The Toast’s last literary pilgrimage was to Haworth, home of Wuthering Heights.
There’s a line in one of my favorite fantasy novels, Pamela Dean’s The Whim of the Dragon, which I think about all the time. Ted, one of the main characters, is contemplating the Secret Country, the fantasy land that he and his sister and cousins have found themselves in – which they may or may not have made up – and he realizes something. “The Secret Country was smoothed to the contours of his mind (or they to it.)”
“Smoothed to the contours of his mind.” That’s how I feel about my favorite books, the ones I go back to over and over again. They dig in to my brain and carve out their own space, one I can visit whenever I reread them, or even when I just think about them. But that space isn’t visual. When I revisit the world of The Secret Country trilogy, I don’t walk along its paths or through the halls of its castle. I’m not a visual reader; rarely do I see a movie playing when I read something. It’s the words themselves, the shape and rhythm of them, which imprint on me. It takes a special writer to put pictures in my head.
Susan Cooper is one of them. I first read her five-book series, The Dark is Rising sequence, in elementary school, after Narnia, I think, but before Harry Potter. This may be one of the reasons that as much as I love Harry, my heart belongs to Susan Cooper’s Will Stanton and Bran Davies, and Simon and Jane and Barney Drew, and Merriman Lyon, and the beautiful bits of the United Kingdom where the epic struggle between the forces of the Dark and the Light took place.
In spring 2011, I’d graduated college and been working for nearly a year. For the first time in my life I had a little money saved and vacation days to burn, so I decided to take a trip to the UK. I knew I wanted to spend time in London, where I’d studied abroad, and because of The Dark is Rising books, Wales was also high on my list. I hoped to see Cadair Idris, the mountain that plays a central role in Cooper’s The Grey King, and lucky for me, there was a hostel in nearby Corris. I booked flights and rooms, bought train tickets, told friends that I was coming, and at the beginning of July, I got on a plane.
I arrived in Machynlleth, Wales on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. From the train station I took a taxi up the nearly six miles of winding, climbing road to Corris. I left my bags at the hostel and went out to explore. I wandered past little cottages and up along the road that ran the length of the valley the town was nestled in. Looking down at the houses, I almost felt as if I was on one of the Old Ways that are crucial in the books, those nearly-forgotten roads and paths with history and latent magical power.
Looking down at Corris from the path along the valley
Back at the hostel I met a pair of German travelers who were planning to drive over to Cadair Idris the next day, and they offered to take me with them. I was grateful, since it would’ve been a long walk along a major road to get there – not a great idea if I was hoping to climb the mountain at the end of it! From what I’d read, the climb only required hiking along a path and steps, not actual rock climbing. Hiking I could handle.
Cadair Idris is part of Snowdonia National Park. Tons of walkers and hikers climb it every year. At the hostel they told us that school trips with small children go up all the time. Cadair is apparently translated as “chair”, making this the “chair of Idris” and Wikipedia tells me there are a couple guys named Idris it could refer to. One is a giant. The other is Idris ap Gwyddno, a prince who may have bested the Irish in battle on the mountain. I’m not sure if one of them was the inspiration for the Grey King, the malevolent great figure of the Dark who inhabits the mountain unseen and influences what happens nearby in Susan Cooper’s story, but either way the mountain is steeped in legend, both historical and fictional.
The start of the hike up Cadair Idris
The next afternoon we drove along the twisty roads and parked at the base of the mountain. After twenty minutes of huffing and puffing up a stone staircase through the trees, I gave up. I was wearing sandals and too many layers, and carrying too much stuff, but the main problem was my companions. They were just too darn fast! The sign at the mountain said the full circuit hike took, on average, five hours to complete. These guys did it in four.
The steps up Cadair Idris
There’s a legend that if you spend the night on Cadair Idris you’ll wake up either a madman or a poet. At the very least you’ll wake up with a couple hours walk ahead of you.
