The Dark Is Rising

December 19, 2022 4:38 AM

Beginning Dec 20, the BBC is broadcasting daily episodes of a radio dramatization of Susan Cooper's classic children's fantasy novel The Dark Is Rising, with each episode corresponding (more or less) to a day in the story, moving from Midwinter's Eve to the Wild Hunt.

The novel follows an ordinary boy, Will Stanton, as he discovers he is far from ordinary and joins the fight to save the world from The Dark as it comes into power in the winter darkness. It is a fight he was born into, a lineage that goes back to King Arthur, and the story is based in British mythology. The book is actually the second in The Dark Is Rising Sequence, but is a great place to start if this is your very first time encountering them. You can join in the annual tradition of reading the book this time of year. The episodes are also being released as a BBC podcast, available, as they say, wherever you get your podcasts. The first episode just dropped on Apple Podcast.

posted by hydropsyche (41 comments total)

True story, the first book I ever stole was The Dark Is Rising. I liked the cover.
posted by Fizz at 5:08 AM on December 19, 2022 [10 favorites]

I loved these books so much as a kid, rereading them many times.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:59 AM on December 19, 2022 [4 favorites]

These stories meant so much to me. In the fourth grade, we had a teacher’s aid who started reading these to us, but left before she could finish the first book. I searched well into my late teens trying to figure out what that book was… and finally found them when I was 18. They were unlike anything else my midwestern US upbringing had presented to me before. I look forward to this!
posted by Silvery Fish at 6:05 AM on December 19, 2022 [8 favorites]

This had better be just right.

Each reading of these books has brought me more, the last time I read them I was reminded that while they are very much set across England, Wales and Cornwall you also know that the Old Ones are across the world, when Will Stanton's big brother receives a gift from a stranger at a festival in Jamaica.

Also too I become more impatient for some actual good and ancient powers to overwhelm all the dark stuff swirling around in the polycrisis. As a kid it felt romantic and fantastical and just imagine a boy with pale eyes and Merriman in all his incarnations / guises and Will so small and young but also powerful and ancient. 30 or so years on this story just feels necessary and maybe this time we can turn back the dark?
posted by pipstar at 6:12 AM on December 19, 2022 [5 favorites]

I always confuse these with Barbara Hambly's Darwath trilogy, starting with The Time of the Dark.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:16 AM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

Really looking forward to this, was thinking I might post on FanFare but this is also good. Guardian article here and an article about Cooper here (2012).
posted by paduasoy at 6:16 AM on December 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

I get on some long drives down some back roads for work, and this should be a good accompaniment for those trips.

This seems particularly relevant for these times we live in right now.
posted by cybrcamper at 6:36 AM on December 19, 2022

This is wonderful.
posted by biogeo at 6:44 AM on December 19, 2022

I love this series so much...my welsh/cornish grandma gave them to me and i was immediately hooked.
To me, they'll always have Sinead O'Connor as the soundtrack as I would listen to "i do not want what i havent got" on repeat as I would read them all in a rush...
posted by schyler523 at 6:53 AM on December 19, 2022

I have Over Sea, Under Stone at the top of my to-read pile by my bed right now. This is great!
posted by Gray Duck at 6:54 AM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

paduasoy — was thinking I might post on FanFare but this is also good

please do post on FanFare. I would love to join us all in a conversation of this enduring and seemingly eternal story.
posted by Silvery Fish at 6:54 AM on December 19, 2022

Here are links to the first episode, in Apple Podcasts, and in Overcast. I think / hope other platforms can work with the links in those?
posted by Pronoiac at 7:04 AM on December 19, 2022 [6 favorites]

The Overcast link also links to an RSS feed hosted by the BBC, which every standard podcast client can definitely read. Hooray for the open Internet and interoperable standards!
posted by biogeo at 7:20 AM on December 19, 2022 [5 favorites]

Thanks for the links! I don't know a ton about the podcast universe, so I really appreciate folks who know more filling those in.
posted by hydropsyche at 7:23 AM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

I loved these books so much. I started reading them around Christmas when I was almost nine and they were just about everything to me in my kid book life between Narnia (which immediately preceded) and Lord of the Rings (which came right after). They are my go-to christmas presents for nine/ten year olds. I can't wait to listen.
posted by thivaia at 7:24 AM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

I have always wanted to read this series, and this will be a great way to get into it -- so thank you!

Also, for those who enjoy the get_iplayer software, the series PID is w13xtvp7.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:30 AM on December 19, 2022

I am very excited about this. The Dark is Rising sequence is one of my longest and most frequently recommended literary loves, and I was lucky enough to meet Susan Cooper a few years ago at a book festival. She seemed shy and kind and brilliant.
posted by wicked_sassy at 7:31 AM on December 19, 2022 [6 favorites]

A couple of years ago we did this, with me reading The Dark Is Rising to the kids over the Christmas period, and then darting back to do Over Sea, Under Stone, and working through the remaining books over the next few months. They were the last books we read together as a family, and while I'm sad the tradition has finished for us I can't think of a better series to finish on.

