I heard of Linnets and Valerians only
recently. When I learned that one of the characters is an evil witch, I got a
copy in the hope that there would be enough suitable material for an article or
two.
I found that much of the book is not about
the witch and is not very relevant to this blog. However, some elements are
worth a mention and there are a few connections to be made.
Linnets and Valerians
This amusing little book, which was first
published in 1964 and later retitled The Runaways, is set in 1912.
In summary, the four high-spirited and
resourceful young Linnet children run away from their autocratic grandmother to
stay with their eccentric Uncle Ambrose. They enter a wonderful new world
filled with magic and superstition and help to lift some long-standing curses.
The main character of interest is Emma Cobley,
who is the local witch. There is nothing original about her and her story, but
the book provides yet another example of a typical fictional witch.
Emma Cobley
Emma Cobley owns the village general store,
which has a low green door. This where
the children first meet her: they go in to buy some sweets. They have trouble
getting the door open. The light inside is so dim that it is a while before
they notice the proprietor, who is knitting.
She is a little old dame with beady black
eyes that notice everything. She wears a white mob cap, a black dress and a red
shawl - familiar colours that are connected to the three phases of the moon.
Her sweets of many colours look magical in
their glass bottles.
This is all very symbolic.
When the children first go into the shop,
they are attacked by Emma Cobley’s cat, which grows to the size of a tiger. The
children’s dog is terrified. This is a huge warning signal, but for a while the
children think that she seems a very nice old lady.
Emma Cobley’s story
Emma Cobley’s background is humble. Her
farmer father was a black warlock, and he taught her his wicked spells.
He died when she was 16, and she became
housekeeper to a doctor in the village. She picked up a good deal of medical
knowledge, and by combining this with what she had learned from her father she
made a good deal of money by concocting and selling medicines and ointments,
love potions etc.
Her main associates are the local
undesirables; they are under her influence and act as agents and informers.
Even her cat goes out spying on her behalf.
Miss Cobley may be a little old lady whose
back view is that of Queen Victoria now, but she was startlingly beautiful when
she was young.
She was in love with Hugo Valerian, who was the
local squire and six years her junior. He promised to marry her when he came of
age, but later cooled off. She wrote him many wild and tempestuous love
letters, filled with protestations of undying adoration shot through with fiery
flashes of anger, threats, and reproaches.
He went off travelling, forgot Emma and married
a well-born and accomplished young lady in Paris. Emma was:
“... greatly enraged, so much so that for a
time she quite lost the ladylike demeanour and genteel manners which she had
been at great pains to cultivate. Then she calmed down and returned to her former
way of life, winning a great reputation in the neighbourhood for her cures, and
when she got older she started her very successful grocery business. She - apparently - entirely
forgave the squire and his wife.”
Emma’s revenge
Emma may have appeared to accept her
rejection, but things were very different below the surface. In her letters to
Hugo, she had said that dreadful things would happen to him and his family if
he didn’t keep his promise to marry her.
She
kept her word. She took a terrible revenge, deliberately and consciously.
Hugo and his wife had no children for a
while, and he was often away from home. When they finally had a son, he went
missing, presumed dead, at the age of eight. He is actually still alive, but
Emma had performed magic to blank his memory and make him dumb.
Feeling hypnotised and paralysed with no
ability to remember vital information or state one’s position is a very
familiar feature.
As for Hugo, he was the victim of a spell
that caused him to be lost in some far place. If Emma couldn’t have Hugo, no
one else could. His wife Lady Alicia became an eccentric recluse who only goes
out at night.
This is all very symbolic.
This is all very symbolic.
Connections
The taking of revenge is a very familiar
element. As Diana Wynne Jones said, “Revenge is witch’s’ business.”
As described in other articles, witches such
as Diana Wynne Jones's Biddy Iremonger, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Helen Penclosa and possibly Joan Aiken’s Mrs Lubbage too took a terrible
revenge when they were rejected by the men they wanted to marry.
Emma Cobley’s potion making reminds me of
Stella Gibbons’s villain Esmé Scarron and again Mrs Lubbage, whose
concoctions were used both to cure people and make them ill.
The colour combination of red, white and black has been mentioned in articles about Ayn Rand and Elizabeth Taylor’s Angel.
Another article to come
There is still more to be said about Emma
Cobley’s magic making.
The Linnet children’s Uncle Ambrose has some words of
wisdom that are worth quoting too, and there are some more connections to be made.
