Silver on the Tree: The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

Title: Silver on the Tree: The Dark is Rising #5
Author: Susan Cooper
Publication: Scholastic, paperback, originally published in 1977
Genre: Juvenile fantasy/series
Setting: Wales

Description: Will Stanton, the main protagonist of The Dark is Rising sequence, is fishing with two of his brothers on Midsummer’s Eve when he realizes “that a part of his life which had been sleeping was broad awake once more.” Black minks, radiating menace, follow them home and wreak havoc with the Stantons’ chickens. While Will is helping with the cleanup, his mentor, Merriman, and the Once and Future King himself appear to him. Merriman explains that Will is responsible for vanquishing the Dark forces and will have just a night and a day to do it. Fortuitously, Will is invited to visit his relatives in Wales where he is reunited with the Drew children, last seen in Greenwitch, and Bran, the lonely boy from The Grey King. Once in the town of Aberdyfi, Will leads the five children on a difficult quest, full of danger and trials, to retrieve the crystal sword. The Black and White Riders of the Dark try to stop them because if Will can cut the silver blossoms from the Midsummer Tree with the sword, he can permanently shut down the Dark.

My Impression: The series concludes triumphantly in that they have vanquished the Darkness but Merriman, accurately but depressingly, warns the children that “the evil that is inside men is at the last a matter for men to control.” Way to destroy the moment, pal! Even worse, he tells them no one but Will (because he is an Old One) will even remember what they accomplished, except in their dreams. I really get annoyed by fantasy that turns out to be “only a dream” but I think it is even worse to have your memories taken away. Since his eleventh birthday, Will has been an otherworldly character, stepping in and out of the past and present, so although his work seems to be done, he alone is allowed to retain his memory.

And yet, lest the reader put Will on a pedestal, Cooper reminds us he is just a twelve-year-old boy, a “stocky small boy in blue jeans and battered shirt, which straight brown hair falling untidily over one ear.” One of Will’s brothers had a glimmer of what was going on in The Dark is Rising but his oldest brother Stephen, on leave from the Navy, has had two mystical encounters with men who sent messages to Will, and asks Will for an explanation yet can’t bring himself to believe it. Despite his skepticism, Stephen is a brother to be admired and does not hesitate to intervene when the brothers find three locals bullying a Sikh boy. I was waiting to see how this would fit into the story but it did not.

Silver on the Tree was full of adventure and peril (and a few riddles) but not as satisfying to me as the other books in the series. My favorite part was the appearance of Owain Glyndwr (although how we wandered into the 14th century, I do not know) to whom Barney has been delivered, after being captured by an evil White Rider. Glyndwr has a weather-beaten, bearded face with wise eyes that remind Barney of Merriman. He suspects Barney of being an English spy but Will and Bran appear in time to save him, and Glyndwr recognizes Will as an Old One and becomes quite affable. Bran is in awe of “[t]he greatest Welshmen of all . . . the only one to unite all of Wales against the English . . . .” Momentarily distracted from fighting the English, Glyndwr brings the boys to the mountain path they need.

This interview with Susan Cooper provides background on her writing and on these books, and refers to her editor, the late Margaret McElderry, whom I have mentioned before. When I was growing up, many of the new books I read enthusiastically were published under her imprint at Atheneum. In addition to L.M. Boston and Susan Cooper, I loved the books of Ruth M. Arthur.

Source: Personal copy. This is my final installment for AnnaBookBel’s group read of The Dark is Rising sequence. What’s next, Prydain?  I'd also like to do a reread of the Mantlemass books by Barbara Willard but I need company.