Children’s fantasy read in the 1990s, talismans shaped like a circle & cross made of different materials

[Anna]

So, I read a series of books, it must have been in the 90s. There was a boy, maybe he had friends, he was fighting some mysterious dark forces. The setting was realistic, maybe Cornwall I remember for some reason? There were talismans, a cross on a circle shaped base, metal, wood, four or five of them? When grouped together the talismans were powerful. I remember it was quite scary as a child.

[Sue]

The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dar...

[Michele]

Definitely Susan Cooper's series. The first one, in which Will has to find all six Signs, is The Dark Is Rising. The others follow him and others as they battle the forces of the Dark.

[Andy]

Gosh, I read this back in the 1970s (when the last book hadn't come out yet) and I still remember the poem:

"When the Dark comes a-rising, the Six will turn it back,
Three from the Circle, Three from the track
Wood, Bronze, Iron, Water, Fire, Stone,
Five will return and one will go alone

Iron for the birthday, Stone out of Song,
Wood from the Burning, Bronze carried long,
Fire from the candlering, water from the thaw
Six Signs the Circle, and the Grail gone before"

(and so on)

P.S. "The Dark is Rising" is the second one - the first is "Over Sea, Under Stone"

[Sue]

"Fire on the mountain
Shall find the harp of gold.
Played to wake the Sleepers,
Oldest of the old.
Power from the Greenwitch.
Lost beneath the sea.
All shall find the light at last;
And silver on the Tree"

[Andy]

Sue wrote: ""Fire on the mountain
Shall find the harp of gold.
Played to wake the Sleepers,
Oldest of the old.
Power from the Greenwitch.
Lost beneath the sea.
All shall find the light at last;
And silver on t..."

"The Mountains are Singing and the Lady Comes" (but in Welsh!)

[Michele]

Y maent yr mynyddoedd yn canu,
ac y mae’r arglwyddes yn dod.

[Sarah]

“On the day of the dead, when the year too dies,
Must the youngest open the oldest hills
Through the door of the birds, where the breeze breaks.
There fire shall fly from the raven boy,
And the silver eyes that see the wind,
And the light shall have the harp of gold."

[Michele]

Well, now that we've gotten onto harps, I have to jump the track and give a recommendation for another of my favorite YA fantasies: The Whispering Mountain. Set in the tiny Welsh town of Pennygaff, it's the story of a boy whose life is derailed by a museum robbery, a mysterious stranger, and a strange prophecy:

“When the Whispering Mountain shall scream aloud
And the castle of Malyn ride on a cloud,
Then Malyn's lord shall have and hold
The lost that is found, the harp of gold.
When Fig-hat Ben shall wear a shroud,
Then shall the despoiler, that was so proud,
Plunge headlong down from Devil's Leap;
Then shall the Children from darkness creep,
And the men of the glen avoid disaster,
And the Harp of Teirtu find her master.”

[Kate]

Anna !!
Is this solved? We need to know so we can shelve the book, mark this as solved and move on. If it is not solved, let us know and we'll keep looking.

It certainly does sound like The Dark Is Rising series. Will Stanton is the main character, and he is searching for circles with a cross or an X in them.

[Rainbowheart]

Still out there, Anna?

[John]

This could possibly be Susan Cooper's series starting with Over Sea, Under Stone but usually referred as The Dark is Rising sequence.

[STU]

Move it to solved.
I have no doubt it is The Dark is Rising series.