Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Alan Garner

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen Paperback – October 17, 2017

by Alan Garner (Author)

869 ratings

Book 1 of 2: The Weirdstone trilogy

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$12.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$60.00

—

$29.29

Paperback

"Please retry"

$12.35

$8.35

$6.03

Paperback, October 17, 2017

—

Mass Market Paperback

"Please retry"

$34.00

$25.00

$5.00

Preloaded Digital Audio Player, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$19.99

—

$19.99

Kindle
$12.99 Read with Our Free App
Audiobook
$0.00 Free with your Audible trial
Hardcover
$60.00

4 Used from $29.29
Paperback
—
Mass Market Paperback
$34.00

10 Used from $5.00 2 New from $25.00
Preloaded Digital Audio Player
$19.99

1 Used from $19.99

From the author of the Booker Prize-shortlisted Treacle Walker and the Carnegie Medal and Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize-winning classic, The Owl Service

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is one of the greatest fantasy novels of all time.

“Alan Garner’s fiction is something special.” – Neil Gaiman

When Colin and Susan are pursued by eerie creatures across Alderley Edge, they are saved by the Wizard. He takes them into the caves of Fundindelve, where he watches over the enchanted sleep of one hundred and forty knights.

But the heart of the magic that binds them – Firefrost, also known as the Weirdstone of Brisingamen – has been lost. The Wizard has been searching for the stone for more than 100 years, but the forces of evil are closing in, determined to possess and destroy its special power.

Colin and Susan realise at last that they are the key to the Weirdstone’s return. But how can two children defeat the Morrigan and her deadly brood?

Reading age

9 - 12 years
Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Grade level

4 - 7
Dimensions

0.9 x 5.1 x 7.6 inches
Publisher

HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks
Publication date

October 17, 2017
ISBN-10

0008248494
ISBN-13

978-0008248499
See all details

Alan Garner
296
Paperback
38 offers from $4.57
Alan Garner
666
Paperback
26 offers from $4.77
Alan Garner
1,332
Paperback
22 offers from $9.84
347
Paperback
17 offers from $8.32
Alan Garner
200
Paperback
12 offers from $2.79
Alan Garner
64
Hardcover
21 offers from $12.59

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Alan Garner’s fiction is something special. Garner’s fantasies were smart and challenging, based in the here and the now, in which real English places emerged from the shadows of folklore, and in which people found themselves walking, living and battling their way through the dreams and patterns of myth.”― Neil Gaiman

“The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is one of the most important books in children’s fantasy. It has been an enormous inspiration to me and countless other writers, and is as enjoyable and fascinating now as it was when I first read it, wide-eyed and mesmerized, at the age of ten.”― Garth Nix

“Alan Garner is indisputably the great originator, the most important British writer of fantasy since Tolkien, and in many respects better than Tolkien, because deeper and more truthful. His work is where human emotion and mythic resonance, sexuality and geology, modernity and memory and craftsmanship meet and cross-fertilise. Any country except Britain would have long ago recognised his importance, and celebrated it with postage stamps and statues and street names. But that’s the way with us: our greatest prophets go unnoticed by the politicians and the owners of media empires. I salute him with the most heartfelt respect and admiration.” ― Philip Pullman

About the Author

Alan Garner was born and still lives in Cheshire, an area which has had a profound effect on his writing and provided the seed of many ideas worked out in his books.

His fourth book, ‘The Owl Service’ brought Alan Garner to everyone’s attention. It won two important literary prizes – The Guardian Award and the Carnegie Medal – and was made into a serial by Granada Television. It has established itself as a classic and Alan Garner as a writer of great distinction.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks; Reissue edition (October 17, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008248494
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008248499
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 9 - 12 years
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 4 - 7
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.9 x 5.1 x 7.6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,036,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,925 in Children's Classics
- #6,826 in Children's Mystery, Detective, & Spy
- #15,851 in Children's Fantasy & Magic Books

Customer Reviews:
869 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Alan Garner

