The children and their companions face a shape-shifting sorcerer, a malignant dwarf, a brutal giant, the Fairy Queen, fierce raiders from the sea and the dangerous Blue Men who live in the sea. After the thrilling combat, Donald and Jean are invited to go with Morac on his journey north to bring home his promised bride, Princess Finella. The coming of strange children bearing gifts (biscuits) is held to be a lucky omen so they are allowed to watch the hero Morac put Girac’s cunning plan to defeat the dragon into action. The children learn from a Pictish man called Giric why the curse of a dragon descended on the land and how every seven years a brave man tries to kill this massive dragon. First though, there is going to be a dragon-fight. He explains that every year on Beltane/May Eve, the King of Summer must defeat the King of Winter. They are greeted by a bright-eyed little man who turns out to be the good magician Borrobil. After Jean impulsively leaps through the flames, the children are transported back into ancient magical times. When the children enter the wood they see two bonfires burning at the entrance to a circle of nine standing stones. Most people avoid this wood but Donald and Jean decide to visit it one moonlit night in the hope of seeing something magical. They are fascinated by the Eldritch Wood – `a dark mysterious ring on the crest of the far-off hill’. None of Croft Dickinson’s fiction seems to be available online but it certainly should be.ĭonald and Jean are a young brother and sister spending a holiday in the British countryside. Very cheap copies of this edition are quite easy to find.
It was reissued as a Puffin paperback in 1964 with a wonderful cover by Pauline Baynes. “Borrobil” was first published in 1944 with black and white illustrations by John Morton-Sale. Professor Croft Dickinson was a renowned expert on Scottish history who also wrote ghost stories and Fantasy novels for children. “Borrobil” by William Croft Dickinson is a kind of `missing link’ in British Fantasy.
As we are now into May, I’ve decided to recommend an almost forgotten story which begins on May Eve, traditionally the most magical night of the year.
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