![]() First edition cover | |
Author | Nancy Bond |
---|---|
Illustrator | Allen Davis |
Cover artist | Allen Davis |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Children's Fantasy |
Publisher | Atheneum Books |
Publication date | 1976 |
Media type | |
Pages | 370 pp |
Awards | Newbery Honor 1977 Tir na n-Og Award 1977 |
ISBN | 068950036X |
OCLC | 14272089 |
A String in the Harp is a children's fantasy novel by Nancy Bond first published in 1976. It received a 1977 Newbery Honor award and the Welsh Tir na n-Og Award. It tells of the American Morgan family who temporarily move to Wales, where Peter Morgan finds a magical harp key that gives him vivid visions of the past. This well-received novel is an unusual time travel story, with its focus on the emotional pain and separation the Morgans experience after the death of their mother and the gradual healing they find through their experiences.
The novel is about the American Morgan family and their experiences in Wales. The Morgan family originally settled in Wales at the behest of Mrs. Morgan, who wanted to relocate from Boston. Mrs. Morgan passes away before the start of the novel, leaving her family in Wales. The novel opens a year after her death as the older daughter Jen is flying from America to Wales to join her family for Christmas.
Mr. Morgan has taken a temporary teaching position at the University of Aberystwyth and with the two younger children is living in a nearby seaside village. Jen is dismayed to find their home cold and uncomfortable, her brother and sister unhappy, and their father ignoring them. She eventually convinces her father to let her remain with the family in Wales instead of finishing high school in America. To supplement the lack of a traditional education, her father gives her challenging reading assignments.
Peter Morgan, who dislikes living in Wales, becomes fascinated by a mysterious object that he found by the shore. He finds out that it is a harp-tuning key that once belonged to the Celtic bard Taliesin. The key has a subtle magical power that enables Peter to see visions of Taliesin's life. Soon it is not only Peter who is seeing visions, and the whole family witnesses an ancient battle on Borth Bog, although they do not realize what is happening. A she-wolf is caught in a hunt, despite their being extinct in Wales.
John Owen of the National Museum gets wind of the key's existence and tries to obtain it for the museum. However, Peter becomes convinced that the key should instead be returned to Taliesin. At the end of the story, Peter manages to find Taliesin's secret grave and return the key.
The principal setting is Borth, a coastal village near Aberystwyth. Other scenes are set in contemporary Aberystwyth and Cardiff and in sixth-century Britain.
In the past
Bond began A String in the Harp while looking for a job after returning to the United States from a year in graduate school studying librarianship in Aberystwyth. [1] She drew closely on her experiences and reactions to write the book, saying "the American family notices and adjusts to the same things I did". [1] She did not intend to write a fantasy. "I consider myself a realistic kind of person, and it really surprised me in many ways that the first book I should write would be a fantasy." [2] According to Elizabeth Briggs in On the Inside Looking In: Contemporary Anglo-Welsh Fantasy, non-Welsh authors use Welsh mythology in their books to develop a sense of fantasy and unreality. [3] But Bond found using Taliesin's life was a good way to introduce Welsh history into the story. Because he was already associated with the area she was writing about and his presence helped convey a sense of the country's age to her American reading audience, she chose to use him as her link to Wales' past. She needed a talisman to trigger the fantasy sections of the story, and when she read that harp keys are essential for tuning she knew she had found an object she could use in the book. [2] The visions the key brings to Peter and the others tie the various elements of the story together. [1]
Taliesin was a British poet, or bard, of the 6th Century. The details of his life are sketchy and come only from his own poetry, so Bond filled in specific elements to suit her story. As mentioned in the book, Bedd Taliesin does mean 'Taliesins' grave', but his actual burial site is unknown. [4] Although later mythology places him in the court of King Arthur, [5] Bond wanted Taliesin to appear as real as possible, to help ground the fantasy sections of the book in reality. [2]
As a time travel fantasy, Deborah O'Keefe in Readers in Wonderland considered A String in the Harp an unusual form of the "Junior-Year-Abroad type of fantasy" [6] because the children observe Taliesin and his world but never fully enter it. Another element that sets the novel apart from other time-travel books is the strong sense of realism [7] that helps make her time-travel story convincing. [8]
A String in the Harp has been compared to Susan Cooper's contemporary fantasy The Dark Is Rising Sequence . Both writers produced novels in the 1970s based on Welsh mythology, including the Mabinogion. [9] Louisa Smith in the International Companion Encyclopedia Of Children's Literature, says Bond and Cooper "use the intrusion of the supernatural into everyday life as both threat and challenge". [10] : 297 Children's Literature also compared the two writers, but felt that Bond's book emphasized family more than Cooper's, and that Bond used her magic as a way of bringing about growth in the Morgan's lives. [11]
The Newbery Companion calls A String in the Harp a "story of friendship and family problems". [12] The difficulties between Peter and his father, and the entire family's attempts to cope with their grief over their mother's death, form the core of the novel. Their problems, and their struggle to accept the changes that entails, form the core of the book. [1] University professor, author and folklore expert C. W. Sullivan said that "without the traditional Welsh materials, A String in the Harp would be just another adolescent problem novel". [13]
