Story Elements in Elidor

I was struck by several things reading Elidor by Alan Garner. First, there is the theme of the Fisher King. When Roland goes into Elidor to find his brothers and sister, he wanders into a wasteland where the only person he finds is Malebron, who is a lamed king. Bron is the name of the Fisher King in some of the grail stories. So it is no wonder that he gave a spear to Roland rather than a sword like Childe Rowland was given.

At first I thought the one child who is strong enough to overcome the enchantment of the barrow is called Roland after the nephew of Charlemagne, who was the strongest and the bravest knight, but it seems he is called Roland for a fairy story called Childe Rowland. This boy went into fairy land to find his two brothers and sister who were under an enchantment after losing a ball in a church and after the sister went to get the ball but had gone widdershins(counter to the sun).

I was also struck by how much the barrow scene resembled the hobbits' battle with the barrow wights of the Barrow Downs in Lord of the Rings. Most likely, Garner and Tolkien were drawing on the same folk tales. It seems to me the stone circle, with the eighty one uncountable stones, could be any one of stone circles in England but Stonehenge had eighty one Sarsen stones.

The 'Lay of the Starved Fool' that Malebron is using as his own Sibylline prophecy book hearkens to the grail stories because Percival, the original grail knight was also the 'fool'. Some etymologies say Parzival did not mean 'pierced valley' but 'wise fool'. This also leads into tarot because Percival's journey is rather like that of the Fool. The treasures are hidden under a bed of roses, the rose garden being an important location in Medieval song.

The thing that is needed to heal Elidor and Malebron is not a grail but the song of a unicorn. While digging the hole to bury and hide the Treasures, the children dig up and accidentally break a jug with unicorn on it. This is what sets the unicorn free. Roland's sister Helen is needed to capture the unicorn, Findhorn (white horn), but the virgin is usually used to lure the unicorn so it can be killed and Findhorn, although not killed by the children, is killed by the men hunting them. Its dying song brings the light back to Elidor. The different elements of older stories brought together in a new way reminds me of J.R.R. Tolkiens' essay 'On Fairy Stories' and the cauldron of story. You can throw whatever ingredients you want in the 'soup' but of course they have to blend well together and these ones do.

And one last word, if you are not Canadian, you likely have not heard the Unicorn Song but here it is.

Elidyr and the Golden Ball

For some reason, Alan Garner is not a commonly read author these days. It is a real shame because I loved his books. I discovered The Weirdstone of Brisingamen back when I was 12 and visiting Alderley Edge was, I think, the highlight of my trip to England a few years back.

I recently shared his book Elidor with some friends and they enjoyed it. Clearly some of the details in the book are taken from Irish mythology like the four cities of Elidor are the very names of the four cities of the Tuatha de Danaan: Gorias, Falias, Murias, and Findias. The four objects that need to be kept safe correspond to the Four Hallows that the Tuatha de Danaan brought with them to Ireland.

Normally, Garner plunders Welsh literature since he lives near the Welsh border, having lived his entire life in Cheshire. He has admitted to using the Mabinogion for names especially the 'Dream of Rhonabwy'. For the name of Elidor, it appears he has plundered a name and an idea from Gerald of Wales (who I am sure won't mind since Medieval authors did not get as fussed about copyright as authors do today).

While Gerald was touring Wales, trying to drum up support for the Third Crusade, he and his group stayed overnight at Swansea, near the location of a story, which Gerald had been told and one of the local priests had claimed to be the Elidyr of the story. The priest was twelve years of age, at the time of the events, and was hiding from his teacher, whom he was tired of being beaten by (the good ole days!). He was hiding in a hollow bank of a river for two days when two little men appeared to him and offered to take him someplace where it was all fun and games. He went and it was a great place, underground, the people treated him well and he played with the son of the king.

He was allowed to come home and visit back and forth, telling only his mother about the land. She asked him to bring something of gold back for her so he took a golden ball that he used when playing with the king's son. He ran home and tripped over the threshold, dropping the golden ball. The little people, who were right behind him, grabbed it and ran off jeering at him. He never found the way back to the land and eventually went back to his studies and became a priest. When he was old, he told the Bishop of St. David's, who was Gerald's uncle about the story. In response to the question of if he believes the story, Gerald wrote that if he were to reject it then he would be placing a limit on the power of God but he cannot accept it either with any real conviction.

What has this to do with Garner's tale besides the name of the otherworldly land the children must protect? It is the loss of a ball that draws the four children one by one into the ruined church which is the gateway to Elidor. Perhaps it is due to Elidyr's having been a priest that he made the gateway in a church.