Cart and Cwidder
core novel 1975 The Dalemark Quartet
Record
| First published | 1975 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.86 (5,970 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780749712525 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Cart and Cwidder follows a family of traveling musicians making their way across a land divided by ongoing conflict between North and South Dalemark, performing songs and stories as they journey from town to town. When the family's father is murdered under circumstances tied to the political tensions surrounding them, his youngest son, Moril, unexpectedly inherits the cwidder, a musical instrument passed down through the family and said to be connected to a legendary ancestor with abilities beyond ordinary music. With their livelihood and safety thrown into disarray by their father's death, the family is forced to flee across the divided country, navigating danger from both sides of the North-South conflict as Moril begins to grasp what his inheritance might actually mean.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Dalemark Quartet
- Series: The Dalemark Quartet core; position 1 of 4 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Notes
- From the series record (The Dalemark Quartet): A distinct continuity from Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci and Howl's Moving Castle -- shares no characters, setting, or continuity with either. The Crown of Dalemark was published 14 years after the first 3 books, completing the quartet.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Dalemark Quartet: position 1 of 4: next Drowned Ammet (1977)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Cart and Cwidder
- Wikipedia: Drowned Ammet
- Wikipedia: The Spellcoats
- Wikipedia: The Crown of Dalemark
← The Dalemark Quartet dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.