Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Whispering Mountain
    Unavailable
    The Whispering Mountain
    Unavailable
    The Whispering Mountain
    Ebook278 pages4 hours

    The Whispering Mountain

    By Joan Aiken

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Winner of the Guardian Prize for Fiction

    In the small town of Pennygaff, where Owen has been sent to live after his mother's death, a legendary golden harp has been found. Knowing of the prophesy of the Harp of Teirtu, Owen must prevent the magic harp from falling into the evil clutches of its reputed owner, the sinister and diabolical Lord Mayln. But it won't be easy. Owen and his friend Arabis are plunged into a hair-raising adventure of intrigue, kidnapping, exotic underground worlds, savage beasts...even murder.

    For only too late will Owen learn that Lord Mayln will stop at nothing to have the golden harp.



    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMay 19, 2002
    ISBN9781466820593
    Unavailable
    The Whispering Mountain
    Author

    Joan Aiken

    Joan Aiken, daughter of the American writer Conrad Aiken, was born in Rye, Sussex, England, and has written more than sixty books for children, including The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

    Read more from Joan Aiken

    Related authors

    Related to The Whispering Mountain

    Related ebooks

    Children's Fantasy & Magic For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Echoes

      Jun 29, 2022

      Echoes
      9 min read

    • Article

      Housewarming

      Dec 1, 2022

      DENNIS MCFARLAND’S most recent novel is Nostalgia. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, and the Scholar, among other places. When Kevin arrived at the top floor and stepped into a long dark hallway, he couldn’t re

      21 min read

    • Article

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows

      Nov 1, 2022

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows
      11 min read

    • Article

      Read A Sneak Peek of IMPOSSIBLE CREATURES

      Sep 6, 2023

      The murderer arrived by boat. He came gently, with a soft tread and beautifully clean hands. He strode past a group of men and women hauling in a catch of fire-fish, his knife out of sight in his pocket. They glanced round at him, but he only nodded

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      May 3, 2023

      IN COMPETITION No 292 you were invited to write a poem called The Walk. How good and numerous were your entries. Congratulations to those printed below, each of whom wins £25, with the bonus prize of The Chambers Dictionary going to Anthony Young. I'

      2 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Walk Home

      Mar 29, 2021

      The Walk Home
      10 min read

    • Article

      It’s Come to This

      Sep 1, 2021

      It’s Come to This
      16 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Jun 1, 2023

      Table Talk
      11 min read

    • Article

      Second Language

      Aug 14, 2017

      Second Language
      9 min read

    • Article

      THE BLACK SPIDER Part Two

      Oct 30, 2019

      THE BLACK SPIDER Part Two
      25 min read

    • Article

      The Last Lady of California

      Apr 6, 2021

      The Last Lady of California
      16 min read

    • Article

      Echoes

      Jun 22, 2022

      Echoes
      9 min read

    • Article

      Katharine Kilalea

      Jun 15, 2018

      Katharine Kilalea
      51 min read

    • Article

      Maxim Osipov

      Mar 9, 2021

      Vnukovo is the smallest, most intimate of Moscow’s airports, and when your flight arrives—especially if it arrives on Saturday at eleven at night—you don’t expect to see much of a crowd. Stamps in the passport, baggage claim—quick and easy. “Where ar

      14 min read

    • Article

      HERNAN BAS New and Recent Work

      Dec 15, 2018

      HERNAN BAS New and Recent Work
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Secret

      Sep 28, 2021

      The Secret
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tracing Footsteps Not My Own: Going Through the Motions, Learning to Write

      Jan 25, 2019

      This is a story about writing and failing and trying to feel less alone. I suppose it’s also about “finding myself” with Sandburg's same reckless ecstasy. The post Tracing Footsteps Not My Own: Going Through the Motions, Learning to Write appeared fi

      11 min read

    • Article

      Are You Lonesome Tonight?

      Aug 8, 2019

      Are You Lonesome Tonight?
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Whispering Mountain

    4/5

    3 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      When I was young I always loved books with a map. Re-reading it now it is the language that brings it to life for me. The London villains speak a kind of gibberish which is completely understandable without understanding individual words, the Seljuk is obviously translating word from word from Rummish and of course the English of the welsh speakers is a delight.
    • 4/5
      Fun. Highly predictable, of course - I knew the boys would either become Owen's devoted followers or come to a bad end as soon as I read the first chapter, for instance. But nicely done, well-written, and fun. I wonder who wrote the prophecy? Ah, Arabis says "one of the old bards" - prophecy was their stock in trade. Slightly odd (for Aiken) in that some of the good guys, or at least not-bad guys (the footman, for one) actually die. And the bad guys, of course. Happy reunions and sorting-out of futures... I don't think I'd read this before (hard to tell, because of the predictability), but I'm glad I have now.
    • 4/5
      The Whispering Mountain, which John Clute calls an "associate title" in his encyclopedia of supernatural fiction writers, seems at first glance to be unrelated to the previous three in Aiken's Wolves Chronicles, except for the fact that it is set in the same alternative Britain. Much like Susan Cooper's Over Sea Under Stone and The Dark is Rising however, it introduces characters that enter the mainstream of the storyline in later titles, though in a much less vital capacity than seen in Cooper's sequence.When young Owen Hughes comes to stay with his stern, unbending grandfather in the small Welsh village of Pennygaff, he finds himself falsely accused of stealing the Telyn Teirtu, a golden harp with a storied history stretching back to the days of King Arthur and before... Setting out to find the lost treasure, Owen must contend with the arrogant Marques of Malyn, a mysterious foreign gentleman calling himself the Seljuk of Rum, and the Tylwyth Teg, the legendary "Fair People" who live inside the Whispering Mountain... A rich and entertaining fantasy, so steeped in the folklore and culture of Wales, that a Welsh glossary is included at the back.I am fortunate enough to own a first (American) edition of this wonderful title, which includes the black & white illustrations by Frank Bozzo - sadly missing from later editions.
    • 4/5
      Not strictly a prequel to the 'Wolves of Willoughby Chase' sequence (our young hero Owen Hughes re-appears around the time of the plot to slide St Paul's Cathedral into the Thames at a coronation), 'The Whispering Mountain' can nevertheless be enjoyed as a standalone novel as well as filling in more of Aiken's alternative history of the world in the early 19th century. Set in and around the western coast of Wales, the tale features elements of Welsh mythology, Dark Age history and traditions of Nonconformism and mining, along with several other typical Aiken themes such as Arthurian legend (revisited in 'The Stolen Lake' for example), slavery underground (as in 'Is'), mistaken identities (as in 'The Cuckoo Tree') and dastardly villains (as in all the titles of the sequence). Although convoluted, the plot draws you along to the inevitable conclusion, and as always Aiken doesn't shy away from death even when writing for a youngish audience.Of especial interest is the Welsh setting and use of language and traditions away from Aiken's usual specialities of Yorkshire and the southeast of England. Living in West Wales, I was particularly intrigued to see aspects of different real localities transmogrified to suit the story and the conceit of an alternative geography of Britain; and the use of Welsh phrases (there is a glossary at the end) and idioms when speaking English struck chords for even someone like me with only a passing acquaintance (and then some) with the language. I also loved the puns, such as the placename Pennygaff which, although it has a Welsh look to it (real placenames include Pen-y-fan and Pen-y-Bont, literally Mountain Top and Bridgend respectively), is actually taken from the name for a type of popular Victorian theatrical show.All in all, then, this a book worth reading for its liveliness and inventiveness even if you're not a dyed-in-the-wool Aiken fan.