Alan Garner's four novels find the source of their inspiration in non-classical mythology and all contain elements of fantasy….
For Alan Garner there are no original stories: 'originality now means the personal colouring of existing themes, and some of the richest ever expressed are in the folklore of Britain.' (Note to The Moon of Gomrath.) For example, Elidor combines the story of Childe Roland with, among other things, the Irish myth of the Tuatha Dé Danaan who came from the 'southern isles of the world'. The four treasures of Elidor closely resemble Nuada's sword, Lugh's lance, Dagda's cauldron, and the Stone of Fal which they brought with them to Ireland. But Alan Garner takes these elements of myth and folklore and skilfully transmutes them, in an almost poetic way, into new metaphors of experience. By this process the half-forgotten stories and beliefs acquire a powerful, living reality, making their presence felt in the lives of the children of our complex, mechanistic, industrial society. (p. 45)
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