At the base of the mountain was a lake, Tal-y-llyn, and I decided to walk around it while the others hiked. Tal-y-llyn also featured in The Dark is Rising sequence as the “pleasant lake” by which the “Sleepers” lie. The Sleepers are dead kings who are roused by the playing of a magical harp and ride to help the Light in the final battle against the Dark. When Will Stanton first visits the lake, he nearly rolls down the mountain into the water through the malice of the Grey King.
It took me a while to find the right path to get around the lake, but when I did I marched along it, looking at the water, feeling hot but glad to be there. There were sheep up on the hill and one seemed to have escaped the fence and made it down to the side of the road. I wondered whether I should do something about it, but decided someone who knew whether it actually wasn’t supposed to be there, and who it belonged to, would probably happen along pretty soon.
In the book, Will’s aunt calls Tal-y-llyn the loveliest lake in Wales, and despite Will’s experiences there, I could see why. From a parking lot at the far end of the lake there was gorgeous view back at Cadair Idris. I stood by the lake and took a million pictures as a swan swam past and made the images that much more picturesque. As I continued on I found the other side of the lake to be shadier, and there were more sheep. They stared at me as I went by, and some of their bleats sounded eerily like human moans.
The loveliest lake in Wales
I felt like I was intruding on someone’s private property as I walked when I passed a house and a few stone cottages. An abandoned stone cottage plays an important part in The Grey King, and while it wasn’t located right by the lake in the book, I still felt totally justified in pretending that this was the cabin where the Grey King exerted his power on a poor dog.
After I met up with the guys and headed back to the hostel, they showed me their pictures from the hike. The part that interested me the most was Llyn Cau, a lake up the mountain that Susan Cooper talks about in Silver on the Tree. Legends say that a monster, the afanc, lived in nearby Llyn Barfog until King Arthur killed it, or until he cast it into Llyn Cau. If there was still a monster there, they didn’t get a photo.
I didn’t see everything I wished I could have on that trip. A car and a travel companion, or at least a better knowledge of the buses and a little more time, would have helped. But the places I did see have melded with the images I had before visiting, enriching the books’ landscape in my mind. Now when I read about Will’s visit to an old churchyard, I see the one I visited in Corris, and when I read about his drive to his uncle’s farm I think about the winding roads I rode upon.
A churchyard in Corris
When I visit Wales next, I’ll hike up Cadair Idris and see Llyn Cau for myself. I’ll find Craig yr Aderyn, the Door of the Birds where Will opens the oldest hills. I’ll make my way to Aberdyfi and take the Panorama Walk to see the Carn March Arthur, a hoof print supposedly made by King Arthur’s horse. From there I’ll visit Llyn Barfog and make sure the afanc is really gone.
Near Llyn Barfog there’s a place where one can hear a beautiful echo, and in the book Will sings to the echo and the mountains sing back. There’s a line, a part of the puzzle that they’ve discovered, “Y maent yr mynyddoedd yn canu,/ac y mae’r arglwyddes yn dod.”, that means “The mountains are singing and the lady comes,” and in the story when the mountain sings the lady does come. When I go, I’ll sing to the echo myself and see who turns up.
Tags: books, literary pilgrimages, nicole loves these books like whoa, sarah evans, susan cooper, the dark is rising
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I have nothing intelligent to say about this other than can I come with you when you go next? The Dark is Rising locations are also on my to-do list, these and Cornwall. The real Trewissick is apparently a village called Megavissey where Cooper used to go on holiday as a child.
So glad you liked it! When I planned that trip, I made a list of places I wanted to go and Cornwall was on there and then I started mapping it out and realized I didn’t have enough time to do it all (I spent a day in Oxford, three in Wales, and three in London). So it’s definitely on my list for next time! I bought my dad a book called The Old Ways (yes, the title made me very happy) for Christmas (http://www.amazon.com/The-Old-Ways-Journey-Foot/dp/0147509793) in hopes of convincing him to go to the UK with me next year. He really liked it, so now I’m going to steal it back and read it!
OMG, saw the title and freaked out. THE DARK IS RISING IS THE BEST! I will now go and read the article. Yay!!!
