Name: The Spellcoats (The Dalemark Quartet, Book 3)
ISBN: 9780008170691

Diana Wynne Jones

The third book in the epic fantasy-adventure series from ‘the Godmother of Fantasy’, Diana Wynne Jones. Now back in print!

The Spellcoats (The Dalemark Quartet, Book 3)

Tanaqui discovers she has the means to conquer the evil Kankredin who threatens her own people and the Heathens who have invaded prehistoric Dalemark.

Book Three of the Dalemark Quartet

The Spellcoats

Ryan LaFerney

The Spellcoats (#3 in the Dalemark Quartet) acts as a prequel of sorts to the previous entries in the quartet although it is the third book in the series. This takes place in prehistoric Dalemark, whose later history Jones dealt with in Cart and Cwidder (1977) and Drowned Ammet (1978); but there is no evident connection except that the characters of The Spellcoats have become legendary figures in the other novels. The story, all 280 pages, is purportedly being woven, as it happens, into the coats created by young narrator Tanaqui--at first, it seems, she weaves only to record her family's adventures, but later for the inherent magic power of the woven symbols. Orphaned by a war against blond, invading Heathens, Tanaqui and her siblings (who look like the Heathens) are expelled from their village and embark on a long journey down river to an encounter with an evil enchanter out to capture their souls. The children carry with them three ancestral figures called the Undying. (For a while they also carry an ailing older brother, magically transformed into a clay figure.) They learn en route that The One, the most revered of the three figures, is the supreme river god and their own grandfather, and that their dead mother is also the river--and like Grandfather, a god and one of the figures (the Lady). 

As usual with DWJ, siblings are at the center. They're not a perfect family--this would not be a book by DWJ if they were. Tanaqui gets impatient with her siblings, especially her sister Robin; Hern is a rationalist who doesn't believe in magic (unfortunate, because it seems to surround them) and Duck gets all vague whenever trouble threatens. But this is exactly what makes the story work, because it's the conflicts between them that create the conflict that drives the story. Their encounter with the evil Kankredin (a stealer of souls and weaver) is perfect because the children have to learn to overcome their conflicts if they are to survive. Tanaqui fights with her brothers and wants to shake her sister, but they all still love each other and support one another.

The main conceit of this book, as mentioned above, is that Tanaqui, a master weaver, is telling the story through weaving it into a giant "rugcoat"; those who know how can read it. DWJ's skill makes this conceit hold together, as Tanaqui tells the story as if it's all already happened (which it has) and the "coats" end and begin in places where Tanaqui would have the ability to weave. This acts as interesting yet initially confusing storytelling device but about half through the novel things start to fall in place.

It’s also easy to not realize that The Spellcoats is part of a quartet. Of the four books, it’s by far the most independent. It’s set centuries (maybe millennia) prior to the first two books in the series, and connects only in an epilogue (until the fourth book ties things together more).


I believe this book deserves multiple rereads to be fully appreciated. I plan to revisit it one day soon.

The Spellcoats (The Dalemark Quartet, Book 3)

Reviews

Highlights