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

869 global ratings

5 star		68%
4 star		19%
3 star		9%
2 star		3%
1 star		1%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

ealovitt

A mixture of Arthurian & Scandinavian folklore

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 17, 2002

Verified Purchase

In "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen," award-winning Cheshire writer Alan Garner retells the ancient legend of the cave of the sleeping king as a Young Adult fantasy. His story treads very lightly on the mantle of "Lord of the Rings," and a bit more heavily on Arthurian legend, but draws mainly from local folklore and Scandinavian mythology.
Except for school, a brief stint at Magdalen College, Oxford, and service in the Army, Mr. Garner has lived in Cheshire near Alderly Edge, as did generations of his family. He knows the `Weirdstone' terrain as well as its folklore, and he writes about what he knows: the cliffs and meres of Alderley Edge; and the maze of mines and tunnels that underlies Cheshire.
`Weirdstone' doesn't follow the path of a true Arthurian romance, except for the Cave Legend, and the brief appearance of Angharad Goldenhand who might or might not be the Lady of the Lake.

(The story of a king and his followers sleeping in a secret cave predates Arthur, but became attached to him as the `once and future king,' who will wake to serve his country again in time of great peril.)
There is also the wizard who guards the Cave. In this story, his name is Cadellin, and a few centuries past he misplaced the Weirdstone of Brisingamen while bargaining for a milk-white mare.
This story really begins when two children, Colin and Susan get off the train at Alderley Station. They are going to stay on the Mossock farm while their parents travel abroad, as Mrs. Mossock was their mother's former nurse. Susan happens to be wearing a bracelet set with an unusual stone, and we gradually learn the history of the stone, which has been passed down from mother to daughter of a local Chesire family, and finally to Susan. As family legend has it, a wizard traded the stone for a milk-white mare.

Very soon Colin and Susan discover the truth of the family legend, when they are rescued from a band of goblins (svart-alfar) by the wizard, Cadellin, and are taken to the cave where a King sleeps, along with a hundred knights clad in silver and mounted on milk-white steeds.

Cadellin doesn't realize why Colin and Susan were being hunted by the servants of Nastrond, the evil spirit of Ragnarok. Only after Susan's bracelet is stolen by a skeletal creature of the mist, does Cadellin understand that she possessed his magical Weirdstone.
Colin and Susan's quest to return the stone to Cadellin leads them on a desperate chase through the mines beneath Cheshire, and into a countryside transformed by a fierce and unseasonable fimbulwinter (the immediate prelude to the end of the world---Ragnarok.)

This is not a good story for the claustrophobic (I almost lost it when the kids were stuck down in the mine)or for those who don't like things that go bump in the night. There are monsters galore; almost too many to keep track of. There are powerful wizards, both good and evil.
And then, there is Ragnarok.
However, this is a good read for those who are not easily frightened (or who love a good fright), and who have at least some knowledge of Arthurian legends and Scandinavian folklore.

22 people found this helpful

Helpful

Lucy R.

This is a Fantasy for Children

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

I am an adult, but occasionally I deviate from my usual to experience other genres and authors unfamiliar to me. I found this book to be simple and straight forward which is appropriate for children. It enforced family loyalty and respect for the elders while weaving in magic, mystery and suspense appropriate to keep a child’s interest. My three-star rate was because the adult in me grew very bored by the endless route toward the ending. I felt like perhaps 20 pages could easily have been deleted and nothing lost. However, you should consider that children might see it in a totally different light. Certainly, children should read broad genres and for fantasy, this is a good one.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jonathan

A powerful tale

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 12, 2006

Verified Purchase

I read this book as a child, and I occasionally re-read it as an adult. There are extremely few books I can think of that can keep my interest for more than a few weeks, let alone thirty-odd years. It has many of the "usual" swords-and-sorcery elements you expect from a fantasy novel, but it has key differences. Everything and everyone is imperfect and therefore plausible. Sides are not clear-cut. Names are taken from actual mythology (or actual places) and aren't simply the product of hitting keys at random. The mythology is consistant. The story doesn't ask you to suspend disbelief, but creates a vivid enough "world" that the reader can live there quite comfortably for a while without suspending anything. These are the hallmarks of an excellent story and a master writer.

