the Dalemark Quartet (or at least the first three parts) again, but I would've liked to see how as a mature writer she would lent new twists to the idea. Or I would have at least liked to see more of the continued adventures of Tanaqui (and Duck and Gull, and why the hell not, Hern and Robin as well), which we were teased with mentions of in the other three books. Rating: 5 stars (Reread 3/24/2011)
What do You think about The Spellcoats (2001)?
I read this recently -- I always hesitate to revisit favorite authors from my youth, but this didn't let me down. To be sure, the plot is both elementary in fantasy terms and standard for Jones (it seems like almost every single one of her early books involved the main character discovering the hidden magical talents they were born with), but it's really well told. The four main characters (Tanaqui and her siblings Hern, Duck, and Robin) all have distinct personalities, they interact with each other just like they'd been together all their lives, they're realistically children, of the ages they're said to be, and grow during the course of the story. The pace of the plot never flags, and it's based on some interesting mythology, with a final note linking it to the later history of Dalemark that broadens the fantasy world.
—Vasha7
A young girl, who has little idea that she has a talent for weaving magical spells into garments, has to abandon home along with her orphan siblings when they are all suspected of colluding with invaders with whom they happen to share physical characteristics. Thus begins a journey downriver to the sea and then back again up to its source before the causes of the conflict can start to be addressed.The Spellcoats has a markedly different feel compared to the middle two Dalemark tales (http://wp.me/s2oNj1-dalemark). As well as being set in an earlier period, this story is recounted by the young weaver Tanaqui (an approach unlike that in the other three books which are third-person narratives). We also find that the story is being told through her weaving of the tale into the titular Spellcoats, a wonderful metaphor for how stories are often described as being told. We finally discover (in both an epilogue and in the helpful glossary that is supplied at the end of the book) that the boundaries between myth and factual truth are not as clear-cut as at first seems, a fascinating exercise in the layering of meaning and reality. It’s what might be called metafiction (defined as fiction about fiction, or ‘fiction which self-consciously reflects upon itself’), a term which had only been coined in 1970, nine years before The Spellcoats was first published. Some of the threads are picked up in Cart and Cwidder and Drowned Ammet (published before The Spellcoats) as well as apparently resolved in the concluding The Crown of Dalemark; but don’t take that for granted. It’s typical of the author that the climax of the story is all smoke-and-mirrors: does it happen the way Tanaqui’s narrative implies, or is it all an illusion, a trick of the light flashing across the material of the Spellcoat? This is not a cop-out, as some might see it, but rather the mark of a writer who knows that magic should be experienced instead of explained away rationally.This book comes satisfyingly close to the feeling of a good fable, and stands comparison with some of Ursula Le Guin’s similar fantasy writing. In large measure this is down to a general vagueness in geography, with the River running from the mountains in the south to the sea in the north, in contrast with the detailed map that can be (and has been) drawn for the other three titles set in later historical times. Nevertheless, all four novels involve travel for the protagonists in the lands of Dalemark, another metaphor, this time for the personal journeys they are all called on to make. Also there is a well thought-through (if at times confusing) theogony of the Undying and their relationships with humankind, matched by an attention to the etymology of names in the author’s created world of Dalemark; in this The Spellcoats shares the almost anthropological approach that Ursula Le Guin brings to her created worlds.For me The Spellcoats is very much a tale that works on different levels, potentially appealing to both a young adult and an older readership. This, as much as other three titles, deserves to be better known by fantasy fans, especially those who love epic fantasy: Dalemark is as clearly imagined as Middle Earth, yet with characters perhaps more rounded than Tolkien’s and a chronology that, beginning in the mists of time, ends in the last of the quartet with a modern Dalemark not too unlike our own world.http://wp.me/p2oNj1-mG
—Chris
This is such a good story! I think the first was OK, the second much better and this one the best so far of the series. I did get annoyed again at the ending because it cut off suddenly for me but the final note tied it all together, especially as a legend or historical point for the first two stories. The story is of prehistoric Dalemark and is narrated by a girl Tanaqui who weaves the story on a rugcoat. She and her father Closti, brothers Gull, Hern, Duck and sister Robin live a fairly happy life in the small village of Skelling. They know they are different because they look different, more like Heathens with blond curly hair unlike the villagers' straight black and are treated differently by the other villagers. The family own three idols or statues of Undying. These are The One, The Lady and The Young One who have/are special meanings/characters as the story unfolds.The story begins when Heathens arrive intent on taking their land. Their father and Gull along with the village men go to war. When the army return their father is dead and their brother is in an almost catatonic state as if under spell. The villagers prejudice runs strong and turn on the family, so they escape by the river. This begins their journey to discover their ancestry, their powers and the enemy. The enemy is not who they seem. Two sides must unite to fight against a greater evil of Kankredin while this family must fight to unbind a river to prevent this evil from destroying everything. Its a race against time, with Tanaqui discovering the layers if truth and secret of the river, her powers and the Undying, so that she can help weave her coat to save them all. I enjoyed reading Tanaqui's voice, I felt it matured as the story went on. You felt for her and her brothers and sisters, and their personalities were quite discernible . I loved how the statues and the stories behind them and the resulting secrets revealed about the family unraveled. The way this was told was definitely a clearer and defined voice, quite unlike DWJ's usual style. Not that I'm knocking her usual voice, but its nice to feel clear headed once in a while!
—Cloud
