History Literature / ThePerilousGard

* DeepSleep: When Kate arrives at the castle, she sleeps like the dead until the next afternoon.
* DeadpanSnarker: Christopher again. Most memorably his remark about hoping to get a spot next to Kate at the Last Judgment because he wants to hear her commentary on the proceedings. And that her mother ought to tell her that she needs to marry the man she's been spending all her nights with.

* HalloweenEpisode: The teind is paid on Halloween in "Tam Lin" [[spoiler:and also in the Elvenwood.]]

* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: Alicia whose eyes match her golden curls.

* ColdIron: Zigzagged. [[spoiler: The cold iron cross a village woman gives Kate doesn't hurt the FairFolk, but it does hurt Kate when she cuts her hand with it, preventing her from falling into an enchanted sleep.]]

* ColdIron: Zigzagged. [[spoiler: The cold iron cross a village woman gives Kate doesn't hurt the FairFolk, but it does hurt Kate when she cuts her hand with it, preventing her from falling into an enchanted sleep.]]

* BelligerentSexualTension: Kate and Christopher spend most of their time together arguing - and we all know what that means! ([[ObliviousToLove Except Kate.]] [[ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe Kate doesn't know what it means.]])

Alicia, a beautiful ditz, writes the queen to complain about the conditions at Hatfield. Her Majesty takes offense but elects to punish ''not'' the beautiful Alicia (who she's sure isn't responsible), but instead her older, plainer sister Kate. Kate is sent to live under house arrest at Elvenwood Hall in the care of Sir Geoffrey Heron.

''Summary'': Kate and Alicia Sutton are young maids of honor to the Lady Elizabeth Tudor who is confined to her house at Hatfield under the extreme displeasure of her sister Queen Mary.

She soon discovers she has walked into a somewhat fraught family situation: Sir Geoffrey's small daughter and only child, Cecily, disappeared under mysterious circumstances while in the care of her uncle Christopher Heron, who of course is now Sir Geoffrey's heir. Everybody draws the obvious conclusion and Christopher's Byronic posturing does nothing to help the situation.

Guess why Cecily was taken. Guess what fate is intended for Christopher who has offered himself in exchange for his niece. Guess who has to save him.

* DeepSleep: when Kate arrives at the castle, she sleeps like the dead until the next afternoon.

Alicia, a beautiful ditz, writes the queen to complain about the conditions at Hatfield. Needless to say, Her Majesty takes offense but elects to punish ''not'' the beautiful Alicia (who she's sure isn't responsible), but instead her older, plainer sister Kate. Kate is sent to live under house arrest at Elvenwood Hall in the care of Sir Geoffrey Heron.

She soon discovers she has walked into a somewhat fraught family situation: Sir Geoffrey's small daughter and only child, Cecily, disappeared under mysterious circumstances while in the care of her uncle Christopher Heron, who of course is now Sir Geoffrey's heir. Needless to say everybody draws the obvious conclusion and Christopher's Byronic posturing does nothing to help the situation.

* GrayEyes: Characteristic of the Heron family, along with a heck of a stubborn streak.

* ArcWords: "Mad or blind." Kate first uses the phrase in when pointing out the holes in the story of Cecily's disappearance, saying that they're obvious to anyone with the use of their senses. [[spoiler: The full significance is that "mad or blind" is what the Fairy Folk make mortals – blind by keeping their captives in darkness, and mad by giving the maids and pilgrims a drug to keep them happy, or take away their wits like Randal. Later, Christopher tells Kate that she seems as much a part of him as his mind or eyes, and being separated would be like madness or blindness.]]

* BeautifulAllAlong - Kate gets a makeover during her time in the Fairy Hill.
* BelligerentSexualTension - Kate and Christopher spend most of their time together arguing - and we all know what that means! ([[ObliviousToLove Except Kate.]] [[ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe Kate doesn't know what it means.]])

