History Creator / AlanGarner

* TheHecateSisters: Garner's work retells old folk myths from the British Isles and draws on thousands of years of oral and mythological tradition. The mythology and folklore of the moon and lunar cycles features heavily, as does the symbolism of triads and triples. Observe the triad formed by Susan Whisterfield (the maiden, the waxing moon) Angharad Goldenhand (the Mother, the Full Moon) and Selina Place/The Morrigan (the waning old moon, the Crone)

* InnocenceLost: Colin Whisterfield in the multi-level, multi-ambiguous, ever-shifting ''Bonelands''. Is he - in reality - a survivor of child sex abuse? Whose trauma was then compounded when his sister drowned accidentally? That his memories of dealing with an evil witch in a primal fight against evil , abducted to her by her dwarf servant, are really of sexual trauma.

* AuthorTract: Alan Garner is known to loathe the ongoing "gentrification" of Alderley Edge by the rich and tasteless, which elsewhere he has deplored as sucking out the magic and character from a town he loves and still lives nearby to. In comparing the "old" Alderley Edge to the new, and the change that has taken place in the fifty years since ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath'', he is surprisingly restrained, voicing his feelings through incidental asides spoken by Colin. (in ''Literature/{{Boneland}}''). Colin cannot bear going anywhere near the farmhouse he grew up in, now it has been sold on and "gentrified" and is no longer a working farm. Garner is known to feel the same way about the former working farm that inspired the Mossocks' Highmost Redmanhey.

* TwoLinesDifferentTimes: ''Thursbitch'' uses this trope with some crossover between times in a small hamlet in England.
** In ''Literature/{{Boneland}}'', Colin and the Watcher are playing out the same issues of loss and trauma, in much the same geological place but separated by up to half a million years in time. Both are struggling to work out what is happening to them according to their conditioning and cultural preconceptions. Garner even hints that {{Recursion}} is happening and they are somehow directly linked.

* MeanwhileInTheFuture: ''Thursbitch'' uses this trope with some crossover between times in a small hamlet in England.
** In ''Literature/{{Boneland}}'', Colin and the Watcher are playing out the same issues of loss and trauma, in much the same geological place but separated by up to half a million years in time. Both are struggling to work out what is happening to them according to their conditioning and cultural preconceptions. Garner even hints that {{Recursion}} is happening and they are somehow directly linked.

* BrokenMasquerade: one interpretation of the ambiguous and multilayered ''Boneland'' is that Colin Whisterfield was blessed with LaserGuidedAmnesia as an act of mercy by Cadellin and the Lady, after walking in the magic otherworld and fighting in its battles. This was necessary to preserve the secret of the Sleepers and the peoples of Magic from an ever-encroaching human peril, as well as to protect his own sanity. If this is true, there would also be a need to cover for the (ambiguous) destiny of his sister [[NoNameGiven Susan]], thought dead by by the human world, although [[NeverFoundTheBody no body was ever found]]. But in adulthood, memories and flashbacks and bad dreams are surfacing; it becomes clear the amnesia is not total.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: people who read "Brinsingamen" and "Gomrath" first, then expected "The Owl Service" or "Elidor" to be more of the same, were invariably dissappointed. The accessibility and straightforward conventional plots of the first two novels were soon supplanted with the shifting landscapes and ambiguous uncertainties of the later writing, where readers really had to work hard to get at the meanings and the psychodramas being played out.

* TraumaInducedAmnesia: ''Boneland'' is deliberately vague and ambiguous. But it is hinted that this is a possible reason for Colin's inability to recall anything that happened to him before his thirteenth birthday. His medical records reveal that he was struck by a freak lightning bolt on top of Stormy Point.[[note]]this was a key location in ''The Moon of Gomrath'', where Colin and [[TheNameless Susan]] fought the forces of Evil[[/note]] He is also [[note]] apparently[[/note]] given a hospital MRI-scan where inexplicable brain damage is discovered.

