#The Crown of Dalemark

[yonayona]

some of my latest dalemark stuff

btw once I did Hern and Kars Adon as Tarot Lovers, so I decided to make more of Dalemark tarot!

[dianawynnejonesfan]

I was at a concert about a month ago where all the musicians were playing music from the 1600s on surviving instruments from the 1600s (there was something very like a violin but not quite and a 6 stringed curvier cello). Anyway I just kept thinking of the Cwidder from Dalemark, which I previously struggled to imagine lasting so long with regular use.

[moondustbooks]

October JOMP Day 13 - Purple Books 💜

My favorite color! 💜

[quietflorilegium]

"People’s idea of what they can do is even more important than what they can do."

Hern, Diana Wynne Jones, "The Crown of Dalemark"

[littlemissinkdrinker]

The Crown of Dalemark by Diana Wynne Jones

This book was the perfect end book to the series - I loved that it tied all the previous books together, I honestly wasn't expecting that so it was a delightful surprise. I really enjoyed the story all the way through, it was an a great example of Jone's fantastic ability to weave a complicated but easy-flowing tale.

Read : Feb 21st - Mar 17th, 2023

Rating : 5 Stars

[deborahocarroll]

Wrapup: #MarchMagics 2022!

Recapping my recent #DianaWynneJones and #TerryPratchett adventures!

Time got away from me (clearly! XD), but it’s time to look back at the Diana Wynne Jones and Pratchett related goodness I got up to in March — and, actually, April as well! I didn’t manage to finish up my March Magics goals during the month since I got crazy busy, so I carried on a bit of the reading in April, which was rather nice, actually. And now that I’m trying to ease back into blogging, I…

[recurringwriter]

i sure can pick 'em (characters that will die before the end of the story)

[thenegoteator]

I'm reading the dalemark quartet for the first time and uh. In a world of complicated diana wynne jones parents Alhammitt takes the crown of Worst Father Ever

[windsroad]

I always have mixed feelings about the big reveal in Crown of Dalemark

I feel like it’s different because he still had to like… compete and argue for the crown… it’s not just handed to him by virtue of blood…

But I don’t know for my little anti-monarchist soul it leaves a bad taste in my mouth

But you know what doesn’t do that…. PRYDAIN…. Bro never finds out who his parents are at all

[ksfoxwald]

Fire and Hemlock Readalong - Chapter 4

In which our heroes acquire a horse.

Here the relationship between Tom and Polly starts to get a little weird - a grown man asking a little girl to come visit him in another city? But note also that Polly's mother only thinks of how it makes things convenient for her to "dump" Polly somewhere other than Nina's. Ivy is similarly oblivious in later chapters when her boyfriend starts acting inappropriately toward Polly.

This is actually very much an Ivy chapter, because Ivy is also Edna, which actualizes at the end but is still very much present throughout. Polly herself doesn't realize who Edna is, really; she's sort of pasted pop culture stereotypes over her own anxieties about her mother. Which is why when she encounters "real" Ednas - Carla the landlady, and later Edna in Stow-on-the-Water - she is surprised at how nice and normal they are. Because she is expecting her mother.

This is a good chapter to look at intertextually too, because there's a line in Aunt Maria/Black Maria about how young children don't think of their parents as people, and it's quite a shock when they realize their parents do in fact have histories and personalities as individuals. And that's part of what's happening here. The other part is that Polly is being pushed out of her role as daughter and into a role as Emotional Support. Too relatable.

The other DWJ book that echoes here is The Crown of Dalemark, where our heroines are mortified to find themselves unheroically crying for help in a dangerous situation. Polly, however, has a much stronger reaction than Maewen, and kicks off her hero training. Next chapter is going to have a lot of interesting gender in it.

"I don't think I will get married," Polly said. "I'm going to train to be a hero instead." But she could tell her mother was not listening.

