The Grey King

The Grey King is a children's fantasy novel by British author Susan Cooper, which was awarded the Newbery Medal for excellence in U.S. children's literature in 1976. It is the fourth of five stories in her young adult Arthurian fantasy cycle, The Dark Is Rising. Elements of Welsh folklore, albeit freely adapted or re-invented by the author, play an important role in the book.

Characters in The Grey King

• Will Stanton, at the start of this book, is recovering from hepatitis. He is under strict orders from the doctor that he can't go to school for at least a month, so his mother sends him to Wales to recover with his uncle, David Evans. It is here that he meets Bran and their adventures begin.
• Bran Davies, the raven boy, is an albino boy with golden eyes, of about the same age as Will. Bran is a loner. He has no friends at school and he is not allowed to go out after school. His name means 'crow' in Welsh, and is possibly named for King Bran Fendigaid ("Bran the Blessed"), who was a Celtic god known from both Welsh and Irish mythology and who was later mortalized into a monarch of North Wales. He is a bridge to the unknown. Bran has a white dog, Cafall, who is able to see the wind (Cafall was the name of King Arthur's dog)
• Owen Davies is Bran’s adoptive father. Bran’s birth mother, Gwen, had showed up on Clwyd farm with a baby in her arms. Owen took her in and took care of her. Owen proposed marriage to Gwen, but the next day she was gone. She left the baby in the care of Owen. Owen doesn’t want to lose Bran, so he is very possessive of him.
• The Brenin Llwyd, or The Grey King, is the evil lord opposing the Powers of the Light. His breath is the low hanging fog that covers the mountains of his home Cader Idris. The Grey King is very powerful, but he has limitations. He is not allowed to break the laws of The High Magic. "The Breath of the Grey King" is spoken of with dread in the mountains - a thick fog that descends in the space of a few heartbeats; it drives unwary travelers to their deaths, by hiding the edges of precipices and scree slopes.
• Milgwn: More terrifying than this fog are the Milgwn, huge grey foxes, which he has bent to his will, known to attack in situations where no normal fox would. They are creatures of the in between times, things which are not of this world, although they walk upon it. It is said they can walk through his mist in secret, with no footprint visible to even the best of trackers. Most mortals cannot see the Milgwn. Bran however is privileged and can see them. Will is an Old One (or "Dewin", in Welsh) and so he too can see them. Note: the Welsh plural noun milgwn (singular: milgi) actually means 'greyhounds'.
• Caradog Prichard is a corrupted man who unknowingly helps The Grey King. Caradog is a bitter man. There is a legend that if someone spends the night on top of Cader Idris, then in the morning, they would either be a poet or crazy. Caradog wanted to be a poet when he was younger and he spent the night on the mountain. He is not a poet, but he often acts as if insane. The character was possibly named after the real Welsh poet called Caradog Prichard

Geography

The book is strongly related to the real geography in and around the Dysynni Valley in Gwynedd in north-west Wales. References include the town of Tywyn, Cader Idris and Bird Rock (Craig yr Aderyn).