3.1- the Wizards of Alderley Edge
This week we are looking at the Cheshire folktale that served as the inspiration for one of the greatest children’s fanatasy novels of all time ‘The Weirdston of Brisingamen’ by Alan Garner.
A Farmer Goes to Market
The essentials of the story of The Wizards of Alderley Edge have all the main beats that you might expect from a traditional tale. There’s the greedy farmer, the wise wizard, the roadside bargain and the trip to fairytale (in the form of a magical underground chamber).
The tale of an encounter on the road to market is so consistent in fairytale that even before the farmer in this story has finished his rejection of the wizard’s gold we, as readers of fairytale, already know that he isn’t going to sell his horse at the market in Mobberly. In fact, we know, just as the wizard does, that the poor farmer will be back in this same spot later to sell the wizard his horse and that something magic will happen as a result.
In this sense, the story of the farmer’s encounter with the wizard ticks all the boxes for a traditional tale. There is even the lovely pay off at the end of the story where the farmer, who has established himself as quite greedy early on, is both rewarded and punished by the otherworldly experience of entering the enchanted cave and seeing the knights waiting for their destiny.
It is an interesting look at what is considered a just reward in fairytale.
Merlin (or not)
Some re-tellings of the tale would have it that the wizard is Merlin. And of course it is difficult for most British people to see an old man with a long white beard, who appears to be magical, and not the ‘Merlin’. But the original story does not specifically name the wizard as the main advisor to King Arthur, nor does it specify who the king is who lays in wait under The Edge. However, there is a long association in Britain with King Arthur and Merlin and the sleeping hero trope. There are of course other contenders for this role, namely The Duke of Monmouth, and there is every possibility that the king and the wizard could be Anglo-Saxons or Celts. Yet somehow it is impossible to escape the association with the Once and Future King. This is why, for my story at least, I chose to name my ‘wizard’ after one of Arthur’s knights from the Mabinogi.
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
For anyone reading who hasn’t read ‘The Weirdstone of Brisingamen’ (get yourself to a book shop), the novel uses the essentially story of the wizards of Alderley Edge and weaves into it elements of Arthurian legend, Irish mythology and Norse mythology in such an inventive way so that Garner has created a world of his own in the real world setting of Alderly Edge. I have always loved urban fantasy. When it is done well, as it is here, it give the reader the sense that they too could accidentally discover a secret world within our own, so close that right now it might be right next to us and we might never see it. For children especially, who’s imagination still run wild , it is an irresistible idea.
What the book does especially well is that make the children the agents of change in a world that is controlled by adults, both good and evil, letting them make decisions and take action, even when they are told specifically not to do anything. Colin and Susan have no super powers, except bravery and loyalty. Adn they have no special training, except a child’s belief that they are capable of anything. What child would not be entranced by the idea of walking out of their own door and straight into an adventure where they, without skills or training, could fight the forces of evil?