Cart and Cwidder: Book 1 of The Dalemark Quartet

Cart and Cwidder: Book 1 of The Dalemark Quartet by Jones, Diana Wynne. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780066237459.

The first three volumes of Diana Wynne Joness spellbinding quartet of novels were originally published in this country in the 1970s, and soon won the mythical kingdom of Dalemark a place on the literary map. Cart and Cwidder, the first of these intriguing novels, relates the fortunes of Clennen and his family, itinerant musicians who travel the villages of Dalemark in their colorful cart. With warring earldoms and spies everywhere, there is little contact between the North and South of the country, and so the musicians often carry news-and sometimes, as now, a passenger. Who is this Kialan? Is there any connection between him and the sudden violence that overtakes them? The familys fate and Kialans are bound together in terror and flight-and in music, for the songs of Dalemark mean more than they say. Each book is a lure to the next in this classic, irresistible series.