The Grey King
Front cover of the first UK edition[1]
AuthorSusan Cooper
Cover artistMichael Heslop
(UK, US)[2]
LanguageEnglish
SeriesThe Dark is Rising
GenreChildren's fantasy and horror novel
PublisherChatto & Windus (UK)[1] Atheneum (US)
Publication date
October 1975[1]
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages208 pp
ISBN0-7011-5071-8 [1]
OCLC1974496
LC ClassPZ7.C7878 Gt3[3]
Preceded byGreenwitch 
Followed bySilver on the Tree 

The Grey King is a contemporary fantasy novel by Susan Cooper, published almost simultaneously by Chatto & Windus and Atheneum in 1975.[3] It is the fourth of five books in her Arthurian fantasy series The Dark is Rising.[2]

The Grey King won the inaugural Tir na n-Og Award from the Welsh Books Council as the year's best English-language children's book with an "authentic Welsh background".[4] It is set in Wales and incorporates Welsh folklore as well as Arthurian material, especially that of the Brenin Llwyd (English: Grey King).[5] It also won the annual Newbery Medal recognizing the year's "most distinguished contribution to American children's literature".[6][a]

Characters

Bran is Welsh for 'crow'. He may be named after King Bran Fendigaid ("Bran the Blessed"), a Celtic god known from both Welsh and Irish mythology, who was moralized as a monarch of North Wales
"The Breath of the Grey King" is spoken of with dread in the mountains near his home. A thick fog that descends in the space of a few heartbeats, it drives unwary travelers to their deaths by hiding the edges of precipices and scree slopes.
Milgwn (singular: milgi) is Welsh for 'greyhounds'.
He may be named after the Welsh poet Caradog Prichard.

Geography

The geography described in the book is based very closely on the real geography in and around the Dysynni Valley in Gwynedd in north-west Wales. References include the town of Tywyn, Cader Idris and Bird Rock (Craig yr Aderyn).[citation needed]

Critical reception

At the time of the book's publication, Kirkus Reviews said, "Cooper is clearly building towards a thumping conclusion in the fifth and next volume and even those of us who have doubts about the significance of all this thunderous moral absolutism will want to get in on the action."[8]

In a retrospective essay about the Newbery Medal-winning books from 1976 to 1985, literary critic Zena Sutherland wrote, "While The Grey King can be read profitably on its own, it gains stature when read in sequence, and it is masterful in the meshing of the fantastic elements and their realistic matrix... It has the classic form of the quest, and its intricate yet cohesive plot is developed with a high sense of drama—and even a bit of the inevitability of a Greek tragedy. It is no small thing to make a character believable both as a mortal child and as an immortal and a powerful magician."[9]

Karen Patricia Smith has written, "Will is assisted in his quest for a golden harp by several people, including Bran, son of King Arthur, brought forward in time. Cooper continues her exploration of the many guises of evil and reiterates the theme that the Dark is a wily foe, capable of taking many forms."[10]

Mary Corran said that "in The Grey King, it is human emotions which are the danger—jealousy, anger and hate, which open mortal minds to the invasion of the Dark. The fourth book is strongly Arthurian in content ... Cooper deals with the innate antagonism between mortals and immortals impressively, and in The Grey King reaches great heights as she mingles the worlds and peoples of legend and the present day."[11]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The English writer Susan Cooper is a US resident since 1963 and many of her books have been published first or simultaneously in America. Thus she has been eligible for American Library Association literary awards. In 2012 she won its annual Margaret A. Edwards Award, citing The Dark is Rising in particular, for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature".[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d The Grey King first UK edition publication contents at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 2012-03-04.
  2. ^ a b The Dark is Rising series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 2012-03-04.
  3. ^ a b "The grey king" (UK edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record (LCC).
    "The grey king" (US edition). LCC record. Retrieved 2013-05-29.
  4. ^ "Tir na n-Og Awards". Welsh Books Council (WBC).
    "Tir na n-Og awards Past Winners" Archived 10 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. WBC. Retrieved 2013-05-29.
  5. ^ Elizabeth Hand. "Susan Cooper". Richard Bleiler, ed. Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror. New York: Thomson/Gale, 2003. Pp. 239–44. ISBN 0-684-31250-6.
  6. ^ "Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922–Present". Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). ALA. Retrieved 2013-03-18.
  7. ^ "Susan Cooper wins 2012 Edwards Award for The Dark Is Rising Sequence". ALA Press Release, 23 January 2012. American Library Association (ALA). Retrieved 2012-04-19.
  8. ^ "THE GREY KING by Susan Cooper". Kirkus Reviews. 1 September 1975. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  9. ^ Sutherland, Zena (1986). "Newbery Medal Books 1976-1985". In Kingman, Lee (ed.). Newbery and Caldecott Medal Books 1976-1985. Boston: The Horn Book, Incorporated. pp. 155–156. ISBN 0-87675-004-8.
  10. ^ Smith, Karen Patricia (1994). "Susan Cooper: Overview". In Laura Standley Berger (ed.). Twentieth-Century Young Adult Writers. Detroit: St. James Press.
  11. ^ Corran, Mary (1996). "Susan Cooper: Overview". In David Pringle (ed.). St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers. New York: St. James Press. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
Awards Preceded byM. C. Higgins, the Great Newbery Medal recipient 1976 Succeeded byRoll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Categories