[Editing to add some shower thoughts]

Why does Tom want to see Polly again anyway? He hasn't yet realized the extent of his gift or how it works. I think at this point his motivations are the same as Polly's: Laurel doesn't want him to, therefore it must be important. I think he knows that Polly is the key to his freedom, even if he hasn't yet realized how. Which is a little unsettling still; later on he even admits to using Polly. But also, because of the way the power dynamics work, he is also very child-coded; yes part of him is using Polly, but part of him is just lonely and wants a friend to play with.

[wearethekat]

June Book Reviews: The Crown of Dalemark by Diana Wynne Jones

Having started with book 3 in the series, I thought I might as well finish off the quartet, especially as The Crown of Dalemark is the conclusion of Mitt’s character arc. This book is very much a different genre than previous books-- while we do still get half of Mitt’s POV, we also get a new character, Maewen. Maewen, who’s from a future similar to ours, has been thrown back into time and is therefore solidly in the portal fantasy genre. Maewen has to pretend to be a young woman named Noreth, who is (more or less) looking for the true crown of Dalemark. Joining with her on her quest are most of the previous cast of characters, each with their own not-quite-honest motivation.

The most interesting part of this book, in my opinion, is learning through Maewen-from-the-future at the end of the book how everybody ends up. Which is of course often more bittersweet than anything: we learn that Moril will never really recover from being betrayed, and that Hildy will grow up to be an unpleasant person. But, as always, it’s fascinating to see how history interpreted events Maewen witnessed, events which often had the gods of Dalemark meddling in them.

The shining star of this book is Mitt. Mitt is such an excellent character-- his distinctive voice and diction, his prickliness, his genuinely good heart. It’s lovely to see him come into his own here. 

[yonayona]

Hern and Kars are having a good hot debate session

[dianawynnejonesfan]

Is Gull Old Ammet?

Old Ammet calls the One "grandfather" but neither Wend nor Cennoreth calls him their brother.

[unfavorableinstigation]

Reading the Dalemark Quartet for the first time as an adult like, Navis is played by Mark Strong and I am in love with him and him only

[quietflorilegium]

"Been here before, Mitt was thinking. It’s only what I’m used to. Only to be expected, really. Hildy’s back in the life she was bred for and that’s that. But though this stopped his hurting—a little—he was still hurting in other ways he was not used to at all. He had thought Hildy was his friend. He had not known friendship could be such a fragile thing."

Diana Wynne Jones, "The Crown of Dalemark"

[eloquentgifs]

DWJ Reading Project. Part I

As I said here, my 2021 resolution is gonna be READING EVERY DIANA WYNNE JONES BOOK I CAN FIND, and due to my love of making lists and taking notes, I’ve decided keeping track of this reading project here in this post, which I’ll keep updated as I make progress. It’s mostly for my own pleasure, but maybe it helps someone who wants to give it a try to this amazing writer and doesn’t know where to start.

Part II (1977 – 1981 & The Chrestomanci Series)

Part III (1984 - 1992 & Land of Ingary Series)

- Changeover (1970) I couldn’t find it, which it’s a pity because not only it’s her first novel, but it’s one of the few she wrote for adult readers. For what I’ve seen, it’s a political comedy about colonialism in Africa.

- Witch’s Business (also called Wilkin’s Tooth, 1973) It tells the story of two siblings who start a revenge/dirty work business to make some cash and ended up caught in a crazy plot of debts, witchcraft, old grudges, painting modelling and treasure hunting. I love how even this early in her career you can already find some of her creative trademarks, altought it’s not as polished as her future novels. Still, the characters and the dynamics between them are pretty good, the way everything unfolds is flawless, and it is a fun read in general.

- The Ogre Downstairs (1974) Three kids are dealing with the fact that her mother married a guy who’s rather grumpy and terryfing (the titular ogre), and that now the household includes him and his two sons. The story begins with the Ogre buying a chemistry set to each group of siblings, and they turn out to be magical, so a lot of crazy shit happens and they start to get along with each other as they have to colaborate to clean a mess after another before the ogre finds out. I must confess I didn’t enjoy that much the first half because everyone was being an asshole, but it improves as the characters own their shit and decide to be better. Magic here it’s merely an excuse, Diana just wanted us to learn empathy and how to build a good coexistence.

