Elidor

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As one by one the children are lured through the portal into the twilight world of Elidor, we view this through Roland's eyes, and feel what he feels. Roland is the most sensitive, the one we identify with. He is the one in the group whom nobody else will listen to, but is proved to be right. All the children are sensible and courageous, but only Roland remains clear-thinking and loyal under almost intolerable peer pressure. All the children must make choices and take on responsibilities far beyond anything their parents could understand. And here again is an irresistible tacit assumption made by older children's books, that the adults have closed minds. Adults may be cruel, stupid or risible - mere figures of fun. They may on the other hand be kind and sensible. But they are always, without a doubt, unimaginative and clueless. In 1967 Stephen King first got the idea to write an epic series inspired by the poem "Childe Rowland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning in 1855. And Browning took the line from King Lear, written by Shakespeare in 1607 ... in which it is a line of nonsense from a man pretending madness.

After a humorous episode in which the children are either excuciatingly bored, or squirming with embarrassment, we become aware that they are in real danger. The tension is cranked up unrelentingly as, pursued by dark forces, they, The darkness grew,' said Malebron. 'It is always there. We did not watch, and the power of night closed on Elidor. We had so much of ease that we did not mark the signs - a crop blighted, a spring failed, a man killed. Then it was too late - war, and siege, and betrayal, and the dying of the light.'[...] Elidor is a wild and empty kingdom on the point of being devoured by the forces of evil. Of four castles in the landscape, three have been lost to evil and the fourth is failing. The lame fiddler of Manchester is the lame King Malebron of Elidor and he charges Roland to help him to regain the three treasures which are held in the Mound of Vandwy.Yet his was also a grittier world than the cosy reality of most approved children's writers. He had an "edge". He had the imagination of C.S. Lewis - but his was a darker, brooding, gutsier world altogether. Think of a pagan version of Narnia, and you're almost there. I read several novels by Alan Garner, but later discovered that after the first four, his reality became increasingly darker than my own. Turning away from fantasy as a genre, Garner produced The Stone Book Quartet (1979), a series of four short novellas detailing a day in the life of four generations of his family. He also published a series of British folk tales which he had rewritten in a series of books entitled Alan Garner's Fairy Tales of Gold (1979), Alan Garner's Book of British Fairy Tales (1984) and A Bag of Moonshine (1986). In his subsequent novels, Strandloper (1996) and Thursbitch (2003), he continued writing tales revolving around Cheshire, although without the fantasy elements which had characterised his earlier work. In 2012, he finally published a third book in the Weirdstone trilogy.

Elidor was a commended runner-up for the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject. [9] [a] Television adaptation [ edit ] Having said this, much of the novel has humour and a sense of fun. Many years later, a reader inevitably has a different perspective rereading a favourite novel. It is a tribute to Alan Garner's writing that he can switch from powerful fantastical scenes to humdrum family life in a suburban home of yesteryear - and carry the reader with him. Catalogue Titles Authors Readers Unabridged Fiction Classic Fiction Modern Classics Contemporary Fiction Little do the children know that chance didn't bring them there, but a prophecy hundreds of years old. One by one they realise that the church isn't all it seems, as the fabric of time and space opens and they are propelled into the dying and strange world of Elidor...I enjoyed the story, it's full of imagination and no small amount of dark threat. Celyn enjoyed it too, though the passage of 50 years, combined with her own limited experience of the world, did require me to explain a number of things. I was completely entranced by the tale of four children and their rusty relics, which opened a gateway to another world. It seemed like a cool and edgy version of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” but set in the real world, or at least a world that I could identify with.

