Duck/Mallard is dubiously identified with Tanamoril (the name means “youngest brother”), the piper and magician of many folktales. It is not known how far the tales confuse him with Tanamil.
Concerning Robin, we may point to the belief that a robin can answer the questions of those in trouble.
Gull seems to be the same as the Southern hero Gann, whom the witch Cennoreth went in search of.
The Weaver herself has been identified with the Lake Lady, the Fates, and with the southern cult figure of Libby Beer, but not satisfactorily. The witch Cennoreth is the most likely possibility. She is frequently called the Weaver of Spells. A drawback is that, like Gann, she figures only in stories told in the South. However, the name Cennoreth—which is a Southern form; the (unrecorded) Northern form would be Kanarthi—can be interpreted as River Daughter (Cenn-oreth), although another interpretation would make it Woman of the North (Cen-Noreth).
The places mentioned are harder to determine. Of several rivers which flow northward, the most probable river is perhaps the Aden, which has a tidal wave, or bore, on occasions, known as the Credin. It flows from its rising in Long Tarn toward the Rath Estuary in Aberath, but it is hard to make the Aden fit the Weaver’s description unless we postulate some major upheaval in the landscape since the days of the story. It has been calculated that her account should give the river a source somewhere above Hannart, near where the coats were found, but no river flows north from there today.
Elthorar Ansdaughter,
KEEPER OF ANTIQUITIES
AT HANNART IN NORTH DALEMARK
About the Author
DIANA WYNNE JONES wrote more than forty award-wining books of fantasy for young readers. For her body of work, she was awarded the British Fantasy Society’s Karl Edward Wagner Award for having made a significant impact on fantasy and the World Fantasy Society Lifetime Achievement Award.
www.dianawynnejones.com.
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Other Works
Also by
DIANA WYNNE JONES
Archer’s Goon
Aunt Maria
Believing Is Seeing: Seven Stories
Castle in the Air
The Dalemark Quartet, Volume 1
Dark Lord of Derkholm
Dogsbody
Eight Days of Luke
Fire and Hemlock
Hexwood
Hidden Turnings: A Collection of Stories Through Time and Space
The Homeward Bounders
Howl’s Moving Castle
The Merlin Conspiracy
The Ogre Downstairs
Power of Three
Stopping for a Spell
The Time of the Ghost
Unexpected Magic: Collected Stories
Warlock at the Wheel and Other Stories
Wild Robert
Witch’s Business
Year of the Griffin
Yes, Dear
THE WORLDS OF CHRESTOMANCI
Book 1: Charmed Life
Book 2: The Lives of Christopher Chant
Book 3: The Magicians of Caprona
Book 4: Witch Week
Book 5: Conrad’s Fate
Mixed Magics: Four Tales of Chrestomanci
The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume I
(Contains books 1 and 2)
The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume II
(Contains books 3 and 4)
Credits
Cover art © 2005 by Dan Craig
Cover design by Christopher Stengel
Cover © 2005 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
Maps by David Cuzic
Copyright
The Spellcoats copyright © 1979 by Diana Wynne Jones
First published in Great Britain in 1979 by Macmillan London Ltd.
Published in 1993 by Mandarin, an imprint of Reed Consumer Books Ltd.
First published in the United States in 1979 by Atheneum.
Published in 1995 by Greenwillow Books.
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EPub Edition © JANUARY 2012 ISBN 9780062200822
Also by Diana Wynne Jones
The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume I and Volume II
The Chrestomanci oversees the magic in all the worlds. Omnibus editions of the first four novels featuring Diana Wynne Jones’s most beloved characters. Contains Charmed Life, The Lives of Christopher Chant, Witch Week, and The Magicians of Caprona.
Conrad’s Fate
With the help of Christopher Chant, can Conrad figure out who is pulling the possibilities and putting his world at risk … and also stay ahead of his dark fate? A Chrestomanci Book.
The Dalemark Quartet, Volume 1 and Volume 2
Omnibus editions of all four books in the thrilling fantasy epic, The Dalemark Quartet: Cart and Cwidder, Drowned Ammet, The Spellcoats, and The Crown of Dalemark.
Dark Lord of Derkholm
When Derk is chosen to play Dark Lord, he is forced by the sinister Mr. Chesney to turn his country estate into a castle lit by baleful fires, manifest himself as a nine-foot-tall shadow, and lead his minions in a battle against the forces of good.
Year of the Griffin
At Wizard’s University, Wizard Derk’s griffin daughter Elda and her fellow first-year students encounter tyrannical tutors, boring lectures, and truly terrible refectory food.
Dogsbody
Sirius, immortal Lord of the Dog Star, is outraged when he is falsely accused of murder and banished to Earth. There he must live—and die—in the body of a dog unless he can retrieve a mysterious celestial weapon and thereby clear his name.
Fire and Hemlock
Polly tries to reconcile her two sets of memories and discover the truth behind her friendship with musician Tom Lynn in time to save him.
www.harperteen.com • www.dianawynnejones.com
Hexwood
Through her window, Ann watches person after person disappear through the gate of Hexwood Farm. Then strangeness spreads from Earth right out to the center of the galaxy.
The Homeward Bounders
After Jamie discovers that mysterious beings are manipulating worlds in an elaborate game, they send him bouncing from world to world—until he tries to use their own rules to defeat them.
Howl’s Moving Castle
When the Witch of the Waste turns Sophie into an old woman, Sophie finds refuge in the floating castle of a mysterious man. People and things are never quite what they seem in this entrancing fantasy.
Castle in the Air
Abdullah was content with his daydreams until the day a stranger sold him a magic carpet. This fast-paced fantasy is full of djinns, wizards, a floating castle, kidnapped princesses, and two puzzling prophecies.
The Merlin Conspiracy
Roddy, Nick, and Grundo come together from different worlds in an attempt to unseat the false Merlin of Blest, who threatens the very structure of all worlds.
A Tale of Time City
A girl evacuated from London during the Blitz is kidnapped to Time City in the far distant future, where she must help save both Time City and all of human history.
The Time of the Ghost
A nameless protagonist doesn’t know why she’s invisibly floating through the buildings and grounds of a half-remembered boarding school. Then, to her horror, she encounters the ancient evil that four peculiar sisters have unwittingly woken—a
nd learns she is the sisters’ only hope against a deadly danger.
Unexpected Magic: Collected Stories
In this riveting collection of stories, even the most routine lives are visited by extraordinary events.
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