#the secret country

[bookfirstlinetourney]

Round 1

Sing, Goddess, sing of the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus

-The Iliad, Homer

Reginald Gatling's Doom found him beneath an oak tree, on the last Sunday of a fast-fading summer.

-A Marvellous Light, Freya Marske

Edward Fairchild, Prince of the Enchanted Forest, Lord of the Desert's Edge, Friend to the Unicorns, and King of the Secret Country, wished he were somewhere else.

-The Secret Country, Pamela Dean

[theannotateddean]

“There was something,” said Ellen, “some beast.” She stopped to breathe. “Where?” demanded Patrick. “Is it following you?” “I didn’t hear it,” said Laura doubtfully. Ellen pointed in the direction they had come. “We thought it was at the bottom of the West Tower, but—” “South,” said Patrick, disgustedly. “That’s Fence’s tower, you ninnies, and whatever he left to guard it wouldn’t hurt you.” “It’s probably just a handful of moonlight and six rhymes,” said Ruth.

Chapter 8, The Secret Country

This is likely just a more general reference to how fairy magic tends to be described in older tales, but I did find a line in a 1914 translation of the Norse myth of the binding of Fenris that specifically referenced using a handful of moonbeams as a magical ingredient:

“When he delivered his message to the elves, they set immediately to work, and for nine days and nights Skirner heard no sound in the workshop as the little men plied their task. No stroke of hammer or noise of anvil was necessary in the making of this wonderful chain, for into its weaving went the strangest things that Skirner had ever seen,—the down from a butterfly’s wing, a handful of moonbeams, the lace of a spider’s web, a humming bird’s lance, the breath of the night wind and many other queer and mysterious things.” [Stories From Northern Myths, 1914. Project Gutenberg.]

[herbofgraceandpeace]

in the summer of 2023 I read Tam Lin by Pamela Dean and fell completely in love with the book and the legend. This deserves a much longer post, but I only mention it to say that I am finally reading another one of her books, The Secret Country. I finally folded and got it from my library cause Libby didn’t have it.

So far it’s been very different from Tam Lin (as expected), but holy cow, her WRITING STYLE. It’s so dramatic in an elegant and controlled way. I aspire. I expire (from the awesomeness).

BUT. The real point of this ridiculous post is that in the chapter I’ve just been reading, there was two phrases that caught my attention as sounding familiar. The first one—“this bodes some strange eruption to our state”— immediately sounded Shakespearean in every way. It’s in freaking iambic pentameter for one thing! But I simply resolved to look it up later (guessing it was probably from Lear) and moved on until I was stopped by the second quote—“a hit, a very palpable hit”—which, like, you guys. PLEASE. it’s so obviously Shakespeare!!!! (I know I’ve probably come across it in Sayers, if not in something else? I think she may have quoted it in Tam Lin as well.) So I looked up both quotes, and THEY’RE BOTH FROM HAMLET. Y’ALL.

dunno why this makes me so crazy, but I just adore recognizing Shakespeare quotes in the wild. His words are so potent in our memories.

[etherealyearning]

Abbotsford House

[daisylambs]

[peerless-cucumber]

[gnomewithalaptop]

Thinking about Tim and Cassie as narrative reflections of each other -- about how they both started out as normal kids with no obligation to their mentors, good kids who just wanted to help, and how gradually, bit by bit, that choice they made as thirteen-year-olds lowkey ruined any chance they had for a normal life

[starry-bi-sky]

“Your brother is adorable.” The cashier cooed at Danny, peering over the counter with a smile. “What’s his name?”

Danny looked down to the surly, scowling little de-aged Batman currently holding onto his hand, glaring up at the cashier with bright blue eyes.

Things had already been bad enough when he’d gotten caught in a fight in Gotham, but things went from bad to worse when a magician had hit Batman with a de-aging spell and then shoved them through a portal.

Into a different fucking dimension.

Because of course neither of their lives could be easy. And now the two of them were stuck in Iowa in the middle of nowhere, at a truck stop gas station, trying to go on a cross-country roadtrip to reach the nearest hero city and get home.

He looked up and smiled awkwardly, trying to come up with a name off the top of his head — one of the heroes called Batman ‘B’ when he got hit right? B for Batman, right. B… B… Bee… Bees.

“Buzz.” He said, and tried not to grimace as the cashier’s face warped with surprise. “Like the astronaut.”

This was gonna be a long trip.

[etherealacademia]

romania, 2023.

[auspicioustidings]

Everybody shut up I am having a vision. The 141 stopping off at Soap's parents because there are top secret files he hid there. He's very cagey giving them directions and they are getting increasingly confused as their truck is pulling past wrought iron gates and into some tourist destination of sorts, driving past stables and a little crop of buildings to what looks like a manor.

Not his fault these English boys just heard a Scottish accent and assumed he came from peasantry. He turns bright red when the butler formally welcomes back the Much Honoured Laird of Kelburn. He's never going to fucking live this down.

[book--brackets]

The Secret Country from Pamela Dean's Secret Country trilogy

Added!

[batcavescolony]

I feel like comic writers and some fans have forgotten that Young Justice is mostly about the girls. The main storylines were about Secret/Greta, Cissie, and Anita. The boys were there but they had their own runs. Take Young Justice Dark Crisis, yeah it's all about the boys IF you only read the first 5 ish comics. After that it's either big comic events or about the girls. Really the girls are the main characters of Young Justice, the boys are there to draw people in.

[theannotateddean]

“I want to thank you,” said Ted, realizing only as he said it just what he owed Matthew [for preventing him from getting into a physical fight with Andrew]. “And I regret . . .” he added, and stopped. He was not sure what he regretted or whether he ought to admit it. Matthew shook his head. “They say the ass is known by his ears.” That sounded insulting, but before Ted had decided what to do about it, Matthew added, “He who cannot keep a temper must temper a knife to keep him. Where have you kept so hot an anger these seventeen years?”

Chapter 14, The Secret Country

There are two Latin sayings and a Yiddish proverb that roughly correlate to this, any or all of which may have been Dean's inspiration, although it seems most likely to have been inspired by the first quote below, based on her tendency to allude to classical works.

Latin Sayings:

Ex ungua leonem cognoscimus, ex auribus asinum. We know a lion by its claws and a donkey by its ears.

Ex auribus cognoscitur asinus. By the ears the donkey is recognized.

Yiddish Proverb:

An ass is recognized by his long ears, a fool by his long tongue.

[herbofgraceandpeace]

Pamela Dean is playing a game called “how many times can I quote Hamlet,” and she is WINNING, but the cost is MY SANITY

[etherealyearning]

Castle Hill - Crane Estate