Ok, read the piece and it is SO CREEPILY RELEVANT TO ME RIGHT NOW. I love (LOVE LOVE) the Susan Cooper books, I have read them a billion times, and even (though sadly not any more) memorised the poem. You know the one..
When the dark is rising six shall turn it back
AND ALSO I am going to Wales in a couple of weeks, and was wondering just a couple of hours ago where we should go there. MY PROBLEM IS SOLVED
I am reasonably sure I could still recite the poem, TBH…
Aaah, so here’s my best shot. (I had to) I’m pretty sure it’s missing bits out though!
When the dark is rising six shall turn it back
Three from the circle, three from the track
Wood, bronze, fire, water, ….. stone
Five shall return and one go alone
(Is there another verse in between these?)
Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold
Played to wake the sleepers, oldest of the old
Power from the Greenwitch, lost beneath the sea
All shall find the light at last, silver on the tree.
I think the middle verse is the one about whete the signs are?
Iron for the birthday, bronze carried long,
Wood from the burning, stone out of song
Fire from the candle ring, water from the thaw,
six signs the circle and the grail gone before.
?
Took a few false starts but I think that’s more or less it!
YES! That’s it!
And IRON, I bloody forgot iron.
I blame Maggie Barnes, she made you forget it.
‘bronze carried long’ makes me think of the walker and I get shivery and sad, every time.
What about,
On the day of the dead when the world too dies,
Must the youngest open the oldest hills.
I don’t remember the rest, but I’m pretty sure that’s in there, it’s why I always think of The Dark is Rising on November 1.
…through the door of the birds where the breeze breaks.
Then fire shall fly from the raven boy
And the silver eyes that see the wind
And the light shall find the harp of gold?
On Cadfan’s way where the kestrels call
something something something
Then grim from the grey king shadows rise
something something something about the sleepers again?
I had to look it up, it would have driven me bonkers all night.
On the day of the dead when the year too dies
must the youngest open the oldest hills
through the door of the birds, where the breeze breaks.
There fire shall fly from the raven boy
And the silver eyes that see the wind
And the Light shall have the harp of gold.
By the pleasant lake where the sleepers lie
On Cadfan’s way where the kestrels call
Though grim from the Grey King shadows fall,
Yet singing the golden harp shall guide
Tp break their sleep and bid them ride.
When light from the lost land shall return,
Six sleepers shall ride, six signs shall burn,
And where the midsummer tree grows tall,
By Pendragon’s sword the dark shall fall.
(and then the welsh bit about mountains)
(I’ve had that paperback copy of the grey king since 1987 when it cost £1.95!!)
This was the “poem” I memorized in some grade school class that required memorization and recitation, it was also where I had Susan Cooper sign a few years ago when she came to the National Book Festival in DC. By which I mean, so many memories!
The mountains are singing, and the Lady comes.
I think it’s:
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 shall return and one go alone
Have an awesome time on your trip! And I highly recommend bringing The Grey King and/or Silver on the Tree to read on the train!
Thanks, and that is a brilliant idea!
I have nothing to say except thank you, Sarah Evans, and I am mad with jealousy that you got to see these things from my favorite childhood books. When I saw the title, I almost wept a little.
Onward to Trewissick! I want to see the standing stones!
The books have such a strong sense of place – it’s something I really love about them. It sounds like a great pilgrimage!
This article made my day, thank you! No one I know has read the series, and the first book is one of my absolute favorites of everything I’ve read 🙂 I am so glad [and jealous, tbh] that you got to visit those places!
I read these books over and over as a child, taking them out of the library week after week and month after month for years until my parents, who rarely bought us books we’d already read, broke down and bought me a few of them as a gift, and I read those to tatters, augmenting and – finally, when the bindings were too split even to tape together – replacing them with my own scant pocket money.
I recently revisited the first two as an adult, and I’m sorry to say that during the long lapse, some of the magic has blown off them for me. But there’s still some mystique in them for me, lingering in the corners and crooks of the stories. I still haven’t laid my hands on Greenwitch or The Grey King as an adult, and I suspect those will stand up best to a jaundiced eye.
