Series as Epic:Patricia Wrightson's "The Book of Wirrun" Emrys Evans (bio) 1. "The Book of Wirrun " as a Series. The three volumes of Patricia Wrightson's "Book of Wirrun" are obviously not a series in the sense that, say, the William books of Richmal Crompton are, or Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle books, or the stories of Enid Blyton's Famous Five or Secret Seven. But "The Book of Wirrun" is not just a single long story either, divided into three volumes for the convenience of its publishers. There is a central character, the Australian Aboriginal youth, Wirrun. Some other characters, human and non-human, appear in more than one of the stories, though very few appear in all three. (Ko-in, the Hero, who sends Wirrun on his journeys and acts as a sort of sponsor and spiritual father to him, is, perhaps, the only exception.) But Tom Hunter appears in the second and third books, while Wirrun's friend Ularra is with him in the first and second and is certainly remembered in the third, after his death. Murra, as mortal and immortal, challenges, delights and supports him in the second and third volumes. The wiry and ascetic Mimi provokes him through the first and second. All three volumes have a common setting: "the old south country," with its elements of rock, wind, water and fire, and its dreamtime creatures, earth-things and primeval First Thoughts. There is a concern for its human inhabitants, particularly for the People, whom we generally call the Aborigines, and its older rural white folk, the Inlanders. The blind, flurried Happy Folk, who live in the cities and along the sea coasts, play only a minor role. The challenge Wirrun faces and the journeys he makes are different in each volume, so that he is not in the position of a Frodo Baggins, with one single mission informing his one, three-volume, journey. In The Ice is Coming, Wirrun is called by the land itself, with which he has a special degree of his People's affinity, to release it from the binding of the Ninya's ice. In The Dark Bright Water, he is called by the People, who are anxious about the disturbances to their old water sources which arise from confusion among the earth-spirits. This is caused by the enforced wanderings of the lost Yunggamurra, whose love-singing entraps Wirrun, so that the land's troubles and his own are the same. In Behind the Wind, the earth-spirits themselves, through Ko-in, call Wirrun to release them from the threat of Wulgaru, the man-made Death. The challenges are different in intensity, difficulty and danger, and Wirrun matures from little more than a gifted boy, through his unexpected fame as the Ice Fighter, the setbacks of the Yunggamurra's singing and the transformation, remaking and death of his friend Ularra, to his final considerable yet qualified victory over Wulgaru. The three novels of the Wirrun series were published in order in 1977, 1979, and 1981. Wrightson gives herself an enormously wide canvas to work on, and with it the possibility of introducing us to a broad experience of the spirits of the land and its People. Wirrun's travels take him to most of the states and territories of modern Australia. His home is evidently in Sydney. He is a descendant of the Aboriginal peoples of the east coast—unlike his friend Ularra, who belongs to the centre of the continent. However the gully where he first finds the ice is his spiritual home. Here he meets the ancient hero Ko-in and finds the crystal of power which protects and guides him in his travels, and he returns several times for help and instruction. This gully appears to be several hours' rail journey from Sydney, followed by a walk and a climb, so it is probably quite close to Wongadilla in Wrightson's earlier novel, The Nargun and the Stars (1973). On Wirrun's second visit to Ko-in, the old hero tells him that "this country is my home" (Water 35), but that "From sea to sea, there lies your country" (Water 36). The...
Read full abstract
Feb 1, 2007
Moshe Givoni + 1
