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"devilish" and evil aspect in Christian times. The Rider came to be identified with Satan, the antlers on his head probably making the comparison between the two easier. The hounds of the Celtic underworld, not at all an evil place in

'I the ancient mythology, became the hounds of hell, their æ

4 appearance foretelling disasters of one kind or another. On " the example of the Wild Hunt one can see how, after the

introduction of Christianity, the original meaning of Celtic % beliefs became distorted almost beyond recognition.

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The distortion of this particular myth serves an interesting purpose in modern children's fiction. The Wild Hunt is a popular subject among fantasy writers. It appears in such books as the above-mentioned The Wild Hunt of Haqworthy as well as in The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner and The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper. The reason behind its popularity can be found in the context it is used in. The authors usually reach for it when they want to explain the notion of cruelty, which they realise some readers may find difficult to accept. For this purpose some authors introduce a division of magic into different kinds [6] , some of them going far back in time. The further back into the past you go, the more "simple" and "primitive" the values become, until they cease to be values at all and start to be identified with the wild forces of nature which cannot be judged according to the present-day scale. Several authors suggest that, if something is beyond

the set of values people live by nowadays, they are no longer able to comprehend it- Some writers, like Pat D Shea for example, make this point very clear. When Pidge and Brigit meet the Maines they discover that only their heads are there in the field while their bodies are buried somewhere else. Understandably, they are rather appalled by their discovery. Noticing the children's disgust, one of the Maines explains:

We know it is hard for you to understand, for what is believed in one man's time, is despised in another man's day. To be sure, there will even be revulsion in some future years at things you hardly notice, that are happening in what is known to you as the present- It's nothing new. C73

As has already been said, going back to "primitive" values is especially convenient when the authors are confronted with the problem of explaining the cruelty which appears in their stories, sometimes abundantly. However, as cruelty in modern society is no longer acceptable, in order to justify its appearance in the text the authors simply tell the reader that the acts of cruelty are performed by the forces which belong to the world of the past, governed by instinct rather than principles- The savage figures are representatives of the Old Magic, which contains "old evil". The latter is a very convenient term for any writer who wishes to describe something the reader may find disturbing.

In The Moon of Gomrath this old evil is embodied by the Hunter and his Wild Hunt, who enjoy the slaughter and who

are from "a cruel day of the world" C83 . In The Dark is Rising Sequence the Old Magic is represented by Herne the Hunter who stands for savagery. When Will meets Herne, he sees in his faces

cruelty, and a pitiless impulse to revenge. ... The yellow eyes ... had grown cold, abstracted, a chill fire mounting in them that brought the cruel lines back to the face. But Will saw the cruelty now as the fierce inevitability of nature. [93

The authors' insistence that cruelty is characteristic of the ancient, long forgotten times is typical of the modern man's attitude towards the past. Previous ages, especially the pre-Renaissance ones, are often regarded as considerably more barbaric than our own. By implication, modern behaviour and values are thought to be much more refined than those of our ancestors. But is it not purely the reflection of modern man's conceit and self-satisfaction? We do not have to look far back to find most appalling examples of pre-meditated cruelty among the nations considered to be among the most "civilised" in European culture. Some authors, like O'Shea, for example, try to abolish this "old evil" stereotype by pointing out that the ancient times were not as "barbaric" as the modern reader might think, and that the cruelty that is often associated with them is the result of different values, not of a naturally savage disposition of people living at that time. More frequently, however, writers adopt the opposite attitude. Cooper's Herne comes from a "cruel day" and

stands for primitive savagery. Nevertheless, even though cruelty is never approved of. Will and other characters in Cooper's novels accept that it must exist in order for the good to defeat the bad, and the reader is invited to do so as well. Significantly, the characters who perform cruel deeds are never contemporary to the protagonists and the reader is never encouraged to sympathise with them. Cruelty is, quite naturally, unavoidable on a battlefield during bloody combats which, as the reader easily notices, almost always decide the outcome of the conflict between good and evil. That battles are a common feature of fantasy books is quite understandable, taking into account that these books are written for children. Battles between armies are more colourful and picturesque than mere descriptions of abstract conflicts or psychological encounters. Ursula Le Guin manages to make the latter into an interesting and full of suspense adventure in her The Earthsea Books. but even Ged's fight with the evil shadow-beast he released is, on the surface, physical. Moreover, children, who are too young to understand psychology, understand battles rather well, as they frequently fight them themselves. And since in a child's world there are no grey areas - things are either white or black, just as they are in fantasy novels - the fictional conflict between the two forces fought out on a battlefield is, in a way, an extension of their own worlds.

restricting the author not just to one element of a legend but to an entire myth, can be illustrated by the example of Alan Garner's fourth fantasy novel, and his most successful one. The Owl Service, It differs from the three previous ones, which will be discussed later, in many respects, but at present we will deal with only one, that is with the way the myth functions in the novel. In contrast to his first two fantasy novels. The Weirdstone of Brisinoamen and The Moon of Gomrath, here Garner is very faithful to the original source. As a background to his book he has taken a story from The Mabinooion called "Math Son of Mathonwy". The second part of this story describes how Gwydyon and Math [10] conjure a girl out of flowers and give her as a wife to Lieu. The girl, called Blodeuedd, soon meets another man, Goronwy. The two fall in love and decide that Lieu must be killed. This, however, is not easy, as he can be killed only in very special circumstances. Blodeuedd, pretending to be concerned about her husband, manages to get the secret of his death out of him and passes it on to Goronwy who, at the right moment, hits Lieu with a spear. After he has been hit Lieu, surprisingly, does not die, but takes the shape of an eagle and flies away. Some time later he is found by Gwydyon and given back his human shape. In revenge, Blodeuedd is changed into an owl and Goronwy is killed by Lieu. The Owl Servi ce describes how this ancient legend is re-born in modern-day Wales. The interesting fact about the book is that, although it is so faithful to the story from The Mabinooion. neither the characters nor the

reader, even the one who is familiar with Celtic stories, initially know that the events are based on an ancient tale. We discover it quite late and even then we are presented only with very small fragments of the story. Moreover, unlike in Garner's first two books for children, the ancient characters do not appear in this novel. It is only the pattern of the story that is repeated: three people are entangled in a web of love, hate, revenge and pride. The action takes place in the same valley as in The Mabinooion and of all the unwilling actors in the ancient drama at least one is a descendant either of Lieu or, more probably, of Gwydyon. Huw, Gwyn's father, calls himself "the lord in blood to this valley" and it is known from The Mabinooion that it was Lieu who governed the place. Nevertheless, quite often Huw identifies himself with Gwydyon- For example, while explaining to Roger why he is called Halfbacon, he tells the boy that it is because he cheated an owner of pigs into giving them to him in exchange for horses, shields and dogs made out of toadstools. This event is taken out of "Math Son of Mathonwy", whose first part describes how Gwydyon outwitted Pryderi by giving him twelve horses with gold saddles and bridles, twelve gold shields and twelve greyhounds made out of mushrooms in exchange for pigs, which were very rare and sought-after animals at that time.

Garner, being faithful to the original story, at the same time improves on it by endowing his characters with a

feature they lack in the original, namely feelings. The characters in The Mabiniaion are flat and not very convincing psychologically. This, indeed, is characteristic of the majority of myths and legends, which are concerned with action rather than psychological motivation. Blodeuedd and Goronwy fall in love with each other the moment they meet, and the next day they decide to kill Lieu. Both these

% events are, strictly speaking, probable, though the latter

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