-->'''Kate:''' Christopher, do you ever think about food?
-->'''Christopher:''' I might have known that would be what you'd think of.

* BlackEyesOfEvil - Master John, to go with his black heart.
* BreakingSpeech -The Guardian of the Well gives Christopher a ReasonYouSuckSpeech combined with a [[StrawNihilist Nihilistic rant]] about life in general.

* CassandraTruth - Randal the bard is very knowledgeable about the FairFolk, but he's considered to be "touched in the head" and people don't realize that his songs and ramblings include vital information.
* CaveBehindTheFalls - One of the entrances to Fairy Hill is behind a waterfall.

* CurtainsMatchTheWindow - Alicia whose eyes match her golden curls.
* ColdIron - Zigzagged [[spoiler: The cold iron cross a village woman gives Kate doesn't hurt the FairFolk, but it does hurt Kate when she cuts her hand with it, preventing her from falling into an enchanted sleep.]]
* DistressedDude - Christopher, who is very difficult about being rescued.
* DeepSleep - when Kate arrives at the castle, she sleeps like the dead until the next afternoon.

* DumbBlond - Alicia
* EarnYourHappyEnding - Kate and Christopher very much earn and deserve a long happy life on their Norfolk manor.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt - Everybody but Kate herself sees at a glance that Christopher is lost in love with her.
* TheFairFolk - Probably perfectly human pagans. Probably.

* GrayEyes - Characteristic of the Heron family, along with a heck of a stubborn streak.

* HumanSacrifice - The Teind
* InsultedAwake - Kate does this to Christopher while rescuing him.
* ItsAllMyFault - Christopher blames himself for Cecily's disappearance.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold - Christopher. Or maybe a JerkAssWoobie?

* MeaningfulName: Christopher ('Christ-bearer') is named after a saint who carried a beggar who turned out to be the Christ child across a raging river. The name is symbolic of Christopher's exasperating tendency to take burdens on himself, like responsibility for his mother's death and Cecily's life.

* MustMakeAmends - Christopher lives in a leper's hut in penance for Cecily's disappearance, and later offers himself as a human sacrifice in her place. Kate considers this theatrical and ridiculous.
* NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction[=/=]LovePotion of the [[LoveAtFirstSight Love First Person Sighted]] variety - [[spoiler: The Lady gives Kate one to use but Kate refuses to accept it because she is afraid of it being fake and would not want a relationship based on false feelings.]]

* ShoutOutToShakespeare: "The grief of a wound" is taken from Falstaff's soliloquy on honour in ''Theatre/HenryIVPart1'', while "tilly-vally" and "fire-new" are obsolete words found in ''Theatre/TwelfthNight''. Pope was an English professor specialising in Shakespeare.

* YoungestChildWins - Alicia has always gotten everything.

* AllHallowsEve: The teind is paid on Halloween in "Tam Lin" [[spoiler:and also in the Elvenwood.]]

* UsefulNotes/ElizabethI - Kate and Alicia serve Elizabeth during her captivity. [[spoiler: She is crowned queen during Kate and Christopher's capitivity.]]

* [[spoiler: RescueRomance. Of course the usual sex of rescuer and rescuee is reversed.]]

** "Kate! Unkind!" may be a shout out to ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew. [[spoiler: Christopher cries this when Kate admits she's afraid he wants to marry Alicia, a fate Christopher considers only slightly better than death]]

** [[spoiler: Kate fears that Christopher falls in love with Alicia after meeting her, but this trope is averted as he is in love with Kate instead.]]

* FromBadToWorse: Kate is reminded of a joke about a man whose dog died...when his house burned down...during his mother's funeral... [[spoiler:when Alicia tells her that she just adores Christopher, and he's rich now, and he's got an engagement ring... She means it's for Kate and she, Cecily, loves Christopher like a brother.]]

