The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

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The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen
Author	Alan Garner
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Fantasy
Publication date	1960

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is a fantasy story by the author Alan Garner, first published in 1960. It is set in and around Macclesfield and Alderley Edge, Cheshire, and tells the story of two children, Colin and Susan, who are staying on a farm at Alderley whilst their parents are overseas. Susan possesses a small tear-shaped crystal held in a bracelet: unknown to her, this very crystal is the Weirdstone of the title, and her ownership of it causes the children to be hunted by the evil forces of the Dark Spirit Nastrond who had, centuries before, been defeated and banished to the Abyss of Ragnarok by a powerful English king. The two children also have to compete with a wicked shapeshifting sorceress named the Morrigan and the evil wizard Grimnir, who wish to possess the Weirdstone for themselves. The children are aided in their battle by the powerful sorcerer, Cadellin Silverbrow.

The back story, as revealed in the narrative, concerns the origin of the Weirdstone. Following the original defeat of Nastrond, it was decided to take steps to prevent what must otherwise be his eventual victory. This involved bringing together a small band of warriors of pure heart, each of which must be partnered by a milk-white horse, and to gather them inside the old dwarf caves of Fundindelve, deep inside the hill of Alderley. The caves were sealed by powerful white magic which would both defend Fundindelve from evil, as the ages passed, and also prevent the warriors and their horses from ageing. When the time was ripe, and the world once more in mortal peril, it was prophesied that this small band of warriors would ride out from the hill, trusting in their purity of heart to defeat Nastrond for good. Fundindelve was provided with a guardian - Cadellin - and the heart of the white magic was sealed inside a small crystal - the Weirdstone of Brisingamen.

At the beginning of the story, however, the Weirdstone has been long lost - stolen years before, as it turned out, by an unscrupulous farmer whose milk-white mare Cadellin had bought to complete the numbers in Fundindelve. The stone became a family heirloom and eventually found its way to Susan's mother, who passed it on to Susan - and Susan, of course, is oblivious as to its history and potency. And, although the children become friends with Cadellin, the wizard fails to see the bracelet - even when the children come to visit him in Fundindelve itself. At length, evil forces seize the bracelet from Susan and, finally realising the identity of the Weirdstone and fearing its destruction, the wizard, the children and their allies set out to get it back.

At the climax of the story, a great battle takes place on a hill near Alderley during which Grimir is impaled on a sword and Nastrond sends the Giant Wolf Fenrir to destroy his enemies. The Morrigan flees in terror whilst Cadellin and the children manage to seize the Weirdstone once more and to defeat Fenrir.

The novel derives much of its power from its juxtaposition of the normal and the magical. Loving descriptions of the landscape of Alderley Edge, the farm on which the children stay, the food they eat and the folk they meet give way swiftly to supernatural and often vividy evoked terror and claustrophobia. The copper mines of Alderley Edge, for example, turn out to house the vicious morthbrood and worse; certain of the villagers of Alderley morph into evil spies; and Selina Place, the children's unpleasant and ungainly neighbour, is in fact the shapeshifting Morrigan herself.

The story borrows extensively from Celtic, Norse and Arthurian legends, as well as what Garner has described in public talks and writings as "The Legend of Alderley", told to him as oral literature in his childhood by his grandfather. This legend concerns in particular the story of the farmer, the wizard and the milk-white mare.

Many of the locations in the book and in the sequel are actual places which Alan Garner knew from his childhood. As well as the long sandstone escarpment of the Edge itself, these include the ancient Wizard's Well and inscription, the open mine pits, and the Beacon.

The sequel to the novel is The Moon of Gomrath.

The two novels have been dramatised as a pair by BBC Radio.

In the 1970s, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen was also adapted as a musical (written by Paul Pearson) and was staged in Manchester and Essex. The cast included Hugo award-winning artist Sue Mason, who also designed the programme book. The songs from the show were recently re-arranged by pagan band Inkubus Sukkubus with a view to resurrecting the musical for a modern audience, though copyright restrictions make this unlikely in the near future.

[edit] List of major characters

Susan - guardian of the 'Tear', sometimes referred to by the other characters as "Stonemaiden"
Colin - Susan's brother
Gowther Mossock - farmer and native of Cheshire, on whose Alderley farm the children are staying.
Bess Mossock - Gowther's wife and former nurse to the children's mother
Cadellin - wizard and guardian of the sleeping knights in Fundindelve
Durathror - warrior dwarf who loves battle
Fenodyree - also warrior dwarf but slightly more cautious than Durathror
Selina Place - local witch, also known as the Morrigan or Shape-shifter
Grimnir - evil magician who wishes to keep the Weirdstone or "firefrost" for himself. He is revealed to be Cadellin's brother at the climax of the story.
Nastrond - The Great Spirit of Darkness who was defeated by the King of Fundindelve but is ever waiting to return and conquer the mortal world. He never appears firsthand and the main characters only battle his demonic minions.