The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen (1998) - Plot & Excerpts
Reading this at the end of the sixties, fresh from the enjoyment of The Lord of the Rings, I felt confused and slightly underwhelmed. Despite its nod to Arthurian legend (sleeping king, Wild Hunt, sage wizard) and genuine sense of menace I missed the complexity of Tolkien’s saga, with its multiple locations, characters and interweave of plots. Nor did it share the light touch of The Hobbit despite featuring two youngsters in their early teens. Perhaps the book’s misfortune was to be of its time, partly satisfying a hunger for epic fantasy but appearing, in contrast, as a pale imitation of The Lord of the Rings. Garner, whose first novel this was – he wrote it in his mid-twenties – recognised such weaknesses by first providing a revised edition for Puffin Books and later virtually disavowing it as “a fairly bad book”.To dismiss it, especially now, would be unfair. For all the similarity of motifs – dwarfs, elves, underground mines, wizard, evil lord, powerful talisman, trolls, a final near-hopeless battle – what strikes me more on this re-reading four decades on are the differences. This is set in a corner of Garner’s native Cheshire, not in a secondary world like Middle Earth; the names and figures draw not on an invented mythology but directly from native traditions and languages, from Welsh, Manx, Irish and Norse folklore and literature (for example Angharad, Fenodyree, Morrigan and Grimnir, respectively); the main protagonists are not adult halflings but two, as it turns out, not-so-ordinary children; and the story is set not in some faraway land many millennia ago but in a here-and-now mid-twentieth century, with trains, waterproof macs, bikes, electric torches and ramblers. Even if the past is never far away, beginning with the milk-white steeds of the legendary but unnamed king…Colin and Susan go to stay with their mother’s former nanny near Alderley Edge while their parents are abroad – the classic set-up where youngsters have a chance to mature without parental interference. Susan has inherited, via her mother, an heirloom from the nanny’s family, a teardrop crystal that we gather is the weirdstone of the title. There is something special about this stone because strangers, some very sinister, show strong interest in it, drawing the two children into a supernatural world that has little that’s fey about it. The episodes that lingered long in my memory are still in evidence – the claustrophobic journey through the old copper workings under the Edge (I’d recently read Tom Sawyer, with a similar sequence), the chilling female trolls called the Mara, the brief vision of sleeping warriors in their cavern – along with many equally terrifying incidents and arresting images that I’d somehow forgotten.Susan and Colin’s ages are never here stipulated but they are clearly around thirteen. Their portraits have been criticised as somehow being like cardboard cut-outs, but not only are they easy for young readers to identify with (although Garner claims not to write with a young audience in mind), they’re also resourceful and courageous, especially Susan who — despite the odd scream – is often prepared to take the lead over the twin. I find it fascinating that Garner, despite never being explicit, has gone for twin siblings as his protagonists: twins are notoriously often self-contained, as these two are, requiring just each other as companions; and to outsiders they sometimes lack individuality, as these two can do, barely conforming to male and female stereotypes of activity and passivity. We are given no visual clues as to their appearance so just occasionally they come across as shadowy and interchangeable, like Tweedledum and Tweedledee.This can’t be said for their companions. The genial but bluff Gowther Mossock, husband of Nanny Bess, comes across as a real person, not surprising as Garner acknowledges in the sequel that he’s truly drawn from life, “straight and undiluted”. The two dwarfs — Fenodyree (inexplicably portrayed on George Adamson’s cover as carrying a goblet for his first appearance) and Durathror — are more easily differentiated, one cautious, the other more reckless. Finally, Cadellin, as the legendary wizard and guardian of the sleeping king is here called, does what wizards do, which is to go their mysterious ways while still aiding and abetting the forces for good.This is an enthralling immersive read, well paced and often un-put-down-able. The set pieces – in the Morrigan’s mansion, in the mines, the cross-country flight, the final conflict with its unexpected revelations – are thrillingly handled. The novel does, however, end rather abruptly; this revised Puffin edition (a new 50th-anniversary edition was issued in 2010 with additional material) appeared in 1963 just as The Moon of Gomrath was published, and so one has to assume that the cataclysmic climax, wrapped up in less than half a page, was deliberate, to anticipate the action continued in the sequel (which, incidentally, had never been originally planned). As we have had to wait half a century for the trilogy to be completed — Boneland was only published in 2012 – we must be thankful that Garner stayed faithful to his creations, and to his readers.The author’s ancestor Robert Garner was a local stone mason who, we are told elsewhere, is said to have built the stone circle which puts in an appearance in this story and to have also carved the inscription below the stone face at the Wizard’s Well:DRINK OF THIS | AND TAKE THY FILL | FOR THE WATER FALLS | BY THE WIZHARDS WILLWhether literally true or not, it’s in such ways that Garner establishes personal investment in the land, the people and their lore. But it’s also a area which, though I’ve never visited, is full of other resonances, like a cave full of whispered echoes. I’ve wandered through the prehistoric copper mines of Great Orme’s Head in North Wales and so have some understanding of the antiquity and conditions of the Edge’s mines. Further forward in time we encounter what this story calls Llyn Dhu, the Black Lake in Welsh, modern Lindow Moss near Wilmslow, where several bog bodies from around the Iron Age were discovered in the 1980s, probably deposited as ritual sacrifices. And even closer in time, but paradoxically looking further back into time, the area is home to Jodrell Bank observatory with its radio telescope. This confluence of vistas of different eras has all added to the cauldron of ideas from which Garner continues to draw the elements in his tight-knit and individual stories.http://wp.me/s2oNj1-teardrop
