Susan Cooper – The Dark Is Rising

When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back;

Three from the circle, three from the track;

Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone;

Five will return, and one go alone.

Susan Cooper, an english author, wrote a series of books in the 1970s that were for pre-teenage children (well, perhaps 8-14). The books were based upon old celtic tales, but they were brought into the modern world. The collection is published by Puffin Press, the younger version of the famous Penguin Press. I remember reading most of the series, the ones I could afford to buy and which I could find int he bookshops of backwater Cumbria, when I was a pre-teen, and I remember the books having an enormous inpact upon me. In fact I would say that they were the most impressionable books I read as a young boy, and they are probably the books that began to awaken in me inklings of druidry and magick as a concept.

I don’t know what prompted me to ask for this, but a few years ago when my wife asked me what I might want for a birthday present I instantly replied, “The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper.” The response was instantaneous and unequivocal, I even took myself by surprise. She kindly got me the whole series of Cooper’s in one volume (used copy available from Amazon for one pence!!), and I then placed it on my bookshelf behind a long list of druidry and dowsing material. Whenever she asked me about it I would respond, “Well, I’m not really into fiction at the moment…soon, maybe.”

I wondered what I would make of the books now that I was much older. Would they seem irrevocably juvenile? Would I destroy this fond memory? Could I even bear to read them now? And they were fiction…I prevaricated for some time before starting ont he first book in the series, Over Sea, Under Stone. This was one of the series that I hadn’t read before. As I began to read it I was struck by how dated the conversational style was – it seemed to be like an Enid Blyton book! I was expecting them to go for a picnic with some ginger ale at any moment with the Drew family children and their Uncle Merry (who was anything but).

I kept on reading, however, and soon I was beginning to see beyond the dated styling. The evocation of Cornwall was now something that I could relate to, having visited it several times. I could picture the setting of the book, and when it began to feature a stone circle as a focal point of the story and a grail too…now I was beginning to get very interested!

I finished the book and moved on to the next in the sequence – the main story – The Dark Is Rising. This was the book that had started it all off for me. Reading it this time around with its magical emblems and its incredible atmosphere of impending malevolence punctuated by moments of sheer magic and relief I was once again enthralled completely by the novel. So much so that I began to slow down whilst reading it, trying to relate the symbolism, the ritual and the magic to my own experience and knowledge. It is the story of a boy coming of age and taking on the powers to which he was always heir to – magickal powers that reflect the elemental forces of nature. Will, the hero, is brought into The Light, and meets the apocryphal powers of Merlin (Merriman Lyon) and The Lady.

By now I was hooked again. he third book, Greenwitch was one that I remember starting, but not finished. Set again in Cornwall it is a rich story about the coming of age of the female energies, interwoven with the ancient ritual of the green man/corn dolly/greenwitch/wicker man. There is the usual thrilling interplay between the forces of The Light and The Dark, personified as the  good and bad aspects of ordinary and extraordinary people, and glimpses of the power of a boy who has come into his druidic powers, and now begins to make use of them to shape destiny.

I remembered the fourth book very well. The Grey King is set in Wales. As a boy I had not frame of reference for this landscape, but now as a man I knew the scenery and places well. The book is set around the countryside close to the mountain of Cadair Idris – The Chair of Idris (although no-one is quite sure who Idris was – a King, a poet or a giant – possibly all three). The Grey King himself is a malevolent force that dominates the atmosphere of the surrounding landscape and it is the job of Will and his new friends who know nothing of his powers or purpose. This book is utterly and relentlessly thrilling for any age of reader. Deep themes are threaded through a pacy narrative that sings with the lilt of the welsh voices who populate the story. The image of Bran Davies, the Raven Boy, is particularly fascinating, and now I could relate it to the story of Bran The Blessed, and the resonances sang with their own power to me.

By the time I got to the final book, Silver On The Tree, I had a pang of regret that this would be the last book. This was another of the books that I had not read as a boy, and now I had the chance to take it in fully and with knowing. Of all the stories this one is the most magickal with half the story taking place in a lost world n another dimension overlaying the real world, and with movement back and forth in time being integral to the story. Historical references are now brought in: Arthur, the Romans, and many other ancient stories and histories intertwine, and yet Cooper manages to make the story consistent, believable, and beautifully described.

If you have children aged 8-14, and you are looking for something to occupy their minds for the summer holidays, then I could make no higher recommendation than for you to obtain this wonderful volume of stories. It may change their lives in a positive way forever, and the magic of Susan Cooper may never leave them!

Gwas.

BTW: There was a film made of The Dark Is Rising. It is truly dreadful A complete lemon. Don’t even be tempted. It’s a travesty!