(Alan Garner's classics The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Elidor and The Owl Service are not specifically Christmassy but have a similar resonance. His latest, Treacle Walker, has some of the same qualities; it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and can be devoured in one sitting--I did--but it's extraordinary.)
posted by Hogshead at 7:31 AM on December 19, 2022 [9 favorites]

Some books lose their magic as you get older, but these never do, somehow. I read The Dark is Rising every year at Christmas time, but it's really lovely to get a new dramatization and be able to listen along with a whole community of fans as it rolls out.
posted by LiminalKate at 7:47 AM on December 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

This night will be bad, and tomorrow will be beyond imagining.
posted by Zumbador at 7:58 AM on December 19, 2022 [9 favorites]

Hooray for the open Internet and interoperable standards!

I'm glad you linked the open feed, I'd assumed it was another BBC Sounds-only thing.

The BBC seems to be turning away from open podcast feeds as much as it can, it put a bunch of its podcasts behind a month's delay. Less of a big deal with In Our Time (which is as un-topical as it's possible to be), something of a problem with Inside Science, much more of a problem with Friday Night Comedy (naturally the BBC Sounds app doesn't have a delay!).
posted by BungaDunga at 8:20 AM on December 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

The first time I read The Dark Is Rising, as a kid, I nearly bounced off, because of the jarring transition in protagonist/s from Over Sea, Under Stone. When the OSUS protagonists were brought back in later, they felt like almost a cameo. Then, later, I felt like Will was shoved aside in favor of that Bran guy.

8yo me was pretty impatient, but Susan Cooper managed to write something that made me mad but still kept me reading. I hope this adaptation is so much more successful than that box office monstrosity.
posted by gurple at 9:00 AM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

Even as the kind of kid who read The Lord of the Rings in elementary school and had 8-sided dice before a baseball glove, somehow I am in Today's 10,000 on this story. I am greatly enjoying the production. Thanks for posting it!
posted by ob1quixote at 9:03 AM on December 19, 2022 [5 favorites]

I love this series so much. It's been many years since I last read any of the books, but they have a treasured spot in our very small collection of physical books. I picked up Over Sea, Under Stone randomly from a used books store in my home country when I was in high school. Loved it so, so much, but didn't know how to get the next books because this was pre-widespread Yahoo! search to find the author and the series. It was also way before buying things online was a thing. I may have discovered The Dark is Rising (and maybe The Grey King) at my high school library? And I remember my absolute disbelief and delight at managing to find Greenwitch at another used books store a few years later. I always made a point of looking over the fantasy YA section, even though I knew the chances were slim to none. I think it wasn't until I'd moved to Canada that I was able to finish the series. So it was a long, drawn-out reading experience and I felt so cool being one of the few to know about it, in my age group and friend group.

I remember there was a movie adaptation in the 2000s (?) but in typical Hollywood fashion they dumbed it down and leaned more into "kid can do cool magic tricks!" rather than the weight of ancient powers and responsibilities Will discovers to be his lot in life. And he can't just say no and walk away from it! I hope another movie or streaming platform will re-discover the material and do it justice in the future. But for now I'm excited to go back into the world via this podcast :) I see it is on Spotify.
posted by tinydancer at 9:10 AM on December 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

I've really been looking forward to this since reading the Guardian article... thanks for the reminder.

In return, a 2 day early gift for Susan Cooper lovers, her poem The Shortest Day :


And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us—listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome, Yule!

posted by protorp at 9:14 AM on December 19, 2022 [15 favorites]

I saw a reference to this a few months ago, and signed up in my podcast app, but then forgot about it. It was a lovely thing to see the first ep and listen to it last night as I went to bed.

I enjoyed the bit I heard, and I hope it continues to be good. I loved these novels as a child, and it's really nice to see such a respectful adaptation.
posted by suelac at 9:32 AM on December 19, 2022

It's not so much the Dark rising as it is the world turning it's face away from the light.
posted by straight at 9:47 AM on December 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

It's not so much the Dark rising as it is the world turning it's face away from the light.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled....
posted by gurple at 10:06 AM on December 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

I'm really looking forward to this, though I am waiting until the 20th (Midwinter's Day) to start listening.

