Dalemark Quartet

## Genre Information

Children's
Action Adventure

Young Adult
Feudal Society

 (Series Content Ratings Click on Explicit Ratings for details.)

## About the Series

* **Genres:** Young Adult, Feudal Society, Children's, Fantasy Adventure
* **Theme:**
* **Narrative style**:

## Series Description

The Dalemark Quartet is a series of four fantasy books by Diana Wynne Jones set in a rustic parallel universe with pre-industrial or even medieval civilization. Dalemark is a region by the sea divided into South Dalemark and North Dalemark, consisting of 15 earldoms (formerly called marks).

The quartet of novels describes events in this country at three different periods of history, telling each story with a focus on a single protagonist within a family. Each family operates within the context of the country at that period of time, but the events they deal with resonate with novels either before or after them.

## Books in series

Originally the books were published out of order with books 2 & 3 printed before book 1. They are all mostly resolved in the 4th book.

* Publication order:
	1. Cart and Cwidder (Dalemark Quartet Book 1) (1975)
	2. Drowned Ammet (Dalemark Quartet Book 2) (1977)
	3. The Spellcoats (Dalemark Quartet Book 3) (1979)
	4. The Crown of Dalemark (Dalemark Quartet Book 4) (1993)

### Chronology Reading order

* 1. The Spellcoats (1979)
	2. Drowned Ammet (1977)
	3. Cart and Cwidder (1975)
	4. Crown of Dalemark (1993) – Mythopoeic Award, Children's Fantasy

## World Building

### Setting

Dalemark is a land that resembles medieval Britain or Westernmost Europe. It is run by various Earls, lords, or kings, and writing is done in runes. People raise sheep and weave woolen cloth, cherish household idols, and fight with swords, spears, or longbows. Magic is widespread.

## Book Descriptions

1. Cart and Cwidder (1975)
tells the story of Moril and his brother and sister who are travelling musicians journeying through Dalemark, until one day they pick up a mysterious passenger. Somehow Moril's family and the stranger are becoming bound together in terror, flight, and music.
2. Drowned Ammet (1977)
The people of Holand in South Dalemark are bitterly oppressed by the tyrannical earl Hadd. Informers, secret police, and cruel rent-collectors terrorize the countryside, and Mitt has grown up with more than enough reasons for joining the freedom fighters.
When his protest against the tyrannical government fails, a young boy escapes, with two other children, to the mysterious Holy Islands where they learn the identity and the power of two folk figures celebrated by their countrymen.
3. The Spellcoats (1979)
Tanqui discovers she has the only means to conquer the evil Kankredin who threatens her own people and the Heathens who have invaded prehistoric Dalemark.
4. The Crown of Dalemark (1993)
The Crown of Dalemark continues the adventures of Mitt after his flight from Holand as a fugitive accused of attempted murder. Since his arrival in the North of Dalemark, Mitt has become disillusioned. The North seems no more free than the South from which he came. And now he has been given an order to kill someone he doesn't even know, or else risk the lives of his friends.
Forced once more to flee, Mitt is joined by Moril, the quietly powerful musician, and Maewen, out of her time but mysteriously fated to play a part in their quest. For the evil powers of the mage Kankredin are re-assembling, and only the Adon's gifts-the ring, sword, and cup-can reunite Dalemark.
The Countess and Lord Keril send Mitt to kill a young woman Noreth Ones daughter, who claims to know where the lost crown is hidden.
## References

1. ↑ Dalemark Quartet Wikipedia
2. ↑ Dalemark wiki article
3. ↑ Dalemark wiki article