Thursday, 21 May 2020

The Owl Service by Alan Garner

It is fifty years since I read this short novel and I have enjoyed re-reading it. It is such a strange, disturbing tale, set in a remote valley in Wales, and of its time. Alison and Roger are teenagers staying in a Georgian house and discover an old dinner service in the attic, decorated with an owl design, or is it flowers? Their friendship with a local boy Gwynn becomes tense as they find themselves caught up with an ancient legend: how a beautiful wife Blodeuwedd was created out of flowers for Lleu but was turned into an owl after she became unfaithful to him.
Soon after discovering the plates a strange panel is revealed, and the power of the legend  is unleashed...
“She was tall. Her long hair fell to her waist, framing in gold her pale and lovely face. Her eyes were blue. She wore a loose gown of white cambric, embroidered with living green stems of broom and meadowsweet, and a wreath of green oak leaves in her hair.”
All these years later I find myself wondering what happened to Alison, Roger and Gwynn in the aftermath of that hot summer c.1967.