I have to admit, in recent months I sometimes felt that I may have already discovered most of the authors destined to be among my favourites. It is a strangely disappointing feeling.And then I saw this book in a book shop, and the blurbs on the back were by Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman, Michel Faber... for a book that is 50 years old and that I had never heard of. It's not even available on Kindle, so I had to break with my habits of only buying ebooks to get my hands on a copy.And it was worth it.The Weirdstone of Brisingamen starts the way many children's fantasy novels start: two children find themselves in rural Britain for the first time, away from their parents, in a land full of legends and mystery. If that sounds like Narnia, or Spiderwick Chronicles, or Book of Lost Things, or Peter S Beagle's Tamsin, or Holly Black's Tithe, or even Twilight, then, I guess, it means we're dealing with a really deep rooted archetype.The landscape in this case is a rich, heritage-filled part of what I presume to be the West Country (based on the accent of one of the local characters). More than any other book I've ever read, the landscape is the root of the stories - and the introduction in the book is richly detailed and every bit as atmospheric as the rest of the narrative. There is a local legend about an army buried inside the hill, and the mines are places of darkness. There are caves everywhere. There is a pub named after a wizard. This book has a sense of place that is exquisite.Colin and Susan, our sibling heroes, soon enough find themselves encountering crazy people and goblin-like monsters, and a wizard, and more. Everything is written in beautiful prose, with enough richness so that the stories could be read aloud before bedtime, or in a sick bed by a kindly grandfather. As modern reader, I did feel a little lost at times - it felt like the story was waiting to really get going for a long while, until I realised that actually, it was in full swing, and I'd been mistaken about the direction of the main plot - what I thought to be the lead-up to big adventures WAS the big adventures. There is a point in the tale where several months pass without incident, only for the adventures to start back up again at full pace. And as the tale develops, so the use of vaguely Celtic sounding, vaguely mythological words and phrases increases - the writing becomes ever and ever more dramatic and epic and serious. By the end, the tone is like a Celtic China Mieville or Ian MacDonald, with language flowing and flying on vocabulary that seems to be leaping from English to Celtic-style with abandon. In short, the book sometimes feels like it is not a simple, beginning-middle-end story, but an accelerating train of narrative that is building up momentum, almost derailing, and continuing helter skelter on tracks into a more fantastic world than the one we started out in. The ending is quite abrupt and sudden - like an opera that builds up a climactic scene and ends with a bang. This is definitely more Carmen than Lord of the Rings in that regard - no lengthy closing of storylines in this novel.I absolutely loved the start, and I was entertained throughout. I will definitely seek out more of Alan Garner's novels to read. But I also felt a bit bewildered by the book towards its end, and was left wanting... more, I suppose. Perhaps just a bit more resolution, a bit of tidying up at the end...
What do You think about The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen (1998)?
This is one of my treasured classics. I recently re-read it in the 50th anniversary edition. I was nervous about approaching it again, since I haven't read it in years and I was afraid it might not hold up as well to adult eyes. It performed miraculously. I first read the book when I was, oh, 12? I was home sick and read it cover to cover. I couldn't put it down and was completely swept away. It was the first book I'd ever encountered where magic and myth were still alive in the contemporary world. This genre has since been dubbed "urban fantasy", although there's nothing urban about Alderley Edge, the very real place in which this tale takes place.Garner's writing is wonderfully concise and yet perfectly ample at the same time. He gives exactly the amount of description the reader needs and no more. This allows the reader to fill in the details on his own. It's actually a relief to read this style of writing these days. I'm rather tired of over-descriptive passages and infinite details about a character's facial features. While it's important to "appeal to the senses," it's also important to get out of the way and "appeal to the imagination" (i.e., let the reader do the work). Garner's story is so well grounded in its place (Alderley Edge) that he doesn't need to constantly describe his character's gestures or features. The dialogue communicates all it needs to for the reader to fill in the facial expressions and physical stances of the speakers.Excuse me for dwelling on craft there, when the story is the star here, and an excellent, thrilling, wondrous story it is. I won't give spoilers -- just read it. Read it, however, with the soul of a child (or young adult, whichever publishing term you prefer). Don't bring the modernist's deconstructive mentality here, although I suspect it wouldn't long stand against the simple charm of a well-told tale. I can't wait to re-read its sequel, The Moon of Gomrath, and then the new, final book in what has become a trilogy, Boneland.
—Bill Bridges
This book held me spellbound when I was in my teens. I remember my palpable sense of dread as I followed Susan's and Colin's flight from the evil morthbrood and the disgusting svarts, the vivid images the book evoked of trudging across blank fields of snow under the surveillance of black birds in the service of the Dark One. I had nightmares for weeks.I picked it off my shelf to reread (I've carried it with me for forty years or more), curious to see whether it would have the same impact on my adult imagination. Alas, you can't step in the same stream twice. I want to remember my first encounter with this world, because my second moved me far less.
—Lisabet Sarai
This is a book of my childhood. I remember the first few chapters of it being read to me during the library sessions at school when I was seven and it was the first fantasy book I ever checked out all by myself (I had to know what happened!).Unlike a lot of fantasy books for children, I remember being quite genuinely frightened during parts of this which was thrilling. I still re-read this occasionally and each time am transported back to that sense of wonder and adventure I felt when I was a very young girl. A testament to the skill of Alan Garner I think.
—Robyn