Paduasoy's Guardian link is to an article by the writer Robert Macfarlane (described on his Wikipedia page as "best known for his books on landscape, nature, place, people and language") who is one of the people who adapted the book for this adaptation, and a huge fan of Susan Cooper, so I have little doubt it's going to be great.
posted by kumonoi at 10:13 AM on December 19, 2022 [6 favorites]

I loved these books growing up; they were read aloud to me the first time. For anyone interested, Michael Drout at Wheaton has an old article about them that, while written from a place of love for the texts, digs into the sources that inspired Cooper and how certain anglocentric ideas and perspectives on obedience to authority are embedded in the books. I found it nuanced and fascinating, though I suppose for some it might be an unwelcome intrusion into a feel-good read.

I can't find the full text now, I swear it used to be online somewhere, but the title is Reading the Signs of Light: Anglo Saxonism, Education and Obedience in Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising
The Lion and the Unicorn, 1997.
posted by Wretch729 at 10:19 AM on December 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

A recital of The Shortest Day for The Christmas Revels.
posted by biogeo at 11:22 AM on December 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

I reread these when my kid was younger and while it kept some of its magic, I remember irritation that girl and women characters were not as central or powerful. Though that was pretty normal for when they were written but all the great kid fantasy written since that does a better job (and lets girls be Chosen Ones) had spoiled me.

Also I think C.S. Lewis took a lot of the fun out of "what if Arthurian legends came alive" in That Hideous Strength, but that's hardly Cooper's fault.

I do credit Cooper with giving me a taste for pagan horror, though. Not a big step from these books to The Wicker Man.
posted by emjaybee at 1:30 PM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

I love the series as a whole, but as a child I found Will bland and irritating in The Dark is Rising, and smug and irritating in the later books. I think Silver on the Tree might be the first book that I threw across a room because I hated the ending.
posted by betweenthebars at 2:53 PM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yay! I'm excited. The 2007 adaptation sucked.

That article is linked at Project MUSE.

There's an old Angelfire site that appears to have the text.
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:45 PM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

my father gave me ‘greenwitch’ to read as a teenager and i loved the female-centric heart of that episode in the larger story. i immediately scored the rest of the series as i could find the books in the library and read it totally out of order, loving it anyway. i ended up reading the first book last, oddly enough. i then read it straight through in order. i still pick it up, as a middle-aged guy, every couple of years to immerse myself in that young peoples’ world. it is truly a magical series.
posted by buffalo at 5:15 PM on December 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

Yes, that was it thank you. The closing line is:

"Good" children, the sort who read complex "high fantasy" at the ages of nine and ten, the sort who choose the side of the Light, like to be reminded that they will be rewarded for their obedience. For centuries adults have worked very hard to encourage them in this belief.

Hit a little close to home. In a "yeah, stings a bit but it's probably good for me to think reflectively about that."
posted by Wretch729 at 6:37 PM on December 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

The Backlisted podcast did a great episode about The Dark Is Rising

Susan Cooper's magical novel The Dark Is Rising (1973) is the subject of a bumper Christmas special episode of Backlisted. Joining John and Andy to discuss this classic winter solstice read, and the four other books that make up the Dark Is Rising sequence, are writer Robert Macfarlane and writer and illustrator Jackie Morris, co-authors of The Lost Words and The Lost Spells and fellow Susan Cooper devotees. And because it is Christmas, John also talks about a beautiful ice-and-snow bound story from the Chuckchi people of the Bering Sea, When the Whales Leave by Yuri Rytkheu, and Andy reads The Tree Room, a poem from Caroline Bird's new collection The Air Year that seems to sum up the spirit of Christmas 2020. Wherever this podcast finds you in the world, Merry Christmas from us all. When the dark comes rising, six shall turn it back...
posted by Zumbador at 11:02 PM on December 19, 2022 [4 favorites]

Thank you for the link to Backlisted, Zumbador! Looks like a great podcast.
posted by suelac at 4:23 PM on December 20, 2022 [2 favorites]

Seconding thanks to Zumbador. I just listened to this episode, and see others in the back catalogue that I will follow up on, as well!

And thanks, hydropsyche, for the reminder of this book and series. It is all in my queue for winter's reading now.
posted by jaruwaan at 4:56 PM on December 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

I am so excited to hear about this! I picked up one of the books in the series from the public library as a kid and then bought all the paperbacks, which I have held onto into adulthood. My favorite series to re-read every year - they're now so old and well loved that one of them (The Dark is Rising, I think? I would get up and look but I am in bed) has snapped in half in the middle at the spine. Adding this to my podcast feed!
posted by janepanic at 7:15 PM on December 20, 2022

Also I think C.S. Lewis took a lot of the fun out of "what if Arthurian legends came alive" in That Hideous Strength

Kieron Gillen's comic book series Once and Future puts some fun back into "What if Arthurian legends came alive?" It starts with skinheads trying to resurrect Arthur hoping he will do an ethnic purge of England and gets crazier from there.
posted by straight at 11:08 AM on December 21, 2022 [1 favorite]