The Grey King is a children's fantasy novel by British author Susan Cooper

Susan Cooper

Susan Mary Cooper is an English author best known for The Dark Is Rising, an award-winning five-volume saga set in and around England and Wales. The books incorporate traditional British mythology, such as Arthurian and other Welsh elements with original material ; these books were adapted into a...

, which was awarded the Newbery Medal

Newbery Medal

The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...

 for excellence in U.S. children's literature

Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...

 in 1976. It is the fourth of five stories in her young adult Arthurian fantasy cycle, The Dark Is Rising

The Dark is Rising Sequence

The Dark Is Rising is the name of a five-book series of children's contemporary fantasy novels by Susan Cooper, published in 1965–1977, which depicts the struggle between the forces of good, called The Light, and the forces of evil, known as The Dark...

. Elements of Welsh folklore, albeit freely adapted or re-invented by the author, play an important role in the book.

Characters in The Grey King

• Will Stanton, at the start of this book, is recovering from hepatitis
  Hepatitis
  Hepatitis is a medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver and characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The name is from the Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation"...
  
  . He is under strict orders from the doctor that he can't go to school for at least a month, so his mother sends him to Wales
  Wales
  Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
  
   to recover with his uncle, David Evans. It is here that he meets Bran and their adventures begin.
• Bran Davies, the raven boy, is an albino boy with golden eyes, of about the same age as Will. Bran is a loner. He has no friends at school and he is not allowed to go out after school. His name means 'crow
  Crow
  Crows form the genus Corvus in the family Corvidae. Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-size jackdaws to the Common Raven of the Holarctic region and Thick-billed Raven of the highlands of Ethiopia, the 40 or so members of this genus occur on all temperate continents and several...
  
  ' in Welsh
  Welsh language
  Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
  
  , and is possibly named for King Bran Fendigaid ("Bran the Blessed
  Bran the Blessed
  Brân the Blessed is a giant and king of Britain in Welsh mythology. He appears in several of the Welsh Triads, but his most significant role is in the Second Branch of the Mabinogi, Branwen ferch Llŷr. He is a son of Llŷr and Penarddun, and the brother of Brânwen, Manawydan, Nisien and Efnysien...
  
  "), who was a Celtic God known from both Welsh and Irish mythology
  Irish mythology
  The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branch and the Historical Cycle. There are...
  
   and who was later mortalized into a monarch of North Wales. He is a bridge to the unknown. Bran has a white dog
  Dog
  The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
  
  , Cafall, who is able to see the wind (Cafall was the name of King Arthur
  King Arthur
  King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
  
  's dog)
• Owen Davies is Bran’s adoptive father. Bran’s birth mother, Gwen, had showed up on Clwyd farm with a baby in her arms. Owen took her in and took care of her. Owen proposed marriage to Gwen, but the next day she was gone. She left the baby in the care of Owen. Owen doesn’t want to lose Bran, so he is very possessive of him.
• The Brenin Llwyd, or The Grey King, is the evil lord opposing the Powers of the Light. His breath is the low hanging fog that covers the mountains of his home Cader Idris. The Grey King is very powerful, but he has limitations. He is not allowed to break the laws of The High Magic. "The Breath of the Grey King" is spoken of with dread in the mountains - a thick fog that descends in the space of a few heartbeats; it drives unwary travelers to their deaths, by hiding the edges of precipices and scree
  Scree
  Scree, also called talus, is a term given to an accumulation of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, or valley shoulders. Landforms associated with these materials are sometimes called scree slopes or talus piles...
  
   slopes.
• Milgwn: More terrifying than this fog are the Milgwn, huge grey foxes, which he has bent to his will, known to attack in situations where no normal fox
  Fox
  Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...
  
   would. They are creatures of the in between times, things which are not of this world, although they walk upon it. It is said they can walk through his mist in secret, with no footprint visible to even the best of trackers. Most mortals cannot see the Milgwn. Bran however is privileged and can see them. Will is an Old One (or "Dewin", in Welsh) and so he too can see them. Note: the Welsh
  Welsh language
  Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
  
   plural noun milgwn (singular: milgi) actually means 'greyhounds'.
• Caradog Prichard is a corrupted man who unknowingly helps The Grey King. Caradog is a bitter man. There is a legend that if someone spends the night on top of Cader Idris, then in the morning, they would either be a poet
  Poet
  A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
  
   or crazy. Caradog wanted to be a poet when he was younger and he spent the night on the mountain. He is not a poet, but he often acts as if insane. The character was possibly named after the real Welsh poet called Caradog Prichard
  Caradog Prichard
  Caradog Prichard was a Welsh poet and novelist writing in Welsh. His daughter, Mari Prichard, was married to the late Humphrey Carpenter....
  
  

Geography

The book is strongly related to the real geography in and around the Dysynni Valley in Gwynedd

Gwynedd

Gwynedd is a county in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. Although the second biggest in terms of geographical area, it is also one of the most sparsely populated...

 in north-west Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. References include the town of Tywyn

Tywyn

Tywyn is a town and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd , in north Wales. The name derives from the Welsh tywyn and the town is sometimes referred to as Tywyn Meirionnydd...

, Cader Idris and Bird Rock (Craig yr Aderyn

Craig yr Aderyn

Craig yr Aderyn, , is a hill rising to a height of over above sea level on the south bank of the River Dysynni near Llanfihangel-y-pennant in the county of Gwynedd, north-west Wales....

).