Diana Wynne Jones and the Ridgeway

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 While I was walking, I kept finding connections to Diana Wynne Jones books.  I was not expecting this, and I didn't get it into my daily journal posts.  But right from the first day, as we hiked up from Avebury along the herepath, I kept thinking of various DWJ stories.  That herepath looked just like the Shield of Oreth, except it wasn't hot -- but the rain was just the same, sweeping up the hillside in curtains.  Not that I managed to take a photo of what it really looked like!

Of course, Dalemark's green roads are the same idea as old paths like the Ridgeway -- and they're often called green roads too.  At some point in the Dalemark books, someone explains that the green roads are out of the way because they are so old, and tend to go places that people don't live any more, which again is very close to the actual case.

(As an aside, I felt a lot of sympathy for Moril too on that trip.  I very frequently felt much too hot indoors!  It was warm, sunny weather, and English buildings are made to keep warmth in, not out.  I usually found indoors to be too stuffy for comfort and preferred sitting outside to catch the breezes.)

The Merlin Conspiracy just goes ahead and hangs a hat on it.  When Nick is staying in Roddy's world of Blest, he is taken to the Ridgeway Downs, where he meets, I'm pretty sure, an analogue of the white dragon of England (at Uffington) and his companion visits a version of Wayland's Smithy.   And I saw Roddy's flowers everywhere, especially speedwell.

Speedwell!

I don't know a lot about woods in England, but I must say at times when we were walking through wooded areas, I was forcibly reminded of the Pinhoe Egg and the woods Cat visits.  

I concluded that DWJ must have known the Ridgeway, and posted about this on the DWJ group I belong to on Facebook.  One of her sons is also in the group and answered that yes, the family had had a house in West Ilsley, and they had walked it regularly.  So I felt quite special, that he'd answered!


Comments

  1. LoryAugust 14, 2024 at 10:50 AM

    Great unexpected side effect of your trip!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousAugust 15, 2024 at 9:10 AM

      Yeah! It was a really nice surprise. (Jean here)

      Delete

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