* BrokenMasquerade: one interpretation of the ambiguous and multilayered ''Boneland'' is that Colin Whisterfield was blessed with LaserGuidedAmnesia as an act of mercy by Cadellin and the Lady, after walking in the magic otherworld and fighting in its battles. This was necessary to preserve the secret of the Sleepers and the peoples of Magic from an ever-encroaching human peril, as well as to protect his own sanity. If this is true, there would also be a need to cover for the (ambiguous) destiny of his sister [[TheNameless Susan]], thought dead by by the human world, although [[NeverFoundTheBody no body was ever found]]. But in adulthood, memories and flashbacks and bad dreams are surfacing; it becomes clear the amnesia is not total.

* TheNameless: ''Boneland'' deals with what happened to the protaganists of ''Literature/TheWeirdstoneOfBrisingamen'' and ''The Moon of Gomrath'' after the end of the latter novel. The central character here is Colin, grown to adulthood and working on the Edge as a university scientist with psychological problems. His long-missing sister Susan is referred to but is never, ever, named in the book. Garner at one point puts a LampShade on this.

* CreatorBacklash: Garner had strong critical disdain of his first two fantasy novels, ''Literature/TheWeirdstoneOfBrisingamen''(1960) and ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath''(1963). He considered them [[BlackSheepHit jejeune and childish next to his more evolved later work]]. However, fans loved them and kept badgering for a sequel to tie up the loose ends. He forced himself to write the sequel ''Boneland''(2013) - some ''fifty years'' after the two original books. Deliberately, the style is as unlike the first two books as possible. In style and presentation of its subject material, it has more to do with the deliberate ambiguity of ''Elidor'' and ''Red Shift'' than with the two prior books in the series.

* FranchiseZombie: After ''Literature/TheWeirdstoneOfBrisingamen'' and ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath'', Garner went on to write a long list of books he considered had far more literary merit and worth, and if he didn't actually ''hate'' his first two published works, he certainly disdained them. He was certainly annoyed with fans of the first two books who demanded and asked and pleaded for more involving the characters of Colin and Susan (the child protagonists). He made his deep dislike of the books, their premis, and their characters, very clear indeed by taking ''fifty years'' to write ''Literature/{{Boneland}}''. In this book Colin has grown up into an over-educated depressive and borderline sociopath with mental health issues, and Susan apparently drowned herself one night when chasing after elves in the starlight. ''Boneland'' is pessimistic, chilly, dark and noir and bleak - with none of the magic or optimism of the books it succeeds. Colin may die on a hospital operating table after ECT for his mental health problems (the book is ambiguous on this). Garner very emphatically answered the fans' request for more by providing ''exactly'' the opposite to what they wanted, and by killing off the beloved lead characters. And a lot of the supporting cast.

* SequelGap: 2013's ''Boneland'' is the continuation of his 1960 and 1963 novels ''Literature/TheWeirdstoneOfBrisingamen'' and ''The Moon of Gomrath'' - some ''fifty years'' after the original books. Garner so disliked the original novels, as atypical of what he wanted to be remembered for, that it took him half a century to write the third concluding part of the trilogy.

* [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Our Non-human but Humanoid Races are Different]]: The ''svart-alfar'', called into being for the novel ''Literature/TheWeirdstoneOfBrisingamen''. The name literally means ''dark Elves'', but the underground creatures have far more in common with Orcs or Goblins. In the sucessor novel ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath'', the place of evil footsoldier is taken by the ''bodachs'' from far Albany: these are a more lizard-like sort of goblin, still humanoid and intelligent enough to forge metal and organise as war-bands. The concluding novel in the trilogy, ''Literature/{{Boneland}}'', pays {{Homage}} to a well-founded theory that as newer sub-species of the human race arose, the predecessor races they co-existed with and then suceeded over inevitably became the goblins, dwarves and Elves of our legend. The Watcher is clearly of a different sub-species to the Homo Sapiens/Cro-Magnons who rescue him.

* [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Our non-human but humanoid races are different]] The ''svart-alfar'', called into being for the novel ''Literature/TheWeirdstoneOfBrisingamen''. The name literally means ''dark Elves'', but the underground creatures have far more in common with Orcs or Goblins. In the sucessor novel ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath'', the place of evil footsoldier is taken by the ''bodachs'' from far Albany: these are a more lizard-like sort of goblin, still humanoid and intelligent enough to forge metal and organise as war-bands. The concluding novel in the trilogy, ''Literature/{{Boneland}}'', pays {{Homage}} to a well-founded theory that as newer sub-species of the human race arose, the predecessor races they co-existed with and then suceeded over inevitably became the goblins, dwarves and Elves of our legend. The Watcher is clearly of a different sub-species to the Homo Sapiens/Cro-Magnons who rescue him.