- Eight Days of Luke (1975) David is depressed because he’ll have to stay with his abussive relatives during the summer, but then he mets this weird kid with powers called Luke and they become bff’s. Unfortunately, Luke is also in bad terms with his own relatives and David will have to help him to hide from them. I’d say you’ll enjoy more this book if you have some basic knowledge on Norse Mythology, but tbh I think reading it without any clue about the subject might be interesting in its own way, because you’ll discover the stuff as David does. Great read anyway.

- Dogsbody (1975) This one it’s like two different premises mixed up together. First, we have this society formed by sentient stars and planets, in which Sirius was a very important figure until he’s judged and punished for murder, and we follow him while he tries to get free (and maybe prove his innocence?). On the other hand, I think Diana just wanted to write a dog POV. In any case, both ideas where combined perfectly, and the result it’s crazy good. Some trigger warnings tho: there are several depictions of animal abuse, and once again tons of emotional cruelty towards chidren (the main human character is an Irish girl being harrased and bullied by her own family because of her nationality and for having a father on the IRA)

- The Dalemark Quartet: · Cart and Cwidder (1975) It kind of reminded me of the first half of The Name of the Wind, probably because the main character is also a red haired kid who travels with his family all around the world performing with his lute (I figured a cwidder is some kind of lute?), and there’s also tragedy, politics, old foreshadowing songs and legends... But mostly because I JUST COULDN’T STOP READING, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

· Drowned Ammet (1977) I thought the two previous books were rather darker than I’m used to see in Diana’s work, but this is a whole new level. It follows the evolution of Mitt from a sweet farm kid to a teen terrorist, so prepare for a main character full of hate, resentment and, eventually, self-loathing and a beginning of redemption. We also get to see his dynamic with two high born children, and it is super interesting how the prejudice and ignorance keep getting in their way so they can’t become 100% friends (as a contrast with those stories of rich and poor being bff’s without a single sign of how very different their POV of the world is, just by their different upbringings). I love friendships and found families as much as anyone else, but it is refreshing to see some realistic struggles and people caring for others even if they don’t get along perfectly

· The Spellcoats (1979) This one was very surprising, and I think it might require a re-read some time. The first odd thing about it is that it’s settled centuries before the previous books, in prehistoric Dalemark. Then the actual wtf comes from the structure itself: it’s a first person story, weaved into two wool coats (seriously, this concept is genius and so is the ending). The weaver is a girl who has to runaway from her village with his brothers and sister because they look like the people who’s invading their land, so their fellow villagers want them dead. There’s not a lot of action, but tons of little details and magic and family dynamics brilliantly written and I LOVE IT.

· The Crown of Dalemark (1993) This last book of the series brings back almost all of the characters of the previous ones, plus a time traveller from modern Dalemark, and concludes both the political/social aspect of the story and the more fantasy, mythical one. I love time travel stories so this really was my treat, because not only serves a plot purpose, it’s also used to let us know what happened with the characters of past Dalemark (although through the lense of historians, which is not as much as I would like to)

- Power of three (1976) At this point it’s clear Diana just loved to play with POVs and make us question every side of a story. I’d say this was the main theme of this book. It is present in the main character arch, who has to reconcile how he sees himself (as some average pointless dude) with how he’s perceived by others (everyone fucking loves him and consider him super wise and awesome). And it’s also the main conflict of the plot: the three races/species who live in The Moor HATE each other and constantly kill each other as animals but.... Well, it remind me to this episode of Star Trek. I love it when a story is used to show us how actually ridiculous some prejudices and bigotries are. I love it when they do it in ST, and certainly love it when Diana does it. Just let kids read and watch these things all of the time, please.