It is, of course, meaningless coincidence that they recently found 550 ancient coins in a relatively modern copper mine, when the moisture should have corroded them a thousand or more years before the mine was ever dug, not far from where the Iron Gates are described as being. It IS coincidence... isn't it?

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Ohioguy

Weirdstone of Brisingham is a must read for fans of LOTR

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 4, 2015

Verified Purchase

Whereas LOTR is an Epic scale work, Weirdstone is a much more focused, immediate tale. Yet it has an irrepressible charm. Alan Garner does an exceptional job of blending the fantastical events of Arthurian and Norse mythology against the backdrop of rural Cheshire, England of the 1970's. Building "nail-biting, on the edge of your chair" suspense in the process.

To this day, I still recall the worst trial of the mind imaginable, crawling through the mines of Alderley.

His characters both good and evil are beautifully drawn and the dialogue is excellent. And like Tolkien, he has a real linguistic skill in crafting appropriate names. Who can forget the evil Svarts and the Mara. Or the noble Lios Alfar.

For any fan of LOTR, Weirdstone is a must read. I also think it would make for a tremendous movie ... if done properly.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Julian Schoffel

An enthralling fantasy yarn for the younger demogaphic

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 13, 2015

Verified Purchase

I first read this book back in the 1970s when I was still a munchkin. Funny how we try to return to the golden haze of childhood comforts and memories (if you're lucky enough to have had a good childhood of course - I did thankfully) as we grow older and go through troubling times.

As an adult I still think this book is pretty solid and holds itself well compared to other books in the young fantasy genre. When I first read it I hadn't read Lord of the Rings yet and that book has become one of my all-time favorites. Needless to say I now see certain broad similarities in some of the themes (although this book could in no way be truly compared with LOTR) but I think that's probably because both authors used some similar source material (mythologies etc.) rather than Garner being directly influenced by Tolkien.

If you're after a good young fantasy yarn with all of the classic elements (e.g. goblins, witches, wizards, trolls) then this book is a cut above most.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Andrew Wallace

Local wizardry

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

Alan Garner’s brilliantly titled 1960 fantasy takes North European tropes familiar from ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and spins them into a very English children’s fantasy. Two children, a brother and sister called Colin and Susan, are sent to stay with relatives of their mother’s when she must join their father abroad for six months.
Even for 1960, this expectation feels harsh, and adults throughout the story are not to be trusted. A local businessman turns out to be an evil warlock (and an inefficient one at that), while a woman who lives in one of the local manors is a shape-shifting witch.
There is a subtle comment on class in these depictions, much of it tied to environment. The elves, for example, have been driven from the land not by orcs but by toxic industry of the kind the warlock businessman is presumably engaged in. Even kindly farmer Gowther and his wife, Bess, who are the relatives Colin and Susan stay with, are unable to defend the children when they are caught up in a power grab orchestrated by lower-level entities like the terrifying wizard Grimnir against their master, the evil Nastrond.
The titular weirdstone is key to these machinations. In another example of adult ineffectiveness, the stone has been left with Susan by her mother, who has no idea of its power and relevance. Colin and Susan are left to stumble into a trap laid by a race of devious goblins called the svart-afar (the novel is full of inventive, resonant names like this) and only just manage to escape. The children are then pursued across a beautifully etched, but often threatening Cheshire landscape in a series of journeys that do not let up in intensity.
Fortunately, Colin and Susan have other helpers: the wizard Cadellin and two dwarves. Cadellin has guarded a sleeping army beneath the hill of Alderley in preparation for the final stand against Nastrond; an image that emphasises the timeless quality of the land and the mythical nature of the characters.
Indeed, a significant part of appeal of this novel is its detailed local geography. It is still evergreen all these years after it was written, as if the book is itself a mythical being. However, the scale is local rather than epic; when the bewildered but decent and resourceful Gowther joins the children and the dwarves, it is his knowledge of life in Macclesfield as much as any supernatural resource that guides them back to Cadellin.
The children themselves are no helpless victims either, with Susan as brave and resourceful as her older brother. There are some powerful sequences in the book, particularly a claustrophobic pursuit through a network of flooded potholes, that has the reader needing to pause for breath. Later fantasy stories for children, such as the Harry Potter series, further explored the resourcefulness engendered by abandonment via bravura sequences of dizzyingly inventive fantasy; ‘The Weirdstone of Brisingamen’ was there first.

