Hey Blog! It\u2019s that time of year again, and the HEIAS book review is coming in! This book I said I\u2019d \u201chave to do one about\u201d later. Finally, it\u2019s being delivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This post is about The Weirdstone of Brisingamen<\/em>, which is a very good book indeed. Regular readers will know I have a very high opinion of The Dark is Rising<\/em>, which I reviewed a few years ago, and in the back of my copy there were a list of recommendations for other books I might enjoy. One was The Weirdstone of Brisingamen<\/em>. I thought this sounded good \u2013 for reasons I\u2019ll explain later \u2013 and Mum bought it for me. The tale goes something like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the ancient halls of Fundindelve (near Alderley, Cheshire) 140 knights lie magically asleep, never aging and completely safe. Their purpose? To defy the spirit of darkness when he arises, and destroy him. Watching over them is the wizard Cadellin; guardian, watcher of the sleepers, and keeper of the Weirdstone, Firefrost, which holds the heart of the protective magic over the caves. Each of the knights is in fine armour, and each has a perfect horse. But when the sleepers went down into Fundindelve, there was one horse missing \u2013 and on the day that horse was brought to the caves, its owner stole Firefrost. For many centuries the magic stone was not known to be missing by the wizard, but when this was discovered a race started between him and the servants of the spirit of darkness: if Cadellin finds it, all is safe, but if the dark lord finds it, he can destroy the sleepers. It is into this situation that Susan and her brother Colin arrive at Alderley. Susan happens to wears a bracelet with a crystal in it \u2013 which isn\u2019t recognised until it\u2019s too late!<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few observations: the dark spirit, conquered by a mighty king, sounds like Sauron overthrown by Elendil and Gil-galad before the events of The Lord of the Rings<\/em> (only there is one king, not two!). The sleeping knights are reminiscent of Arthurian legend, and the Sleepers woken by Will Stanton and the Golden Harp of the Light in The Grey King<\/em> from the Dark is Rising <\/em>sequence (more King Arthur!). The wizard Cadellin looks remarkably like Gandalf the Grey (tall staff, long beard, etc.) and is very good with fiery magic; Cadellin is also a name invoked by Culhwch for a boon from King Arthur in the Mabinogion<\/em>. Yes Grandad, I have read the Mabinogion; it\u2019s very good. I should probably make that my next book review! Also in the Mabinogion, Arthur\u2019s sword Caledfwlch (now known as Excalibur) is a blade with two brilliantly glowing gold serpents along the blade; and the king\u2019s sword in Fundindelve is the same. In yet another book I\u2019ve read, Eragon<\/em> (I\u2019m stacking up the books I need to review now!) the name brisingr<\/em> means fire<\/em> in the Ancient Language. Brisingamen = Firefrost. Brisingr = fire. The Brising necklace, made for the Viking goddess Freya, was crafted by fire <\/em>dwarves. A connection, maybe?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I like this book. It\u2019s got a handful of Arthurian folklore; a dollop of magic-stone-and-quests-to-get-it-back; a large spoonful of risk and good-evil conflict, a sprinkling of tight places (literally and metaphorically!), several unusual creatures, and a good-sized portion of spells and other magic! It has a respectable place on the bookshelf under my bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Very recently, I found a second book by the same author featuring the same characters, The Moon of Gomrath<\/em>, in the library. It turns out that a bracelet given to Susan in replacement for the one containing the Weirdstone is the second<\/em> magical bracelet she is given. The Marks of Fohla, a set of moon-magic bracelets owned by Susan, the Lady of the Lake, and the Morrigan (a shape-shifting evil witch) and representing the waxing, full and waning moon respectively, cause a lot of trouble when the Wild Hunt wakes up! What could possibly go wrong?!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey Blog! It\u2019s that time of year again, and the HEIAS book review is coming in! This book I said I\u2019d \u201chave to do one about\u201d later. Finally, it\u2019s being delivered. This post is about The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, which is a very good book indeed. Regular readers will know I have a very high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-ed-in-a-shed-2"],"yoast_head":"\n