The Violaceous Amethyst

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Cape Town University OpenUCT The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgementTown of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Cape Published by the University ofof Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University The Gifts of Odin: The Violaceous Amethyst Aoife Lennon-Ritchie / LNNAOI001 A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Masters in Creative Writing Town Faculty of the Humanities Cape Universityof of Cape Town 2011 COMPULSORY DECLARATION University This work has not been previously submitted in whole, or in part, for the award of any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. Signature: Date: Descriptive Abstract: When the Millers wake up on Christmas Eve on the island of Yondersaay, Granny, Dani and Ruairi find that everyone on the island, except them, has turned into a Viking. Evil Jarl Silas Scathe is convinced Ruairi Miller is the Boy King of Denmark. Believing he now has the key to finding the treasure the Viking God Odin buried here centuries ago, Jarl Scathe has his henchmen kidnap Ruairi to be sacrificed on a funeral pyre at sundown. Granny Miller and Ruairi’s sister Dani must somehow unearth the secrets of the island, and battle their way across it, in their attempt to rescue Ruairi before sunset. The Gifts of Odin: The Violaceous Amethyst, follows the Miller family as they battle tarantulafish, learn secrets from trees, and go up against a conniving, double-crossing, espresso- drinking villain. Town Informative Abstract: Cape of I have been innovative within the genre of literature for young adults, both in terms of the structure of the plot, and in terms of the story being told. The novel is written from a third-person limited perspective. There is no single voice running through the piece, rather, each chapter adopts the tone and perspective of the main character in that chapter.University At many points in the book, there is a story within a story. And at several moments in the book, there is a story, within a story, within a story. For example, the narrator tells a story about Granny and the Miller children. Within that, Granny recounts stories to the children. At a few points in Granny’s story, one of her characters, Rarelief, recounts a story to another of her characters, Dudo. All the while Granny and the children are in the midst of their own story. 2 I have challenged myself to attain a seamless transition into scene through dialogue, and from scene to scene without the reader reacting to a change in voice. At the same time, I have relayed a fast-paced, innovative and entertaining tale. Town Cape of University 3 PART I YONDERSAAY Granny Miller Granny Miller was seeing things. In the hallway of her city-house on the edge of the park, all along the wall hung the most beautiful pictures of puffins and Yondersaay terriers and stumpy little Yondersaay ponies you have ever seen. Granny hung these pictures here years ago so that every time she walked down her corridor she could feel like she was at home on Yondersaay, the island where she grew up. But lately, as Granny Miller walked down her hallway – in her frilly night-gown to brush her teeth in the morning, or in her hat and coat when she went out for a walk a little while later, or at night, in her frilly night-gown again, when she went to make sure the front door was locked – something strange happened. She couldn’t figure out if she was still a little bit asleep in the mornings, or perhaps she was still dreaming. She walkedTown more slowly and drove more slowly and climbed stairs more slowly now that she was older so it’s not all that unreasonable to think that maybe she also dreamed more slowly too.Cape What if she hadn’t fully finished dreaming when she woke up in the mornings? Becauseof as she gets older she sleeps less and less, so maybe the dreams kept going until they were finished. Even if she was already awake. Or maybe it was her glasses. She thought she needed new glasses; the ones she had were very thick but perhaps, as she was that bit older now she needed even thicker ones. Because what had been happening was this: every time Granny Miller went down her corridor in those pastUniversity few days the puffins and the Yondersaay terriers, and the Yondersaay ponies, the short stumpy ones, had seemed alive. Not that Granny had stopped to have a proper look mind you. It’s creepy to even think about it. Sometimes they stood and watched Granny Miller walk down the corridor. Sometimes they’d have a little chat with each other, looking around the picture frames and squawking or barking or neighing to each other. Anyway, they looked like they were squawking or barking or neighing. They didn’t make any noise because Granny Miller only put in her hearing aid when company came. And just the other night, one of them seemed to wave his wing at her. 4 That would be bad enough – inanimate photos and paintings of birds and animals that lived on an island thousands of miles away in the middle of the North Atlantic squawking and watching and barking. But the other morning in the park a little Yondersaay terrier had raised his leg at the bench where Granny Miller had sat to throw her leftover bread to the ducks. And he said ‘hello there’. Granny Miller had said ‘hello there’ back before she realised whom she was talking to. And later, as she was walking home, a group of little children passed by riding tiny little Yondersaay ponies and, she could have sworn this, one of the Yondersaay ponies looked back, puckered up, and blew her a kiss. She put it out of her mind instantly. She didn’t want to think about it. Because if she thought about it it might occur to her that she was going doddery bonkery loopdeloop bananas. And it occurred to her that she didn’t really want that to occur to her. If she was going mashed potato brain she would remain blissfullyTown unaware of it until they carted her off, rocking back and forth cackling to herself and counting her fingers over and over, to Sunnydale heights. Cape But that night, when she was in her ofbed with her fluffy puffin-shaped hot water bottle, with her lacy night-cap over her white curls and her cosy slippers tucked in under the bed, she realised that try as she might, she simply could not stop thinking about it. She must be going mad. There was no other explanation. Unless… Unless! SheUniversity shot bolt upright in bed. Unless she was home sick! That explained it! She made a decision right there and then. She hopped out of bed, jumped into her cosy slippers and made a phone call. 5 Dani and Ruairi Everything Ruairi ate went straight to his bones. He was always hungry and always growing. The more he ate the taller he grew but he always seemed skinny skinny skinny. Nothing bulked him out, it all went up. Mummy gave him cream pies for breakfast and sugar waffles for lunch to try to fatten him up, but it all went into his bones. And his hair. His hair grew as long as string and as wispy as an incredibly wispy thing. He had to have a haircut at least once a week or it would be impossibly straggly. And Mummy didn’t like anything straggly. Daniela’s hair could get a bit straggly if left untended so every morning while Dani ate her cereal, Mummy would have a go at her hair. She would plait it or curl it, bunch it up or braid it, tie it in string and ribbon or smooth it under an Alice band. No matter what she did a scraggly bit always came loose at some point in the day. MummyTown didn’t want to be always fussing over Dani’s poor hair so when it happened she just had to bite her lip and ignore it. The thing that was always on Mummy’s mindCape, even more than Dani’s hair, was safety. Mummy had grown up in a tiny little villageof in the middle of the countryside where everybody knew everybody and where everybody had an opinion about everybody else. Probably there were some bad enough people who lived there, but there was very little crime. Mummy supposed it was because they would be too afraid of getting a bad reputation to do anything untoward. If a shopkeeper over charged or sold faulty goods word would get around very fast and people would Universitystop going in to that particular shop. If things disappeared while someone was cleaning a house or doing up a garden, the cleaner, or the gardener would find it more and more difficult to get work. In fact, there was a crime wave one time when Mummy was growing up. A teenager tried to mug an old lady.

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