Stars Mossie Cassidy as Roland, Raffey Cassidy as Helen, William Rush as Nicholas, Stephen Hoyle as David, Toby Hadoke as Malebron and Fiona Clarke as Mrs Watson. GENRES Fiction ClassicFiction ModernClassics ContemporaryFiction Non-Fiction The Arts Biographies History Music Philosophy Religion Other Drama Shakespeare OtherDrama Other Poetry JuniorClassics Young Adult Classics Collections&Sets Unabridged Elidor had only been published in 1965, so at that stage it was a fairly contemporary novel. Although Garner was ostensibly writing for children the book had some very adult themes. It was a brave Mrs McEke that tried to illustrate symbolism to a bunch of largely disinterested nine year olds. However she would probably be delighted to learn that some forty-four years on at least one of her pupils still remembers the symbolic importance of the sword, the spear, the stone and the cauldron. This novel was originally written by Alan Garner in 1965, from his own radio play. It features four young teenage children, David, Nicholas, Helen and Roland, who inadvertently break though the fabric of time and space at a weak point, to find themselves in another universe. The plot moves to and fro between the sprawling city of Manchester, and Gorias, the gateway to Elidor. Elidor is, as it sounds, a magical fantasy world; a world of beauty and goodness, a golden Utopia, as described by one of its inhabitatants, Malebron, but a world which is under threat from evil forces. This book was written some years ago, and it shows in the choice of words used. I did find this distracting at the beginning of the story. In fact, some of the phrases used were so weird that I had no idea what was meant. This did give the book an old fashioned feel to it, and I think this is the reason it wasn’t popular in the library. Hence, the reason it found its way to the “bargain bin”.There's a case for saying that Alan Garner is the finest children's author of the late 20th century, but that does him a disservice. His books appeal to children and adults alike and Elidor is a fine example of his work. Set in Manchester, this is the story of four children who accidentally stumble into the dying world of Elidor and are set the task of safeguarding the four Treasures of Elidor against the forces of darkness that threaten to overwhelm it. But those forces find a way into our world and the children find themselves in a race to find the mysterious Findhorn, whose song will bring salvation to Elidor. Alan Garner (b.1934) was born in Congleton, Cheshire, and brought up in Alderley. Local history and mythology have both been significant influences on his work, which is rooted in the landscape of his childhood. Elidor was his third novel, and the only one to be illustrated, by Charles Keeping. The mythology of Elidor is woven from several different strands, including Norse, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon mythology as well as themes from Arthurian legend and medieval fables. Garner has described the book as the ‘anti-Narnia,’ and unlike the high fantasy of C. S. Lewis, Elidor is grounded in the grit of the real world. The novel was also partly inspired by a visit Garner took to the slum clearances in Salford, where he saw children playing behind a ruined church and demolished houses. Drama Shakespeare Other Drama Other Poetry Junior Classics Young Adult Classics Collections& Sets Unabridged

Carnegie Medal Award". 2007(?). Curriculum Lab. Elihu Burritt Library. Central Connecticut State University ( CCSU). Retrieved 2012-08-13. The four castles of Elidor – Findias in the South, Falias in the West, Murias in the North, and Gorias in the East – correspond to the four cities of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish mythology – Finias (sic), Falias, Murias, and Gorias. [7] In spite of the unicorn on the front cover, which turns out to be a latecomer to the story, this turns out to be an intense and creepy fantasy story where most of the action actually takes place in the real world. This would be a great book to get confident readers interested in fantasy. I'm sure Alan Garner's The Owl Service was one of the books which sparked my first forays into the genre when I was twelve or thirteen. Recommended for children and adults who enjoy some suspense and magic, but are not prone to nightmares. This is no horror, but it does build on childhood nightmares. Elidor and the Golden Ball [1] from Richard Colt Hoare (1806), The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin Through Wales, a translation of Giraldus Cambrensis (1191), Itinerarium CambriaeGarner believes that the force of the magical elements will be stronger if they can be seen to affect events in the objective world. He is aware of the significance of place, of the need to belong, to find the right place, to fit into and to accept oneself. Poignancy is heightened in Garner to a tragic pitch by his protagonists’ ultimate failure to win the battle for self-acceptance and self-control. There is triumph at the end of Elidor, but it is qualified, mitigated by grief. In Elidor, the mythical and legendary sources of the motifs are clear ; the wasteland and the maimed King are from the Grail legend, and the adventure which opens the book is based on the story of Childe Roland. Titles by Alan Garner Titles by Alan Garner Boneland (unabridged) Elidor (unabridged) The Moon of Gomrath (unabridged) The Owl Service (unabridged) The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (unabridged) Booklet Notes Late in the book a dying unicorn sings a 'swan song' and by this act brings a restitution of light to Elidor. According to the medieval legend, only the calming presence of a virgin can tame the wild and ferocious nature of the unicorn and only thus may it be killed. [8] Recognition [ edit ] Alan Garner writes (yes writes - he recently published the third book in the Tales of Alderly series after a 50 YEAR gap!) in the way in which I try to write. Much of his work looks to me like mine would if I were better at it.