The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen - Tapa dura

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is a magic stone which by its magic binds in sleep a band of knights, until the day should come when they must wake to fight Nastrond, the Spirit of Evil, and all his forces. But the wizard whose duty it was to guard the stone and the sleeping knights has lost it.

This tale the wizard himself tells two children, Colin and Susan, who are staying with a local farmer and his wife. Now Susan has a charm bracelet, and on the bracelet they discover the precious stone!

But the bracelet is seized by the evil powers. Colin and Susan recover it, and the rest of the book is a breathtaking chase through underground mines, woods and streams, so that the stone can be returned to the wizard at exactly the right moment. When they finally arrive at the appointed place he is not there to meet them...

THE WEIRDSTONE OF BRISINGAMEN

Reviewers hailed Alan Garner as a great new writer in 1960:

"Excellent and overflowing with largesse and imagination is this first novel by Alan Garner...a piece of marvellously sustained invention. This is a fine, new-mint book with echoes in it from the best of the old."
THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

"The suspense is superb. Mr Garner has written one of those grand tales that may well be read a hundred years hence as eagerly as it is read now."
SCOTSMAN

"Absolutely first class. Well written, well told, it mixes legend, fact and fairy tale."
MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS

THE MOON OF GOMRATH

Its sequel – acclaimed by the critics when published in 1963:

"It is not only powerful but remarkably sophisticated."
JOHN R. TOWNSEND, 'Guardian'

"Weird and marvellously evocative tale of Celtic mysteries, elves, spirits and strange presences felt, mingled to make high adventure for Colin and Susan – and peril for Susan. It is a timeless story, full of wonder and magic, terror and beauty. A fine author indeed, and perhaps one of a new generation of classics."
BOOKS AND BOOKMEN