Elidor

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Elidor is a children's fantasy novel by the British author Alan Garner, published by Collins in 1965. Set primarily in modern Manchester, it features four English children who enter a fantasy world, fulfill a quest there, and return to find that the enemy has followed them into our world. Translations have been published in nine languages and it has been adapted for television and radio. Since 1995 there are usually eight books on the Carnegie shortlist. According to CCSU, there were about 160 commendations of two kinds in 48 years from 1955 to 2002, including six for 1965. Catalogue Titles Authors Readers Unabridged Fiction Classic Fiction Modern Classics Contemporary Fiction

Round, and round, his voice went, and through it came a noise. It was low and vibrant, like wind in a chimney. It grew louder, more taut, and the wall blurred, and the floor shook. The noise was in the fabric of the church: it pulsed with sound. Then he heard a heavy door open; and close; and the noise faded away. It was now too still in the church, and the footsteps were moving over the rubble in the passage downstairs. 'Who's that?' said Roland. The footsteps reached the stairs, and began to climb." Elidor is a children's fantasy novel by the British author Alan Garner, published by Collins in 1965. Set primarily in modern Manchester, it features four English children who enter a fantasy world, fulfill a quest there, and return to find that the enemy has followed them into our world. Translations have been published in nine languages [2] and it has been adapted for television and radio.

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I thought I'd read this book as a child, but no - reading it to my daughter Celyn this week has convinced me that I just remember passages of it from drama classes in my primary school when I was very small.

Alan Garner OBE (born 17 October 1934) is an English novelist who is best known for his children's fantasy novels and his retellings of traditional British folk tales. His work is firmly rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native county of Cheshire, North West England, being set in the region and making use of the native Cheshire dialect.And the conclusion of the novel is a masterpiece of terror, leaving the reader wanting more - yet dreading what it might portend. For there is never an easy, happy ending, in a pagan myth. ran from pool to pool of the street lamps and sometimes they glimpsed a shadow, and sometimes there was a tall silhouette; and there was always too much darkness. When they turned the corner the white fluorescence of the railway station at the end of the road was like a sanctuary. They drove themselves toward its glass and concrete, as if ...danger of spear-edge and shield-rim would be powerless in the neon glare."

This book was written some years ago, and it shows in the choice of words used. I did find this distracting at the beginning of the story. In fact, some of the phrases used were so weird that I had no idea what was meant. This did give the book an old fashioned feel to it, and I think this is the reason it wasn’t popular in the library. Hence, the reason it found its way to the “bargain bin”. I enjoyed the story, it's full of imagination and no small amount of dark threat. Celyn enjoyed it too, though the passage of 50 years, combined with her own limited experience of the world, did require me to explain a number of things. And it was not just Garner who had trust in his own instinct. Elidor was his third book, following two previous fantasy novels – The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and its sequel The Moon of Gomrath. When he submitted Elidor to his publisher’s editor, he was told that this was the book they had been waiting for, the reason they had taken him on in the first place. This faith has been more than rewarded in the 40 or so years since. Quite apart from the strength of his fan-base and the longevity of his appeal, he has gone on to win awards in Britain and America, as well as receiving the OBE in 2001 for services to literature. Much of Alan Garner’s work has a deeply personal root, whether autobiographical or in terms of his areas of particular interest; but his imagination continues to resonate powerfully with generations of readers.

The origins of this particular novel are from a Welsh folktale, whose title can be translated as "Elidor and the Golden Ball". In it, Gerald of Wales, "Giraldus Cambrensis", described his 1188 journey across the country in a medieval account, "Itinerarium Cambriae", or "The Itinerary Through Wales". In the account, Elidor was a priest who, as a boy, was led by dwarfs to a castle of gold. This castle was in a land which, although beautiful, was not illuminated by the full light of the sun. Alan Garner develops this idea, making the golden walls of Gorias contrast with the dull sky in Elidor. Carnegie Medal Award". 2007(?). Curriculum Lab. Elihu Burritt Library. Central Connecticut State University ( CCSU). Retrieved 2012-08-13.