Alderley Edge

[poliphilo]

Alderley Edge is one of those places- a great, wooded cliff rising abruptly out of the pleasant, undramatic landscape of rural  Cheshire . The rocks are full of copper- and people were mining it all the way through from the Bronze Age  to the close of the 19th century. There's a legend about a magical cavern where a great king sleeps with his army.  Occultists are drawn to the place and local author Alan Garner made it the setting for his classic children's novel The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. 

Here's a version of the Legend of Alderley Edge- as told by Snake Ardwick in my novel Mammary Hill

"A farmer is taking his white mare to market and he gets stopped by an old man at a place called Thieves Hole. The old guy wants to buy the mare. The Farmer says, No. The old man says, OK, but you won't sell the mare at market and I'll be waiting for you on your way back. Sure enough, the mare is much admired, but no-one will buy her. So the farmer is trudging home and he meets the old man again. This time he's willing to sell. The old man says follow me, takes him to the cliff face and strikes it with his staff. The rock splits wide and, lo and behold, there are a pair of iron gates. They go through the gates and down a long passage and come to a cavern where all these men in armour are lying asleep. And beside each warrior stands a white mare. Only they're a horse short. What's going on here? asks the farmer, and the Wizard- cause he is a wizard, see- pointy hat, long white beard, the works- the Wizard says, this is a great king and his knights. They're sleeping here until a time when Britain is in mortal peril. Then they will rise from their sleep and save the day.

Jonathon interrupts at this point and says, "so the Wizard's Merlin and the King must be Arthur."

I say, "Well probably, but the story doesn't actually say so. That's its subtlety."

"So what happened?"

"Well," I continue, "the farmer trips over something and makes a noise and one of the knights raises his head and asks, is it the time? And the wizard answers, No, not yet. Then the Wizard takes the farmer to a treasure chest and tells him to fill his pockets in payment for the mare. After that, he leads the farmer out of the cavern, strikes the iron gates with his staff and they disappear. Then he disappears himself. And no-one from that day to this has ever seen the iron gates again.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Garner doesn't seem to be raved about the way other "fantasy" writers are- maybe because he's just too good.

My favourite is Red Shift. That's an awesome piece of work.

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

I've never actually read Red Shift - thank you for reminding me about his existence. My favourite was the Owl Service, which is perfect for that fevered early adolescent erotic angst - I'm not sure that I could read it the same way now, though.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Red Shift runs three stories in parallel- there's a Roman story, an English Civil war story and a modern story. The Roman soldiers talk like Vietnam-era grunts. It's a tour de force.

I recently read the Stone Book Quartet and Thursbitch (his latest.) They're pretty sensational too.