Elidor - Book review

[watervole]

I remembered reading Elidor (by Alan Garner) as a teenager and it left a couple of strong images in my mind.  The children with the four treasures standing next to a ruined church in Manchester, a door set into a green mound and a dying unicorn.
Turns out on rereading the book that this is pretty much all there is to it.  There's so much more that it could have been. 

The 'Treasures' have no purpose. We never learn who made them or why.  Elidor itself is never seen beyond a passing glimpse. What is this place that we should care about it?

Findhorn has no existence other than to die.  Why is his singing important?  Again, no reason.  In Narnia, we understand Aslan's death - it has a meaning in mythological terms.

Last, but not least, who are the bad guys?  There are people trying to kill Findhorn, but why? What do they gain from his death? Why do they wish to destroy Elidor?

The whole book seems to be a sequence of atmospheric scenes, but with no real plot behind them to grant them any meaning.

Comments

[rgemini.livejournal.com]

I think Alan Garner's best books are The Wierdstone of Brisingamen, which has a most claustrophobic potholing sequence, and The Moon of Gomrath. I don't remember Elidor as anywhere near as empty of meaning as you've found it though. Very Celtic in tone and with an air of magic that is not understandable by logic. I couldn't finish The Owl Service at all and can't remember anything about it.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Try re-reading Elidor now...

I was hoping to use it as inspriation for an RPG I'm intending to do, as the memory I had of it suggested some initial ideas. I went back to the book and discovered there was nothing behind the haunting images.

Why did the treasures exist?
What did they do besides lighting up castles?
Who lived in the castles?
Who were all the people who kept banging on the front door and what did they want?

I enjoyed the Wierdstone - not least because I grew up not that far from Alderly Edge. I've been to the Wizard's well many times.

The Owl Service was no use at all.

[jon-a-five.livejournal.com]

The Owl Service is the only one I've read as it was a childhood favourite of Vicky's. I enjoyed it, mostly because of the downbeat ending where the prophisied hero refuses to save the other characters as they've all brutalised him so much.

[frostfox.livejournal.com]

Most of it, including Plankshaft, are really there, I know people who have caved there.
There is not enough money in the world to entice me down there.


FF

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I remember disliking Elidor primarily because it wasn't what I wanted, which is the sequel hinted at in the ending to The Moon of Gomrath. I haven't bothered to read it since I was a child, though I can quote reams of both The Moon of Gomrath and The Weirdstone of Brisingamen off by heart. I think the impression of Elidor that lingers is that it is the type of book I wouldn't have read if it wasn't by Garner. It is so damn conventional and, as you say, it does not really work. It is certainly the weakest book by Garner that I have read, and distinctly childish, which the rest of his children's work most assuredly is not.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I always remember being disappointed that the Lindow Common in the 'Moon of Gomrath' bore very little resemblance to the actual place that my parents took me to. The lake is neater and less boggy in reality with a man made edge.

[frostfox.livejournal.com]

I scared the Plokta Cabal by them being able to pick the start of a chapter of The Moon Of Gomrath and being able to quote it for a paragraph or more. I think they lucked out and chose the chapter where the children meet Garanhir for the first time; which is still my favourite scene.
I had the same problem with Elidor you did, I was expecting the third book. Still waiting. Have to write it myself!

I was scared witless by the letterbox vibrating - our letterbox did that!
And the spinny thing with the street map which lit up was still in Piccadilly when I was a kid. Elidor had some interest for me as I knew the bombed out bits of Manc, they were still there. It got me on atmosphere, rather than plot.


FF

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Both Ina and I are fond of reading aloud to each other (when drunk enough.) Normally this is poetry, but the meeting of the wild hunt from the moment the wendfire is lit is one of the sequences we fight over.

[steverogerson.livejournal.com]

I too have fond memories of Elidor, but I have not read it since my teens. I loved the Wierdstone of Brisingamen.

[sophiedb.livejournal.com]

I read Elidor from our school library, then a while later it was on the list from our English teacher. I remember being really disappointed, partly because I'd found it boring and as one of the few kids who liked SF/F type stuff I really wanted the others' possibly first experience to be a GOOD book. Meh. No wonder they all thought I was nuts sometimes :)

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I discovered today while wandering around Wikipedia that he borrowed some bits from Irish myth - but why couldn't he have used those bits creatively in the story?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Treasures