Pendragon: This is a reference to two characters. First, it is the figurative title referring to status as a leader, of several traditional Kings of the Britons, notably Arthur. It is also his son in this series, Bran Davies, who is predestined to wield the Crystal Sword of Light that is vital to the final conflict with the Dark. Bran Davies is brought forward in time by Merriman at the request of his mother, Guinevere, who feared that Arthur would reject Bran as a true son because of Guinevere's affair with Lancelot. Bran is an albino, meaning he has very pale skin and white hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes, but his eyes are an unusual tawny colour. Will meets him in Wales during The Grey King, where they wake the Sleepers using the Harp. In Silver on the Tree, Bran and Will travel to the Lost Land and recover the sword Eirias. Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper (1965)". Book Review. ReadingMatters. Archived from the original on 14 August 2007 . Retrieved 12 September 2007.

Clute, John (1997). "Cooper, Susan". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . Retrieved 5 August 2013. a b The Dark is Rising series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB). Retrieved 2012-03-03.Lccn 66011199 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Old_pallet IA18426 Openlibrary_edition It’s time for a The Dark is Rising sequence readathon again! If you wish to join, you can do so via this blog. It’s the perfect time of year to reread the books, at least the second one in particular, with the winter solstice coming up. I always try and read them around this time of year! a b Margot Adler (1 October 2007). "Author Uncertain About 'Dark' Leap to Big Screen". National Public Radio (NPR) . Retrieved 11 October 2007.

Cooper wrote her first book for young readers in response to a publishing house competition; "Over Sea, Under Stone" would later form the basis for her critically acclaimed five-book fantasy sequence, "The Dark Is Rising." The fourth book in the series, "The Grey King," won the Newbery Medal in 1976. By that time, Susan Cooper had been living in America for 13 years, having moved to marry her first husband, an American professor, and was stepmother to three children and the mother of two. She is one of three children in the Drew Family; her older brother is Simon Drew and her younger brother is Barney Drew. Her mother is a painter and her father is a doctor. The family resides in London. Now, onto The Dark Is Rising itself! Spending a book with Will and the other Stantons feels like a lovely idea right now. Thompson, Raymond (2 July 1989). "Interview with Susan Cooper". Taliesin's Successors: Interviews with Authors of Modern Arthurian Literature. The Camelot Project. The Robbins Library, University of Rochester . Retrieved 13 January 2011. The children work out the clues on the map and have a number of run ins with the Dark individually and as a group. While looking for the first clue Simon is chased by Mr. Hastings and Bill Hoover Jr.. After the second clue leads them to the headland at night, Simon, Jane, and Great Uncle Merry are ambushed and almost caught by Dark followers. Afterwards Barney is kidnapped and must be rescued. The children eventually follow the clues to a cave off the headland and discover the grail. Unfortunately they lose an important scroll from inside that is the key to deciphering the markings on the outside of the grail.I remember her very clearly: she was British, a contralto. A gentle delivery, but with a lot of life for the children, particularly Barney, and even more gravitas for Gumerry. She read this book to me a good twenty times between the ages of eight and thirteen, and she was all that is right and proper. At one point, I read The Dark is Rising trilogy at Christmas every year, lining up the timeline of The Dark is Rising itself with the season, as the most obviously timed event in the books. I still maintain that it’s a good series: Cooper did some clever things with mythology and history. I recently read an article by Michael D.C. Drout, ‘Reading the Signs of the Light’, which made that very clear (though that essay is more focused on the second book of the series onwards than on this one). Cooper also has a very deft touch with character: the children behave like real children, with their bursts of moodiness, sibling rivalries, etc. This is a story following three kids who go on an adventure to the coast and they stay in a very old house owned by their Great Uncle Merry. Whilst there they discover a map which they think will lead them to the Holy Grail of King Arthur so they follow the clues and try to find out where it leads.