I’ve been thinking about reading the TDIR series aloud to my 6 and 9 year olds. Since you’ve read it recently, do you think it’s something younger kids would get into? I loved the books when I was young, but I think I was at least 10 or 11 when I read the first one.
Someone who has more contact with children will have a better answer, I’m sure, but my own impression is that 6 is a bit young for these books; the scary bits are so sober and chilling that I think a young child might be haunted by them.
I would think 9 is old enough — and not too old; an older child/adolescent might not be immediately susceptible to their charms. In The Dark is Rising, Will is just turning eleven, and I think that sets a reasonable benchmark for that book: a child old enough to identify with him (rather than think of him as A Big Kid) is in the right age range for the stories.
boiler-plate: of course, that ignores the idiosyncratic differences that children have, just as adults do. I started reading them around 7 or 8, but A. I had older brothers & sisters I could use a s a proxy to ID with the protagonist even when I couldn’t directly; B. I was a weird little kid with fairly morbid interest in books, so the Susan Cooper stories were slightly light fare than, say, books about Vlad the Impaler. (What a little weirdo I was, she says with affectionate exasperation.) If your children seem ready to you, disregard my suggestion.
That is super helpful, thank you so much!
You read about Vlad the Impaler, I read these crazy reference books about shipwrecks, the Andrea Doria and the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Greetings, fellow childhood reader of weird and possibly inappropriate stuff.
I’d read them to them at 8 & 11 – maybe 7 & 10 if your youngest is an ‘old’ 7.
Oh! But you can read them The Goose Girl now, and that’s heavenly.
FWIW, I found the books at age 11-12 and I was definitely not too old for them.
I read The Dark is Rising in 8th grade for class and then found and read the rest of the series because I loved the book so much. While they weren’t a challenging read I didn’t think they were too young for me.
This is so cool! I have such a clear idea of the settings in this series from Susan Cooper’s descriptions, and I’m glad to hear the actual places live up to the beautiful imagery from the books.
Such a bittersweet piece to read! This was my sister’s favorite series as a kid. I loved it too. She developed schizophrenia a few years ago and there’s something so terrible and amazing about seeing the way her childhood imagination and the books that she read have gotten twisted up in her illness. The Dark is Rising and a lot of the Welsh mythology from it makes regular appearances in her delusions, so much so that she collects the Signs like Will (turns out there a quartered circles on everything, if you’re looking for them). So, “smoothed to the contours of the mind” is really, really relevant in her case.
Oh wow. I’m sorry to hear about your sister’s illness. I’m glad the piece resonated for you, even if in such a bittersweet way!
Ahh, this is so lovely! I’m glad you were able to go, and will be going back. 🙂 These books were a VITAL part of my childhood reading and really shaped me.
Am I the only one who practices saying Welsh things the way Bran tried to teach Will? Including Machynlleth? “Welsh babies must dribble a lot.”
Also, poor Cafall. *sniffles*
I could still get choked up about that and I think I read the book 35 years ago.
I love the photos! I read the first three books when I was a kid and finally got my hands on the audiobooks of the last two a few years ago when I was living in England. I was so inspired by The Grey King, I ended up hopping a train to Aberystwyth so I could see the Welsh countryside. I have some immensely fond memories of listening to the last few chapters of the last book while I watched the hills stream by, but your trip sounds like it would’ve been even better.
I’ve got all the audiobooks – audible does four of them and I finally caved and paid ridiculous money for the CD version of the dark is rising. The others are just as good as the last two!
They are! Really, really good! I listened to them all through my library’s audiobook collection and ended up buying them off Audible. At the time, you could get the first two books off audible.com and the last three books off audible.co.uk, but neither site had all of them, so now both websites keep going ‘hey, why don’t you renew your membership and complete the series?’ at me.
They’re so lovely, I’ve half considered it. Spot-on marketing, Audible.
I, too, love DIR, and painted the six Signs as a set a few years back (my best friend bested me — she made a set of Signs). We went to Wales together and of course Machynlleth, Tywyn and Cader were essential stops. We also found and hiked along a bit of Cadfan’s way. Lovely, lovely memories! I’d go with you anytime, Sarah.
