On the surface, these two books, known collectively as The Alderley Tales, are the adventures of two children who spend a summer in the country and encounter a magical world of elves, wizards, evil witches, and magic. The stories employ magical creatures, the waking of old magic, kindly adult guardians who trust the children to do right, and the age old struggle between good and evil. All the standard stuff one would expect, you may be thinking, but if you only scratched the surface of these books, you would be missing the layered symbolism, the philosophical conversation about rationalism in magic, the nature of deity, and the weaving of this world and the Celtic otherworld, that brings readers, young and old, back for just one more read. The Alderley Tales are not a straightforward reinterpretation of one of the great British Isles myths, as are Elidor (Arthurian) and The Owl Service (Welsh Mabinogi). Here Garner pieces together local legends and minor characters from Celtic mythology whose stories may have gone untold until now.
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen seems to be based on a local legend involving the naming of a pub after a white horse purchased by a wizard from a local farmer. Colin and Susan discover that the moonstone Susan has received from their hostess, a family heirloom, is really a powerful stone that the Wizard Cadellin needs. His role is to safeguard 150 knights who sleep with their white mares deep in a cave, waiting until the despairing world shall call them back to restore the forces of good. The evil witch, the Morrigan, knows Susan has the stone, and tries to steal it in order to establish her power.
After thwarting the Morrigan, the children believe that their adventures are over. But Susan has received an old bracelet from an otherworld ally, Angharad Goldenhand, to make up for the loss of the Bridestone, and they are drawn back into the fray. A monster, the brollachan, imprisoned in the old mines, has been loosed by excavation in the village and attacks Susan, drawn by the bracelet, but eludes all but the Morrigan. Next, the children inadvertently loose some bloodthirsty ancient warriors, on the eerie night before the month called Gomrath, just before the Morrigan makes her next move.
Although somewhat more realistic in describing the challenges of their quests than some children’s books, a quick skim of these books would reassure most parents. Both stories are fast-paced, taut and tense, while at the same time showing the virtues of simple goodness, and the meanness of spirit that leads to evil. The plots are closely tied to the land, and the folklore of the region, as well as to the larger traditions of Northern Europe. But Garner has packed a lot into these books, making them enduring classics of young adult literature. Rather than stranding the child in the world of magic, their realistic, unblinking look at the ambivalence of human nature and their skillful use of mythic themes points the way towards further exploration of the source material, and the philosophical conversation of the subtext as an adult.
Garner’s debt to poet Robert Graves has been noted extensively (see A Century of Welsh Myth in Children’s Literature) and these two books present both the positive and the dreadful view of female nature and female divinity. The books explore the impact of young moon on the girl Susan, who becomes identified with the old magic of nature and its cycles — first through her possession of the Bridestone, and then of the bracelet called the Mark of Fhola. It is this gift, and Colin’s use of a moon flowering herb to save Susan from the brollachan that lead the children to release the male nature deity Garanhir (Stalking Person) and his wild hunt. Susan is assisted at a distance by the full Moon, Angharad, who dwells on a floating island in the otherworld. The Morrigan is powerful in the waning moon, an evil force who also has assistance from a wizard and his High Magic. The rational nature of High Magic is represented by the wizard Cadellin, who had been instrumental in confining the ancient Old Magic of natural forces, as the wizard’s principled, programmatic approach to power gained ascendancy, sometime in the distant past. All the characters agree that the time for the Old Magic has passed, with its nonduality in approaching good, evil and existence itself, yet the entire plot of the two books culminates in freeing it.
At certain other points the characters debate the parallel forces of modernity, with its pollution and dry, mechanistic approach to life, and the natural, land-loving approach represented by the kindly old couple, the Mowthers, who still drive their horse to market rather than purchase a car. Elves, for example, cannot tolerate air pollution, and die unless they can live in the natural places. Garner wanders easily between the rational and the instinctive approach to life, just as the children weave in and out of the otherworld, a distinction that seems to be more associated with who one knows or confronts (the elves, the Gaberlunzie, the palugs) than where one happens to be. Local characters see the otherworldly types on their way to the pub, once putting the children in danger to the spying forces of the Morrigan.
It is also clear that these experiences have transformed the children in ways that will haunt them as adults. Garner does not mean for the experiences of childhood or the simple rationale of the child to be left behind and abandoned. Colin’s glimpse of the female moon/star deities changes him, as does hearing an elf horn “so beautiful he never found rest again.” Susan is drawn into the otherworld by the bracelet and does not want to leave its paradise behind. She is left behind, anguished, as the men and women of the wild hunt are reabsorbed into the stars, to grow through her human cycle, but is promised that “It is not Yet! It Will Be! But Not Yet!” At another point Cadellin predicts that as Susan goes through life she will find it increasingly hard not to withdraw to this otherworld after her identification with the forces of the new moon. It seems that Garner’s characters, like his readers, will likely revisit these experiences as adults, attaching newer and more sophisticated meaning to the simple truths absorbed while living these adventures.
Garner puts just enough hints into the story and scholarly references at the end, to enable the older reader to follow in his tracks, and revisit the conversations in the subtext. It is the layering of messages and debate woven though the fast-paced stories that makes these works such enduring classics. Yet the action-packed plots, the magical characters of wizards, dwarves and elves, and the triumph over evil make these stories appealing to children. They may not grasp the symbolism the first time through, but they are likely to get it later when they return to the books.
As Garner says in the afterword, “The more I learn, the more I am convinced there are no original stories. Originality now means the personal coloring of existing themes, and some of the richest ever expressed are in the folklore of Britain. But this very richness makes the finding of a way to any understanding of the imagery and incident impossible without scholarship.” Thus is the reader drawn from the world of Garner’s fiction, to the world of folklore and myth, following Garner’s trail of bread crumbs into the labyrinth.
(Magic Carpet Books, 1999)
For more information about Alan Garner, see the extensive Wikipedia entry devoted to him, and a fan-run Facebook page.
