The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
core novel 1960 The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
Record
| First published | 1960 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.92 (9,010 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 268 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780007355211 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Alan Garner's 1960 children's fantasy novel follows siblings Colin and Susan, sent to stay with an old family friend near Alderley Edge in Cheshire, who become caught in an ancient battle between good and evil after Susan's bracelet is identified as Firefrost, a powerful magical stone known as the weirdstone of Brisingamen. Drawn into a quest to return the stone to the wizard Cadellin Silverbrow, who needs it to maintain an enchantment holding back an ancient evil, the children are pursued across the Cheshire countryside by goblin-like svarts and ultimately by the evil wizard Grimnir, who wants the stone for his own dark purposes. Their journey takes them through caves and tunnels beneath the Edge as they race to keep the weirdstone out of Grimnir's hands.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
- Series: Tales of Alderley core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Alan Garner
Awards (verified)
- Lewis Carroll Shelf Award (Shelf Award), 1970: won
Notes
- From the series record (Tales of Alderley): A genuinely 52-year sequence: the first two novels (1960, 1963) are children's fantasy set around Alderley Edge, Cheshire; Boneland (2012) is a distinct, more literary adult novel revisiting the same characters decades later -- Garner's own explicit closing volume, per Wikipedia. Internal chronology matches publication order.
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 Tales of Alderley: position 1 of 3: next The Moon of Gomrath (1963)
Sources
← The Weirdstone of Brisingamen dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.