#dalemark

[yonayona]

been playing with their design. As I remember Kars Adon and Hern look pretty alike but I'm craving for some hight difference here and a little bit buff Hern because he's a buff boyfriend who can carry Kars on his arms 🥰 yep. this will be the next one.

and mullet Kars Adon? yes please

[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.

[quietflorilegium]

"He was blind with panic. It was as if he had run away from himself and left the inside of his head empty. Mitt knew this would not do. It was no use thinking Ynen could manage by himself. He had to run after himself, inside his head, and bring himself back with one arm twisted up his back before he was able to pick up an armful of soaking sail and stagger with it to the hatch."

Diana Wynne Jones, "Drowned Ammet"

[setnet]

losing my mind once again over the dalemark quartet. how many other fantasy series let the industrial revolution happen

[syrupfog]

No one better to repair an ancient map than the navigator and the archaeologist of the ship.

[no-where-new-hero]

I'm applying for a Diana Wynne Jones Community on here, so if you're interested in being invited to it should it be approved, please interact with this post!

[the-dust-jacket]

[tanoraqui]

Trick or treat! Queen's Thief series or Spellcoats please?

This is a great combination because one of my favorite pet headcanons is that these series take place on different continents in the same world. The vibes just match, you know? The themes of real people becoming history and legends, the amount of fantasy in the fantasy settings (very little, really, and both ambling toward industrial revolutions). The way the gods do and do not interact with and relate to humans; how the older gods are more nature-based and the younger more human. Eugenides the god could so be an Undying of Dalemark, as could Immakuk and Ennikar.

[Tanaqui voice] “Go to bed, Duck.”

[namedafterflowerstournament]

Botanic Tournament : Main Bracket !

Round 1 Poll U

Tanaqui means "rushes" in-universe, although it breaks down into "younger sister"

(Rushes and cosmos flowers)

[carrotcouple]

Book Thoughts: Cart and Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones

*knock knock* I got it into my head that I wanted to talk about the books I read and how I felt about them and try not to spoil them so that if anyone reads this post they can pick up the book without knowing everything that happens in it.

So 'Cart and Cwidder' is from "The Dalemark Quartet". Publication wise it is the first book to have been published. Chronologically however, it is the third book in the series. I decided to read the series in publication order. For those of you who recognize the name, yes! It is the same author who wrote Howl's Moving Castle! I actually read the fourth book (chronologically and publication wise) randomly when I was a child cause I found it in a library and none of it's friends were around.

From my understanding each book in the Dalemark Quartet is about a different character's story and all these characters end up significant characters in the fourth and last book. With heavy Welsh Mythology and Celtic Mythology roots, the Dalemark Quartet is a fun vibe for those who liked Arthurian Mythology too!

Cart and Cwidder is about a family of Singers (consider them traveling bards). Moril, the youngest son of the family, is the main character. He's dreamy but level headed and rather detached from the world. He tends to go where the wind takes him. His family travels between the North and South of Dalemark often, singing songs and talking to people. The North and South have a horrible relationship and tensions are rising. War seems to be looming on the horizon.

Now that my brief summary is over, lemme talk about how I enjoyed the book, my overall impression of the characters and the themes that I gleaned from the story.

Moril was an incredibly fun character to read. His dreaminess and detachedness led to a very broad view of the story. The story was, of course, written in third person but it was through his point of view. He was fairly content to remain stagnant in that dreamy state at the beginning of the story, but when the ball starts rolling and the plot catches him, he has to learn to grow into his own person, realize that the stagnant dreaminess was his calling to pave his own path as a Singer and eventually lead him to play the blessed Cwidder. He grows in leaps and bounds in this story, hearing the music in the wind and letting it carry him.

Brid was fun! As the only daughter in the family, she was naturally closer to her mom, but she didn't quite have the same steadiness. In fact, it's mentioned on more than one occasion that she needed to be in performance mode in order to do anything in public. Yet despite being in performance mode, she had no qualms with integrating her personal emotions and her real personality into the story. It was incredibly endearing how halfway through the story, her siblings and Kialan let her take the reigns in familial stuff. She was cute and young and wore her heart on her sleeve, but she too grew by the end of the story.

Kialan, who is a boy the family takes in to travel with them briefly is prickly and annoying (to Moril and Brid) at first. He's a smart and no nonsense kind of person who is always looking over his shoulder and trying to keep himself safe. He has one goal and has been trying to achieve that goal for a long time, sometimes no matter what cost it comes at. However, by the end of the story he grows incredibly attached to Moril and Brid. Ready to trade in those self survival instincts and smarts, just for them.

There are other characters, but these three were the central ones, so I really will not talk about the others.

'Cart and Cwidder' is a children's adventure story, not unlike "The Dark Is Rising Sequence" and "The Chronicles of Narnia". So you can expect going into the story that the characters will behave like children, but will often have that beautiful view of the world that adults do not have. 'Cart and Cwidder' is actually fairly dark though, so keep that in mind going into the story.

Music was a central theme, since Moril plays a Cwidder and sings and Brid sings too. Music reaching people, telling people stories, news, about their loved ones, is something explored heavily. But music having power is explored too. How music can move mountains, stop wars, make the most alert soldier sleep, make the hardest heart melt.

It is somewhat of a coming of age or a self discovery story on Moril's end. Throughout the story he struggles with what kind of music he wants to make and what music means to him. The fact that his Cwidder holds power that deeply unsettles him adds flavor to his struggle. He learns to find himself, what he wants, acknowledges the power he holds as a person, a musician and a storyteller and also realizes what he wants to do with that.

Truth is an incredibly large part of the story that was not as obvious. But Moril has to learn to be truthful. True to himself, true to his Cwidder. He has to face the consequences of twisting the truth, the consequences of lying. With a constant opposite being shown in how his father only performs and his sister also does too and how his brother tries to share his truths, Moril has to understand what is actually truth.

And lastly, my favorite bit was a minor but nonetheless, the role of women in the story. Given the time period in the story, it is better for a woman to get married in order to be protected and safe. And we see the decisions that Moril and Brid's mother makes and how they're somewhat resentful of her at first but then they understand and realize she was just a person. And then we end up seeing it reflected in Brid as she learns and grows.

Cart and Cwidder was a super fun read with secretive bards, ancient legends, magic, songs that can move mountains, wars, conspiracy, discovery and freedom.

[moondustbooks]

October JOMP Day 13 - Purple Books 💜

My favorite color! 💜

[yonayona]

thinking about them (24/7)

[dianawynnejonesfan]

Coming on the winds road

[quietflorilegium]

“I have no business having new thoughts. It wouldn’t be reasonable.” Mitt could not help grinning. “What are you smiling at?” Hern asked. “You,” Mitt said, “must have been a regular eel in your day. Not reasonable, my big toe! You keep turning up new ideas.” A slight, enjoying smile bent Hern’s mouth. “I was always very hot on reason,” he said. “If I had been able to give the new King advice, I would have told him never to rely on things being reasonable. I did, and it caused me no end of trouble.”

Diana Wynne Jones, "The Crown of Dalemark"

[setnet]

look at the awesome fic I was gifted in yuletide:

[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