The story mainly follows two children, Colin and Susan who are staying with their relative - a farmer called Gowther in Alderley Edge. However, strange things are afoot in Alderley Edge. Before writing Elidor, Garner had seen a dinner service set which could be arranged to make pictures of either flowers or owls. Inspired by this design, he produced his fourth novel, The Owl Service. [22] The story, which was heavily influenced by the Medieval Welsh tale of Math fab Mathonwy from the Mabinogion, [22] was critically acclaimed, winning both the Carnegie Medal and Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. [22] It also sparked discussions among critics as to whether Garner should properly be considered a children's writer, given that this book in particular was deemed equally suitable for an adult readership. [22] Alan Garner’s brilliantly titled 1960 fantasy takes North European tropes familiar from ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and spins them into a very English children’s fantasy. Two children, a brother and sister called Colin and Susan, are sent to stay with relatives of their mother’s when she must join their father abroad for six months. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen was dramatised in 6 30-minute parts by Nan Macdonald for the BBC's Home Service broadcast in November 1963. [55]

In the Firefly Online game, one of the planets of the Himinbjörg system (which features planets named after figures from Germanic mythology) is named Brisingamen. It is third from the star, and has moons named Freya, Beowulf, and Alberich. 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. Whenever I’m asked to name my favourite children’s author, the answer has to be Alan Garner. I’ve recently reread all his children’s books, and read some of his adult books for the first time, but of all of them my favourite remains the first book of his I read as a child, the Weirdstone of Brisingamen. 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.

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That's not to detract from Garner's achievement. Anyone can walk around a beautiful place and learn a few local legends. It takes a rare talent to breath them into passages like this: About half a mile from Highmost Redmanhey, round the shoulder of Clinton Hill, there is a disused and flooded quarry. Where the sides are not cliffs, wooded slopes drop steeply. A broken wind pump creaks, and a forgotten path runs nowhere into brambles. In sunlight it is a forlorn place, forlorn as nothing but deserted machinery can be; but when the sun goes in, the air is charged with a different feeling. The water is sombre under its brows of cliff, and the trees crowd down to drink, the pump sneers; lonely, green-hued, dark. Sometime later, Susan realises that her ‘Tear’ a small gem set into a bracelet, is actually the lost Weirdstone and the rest of the book details their quest to reunite gem and wizard to save the world. Alan Garner to conclude Weirdstone of Brisingamen trilogy". Alison Flood. The Guardian 15 March 2012. Retrieved 15 March 2012. Garner, A., 1960 (2010: 50th anniversary edition), The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. William Collins / HarperCollins. London.

Garner pays particular attention to language, and strives to render the cadence of the Cheshire tongue in modern English. This he explains by the sense of anger he felt on reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: the footnotes would not have been needed by his father. Guardian children's fiction prize relaunched: Entry details and list of past winners". The Guardian 12 March 2001. Retrieved 2 August 2012.In the fiftieth anniversary edition of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, published by HarperCollins in 2010, several notable British fantasists praised Garner and his work. Susan Cooper wrote that "The power and range of Alan Garner's astounding talent has grown with every book he's written", and David Almond called him one of Britain's "greatest writers" whose works "really matter". [39] Philip Pullman, the author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, went further: Durathror – Prince of the Huldrafolk, and Fenodyree's cousin, whose pride lies in his strength in battle. Grimnir – An evil magician, and the estranged twin brother of Cadellin Silverbrow, who wishes to keep the Weirdstone for himself; he forms a reluctant alliance with Selina Place to gain the stone from Cadellin.

Rasmus B. Anderson, Introduction to the Flatey Book. Norrœna Society, London (1908). "The priest Jon Thordson wrote the story of Erik Vidforle and both the Olaf Sagas; but the priest Magnus Thorhalson wrote what follows and also what goes before, and revised the whole, thus dedicating the work: "May God Almighty and the Virgin Mary bless both the one that wrote and the one that dictated!" Colin – Susan's twin brother who shares in her adventures (the fact that they are twins is not explicit until Boneland was published, although this is hinted at in the passage through the Earldelving, where Colin is described as being "an inch taller than his sister" [p. 141]) The novel Treacle Walker was published in October 2021 and nominated to the shortlist for the 2022 Booker Prize. [30] Personal life [ edit ] In the 2005 book Horror: Another 100 Best Books, edited by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman, Muriel Gray's article for The Weirdstone of Brisingamen described it with expressions such as "truly gripping," "beautifully crafted" and "a young person's introduction to horror." [ citation needed] Other fantasy writers [ edit ]James Henry Hodgkins – A local businessman who happens to be a member of the morthbrood, whom they narrowly elude in Radnor Wood. Alan's own grandfather, Joseph Garner, "could read, but didn't and so was virtually unlettered", but instead taught his grandson the various folk tales about The Edge, [4] Alan later remarking that, as a result, he was "aware of [the Edge's] magic" when as a child he would often play there with his friends. [7] The story of the king and the wizard living under the hill played an important part in the young Alan's life, becoming "deeply embedded in my psyche" and influencing his novels, in particular The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. [4] The Owl Service (1967) won both the Carnegie Medal [48] and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, [49] For the 70th anniversary of the Carnegie in 2007 it was named one of the top ten Medal-winning works, selected by a panel to compose the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite. [50]

Upon publication it was a critical success, [9] [18] but later Garner had begun to find fault, referring to it in a 1968 interview as "a fairly bad book" and in 1970 as "one of the worst books published in the last twenty years... technically... inept". [2] Literary critics [ edit ] Nikolajeva, Maria (1989). "The Insignificance of Time: Red Shift". Children's Literature Association Quarterly. 14 (3): 128–131. doi: 10.1353/chq.0.0763. S2CID 145471358.Alan Garner is indisputably the great originator, the most important British writer of fantasy since Tolkien.’ Philip Pullman In a 1989 interview, Garner noted that although writing The Stone Book Quartet had been "exhausting", it had been "the most rewarding of everything" he'd done to date. [3] Philip described the quartet as "a complete command of the material he had been working and reworking since the start of his career". [24] Fortunately, Colin and Susan have other helpers: the wizard Cadellin and two dwarves. Cadellin has guarded a sleeping army beneath the hill of Alderley in preparation for the final stand against Nastrond; an image that emphasises the timeless quality of the land and the mythical nature of the characters. But if you are a genuine fan of epic fantasy, get a copy of this book, read it and then share it with your children – they will never forget it. Alan Garner's exciting--and somewhat dark--tale of a magical threat to the world blends magical and real worlds in a manner reminiscent of Narnia. However, unlike Lewis's books, where the characters travel distinctly between the worlds, in Garner's novel the worlds interact continually and the boundaries are indistinct.