I loved those books. And I’ve been to Snowdonia, but I didn’t make it Cadair Idris. Next time!
This was great. You’re so so right that Cooper’s super-evocative writing. I didn’t read her books until I was an adult & had already been through Wales, but I think her language would have painted it for me just as throughly as reality did.
Ooh – this was so cool to read! I really, really love this series (and The Chronicles of Prydain) and I have never actually met anyone who has read all of them too. This has made my travel list for Wales – I’m going next year! Do you mind if I ask you the name of your hostel?
Eilonwy is still one of my role models!
This is the correct response. 🙂
It was the Corris Youth Hostel. It’s an old schoolhouse and it was pretty nice and not expensive. Not too many people staying there when I was there but the people I met were friendly! Hope you have a great trip when you go! 🙂 Make sure to buy groceries before going up to Corris — the town is tiny.
You give excellent life advice! I will take it and run with it all the way to Wales.
Ahhhh! I read both series, too! How unsurprising that there are so many Susan Cooper fans on The Toast.
I adore that series, and seeing the pictures and hearing about the places just made my night! Thank you, Sarah Evans.
I did this exact same pilgrimage a few years ago. I did end up doing the hike – and nearly got myself killed at the peak, lost in the clouds. Should have taken a friend. Amazing place though.
This is lovely. Thank you.
This is lovely. Thank you.
I think it's:
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 shall return and one go alone
I did this pilgrimage too! Though I came up from the other side, the Minffordd side, so I didn’t get to see Tal y Llyn. It’s a much easier climb to Llyn Cau from there because of the way that the mountain is shaped, and there’s even a bus from Dolgellau that stops right at the trailhead. I didn’t try for the summit, I just hung around Llyn Cau all afternoon. There’s another ruined slate hut up there, and some sheep, and although it was sunny in the “cup” of the mountain, the summit was completely obscured by dark grey clouds. It was all green moss and rust-colored braken (it was November), the inner sides of the mountain were streaked with thin silver waterfalls, and the water of the Llyn was so clear that I could see where the bottom dropped away into nothingness. It was utterly magical. And then I wrote to Susan Cooper about it, and she wrote back to me. BEST EXPERIENCE EVER.
Oh my gosh, I’m so glad I randomly checked the comments on this today! What a lovely, lovely trip! I am totally going to remember this for when I go back (man I want to ) so I can get up to Llyn Cau more easily. The dark grey clouds sound so beautifully ominous, I love it.
And she wrote back!! Oh man. Maybe I should send her a link to this? There’s so much love for these books in the comments here…
You definitely should!! I got her contact info here: http://www.thelostland.com/about/contact.html
Hello again. So after my impetuous “Yes, I’m totally going to go there” comment, guess what? I actually did go there! Have just got back from our UK adventure, and thought I’d say thanks a million for the idea.
We only had a couple of days in Wales, so it fitted perfectly in with our plans. We stayed in the Youth Hostel in Corris, which was great, apart from the ridiculously narrow roads (My partner still breaks out in a sweat when he thinks about those). And we walked up Cadair Idris. Damn it’s gorgeous. I even braved Llyn Cau!
Again, thanks for the tip – we never would have gone otherwise – it was just fantastic. Definitely one of the highlights of the month.
I’m so glad to hear that you went! And jealous that you made it up Cadair Idris, I HAVE to go back now and do it!
And oh man, those roads. The Germans drove fast, but so did the cab driver who picked me up at the train station when I arrived — and he was talking on his phone for part of it! That combined with being on the wrong side of the road, with the twists and turns — terrifying, but so worth it.
Hope the rest of your trip was also awesome!
I can’t believe I didn’t see this article until now. These books were some of the defining books of my childhood, especially The Dark Is Rising, which I read first. I couldn’t get my hands on the rest of the series so until months later my parents finally bought them for my birthday. I had to do some math project about budgeting for a trip abroad, and I chose the UK entirely because of these books. I also studied abroad in London, but did not make it to Wales, or even Buckinghamshire. Getting to some of the places mentioned in the books is definitely one of my travel goals.