Coincidentally, I just got an advance reader's copy of a new children's book (well, Young Adult, anyway) by Joanne Harris, who wrote Chocolat.
This is called Runemarks - starts with a series of maps (which aren't in the advance copy) and a list of characters(*). Then there's a list of the Elder Futhark -it's the shortest form, but they're there, and accurately named and described. (And the last page of the book, p 537, lists "Runes of the New Script.")
I'm barely four chapters in. It's written in a style about as accessible as Harry Potter, main character an unusual girl named Maddy who's living in a village that doesn't like people who imagine things because that leads to problems with goblins, who we're told via Maddy are the same thing as Fairies and who are usually dismissed as rats or breezes but who are very much their own present people.
Maddy was born with a rune on her wrist (although the locals, who might be some flavor of Christian - they use a Good Book also called The Tribulation(**), call it a "ruin-mark") and is learning something about how they work (she can already do a few secret charms) from a one-eyed medicine trader called, of all things, Old One-Eye.
Here's one of his first lessons, from p. 36:
Maddy nodded. She knew the tale, though the Good Book claimed it was the Nameless that had built the Sky Citadel and that the Seer-folk had won it by trickery.
One-Eye went on. "But the enemy was too strong, and many had skills that the AEsir did not possess. And so Odin took a risk. He sought out a son of Chaos(***) and befriended him for the sake of his skills, and took him into Asgard as his brother. You'll know of him, I guess. They called him the Trickster.
Again Maddy nodded.
"Loki was his name, wildfire his nature. There are many tales about him. Some show him in an evil lifth. Some said that Odin was wrong to take him in. But - for a time, at least - Loki served the AEsir well. He was crooked, but he was useful; charm comes easily to the children of Chaos, and it was his charm and his cunning that kept him close at Odin's side. And though in the end his his nature grew too strong and he had to be subdued, it was partly because of Loki that they survived for as long as they did. Perhaps it was their fault for not keeping a closer watch on him. In any case, fire burns; that's its nature, and you can't expect to change that. You can use it to cook your meat or to burn down your neighbor's house. And is the fire you use for cooking any different from the one you use for burning? And does that mean you should eat your supper raw?"
Maddy shook her head, still puzzled. "So what you're saying is - I shouldn't play with fire," she said at last.
"Of course you should," said One-Eye gently. "But don't be surprised if the fire plays back."
She also does real rune-magics with real runes, sealing up a cellar that's been tunneled into by intruders with naudiz & uruz (she calls them Naudr and Ur), and using berkana (she calls it Bjarkan) to reveal something's true shape.
This is less than a 10th of the way into the thing. I suppose it could all go awfully awry, but it hasn't yet, by my reading. For what it is.
Tricky little book.
(*) The list of characters starts with Villagers, followed by Devotees of The Order, then Gods (Vanir), Gods (AEsir "Seer-folk") and Others - a division which includes Jormundgand, Hel, a sow named Fat Lizzy, and "The Nameless" who I suspect might be the Christian god, but might just be some other kind of creative agency. Every one of the Gods has two or three-word description followed by a reason he or she has to not like Loki. It's played for laughs - the last name in the list is Loki, no description.
(**)I also half-suspect it's some kind of future Iron Age thing, a la Riddley Walker, because there's references to this being after Ragnarok, and there's something strange about the insularity of this town. But maybe not.
(***) The book is definitely set up as an Order vs. Chaos thing, like Moorcock, only I'm hoping for more complexity. |
