“There have been many stories and, I’m afraid, some tragic events.”

139. The Owl Service – Alan Garner

A Welsh vacation takes a turn. Two families coming together and making a young girl and her stepbrother sort of reenact a story from the Mabinogian along with the staff of the house’s son Gwyn. It’s a love triangle story involving flowers and owls and trapping a spirit in a set of plates (and a painting). It’s a complex story, but what it comes down to is an old story with a love triangle that keeps repeating itself through the people who occupy the house by the standing stone with a hole in it that’s a focus in the original story. At least Alison does read the Mabinogian and particularly that story so they can recognize it a bit better in between all the teenage angst and plate manipulation.

I did find the book hard to visualize. I mean, Hen Wen tried to eat my copy, she knows her name also comes from the Mabinogian (via Lloyd Alexander via Disney, but still). Right away, I couldn’t get an idea of where the people were when it started and Alison was yelling at Gwyn about the noise that was plates and not mice until I saw the 1969 televised version. The televised version helped me sort a lot out, but I thought the secret barn owl taxidermy situation was going to be a bigger deal, it seemed way bigger in the book, like literally I thought the owl was bigger. The show had a great set of opening titles and it did make the whole stepsiblings participating in a folklore love triangle reenactment thing more obvious and weird. Speaking of that, I still feel like the ending is just a bit mean and hard to parse. I probably need to read the Mabinogian again. It’s been about 20 years since I read it the first time.

 

I know it’s The Owl Service and not The Sam the Eagle Service, but Peregrine is my most bird-esque guinea pig because of her resemblance to Sam the Eagle.

 

She also has little bird friends to stare at her while she reads The Owl Service.
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