A Grass Rope is a children's novel

Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...

 by William Mayne

William Mayne

William James Carter Mayne was an English writer of children's fiction. He was born in Hull, the son of a doctor and was educated at the choir school attached to Canterbury Cathedral and his memories of that time contributed to his early books. During the Second World War the school was evacuated...

, set in the Yorkshire Dales

Yorkshire Dales

The Yorkshire Dales is the name given to an upland area in Northern England.The area lies within the historic county boundaries of Yorkshire, though it spans the ceremonial counties of North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Cumbria...

. It was first published in 1957 and was awarded the Carnegie Medal

Carnegie Medal

The Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...

for that year. It is a simple story, subtly told, steeped in the past and with a strong sense of place.

Plot summary

The story of the hunt for a lost treasure is interwoven with descriptions of everyday life on a farm and the scenery of the Yorkshire Dales.

When Adam Forrest comes to re-paint the outside of the Unicorn Inn in Vendale he is determined to make sense of an old story told in the Dyson and Owland families. Long ago, it is said, Dyson the innkeeper desired to marry Gertrude Owland, the daughter of a knight, who lived on the other side of the ridge in Thoradale. She was willing but the knight refused permission and trained a pack of hounds, and a fierce unicorn brought from overseas, to defend her. Dyson used magic to entice the animals into the land of the fairies under the fell, while he eloped with Gertrude. However, he did not know that all the Owland fortune was in the collars of the animals, and was later drowned by the fairies while trying to retrieve it. According to local legend, the hounds can sometimes still be heard hunting under the hill.

Mary and Nan Owland live at Lew Farm, near the site of the old Owland house. Mary is young enough to believe in the fairies of the tale, and that the hounds and the unicorn are still alive under the fell, while her sister does not believe in the tale at all. Adam thinks there is a common-sense explanation and, quite possibly, a treasure to find. While repainting the inn sign he finds an ancient hunting horn embedded in the frame. He guesses that it was used to draw the hounds towards a steep black cliff between the dales known as Yowncorn Yat (local dialect for "Unicorn Gate"), the cliff having acted as an echo wall.

The final piece of the puzzle is supplied when Mary one night sneaks out to Yowncorn Yat and crawls through a tunnel under the hill which she thinks is an entrance to fairyland. She catches one of the hounds, except that it turns out to be a fox, and unknowingly picks up some silver treasure and a horned skull at the bottom of a mineshaft. Adam is sure he has worked it all out - but cannot account for the skull which, surely, could only have belonged to a unicorn.

The children

• Mary Owland, a little girl who lives at Lew Farm in Thoradale
• Nan Owland, Mary's older sister, in her first year at grammar school
• Adam Forrest, the Head Boy at Thornton Grammar School
• Peter Dyson, Mildred's son, Mary's classmate, Adam's cousin

The adults

• Mr Owland (Daddy), the farmer at Lew Farm
• Mrs Owland (Mother)
• Charley, a farmhand at Lew Farm
• Mildred Dyson, the licensee at the Unicorn Inn in Vendale

The animals

• Dump, the house dog at Lew Farm
• Hewlin, the dog at the Unicorn Inn
• Frag, a toad
• A vixen and her cubs

Themes and literary significance

A Grass Rope was awarded the Carnegie Medal for 1957. It was one of William Mayne's earlier novels, and shares several features with his other books of the period. These include an unusual treasure hunt, a problem to be resolved, the lack of "heroes" or "villains", and the slow revelation of character through dialogue. It followed The World Upside Down in being partly set in Vendale (also the scene of the later Earthfasts). The emphasis on the geographical setting, as seen through the eyes of a child, is also typical of Mayne's style. It has been said that his stories grow inevitably out of their settings. The resolution of the novel provides a satisfactory balance of old and new, traditional story and modern fact, magic and science. There is strong use of authentic North Yorkshire dialect in the book, but the expressions are clear from the context or unobtrusively explained.