Dave's Book Blog: "The Grey King" by Susan Cooper

Saturday 6 January 2024

"The Grey King" by Susan Cooper

NotFromUtrecht, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The fourth and penultimate book in the sequence 'The Dark is Rising'. Will, the young boy who is an Old One of the Light, goes to Wales to recuperate from a serious illness and to fulfil a quest which involves finding a harp and playing it so that a sleeper will be awoken. Of course he encounters dangers and obstacles, but he also meets another schoolboy, the albino Welsh boy Bran, the raven boy, who is a mysterious figure who seems to belong outside the battle between the Light and the Dark.

And there is Cafall, Bran's sheepdog, who is threatened with being shot for sheep worrying.

It's a swiftly written story, with little fat on it, and all the usual tropes. I always feel, with books like this, that the possession of magical powers gives the protagonist an unfair advantage. Will is never really in any peril, there is no sense that he might just fail with devastating consequences. Of course, this is a children's book, so nothing terrible can happen. But the presence of a safety net inevitably dilutes the tension.

One of the pleasures of this book is that author has crafted the rhythms of the sentences that the Welsh men and women speak, when they are speaking English, so that I could really hear the lilt of Welsh, and the care and precision of the way that they pronounced their word.

Selected quotes:

"Will felt that he was in a part of Britain like none he had ever known before: a secret, enclosed place, with powers hidden in its shrouded centuries at which he could not begin to guess." (1: The Golden Harp; The Oldest Hills)
"The body of Cyngen is on the side between where the marks will be. In the retreat beneath the mound is extended Cadfan, said that it should enclose the praise of the earth. May he rest without blemish." (1: The Golden Harp; Cadfan’s Way) A classic riddle. What a shame that it doesn't seem to be used later in the book.
"Like life it is, Will – sometimes you must seem to hurt something in order to do good for it." (1: The Golden Harp; Cadfan’s Way)
"All that could be seen in him was the urge to hurt, and it was, as it always will be, the most dreadful sight in the world." (1: The Golden Harp; Fire on the Mountain)
"Wish on a star – the cry of a pleasure and faith as ancient as the eyes of man." (1: The Golden Harp; Bird Rock)
"that is the price we have to pay for the freedom of men on the earth. That they can do the bad things as well as the good. There are shadows in the pattern, as well as sunlight." (2: The Sleepers)
"With a man like that, it is dangerous – when at last he loves, he gives all his heart without care or thinking, and it may never go back to him for the rest of his life." (2: The Sleepers)
"At the centre of the Light there is a cold white flame, just as at the centre of the Dark there is a great black pit bottomless as the Universe." (2: The Sleepers; The Pleasant Lake)
"In a great rush his mind filled with pictures of Cafall as a wobble-legged puppy, Cafall following him to school, Cafall learning the signals and commands of the working sheepdog, Cafall wet with rain, the long hair pressed flat in a straight parting along his spine, Cafall running, Cafall drinking from a stream, Cafall asleep with his chin warm on Bran’s foot. Cafall dead." (2: The Sleepers; The Cottage on the Moor)
"Bran could think of no words to say. His head was crowded with jarring images and questions: a crossroads with a dozen turnings and no sign of which to follow." (2: The Sleepers; The Cottage on the Moor)