| A Grass Rope | |
|---|---|
First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | William Mayne |
| Illustrator | Lynton Lamb |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Children's |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Publication date | December 1957 |
| Pages | 184 pp |
| ISBN | 0192710494 |
| OCLC Number | 221985119 |
A Grass Rope is a children's novel by William Mayne, set in the Yorkshire Dales. It was first published in 1957 and was awarded the Carnegie Medal for that year.[1] It is a simple story, subtly told, steeped in the past and with a strong sense of place.
Contents |
The story of the hunt for a lost treasure is interwoven with descriptions of everyday life on a farm and the scenery of the Yorkshire Dales.
When Adam Forrest comes to re-paint the outside of the Unicorn Inn in Vendale he is determined to make sense of an old story told in the Dyson and Owland families. Long ago, it is said, Dyson the innkeeper desired to marry Gertrude Owland, the daughter of a knight, who lived on the other side of the ridge in Thoradale. She was willing but the knight refused permission and trained a pack of hounds, and a fierce unicorn brought from overseas, to defend her. Dyson used magic to entice the animals into the land of the fairies under the fell, while he eloped with Gertrude. However, he did not know that all the Owland fortune was in the collars of the animals, and was later drowned by the fairies while trying to retrieve it. According to local legend, the hounds can sometimes still be heard hunting under the hill.
Mary and Nan Owland live at Lew Farm, near the site of the old Owland house. Mary is young enough to believe in the fairies of the tale, and that the hounds and the unicorn are still alive under the fell, while her sister does not believe in the tale at all. Adam thinks there is a common-sense explanation and, quite possibly, a treasure to find. While repainting the inn sign he finds an ancient hunting horn embedded in the frame. He guesses that it was used to draw the hounds towards a steep black cliff between the dales known as Yowncorn Yat (local dialect for "Unicorn Gate"), the cliff having acted as an echo wall.
The final piece of the puzzle is supplied when Mary one night sneaks out to Yowncorn Yat and crawls through a tunnel under the hill which she thinks is an entrance to fairyland. She catches one of the hounds, except that it turns out to be a fox, and unknowingly picks up some silver treasure and a horned skull at the bottom of a mineshaft. Adam is sure he has worked it all out - but cannot account for the skull which, surely, could only have belonged to a unicorn.
A Grass Rope was awarded the Carnegie Medal for 1957. It was one of William Mayne's earlier novels, and shares several features with his other books of the period. These include an unusual treasure hunt, a problem to be resolved, the lack of "heroes" or "villains", and the slow revelation of character through dialogue.[2] It followed The World Upside Down in being partly set in Vendale (also the scene of the later Earthfasts). The emphasis on the geographical setting, as seen through the eyes of a child, is also typical of Mayne's style. It has been said that his stories grow inevitably out of their settings.[3] The resolution of the novel provides a satisfactory balance of old and new, traditional story and modern fact, magic and science.[4] There is strong use of authentic North Yorkshire dialect in the book, but the expressions are clear from the context or unobtrusively explained.
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Last Battle |
Carnegie Medal recipient 1957 |
Succeeded by Tom's Midnight Garden |