* AuthorTract: Alan Garner is known to loathe the ongoing "gentrification" of Alderley Edge by the rich and tasteless, which elsewhere he has deplored as sucking out the magic and character from a town he loves and still lives in. In comparing the "old" Alderley Edge to the new, and the change that has taken place in the fifty years since ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath'', he is surprisingly restrained, voicing his feelings through incidental asides spoken by Colin. (in ''Literature/{{Boneland}}''). Colin cannot bear going anywhere near the farmhouse he grew up in, now it has been sold on and "gentrified" and is no longer a working farm. Garner is known to feel the same way about the former working farm that inspired the Mossocks' Highmost Redmanhey.

He received a lifetime-achievement WorldFantasyAward in 2012.

** In ''Literature/Boneland'', Colin and the Watcher are playing out the same issues of loss and trauma, in much the same geological place but separated by up to half a million years in time. Both are struggling to work out what is happening to them according to their conditioning and cultural preconceptions. Garner even hints that {{Recursion}} is happening and they are somehow directly linked.

* OminousFog: * Ominous fogs and mists are a part of Creator/AlanGarner's fantasy trilogy beginning with ''Literature/The WeirdstoneOfBrisingamen'', continuing in ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath'' and ending - more metaphorically and symbolically - in ''Literature/{{Boneland}}''. The [[OurZombiesAreDifferent dark lich Grimnir]] rises out of Lindow Moss bog in a twilight mist; the battles are fought in fog and mist and snow; and the adult Colin wrestles with the symbolic fog that has settled over his early life and memories, blotting out good and bad together save for flash-frame glimpses.

* ''Literature/TheWeirdstoneOfBrisingamen''(1960)
* ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath'' (1963)

* ''The Owl Service'' (1967) (made into a television series in 1969)

* ''Literature/{{Boneland}}'' (2013)

* PossessionBurnout: In ''The Moon of Gomrath'', an ancient Celtic demonic entity, the Brollochan, is released form its prison cell by human interference. The Brollochan is an entity that lives vicariously through the senses of people and animals it serially possesses - but no host can contain it for long without burning from the inside and crumbling to death.

* EarlyInstalmentWeirdness: people who read "Brinsingamen" and "Gomrath" first, then expected "The Owl Service" or "Elidor" to be more of the same, were invariably dissappointed. The accessibility and straightforward conventional plots of the first two novels were soon supplanted with the shifting landscapes and ambiguous uncertainties of the later writing, where readers really had to work hard to get at the meanings and the psychodramas being played out.

* ''Literature/TheWeirdstoneOfBrisingamen''
* ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath''
* ''Elidor'' (made into a television series)
* ''The Owl Service'' (made into a television series)

* CreatorBacklash: Garner had strong critical disdain of his first two fantasy novels, ''Literature/TheWeirdstoneOfBrisingamen''(1960) and ''The Moon of Gomrath''(1963). He considered them [[BlackSheepHit jejeune and childish next to his more evolved later work]]. However, fans loved them and kept badgering for a sequel to tie up the loose ends. He forced himself to write the sequel ''Boneland''(2013) - some ''fifty years'' after the two original books. Deliberately, the style is as unlike the first two books as possible. In style and presentation of its subject material, it has more to do with the deliberate ambiguity of ''Elidor'' and ''Red Shift'' than with the two prior books in the series.

* AuthorTract: Alan Garner is known to loathe the ongoing "gentrification" of Alderley Edge by the rich and tasteless, which elsewhere he has deplored as sucking out the magic and character from a town he loves and still lives in. In comparing the "old" Alderley Edge to the new, and the change that has taken place in the fifty years since ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath'', he is surprisingly restrained, voicing his feelings through incidental asides spoken by Colin. (in ''Literature/{{Boneland}}''). Colin o cannot bear going anywhere near the farmhouse he grew up in, now it has been sold on and "gentrified" and is no longer a working farm. Garner is known to feel the same way about the former working farm that inspired the Mossocks' Highmost Redmanhey.