The Named and the Unnamed

Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend (Knights Of, 2023) 

In the nineties, Robin Holloway, a British composer wrote a huge piece for two pianos expanding kaleidoscopically on one of the great cycles of all time, J.S. Bach's "Goldberg" Variations. He wrote: 

[...] the ‘Goldberg’ Variations is one of the supreme monuments by the greatest of all musical constructors. Like a Forth Bridge, like a mighty power station, Bach’s structure is so secure that it can take anything. Or rather, because less subject to change and decay, he resembles a mighty force of nature itself. Yet the actual stuff of his music is infinitely malleable, reproductive, fertile in new growth, perpetually inviting renewed collaboration down the ages.

There are many other works that do a similar thing;  - Mozart has been the launchpad for many reinventions;  Shakespeare perhaps even more so; most recently, even William Blake became the intense spark of inspiration for S.F. Said's magnificent Tyger. In the case of the latter, I asked the question, "Why do we need William Blake today?" in a blog piece to celebrate publication. There are a few suggested answers to my question there, but this 'reinventing' is something artists, musicians, writers and designers continue to do, almost impulsively, and I keep thinking: WHY?

Now, at the heart of her new novel for younger readers, Lizzie Huxley-Jones takes another 'supreme monument', the first branch of The Mabinogion, along with nods to Arthurian and Celtic myth, and re-invents characters, places, animals, monsters and heroes for today's generation. Into their 'Cauldron', Huxley Jones brews a narrative spell from direct legendary cameos, a few modernisations, some decorative embellishments and even some complete transformations.

Here are a few of them you'll encounter in Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend (and I'd very much recommend you heading over to @familybookworms' blog for a more thorough introduction to these creatures)...

Afanc - a monster, rather like an alligator with a thick tail like a beaver's, lurking in Welsh lakes. Legend says that either Sir Peredur or King Arthur were responsible for killing it. 

Gelert - a wolfhound who saved his master's baby children from wolves. Unfortunately when the master returned home, he found Gelert's maw smeared with blood and, misreading what had happened, killed Gelert. Only after killing the dog, did he hear his children gurgling away, safe and sound...and the bloodied corpses of the wolves who Gelert had savaged. In Huxley-Jones' version of him, Gelert is droll, slightly wearied perhaps by a thousand year afterlife, but still as ferociously loyal as ever. 

Nimuë - a powerful faery sorceress, also known by other variant names...including Viviane and 'The Lady of the Lake'. She provided King Arthur with Excalibur. Vivi's pithy description of her is 'floaty but nice'. 

Eirlys - Huxley-Jones uses this Welsh word to name (no spoilers!) a particular pure-white horse in her story . Quite appropriately, the word actually means 'Snowdrop'; but perhaps ironically, the tiny flower has given its name into a steed of enormous size! 

Then, adding a distinctly Welsh folkloric flavour to the mix, and mentioned briefly in Vivi Conway, are: 

The Morgen - water spirits who lured humans to their doom. Similar creatures include the lorelei, mermaids and sirens. 

Coblyn - a Welsh 'goblin', rather like the Knockers of Cornish legend. They help miners to find the veins of precious metals. 

"the warring dragons" and "dormant dragons": These are the famous red and white dragons, their fighting said to represent the disputes between the ancient Britons and Anglo-Saxons respectively. 

"the girl made of flowers": this is Blodeuwedd who was created by the two magicians Math and Gwydion in The Mabinogion. Later in her story she is transformed into an owl. The tension between 'owls' (violence) and 'flowers' (peace) is at the heart of Alan Garner's The Owl Service, an earlier fantasy based on Welsh legend. 

An exciting mix! 

Many of these legends that will be known widely, some more vaguely familiar from other, geographically separate, folklore. Huxley-Jones reveres their source material to such an extent that even their reinvention of it becomes an act of real love: beloved Gelert stands unaltered and his place in the legend as Protector Supreme translates exactly into Vivi's own adventure. That wolfhound can take any amount of 'gilding' (as Holloway said of his treatment of J.S. Bach)!  

But there is one 'Variation' that is very different to the rest: The Coraniaid. In the Mabinogi, the Coranaiad was a race of supernatural creatures whose hearing was so sharp they could apparently hear everything the wind touched, i.e. anything. As a result, they were virtually invincible: logically, they could hear any attackers in good time to make their escape or put up a strong defence. 

The Coraniaid are traditionally more hobgoblin-like, short humanoid in form, perhaps. Huxley-Jones, however, transforms them into something else - they have 'red eyes' and are accompanied by regular references to 'long legs', 'spider-like' movements, and 'scuttling', all of which for me strongly invoke the M.R. Jamesian world of evil. Quite rightly too: Huxley-Jones wants these things to be really scary - the fact for half of the novel, they draw the creatures as though only really seen as though out of the corner of the eye, which is unnerving enough, but they surpass this at one point with their description likening them to a blur, the 'outline pulses like the most twisted toddler's scribble come to life'.

Such are Huxley-Jones' monsters, demonic and persistent in their attacks on the heroes of the book. Appearing almost without notice, disappearing through hidden passageways, they are by far, at least for me, most frightening in that, for a long chunk of the book, they are given no name. (There's a precedent here with another part of The Mabinogion where something reaches its claw out to snatch Teyrnon Twrf Liant's young foals from his stable. We never see the creature, only its claw, and it is known simply as 'The Monster'. Like M.R. James, Huxley-Jones knows that the 'unseen' is where true fear lies, even echoing this moment from The Mabinogion - and its effect - when they write: 'A dark meaty claw reaches around to grab me'...but then nothing more.)

While everything else in Huxley-Jones novel has a name linking it clearly to Welsh folklore, the heroes (and the reader!) must learn what their foes actually are. As we near that revelation, we understand that they have appeared in this world before, and a booklet hidden in the British Library reveals their identity, calling them a 'Plague' (as does The Mabinogion). It is here that young readers will connect most authentically with Huxley-Jones' bringing to new life of old legends. Because those young people, now of an age that the book suits well, know what a Plague is from first-hand experience - they have lived through those Lockdown days; they know the chaos of uncertainty, they know that something without a name is unknown, and the Unknown embodies True Fear. 

Fortunately, those evil things are eventually named (and I am sure many young readers will recognise something about their name...) and - once they have a name - the children-heroes have power over them. 

So finally, returning to that question about why do we need these reimagined worlds and stories, I'd argue that whether it is a keyboard piece by Bach, some poetry by William Blake or, as here, the ancient Welsh legends, such Great Works exist precisely to be reborn over and over again. Today, they peek through the 'gilding' to connect with us. Like Gelert, they are there to protect us (maybe even the title of the Huxley-Jones' book points to this - "legend IS a sword"). Such a book as Vivi Conway speaks directly to the young, that vital audience: the old myths born again once more, guiding strength of purpose, signalling confidence, providing hope. 

And that's, coincidentally, exactly what good books for children should do.

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Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend by Lizzie Huxley-Jones was published on 1st June 2023 by Knights Of.  With thanks to Courtney Jefferies for providing me with an advance copy and for inviting me on this blog tour. Don't forget to check in with all these other fantastic bloggers, too...!