Now this goes back a very long way, in my case to childhood, in the case of the author the 1950's and in the case of the local myth associated with it into the swirling mist of pre-written history. For a country with such a well chronicled and ancient history England is surprisingly short in the folklore department. Tolkien was overtly and deliberately attempting to address this by writing a complete "off the shelf" cycle - The Lord of the Rings. A contemporary of his at Oxford was a local Cheshire man Alan Garner, his approach was quite different - take a genuine local myth and build a modern story around it. Where Tolkien's vision is breathtaking in its scale, Garners has real resonance because he bases it in a known and accessible landscape.

For Tolkien the whole cycle began with a children's tale "The Hobbit", but while Garners book "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen" has children at its centre and is often assumed to be a children's book, it is actually a much darker vision and most of it hardly kiddie fare. Cadellin Silverbrow is the wizard at the centre of Garner's tale of high magic and desperate deeds all based in and around the mystical area of Alderley Edge in Cheshire. As I acknowledge elsewhere his writing style has always been an influence on me. 

The Legend of Alderley on which the book is based is well established locally and something you were brought up knowing about, in it's substance it's of the Merlin genre. In this case 140 knights pure of heart sleep under the hill that is the Edge, overseen by the Wizard who will wake them in the hour of England's greatest need, when they will ride forth upon the plain to do battle with the forces of Darkness. Garner gives him the name "Cadellin" and although he very slightly alters the names of some of the places involved all do exist. Some have changed remarkably little in the 5 decades since the book was conceived and written. Clearly "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen" owes a lot to Norse Mythology even in the language: Nastrond (not a nice chap aka the evil one) Ragnarok (the evil ones lair), Fundindelve (the location where Cadellin guards the Knights), Managarm (the evil loosed from Ragnarok at the end) all have that sound and feel, but it is also fully steeped in the places and traditions in which Garner was raised.

Garner himself is an interesting character, he comes from a well established local family of craftsman and stonemasons, and his book the "Stonebook Quartet" lyrically captures this inheritance. However, the effect of being selected by the education system to be removed from this environment and receive a superior education forms a key part of his psyche and thus his writing. More about this and his struggles with manic depression can be found in a fascinating interview which can be found here: http://www.ub.rug.nl/camelot/intrvws/garner.htm I think the interviewer overdoes the Camelot theme but its well worth a read.

My sister passed The Weirdstone to me as a youngster and I was enchanted, to this day I continue to re-read it and I think as an adult you probably understand some of the allusions better, but its less the Arthurian/Nordic connections than the local ones that resonated for me and many others. As a child I recall being very taken with the idea that this was all based in places local to where we lived, and in its own way it mattered even more when we moved 8,000 miles away to Southern California, a place rich in many things but folklore sure ain't one!

Much has changed in the years that followed, I've moved back and once again live within striking distance of the landscape that forms the backdrop to the story. Alderley itself has been transformed from a fairly sleepy, albeit affluent, rural community to a place much favoured by Manchester United football stars and other members of the Mancunian rich. Alderley Edge and the surrounding Cheshire countryside has however retained it's air of mystery and at times brooding threat.

Some of the key places in the book such as the Wizard Inn, The Wizard's Well, Stormy Point etc are relatively well known and regularly photographed. However, when the book heads off (in it's dénouement) into the Cheshire countryside the trail tends to go dead. The absolute climax comes at two places Shuttlingsloe and Cleulow Cross (renamed for some reason by Garner to Shuttlingslow & Clulow), you really need to read the book to understand the importance of these localities - I'm not going to give a free advert to one of the many book sites out there but happily will for the book it's ISBN is 0-00-674293-9, yes go and buy it, read it and come back here all excited, yes right now.

Now that you have either previously read it or just went off and read it you'll know what I've been on about, a really great story made all the better if you know the area. Well for years I settled for walking around and taking pictures of the well known parts in this novel, like many other people tend to. Well having the website and further developing my historical interests made me think about the lesser known locations, did they even exist? The slight misspellings don't help as they confuse search engines and map indexes, however by cross checking the hand drawn map with a very detailed OS Map I found two of the key locations and what follows are some pictures of both the more famous spots and some of these lesser known ones.

One final point is given all the various tribute sites on the web it's surprising there are so few about Garner, while not a prolific writer he has been an influential one, I'm certainly not in a minority here. Some of his works have been converted to TV ("The Owl Service") and I'm very surprised no attempt has been made with Weirdstone especially given modern CGI. Perhaps people who like folklore are not great in the IT world? To my knowledge there is only one site that is dedicated to Garner and it's a good one that can be found here: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~xenophon/ interestingly this is an Australian site, it just amazes me that we (the British) ignore all of this. That translates on the ground too, you really have to search on Alderley Edge to find any reference to one of it's most famous sons. Still one advantage is that thankfully there is no heritage trail and no spoiling of the countryside, even The Edge is less than highly developed - but as you will see Cleulow Cross is in a league of it's own.

What follows are some of my favourite shots, it's actually quite hard to get any real impression of The Edge itself and the Wizard's Well is disappearing under moss. Nonetheless it's quite beautiful and hopefully something of the air of mystery that surrounds the place comes across. I'll add more to it over time and the parts out in the Cheshire countryside are so little changed they must be like they were when the book was written. Happily the crowds go further into the Peak District and cause noise, crowding and mess there - so don't take this as a clue to encourage yourself or anyone else to go to these largely undiscovered spots. I've found a particularly fine Inn from which I can base my research and I don't want hordes of other people on the loose getting in the way to the bar, worry not I'll keep you informed with all the pictures you need!

The pictures are based around the story, if you've not read it you may still like to take a look, because they are all scenic locations in their own right and maybe it will inspire you to take a look at the book. As I say most of the story is set around Alderley Edge, however the climax involves a chase from Alderley out into what is surprisingly wild countryside. The second highest Pub in England is sited nearby - "The Cat & Fiddle Inn" and Buxton is not far, but largely this area is much less developed than the majority of the Peak District. In fact the Peak District is the most visited of all England's National Parks and that includes the Lake District.

I will add some more locations from the book in time but in the mean time you can find all the current pictures which were all taken this year (2002) by following the link below.