In A String in the Harp Jenny is frustrated with her father's attitude toward Peter but she accepts his ineffectual parenting with little protest, [14] and stays in Wales to take care of the house and her family, even though this means she will miss at least one year of high school. Writing in "A Guide to Newbery Medal Winners And Honor Books, 1977-1994", Judith Kinman calls Jenny's taking over running the house after her mother's death sexist, and says it makes the book difficult to recommend to young readers. She also cites Jenny's belief that she should be able to mediate between her father and brother as an example of stereotyping a girl's role as caregiver. [15]
Though Mr. Morgan is a university professor, Peter grumbles constantly about school and the irrelevant facts he feels forced to learn, including Welsh. Jenny is allowed to stay in Wales and miss a year of school though she does do some reading and keeps a journal. Thus, according to Ann Hildebrand in The Dreary Time: The Ethos of School in Award-Winning Fiction for Children, Bond's book reinforces the idea that school is an unpleasant necessity that keeps a child from more enjoyable and meaningful activities. [16]
Gladys Hunt, in Read for Your Life, gives two themes for the book. The first speaks of the possibility of magical happenings in the real world. Though Jenny at first refuses to imagine that Peter's talk of visions could be true, other characters are not so certain. Mr. Evans the farmer maintains that there are "things as can't be explained", [17] : 88 despite the skepticism of his family. Later in the story Jenny visits Professor Rhys and tells him about Peter's visions, hoping he will give her a reasonable explanation for them. Instead he shocks her by admitting he believes magical occurrences are possible and superstitions may be rooted in facts, saying "the more I learn the less I know... Why should there not be forces we do not understand?" [17] : 197 The second theme Hunt mentions is that people's lives form patterns, sometimes woven together so that the actions of one may affect another's, even centuries apart, as Peter returning Taliesin's key brings peace to both of them.
A String in the Harp received a Newbery Honor award for 1977. [18] It also won the 1977 International Reading Association Children's Book Award, was named an American Library Association Notable Book, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, [19] and Horn Book Magazine named it a Best Book for 1977. [20] The Welsh National Centre for Children's Literature gave A String in the Harp the Tir na n-Og Award for the best book written in English with "an authentic Welsh background". [21] Though A String in the Harp received the Tir na n-Og Award in 1977, as of 1995 it still had not been published in Britain. [22]
Along with awards A String in the Harp received positive reviews from major publications. [23] Kirkus Reviews praised the descriptions of the Welsh country and weather and the likability of the characters. Kirkus also appreciated that Bond managed to avoid any excesses of the typical Arthurian fantasy, keeping the family's growth and emotional healing as the focus. [24] Elleman reported some reviewers have criticized the length of the book, but feels those who finish it will find it memorable. [1] In Read for Your Life Gladys Hunt tells teens "you may find this to be one of the most satisfying books of fantasy you have ever read". [25]
Susan Mary Cooper is an English author of children's books. She is best known for The Dark Is Rising, a contemporary fantasy series set in England and Wales, which incorporates British mythology such as the Arthurian legends and Welsh folk heroes. For that work, in 2012 she won the lifetime Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association, recognizing her contribution to writing for teens. In the 1970s two of the five novels were named the year's best English-language book with an "authentic Welsh background" by the Welsh Books Council. In 2024, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association named her the 40th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master in recognition of her significant contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy.
Lloyd Chudley Alexander was an American author of more than 40 books, primarily fantasy novels for children and young adults. Over his seven-decade career, Alexander wrote 48 books, and his work has been translated into 20 languages. His most famous work is The Chronicles of Prydain, a series of five high fantasy novels whose conclusion, The High King, was awarded the 1969 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature. He won U.S. National Book Awards in 1971 and 1982.
In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.
Taliesin was an early Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the Book of Taliesin. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to have sung at the courts of at least three kings.
The Mabinogion are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created c. 1350–1410, as well as a few earlier fragments. The title covers a collection of eleven prose stories of widely different types, offering drama, philosophy, romance, tragedy, fantasy and humour, and created by various narrators over time. There is a classic hero quest, "Culhwch and Olwen"; a historic legend in "Lludd and Llefelys", complete with glimpses of a far off age; and other tales portray a very different King Arthur from the later popular versions. The highly sophisticated complexity of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi defies categorisation. The stories are so diverse that it has been argued that they are not even a true collection.
The Grey King is a contemporary fantasy novel by Susan Cooper, published almost simultaneously by Chatto & Windus and Atheneum in 1975. It is the fourth of five books in her Arthurian fantasy series The Dark is Rising.
The Owl Service is a low fantasy novel for young adults by Alan Garner, published by Collins in 1967. Set in modern Wales, it is an adaptation of the story of the mythical Welsh woman Blodeuwedd, an "expression of the myth" in the author's words.
Kate Roberts was one of the foremost Welsh-language authors of the 20th century. Styled Brenhines ein llên, she is known mainly for her short stories, but also wrote novels. Roberts was a prominent Welsh nationalist.
The Chronicles of Prydain is a pentalogy of children's high fantasy Bildungsroman novels written by American author Lloyd Alexander and published by Henry Holt and Company. The series includes: The Book of Three (1964), The Black Cauldron (1965), The Castle of Llyr (1966), Taran Wanderer (1967), and The High King (1968). The Black Cauldron earned a 1966 Newbery Honor, and The High King won the 1969 Newbery Medal.
The Dark Is Rising Sequence is a series of five contemporary fantasy novels for older children and young adults that were written by the British author Susan Cooper and published from 1965 to 1977. The first book in the series, Over Sea, Under Stone, was originally conceived as a stand-alone novel, and the sequence gets its name from the second novel in the series, The Dark Is Rising. The Dark Is Rising Sequence is used as an over-arching title in several omnibus, boxed-set, and coordinated editions; but the title of The Dark is Rising is also used for the whole series.
Robin McKinley is an American author best known for her fantasy novels and fairy tale retellings. Her 1984 novel The Hero and the Crown won the Newbery Medal as the year's best new American children's book. In 2022, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association named her the 39th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master in recognition of her significant contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy.
Irene Hunt was an American children's writer known best for historical novels. She was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal for her first book, Across Five Aprils, and won the medal for her second, Up a Road Slowly. For her contribution as a children's writer she was U.S. nominee in 1974 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition available to creators of children's books.
Jenny Nimmo is a British author of children's books, including fantasy and adventure novels, chapter books, and picture books. Born in England, she has lived mostly in Wales for 40 years. She is probably best known for two series of fantasy novels: The Magician Trilogy (1986–1989), contemporary stories rooted in Welsh myth, and Children of the Red King (2002–2010), featuring schoolchildren endowed with magical powers. The Snow Spider, first of the Magician books, won the second annual Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and the 1987 Tir na n-Og Award as the year's best originally English-language book with an authentic Welsh background. The Stone Mouse was highly commended for the 1993 Carnegie Medal. Several others of hers have been shortlisted for children's book awards.
Nancy Barbara Bond is an American author of children's literature. In 1977 her first book, A String in the Harp, was fantasy novel with an element of folklore, set in West Wales. It received a Newbery honor and the Welsh Tir na n-Og Award, and remains in print.
Joan Baehler Bauer is an American writer of young adult literature currently residing with her husband Evan Bauer in Brooklyn. Bauer was born in River Forest, Illinois. They are the parents of one daughter, Jean. Before becoming a famous author Joan spent years working for McGraw-Hill and the Chicago Tribune. She also did some work in advertising, marketing, and screenwriting.
Jennifer Sullivan is a Welsh writer for children and adults, and a former literary critic. She is best known for her Magic Apostrophe series of children's fantasy books. She is a recipient of the Tir na n-Og Award.
Cantre'r Gwaelod, also known as Cantref Gwaelod or Cantref y Gwaelod, is a legendary ancient sunken kingdom said to have occupied a tract of fertile land lying between Ramsey Island and Bardsey Island in what is now Cardigan Bay to the west of Wales. It has been described as a "Welsh Atlantis" and has featured in folklore, literature, and song.
Elizabeth Wright Enright Gillham was an American writer of children's books, an illustrator, writer of short stories for adults, literary critic and teacher of creative writing. Perhaps best known as the Newbery Medal-winning author of Thimble Summer (1938) and the Newbery runner-up Gone-Away Lake (1957), she also wrote the popular Melendy quartet. A Newbery Medal laureate and a multiple winner of the O. Henry Award, her short stories and articles for adults appeared in many popular magazines and have been reprinted in anthologies and textbooks.
The Magician Trilogy is a series of three children's fantasy novels by the British author Jenny Nimmo, first published by Methuen 1986 to 1989. It is sometimes called the Snow Spider trilogy or series after the first book and The Snow Spider Trilogy is the title of its omnibus editions. The stories are inspired by Welsh mythology, with elements borrowed from Mabinogion. Set in contemporary Wales, they feature Gwyn Griffiths, a boy descended from Gwydion who discovers and develops some of the magical power in his lineage.
The Tir na n-Og Awards are a set of annual children's literary awards in Wales from 1976. They are presented by the Books Council of Wales to the best books published during the preceding calendar year in each of three awards categories, one English-language and two Welsh-language. Their purpose is "[to raise] the standard of children's and young people's books and to encourage the buying and reading of good books." There is no restriction to fiction or prose. Each prize is £1,000.
a string in the harp nancy bond.