'Roland searched for a place that would be safe to climb, and found a staircase on the exposed inner wall of a house. The top step was the highest part of the house: everything above it, including the bedroom floor, had been knocked down.
Roland tested his weight, but the wood was firm, she he went up.
He could see little more of the streets from the top than from the ground. Behind him was a double row of back yards. The entry between them showed as a cleft.
They're bound to come sooner or later, thought Roland. The best thing is to stay put.
He sat on the top of the stairs in the moonlight. It was freezing hard. Roofs and cobbles sparkled. Roland felt better. The menace left the streets, and instead he was aware of the quietness as something poised, as if he could always sit here under the moon.
But the cold began to ache into him. He wondered if the others had decided to stay in one place and to wait until he came.
This thought bother him, and he was still trying to make up his mind when the unicorn appeared at the end of street.
He was moving at a fast trot, and he wheeled about at the cross-road, unsure of the way. Then he came on towards Roland.
Roland sat there above the street and watched the unicorn pass below him, and he dared not even breathe.
The unicorn turned aside to pause at entries and gaps in the walls. He would stand at the threshold of a house, one hoof raised, but always he swung away, and on down the street.
His mane flowed like a river in the moon: the point of the horn drew fire from the stars. Roland shivered with the effort of looking. He wanted to fix every detail in his mind for ever, so that no matter what else happened there would always be this.'
Elidor
(Page 157-158)
After the dense words of Isabel Allende, i needed something brief, fantastical and easy-going to give my brain a rest and Elidor fit my needs perfectly.
I've been obsessed with reading it ever since i was traumatised as a child by the 90s tv adaptation.
I've never been able to forget the obsidian coloured horse with glowing red eyes.*
I was eight and frightened of everything.
But as most things i was terrified of as a child, i can't help but be drawn to as an adult.
Apparently with age i've gotten creepier and i'm pretty okay with that.
So much to my dismay, there was no sign of this demon horse within the book.
Not a single hoof print.
There is only one four-legged beast and it came in the shape of Findhorn the Unicorn.
"Findhorn the Unicorn."
I'll be saying that for weeks.
Much like the rest of Alan Garner's books, i feel that it would have been better if i'd read them as child.
Their elegant simplicity isn't enough to feed my literary hunger but for a child, i can see why his works have remained beloved classics.
However, i cannot forgive that every damn time i read one of his novels he leaves me with an infuriatingly ambiguous ending.
I want finality dammit.
And there isn't even a follow up to Elidor to provide me with some much needed relief.
Argh and grumph.
Charles Keeping's illustration dotted throughout the pages did slightly help curb my rage.
Slightly.
*There is no red-eyed demon horse in the tv series either...Wuh? What have i been terrified of all this time? Did i make it up? WTF?!
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