23 people found this helpful

Kid Ferrous 🔴🟡🟢

Alan Garner’s finest work

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

I owe Mr. Garner an apology....if only I’d read “Weirdstone...” first and not his other books. THIS is the book that delivers on the promise of so much glowing praise.
Believable characters, exciting adventures and some genuinely scary moments combine to create a classic children’ adventure, that adults can enjoy too. In a sense, it is so good that it casts a shadow over his other works such as “The Owl Service” and “Elidor”, and it makes one wonder why that latter work in particular wasn’t the equal of “Weirdstone...”.
I now look forward to reading the two sequels of “TWoB” with a heightened appreciation of Garner’s work, and may even revisit the novels I hastily dismissed before.

3 people found this helpful

J. Ang

Flee and Flight

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

I read “The Owl Service” as a child and it was one of those rare books that I reread with glee then and found something new to enjoy each time. So it was with some excitement when I stumbled across the 50th Anniversary edition of Garner’s children’s classic on kindle and immediately snapped it up, hoping to recapture the magic of my youth. Unfortunately this novel did not sparkle for me as “The Owl Service” did.

Given, the novel does have a strong sense of place and Garner displays deep knowledge of folklore and myths which sees magical creatures, wizards and witches woven seamlessly into the rural environs of an English village in Cheshire. The two children at the heart of the novel, Susan and Colin, are on a quest to restore the titular stone to its rightful place in the dwarf caves of Fundindelve, under the care of the wizard Cadellin, failing which great evil is prophesied to triumph over the good and the world would be in peril.

Well and good enough, except that for the most part of the book, the characters were in flight from svarts (some sort of goblin). There is a huge chunk where the children are stuck in the caves and they literally have to wiggle out of the impossibly claustrophobic confines of a never ending labyrinth, aided by a pair of noble dwarves Fenodyree and Durathror, their names (and characters) with strong mythological roots. While Garner must be praised for the very strong detail of their journey, it just went on and on. The latter part of the novel was more of the same but above ground, before the huge battle which was surprisingly uneventful, given the build up in their journey, though there was a startling revelation. There is a sequel and a third book that was only released in 2011, featuring an adult Colin many years after this book, but it may be some time before I would be tempted to pick up the story again. Perhaps I should revisit “The Owl Service” and see what it was that moved me that much more than this book.

9 people found this helpful

Tracey

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

Colin and Susan are sent to stay with the Mossocks while their parents are awsy. Chased by creatures they are saved by a wizard and soon find themselves caught up in the adventure of a lifetime.
I first read this book in secondary school and decided to re-visit it 40+ years on. Do I regret it? No I don't. this is Alan Garner at his best. Well written, fast paced and full of great characters this book is as good today as when it was first published.
If you have never read this book, no matter what your age is, make sure you get a copy. You won't regret it.

2 people found this helpful

Gazza

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 12, 2020

Verified Purchase

So far, I’ve only read a few of Alan Garner’s books, but each of them I have thoroughly enjoyed, as well as the short story, The Keeper, made for television, that I discovered and watched only recently. Garner is a wonderful writer. You can tell this because his stories are so beautifully written and crafted throughout, capturing a language and atmosphere rarely seen in the works of modern authors. If you haven’t already read The Weirdstone of Brisingamen or The Owl Service, then I thoroughly recommend them to you.

For me, I’ll be working my way through the rest of Garner’s books during the next couple of months. Red Shift is next on my reading list.

I hope you find my review helpful.

One person found this helpful

See all reviews

Follow the Author

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen Paperback – October 17, 2017

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Alan Garner

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries