Cart and Cwidder

Cart and Cwidder is the first book of the Jones' Dalemark Quartet, and though it's quite good I think the others are better. It tells the story of Moril, the son of the bard Clennen. Clennen and his family live in a gaudy pink cart and travel from town to town singing and bringing news. The country of Dalemark is ruled by powerful earls, and is divided by north and south. The North is free, but the South is not, and the bards have to be careful what songs they play in the South for fear of being taken as insurrectionists. Occasionally Clennen's family will take on a passenger of sorts, and as this story opens they have agreed to take a young boy named Kialan to the North.

Clennen has an old cwidder, a stringed instrument of some kind, show more that has a special power, and eleven-year-old Moril is learning to play it. But the power of the ancient cwidder will only work under certain conditions, and before Moril can get very far in his lessons, Clennen is murdered before his family's eyes. This plunges Moril, his brother Dagner, and his sister Brid into a dangerous journey involving far more than minstrelsy.

I love how Jones delineates the characters and their relationships. No one is perfect; even big, expansive Clennen has his imperfections, and it is a mark of Moril's emerging maturity that he is able to perceive them. Clennen's relationship with his wife Lenina is also very interesting. She was a lord's daughter who was witched away from her betrothed by the magic of Clennen's cwidder. She hates the life in the cart, but remains with Clennen from a sense of duty.

Moril's older brother Dagner is an artist with true genius, despite his lack of Clennen's jolly showmanship skills. Brid is like her father in her love for an audience, but she lacks her father's musical skills. Moril is dreamy and detached, but with an acute ability to observe those around him. These distinct personalities come together to create a very believable and compelling family.

The only issue I had with the book was that it didn't seem the children dealt with their father's murder very realistically. There wasn't much mourning about it, even though they had loved him a great deal. I know they had other things happening in a hurry right after his death, but I felt there wasn't enough disorientation and shock. It was a little too businesslike.

Jones' writing is very sharp and crisp, without making too much fuss about itself. The story and characters are the focus, and they are well worth it. I read Cart and Cwidder as a young teen and was not overly impressed with it — deeming it, if I remember correctly, as passable fantasy with nothing terribly compelling about it. I was certainly never seized with a desire to reread. But I'm glad I picked it up again. Dalemark feels real and the story is really quite well-written. And yet the next two in the series are better yet. Recommended! show less

Dalemark is deeply fractured. The North and South are separated by deep suspicion and conflict, while the Earls of the South rule with an iron fist, brutally punishing dissent.

Clennen, Lenina, and their children, traveling musicians, tour in a brightly painted cart. Because traveling performers rarely attract suspicion, they secretly act as messengers and spread news across the divided borders.

They agree to transport an arrogant passenger named Kialan to the North. Shortly after, Southern soldiers ambushes the group and murders the father, Clennen, suspecting him of being a Northern spy.

Following the tragedy, Lenina, the mother, returns to her high-born family in the South and remarries. However, Moril, Dagner, and Brid realize the show more town's Lord was involved in their father's death. Together with Kialan, they flee in their brightly painted cart, attempting to reach the North.

While traveling, Moril discovers that the cwidder, a traditional stringed instrument inherited from his father, possesses a deep, ancient magic. The cwidder originally belonged to the legendary, divine figure Osfameron. Throughout their harrowing escape, Moril must learn to harness its power to protect his siblings and stop the looming threat of war. show less

Originally published in 1975. I really wish I had read this short novel as a kid. I still enjoyed reading it now, but I think it would have been one of my favorite books if I had read it at a younger age.
Although a YA novel, with a fun and fast-moving, adventurous tone, this book doesn't shy away from ‘heavier' emotional issues and political situations.
The feudal land of Dalemark is divided, and the South is extremely politically repressive. But people depend on traveling minstrels for not only entertainment but news and mail delivery – so entertainers have a more free rein than most. Moril has spent his whole life traveling and performing with his family from a horse-drawn cart, singing and playing the cwidder across the land.
But show more when his father is murdered by a group of richly-dressed men, his mother immediately chooses to return to the stable, well-to-do suitor that she left for a musician years before. Moril and his brother and sister, driven both by suspicions that their mother's new beau had something to do with the murder, and a lack of enthusiasm for a bourgeois lifestyle, take the cart and strike out on their own, agreeing to take the young man who had been their family's passenger to his destination in the North.
More trouble awaits than they had bargained on however, as secrets regarding an underground political movement are revealed, and the children realize that their life was not all the happy-go-lucky glamour that it seemed. Soon they're well in over their heads – which makes it convenient that Moril's inherited cwidder, reputed to have belonged to the legendary bard Osfameron, may have more-than-simply-musical powers. show less

Considering how much I loved the Crestomanci and Howl's Moving Castle series as a child I am shocked that I never actually read the Dalemark series. I have a vague recollection (which may be false) of trying to read them long ago - and hating them - but during this attempt I had the exact opposite reaction! The story is action-packed, the detals are rich, and Jones' character come alive on the pages as she creates a new world with new conflicts for readers to explore. I am sure that this series will become quite enthralling as Jones weaves a tale of magic, music, and personal discovery in the remaining three novels.

So close to 5 stars from me (Diana Wynne Jones is a wonderful, wonderful writer), but I had some trouble accepting that the characters would be so chill about the astonishing life events befalling them—the mother, in particular, didn't ring true to me. Sorry, Ms. Jones. Otherwise it's the usual melange of likable viewpoint character, distinctive supporting cast, slightly tricksy plot, the occasional unexpected reveal, and a lot of frustration—I'm reading a collection of her short stories at the same time, and it seems like frustrated exasperation is the main mental state of most of her protagonists, you expect them to walk around going "urgh!" all the time (and then after venting, getting down to business, of course).

(Note: 5 stars show more = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, I'm a bit more ruthless. show less

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/cart-and-cwidder-by-diana-wynne-jones/

I had read this ages ago, probably soon after it came out in 1975. It’s the first published of one of Diana Wynne Jones’ cycles of novels for young adult readers, the Dalemark Quartet. Our protagonist, teenage Moril, is the youngest boy in a family of travelling musicians and players in a fantasy world where there is magic, dynastic politics, and feuds between local warlords. His life is disrupted by a brutal murder in an early chapter, but this brings him an ancient cwidder – a musical instrument which seems to be in the lute family – which turns out to have its own special powers. There are some beautifully observed family and social dynamics, and some show more rather stunning descriptive passages. I’m not sure if this book is as well known as it deserves. show less

A family of musicians traveling on the somewhat oppressive and repressed south of Dalemark perform in towns and villages, passing messages and news as they go. An unwelcome passenger creates tensions and problems, and when tragedy strikes, everything seems to fall apart. Wynne Jones expertly crafts an other-world fantasy around family and music and a fight for freedom.