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the_sunken_library's review against another edition
4.0
I remember reading this as a kid but never finishing it. 20 odd years later and I have corrected that error.
A blend of Nordic and English folklore with a little Tolkien thrown in for good measure, I can see why he has won so many kid's literary awards.
Highly enjoyable, I definitely won't wait 20 years to read the next two books in the series!
A blend of Nordic and English folklore with a little Tolkien thrown in for good measure, I can see why he has won so many kid's literary awards.
Highly enjoyable, I definitely won't wait 20 years to read the next two books in the series!
daja57's review
4.0
Colin and Susan go to stay for six months at a farm on Alderley Edge with a Cheshire farmer called Gowther Mossock and his wife, who used to be the children's nurse. The book was written in the 1960s, so the middle-classness is rather taken for granted. Susan's 'tear stone' turns out to be the Weirdstone of Brisingamen, stolen from a nearby cave where wizard Cadellin keeps watch as one hundred and forty knights lie sleeping, to be awoken "when England shall be in direst peril". Tolkien-esque adventures ensue with friendly but sword-wielding dwarfs, witches and warlocks, elves and troll-spawn, and all the bestiary of fantasy.
Garner borrows heavily from Norse mythology. The place where the arch-fiend dwells is called Ragnarok, the Norse Gotterdammerung; the goblins are called svarts (in this magic white represents good and black bad), the chief witch is the Morrigan, from Irish legend (she casts spells in Latin, like Harry Potter), the baddies control the weather, bringing fimbulwinter, which in Norse myth is the winter that destroys all life on Earth as an immediate precedent to Ragnarok; Managarm is the wolf that chases the moon.
In common with books of that era, it is allowed a slow start. Recognition that Susan's 'tear' is the Weirdstone doesn't happen until the 25% mark; it is almost instantly taken from them. There are no moral ambiguities although the dwarfs are experienced, efficient and ruthless killers who boast to one another about how many they have killed. There is little scope for character development. Perhaps more seriously, there is little opportunity for the heroes to display strengths other than endurance. Whenever the children are faced with a challenge they are aided by yet another magical helper who appears from nowhere, such that the deus ex machina is almost a leitmotif. It is only at the end that triumph and disaster become imposters, and for that the children are bystanders and witnesses.
What lifts the book beyond the ordinary is the two journeys that the children, with accompanying dwarfs, make: one through mine shafts and tunnels, fleeing from goblins, and one through the surface landscape. In both cases minute attention is paid to descriptive detail. The author must know ar first hand what it is like to wriggle through tunnels little bigger than yourself, sometimes flooded, and to climb down rock faces. He must know every rock of the landscape he describes: "Any movement would have set the leaves dancing at the end of their snake-like branches. It was as though they were dangling in a snarl of burglar alarms." (Ch 16) In this book the hills and forests and rocks and caves are characters more vividly described than the humans.
A fairly standard fantasy hero's adventure story, written for children, but lifted into excellence by the quality of the descriptive writing.
Garner borrows heavily from Norse mythology. The place where the arch-fiend dwells is called Ragnarok, the Norse Gotterdammerung; the goblins are called svarts (in this magic white represents good and black bad), the chief witch is the Morrigan, from Irish legend (she casts spells in Latin, like Harry Potter), the baddies control the weather, bringing fimbulwinter, which in Norse myth is the winter that destroys all life on Earth as an immediate precedent to Ragnarok; Managarm is the wolf that chases the moon.
In common with books of that era, it is allowed a slow start. Recognition that Susan's 'tear' is the Weirdstone doesn't happen until the 25% mark; it is almost instantly taken from them. There are no moral ambiguities although the dwarfs are experienced, efficient and ruthless killers who boast to one another about how many they have killed. There is little scope for character development. Perhaps more seriously, there is little opportunity for the heroes to display strengths other than endurance. Whenever the children are faced with a challenge they are aided by yet another magical helper who appears from nowhere, such that the deus ex machina is almost a leitmotif. It is only at the end that triumph and disaster become imposters, and for that the children are bystanders and witnesses.
What lifts the book beyond the ordinary is the two journeys that the children, with accompanying dwarfs, make: one through mine shafts and tunnels, fleeing from goblins, and one through the surface landscape. In both cases minute attention is paid to descriptive detail. The author must know ar first hand what it is like to wriggle through tunnels little bigger than yourself, sometimes flooded, and to climb down rock faces. He must know every rock of the landscape he describes: "Any movement would have set the leaves dancing at the end of their snake-like branches. It was as though they were dangling in a snarl of burglar alarms." (Ch 16) In this book the hills and forests and rocks and caves are characters more vividly described than the humans.
A fairly standard fantasy hero's adventure story, written for children, but lifted into excellence by the quality of the descriptive writing.
nebulous_tide's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
sammymus's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
duriangray's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
elegantmechanic's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Was plodding and meandering for most of the story but the final act gathers focus and momentum and lifted it from 2 to a 3 star.
ferretqueennyx's review against another edition
Just not for me, likely too young.
doritobabe's review against another edition
4.0
3,5/5
I quite liked this novel. I think I was reading an article about [b:Underland: A Deep Time Journey|41817481|Underland A Deep Time Journey|Robert Macfarlane|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1553019903l/41817481._SY75_.jpg|68561061] wherein a geologist was describing his love for the underground coming in part from a scene in this book. The description and its memorability for the writer inspired me to pursue it and I was not disappointed.
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen was a fun children's fantasy novel about two siblings (a brother and a sister) who spend the summer in the country. Here, they learn about local mythology and have an adventure based on it and an inherited heirloom.
This book has all of the classical fantasy elements (elves, witches, evil warlocks, dwarves, and some unknown fantastical types) and is based heavily in the lore that Garner was told as a young boy. I think that I would have loved this book even more as a child than I did now.
The low-ish rating is based off of the feeling that I had around a certain scene dragging on for way too long, and that the ending was a bit too abrupt for my liking. When my friends have older children, I will probably purchase this for their reading pleasure.
I quite liked this novel. I think I was reading an article about [b:Underland: A Deep Time Journey|41817481|Underland A Deep Time Journey|Robert Macfarlane|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1553019903l/41817481._SY75_.jpg|68561061] wherein a geologist was describing his love for the underground coming in part from a scene in this book. The description and its memorability for the writer inspired me to pursue it and I was not disappointed.
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen was a fun children's fantasy novel about two siblings (a brother and a sister) who spend the summer in the country. Here, they learn about local mythology and have an adventure based on it and an inherited heirloom.
This book has all of the classical fantasy elements (elves, witches, evil warlocks, dwarves, and some unknown fantastical types) and is based heavily in the lore that Garner was told as a young boy. I think that I would have loved this book even more as a child than I did now.
The low-ish rating is based off of the feeling that I had around a certain scene dragging on for way too long, and that the ending was a bit too abrupt for my liking. When my friends have older children, I will probably purchase this for their reading pleasure.
gingerliss's review against another edition
5.0
This book had me hooked from the very first page. It was tremendously gripping. Every now and again I'll go for a children's book and more than often I will feel that yes it is definitely written for children and I would have probably enjoyed it as a child myself but as an adult it is just not all that interesting. This book though was totally different. Fast-paced and exciting. Yes the book is written for children, but it doesn't particularly feel that way. One of the most interesting in its genre and type I have read in a long long time. Garner's description of landscape and nature were an amazingly powerful part of the novel. The folklore intertwined throughout the story was to me very original. The characters were well written and the book never hung around in one place for too long. I look forward to picking up the sequels and will definitely be sharing with my future kids.