Well, “new” in relative terms, that is. The paper, “Breaking the Pattern: Alan Garner’s The Owl Service and The Mabinogion” was written for Mythcon 24, held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 30-August 2, 1993. It was published in Mythlore 75, Winter 1994, and later reprinted in The Children’s Literature Review, volume 130 (2008).
This has always been a work of scholarship that I have regarded with satisfaction, both because of the source material (Garner’s small novel) and the analysis itself. I felt as if the whole analysis unfolded itself like a blooming flower. Very little wrestling with the material was required.
I’ve always been fond of what Alan Garner achieved in The Owl Service. I feel he used the combination of mythic stories and fantasy to say something very effective and powerful about how we let things shape us in life. Garner weaves myth into the fabric of seemingly everyday life for his young protagonists, and by not over-playing its presence, he makes it all the more real.
The setting is a fairly isolated valley in Wales. The quiet isolation frees the characters from modern, urban distraction, while the rural setting heightens the “magical” connection of people to their land.
I won’t go on a length about the myths in the story, for those elements are covered in the paper itself. But I do want to observe that I was fascinated by the myth of Blodeuedd, the girl created of flowers to “serve a purpose,” but who turned out to be all too willful and human.
She was created of the flowers of the oak, broom and meadowsweet, and she was very beautiful indeed. But her willfullness led to her being transformed into an owl, a hunting owl.
Garner’s story raises the question as to whether or not the youngsters (who hover in the edge of adulthood) will resolve the issues at hand, or whether they too will become trapped by the power of the valley.
I love stories, of course. But I also love studying and analysing them. This is why I offer this scholarship for the curious, for those who want to look further into an enjoyable story.
Photo credits:
“Valley in Wales” from www.morguefile.com
“Broom” – photo by Carsten Niehaus, from Wikipedia, used under Creative Commons.
“Owl” – photo by Andrew Wells (copyright owner), used by permision. It was taken at The Barn Owl Centre in England..
“Wall in Wales” – photo by “gojo23”, from www.morguefile.com