** "Nothing": what the teind-payer is supposed to become, and Christopher frequently refers to with heavy irony.

* FromBadToWorse: Kate is reminded of a joke about a man whose dog died...when his house burned down...during his mother's funeral... [[spoiler:when Alicia tells her that she just adores Christopher, and he's rich now, and he's got an engagement ring... She means it's for Kate.]]

* MustMakeAmends - Christopher lives in a leper's hut in penance for Cecily's disappearance, and later offers himself as a human sacrifice in her place.

* SeparatedByTheWall: Kate and Christopher really get to know each other after they spend weeks talking through his cell wall in total darkness so he won't GoMadFromTheIsolation.

This is followed by the revelation that the 'Elvenwood' really is the haunt of honest to God 'faeries' (or surviving pagans) who pay a yearly teind to Hell (or their gods) of one human life.

!!Tropes included in this work.

* ArcWords: "Mad or blind." Kate first uses the phrase in when pointing out the holes in the story of Cecily's disappearance, saying that they're obvious to anyone with full use of their senses. Later, Christopher tells her that [[spoiler: she's a part of him like his mind or his eyes, and being separated from her would be like madness or blindness.]] The true significance is that "mad or blind" is what the Fairy Folk make mortals – blind by keeping their captives in darkness, and mad by giving the maids and pilgrims a drug to keep them happy, or take away their wits like Randal.

* {{Claustrophobia}}: One of the conditions of life under the Hill is occasional attacks of "the weight", or panic attacks about the sheer mass of rock looming overhead. The Fairy Folk consider ordinary mortals incapable of enduring it, and Kate first wins the Lady's respect by persisting in her refusal of the relaxing drugs they give to the other maidservants.

* DeepSleep - when she arrives at the castle, she sleeps like the dead until the next afternoon.

* BlackEyesOfEvil - The villain, to go with his black heart.

* NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction[=/=]LovePotion of the [[LoveAtFirstSight Love First Person Sighted]] variety - [[spoiler: The Green Lady gives Kate one to use but Kate refuses to accept it because she is afraid of it being fake and would not want a relationship based on false feelings.]]

* ScaryAmoralReligion: The Fairy Folk believe that power to protect their people is acquired by HumanSacrifice. They usually use mortal children like Cecily because, quite simply, children are easier to abduct. Kate tries to persuade them that Christ's sacrifice was so powerful that further sacrifices are unnecessary, but the Queen, though interested, is unconvinced.

* UsefulNotes/ElizabethI - Kate and Alicia serve Elizabeth during her captivity. [[spoiler: She is crowned queen during Kate and Christopher's capitivity.]]

* TheVirginQueen - Kate and Alicia serve Elizabeth during her captivity. [[spoiler: She is crowned queen during Kate and Christopher's capitivity.]]

''The Perilous Gard'' is a young adult novel by Elizabeth Marie Pope. The book is set in Tudor England and tells a variant on the [[Literature/ChildBallads ballad]] of ''Literature/TamLin''. It won the Newbery Honor in 1975.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther - Kate and Christopher spend most of their time together arguing - and we all know what that means!

She soon discovers she has walked into a somewhat fraught family situation: Sir Geoffrey's small daughter and only child, Cecily, disappeared under mysterious circumstances while in the care of her uncle Christopher Heron, who of course is now Sir Geoffrey's heir.Needless to say everybody draws the obvious conclusion and Christopher's Byronic posturing does nothing to help the situation.

* BreakingSpeech -The Guardian of the Falls gives Christopher a ReasonYouSuckSpeech combined with a [[StrawNihilist Nihilistic rant]] about life in general.

''The Perilous Gard'' is a young adult novel by Elizabeth Marie Pope. The book is set in Tudor England and tells a variant on the [[ChildBallad ballad]] of ''Literature/TamLin''. It won the Newbery Honor in 1975.

'''''The Perilous Gard''''' is a young adult novel by Elizabeth Marie Pope. The book is set in Tudor England and tells a variant on the [[ChildBallad ballad]] of ''Literature/TamLin''. It won the Newbery Honor in 1975.