Microsoft Word final-current Developments at the Intersection of British Children-online-version doc

Curse of Salamanderstreet
, Wormwood and Tersias, to name only a few. This trend of an 
increased brutalisation of customs, behaviour and their ways of representation is not limited to 
the more mature readers, but establishes itself in the younger ones as well. In Stewart and 
Riddell’s The Edge Chronicles for example the detailed realisations of one novel try to 

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outclass those of another, i.e. increasing both frequency and graphicness. This phenomenon is 
by no means peripheral or insular. Rather, it fits into the general, global development of the 
genre. Far from being limited to Britain, it also manifests itself in publications on other 
continents. Prominent representatives are the Inheritance cycle of the American Paolini or the 
Abhorsen
trilogy of the Australian Nix.
Like Jacques’ Redwall series, Stewart and Riddell’s The Edge Chronicles are sold for 
a younger and more restricted target group as for instance Harry Potter. The readers are 
confronted with a considerable degree of graphic violence. Admittedly, at first the authors are 
a dab hand at wrapping it up skilfully in a gripping and interesting story, interspersed with 
artistic illustrations. With every volume, however, the number of violent scenes and their 
goriness increase. In Beyond the Deepwoods,
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the first novel of the series, graphic violence 
is limited to the sounds of a banderbear being eaten alive by wig-wigs.
104
Its sequel, 
Stormchaser
,
105
continues treading the adopted path of violence. Screed Toe-Taker kills his 
victims and nails their mummified toes as trophies to the wall of his abode.
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More 
mutilations comprise cut-off ears and a beheading. Whereas in Midnight over Sanctaphrax
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a captain of the sky pirates is devoured in an arena, The Last of the Sky Pirates confronts the 
reader with someone being eaten alive from within. The next volume, The Curse of the 
Gloamglozer
, uses even more graphic violence. Again, mutilations take place; Quint has a 
terrifying encounter with a mummified corpse, only to realise that “the entire floor was 
littered with dead bodies”.
108
In Vox, an assassin on his way to work is cut in half, and 
Undertowners unfit for slavery are killed while the survivors are forced to bury the dead in 
mass graves.
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Whenever one is convinced that the climax of violence must have been 
reached and that it cannot possibly get any worse, the authors put the screws on even further. 
In chapter seventeen, “Bloodbath on the Blackwood Bridge”,
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blood flows copiously 
everywhere but within its accustomed vessels. Amongst other atrocities, carnage and 
cannibalism are fixtures in Freeglader,
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too. 
103
Paul Stewart; Chris Riddell. The Edge Chronicles. Beyond the Deepwoods. London: Corgi, 1999 [1998]. 
104
Ibd., p. 151. 
105
Paul Stewart; Chris Riddell. The Edge Chronicles. Stormchaser. London: Corgi, 2000 [1999]. 
106
Ibd., pp. 107-109.
107
Paul Stewart; Chris Riddell. The Edge Chronicles. Midnight over Sanctaphrax. London: Corgi, 2001. [2000]. 
108
Stewart; Riddell, The Curse of the Gloamgloazer, pp. 221-224. 
109
Stewart; Riddell, Vox, p. 309.
110
Ibd., p. 352.
111
Paul Stewart; Chris Riddell. The Edge Chronicles. Freeglader. London: Doubleday, 2004.

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And she had been merciful, she remembered. Rather than linger over the flayed, tortured body longer 
than she’d needed, she had torn out the heart with a single stab of her beak and swallowed it while it 
was still beating. Delicious! The librarian had just lived long enough to see it. 
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Compared to Freeglader, The Winter Knights contains just as much graphic violence, 
albeit with fewer gory details. All in all, The Edge Chronicles may present a well thought-out 
secondary world replete with its own flora and fauna, physical laws and occupations resulting 
from them, but this abundance of creativity comes at a high price. Highly original fantastic 
creatures on the one hand are countered with death and slaughter on the other. Inevitably, this 
leads to the question whether such a high degree of creativity and invention necessitates a 
simultaneous loss or conscious abandonment of good taste. Is graphic violence the price that 
has to be paid for entertainment?
The bloody cover illustrations of Foreman’s Keepers and Seekers already anticipate 
that reading the novels is far from being a bloodless or harmless pastime. By dividing the 
main strands of the plot into modern times on the one hand and Early Middle Ages and 
Second World War on the other, the author reveals the diachronic change of forms and 
practices of violence. The main conflict focuses on the possession of Amera’s stone of power. 
Whilst the Keepers around the respective Stone Keeper – led by the immortal gods Myroy and 
Tirani – hide the stone over the centuries, the Seekers – under the command of the gods’ 
brother Odin – search for it. Both parties have allies who support them in their cause. One of 
its crucial phases takes place in the Britain of the Early Middle Ages. In numerous battle 
scenes between Scots, Picts, Irish, Welsh etc., the slaughter and destruction
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worked with 
contemporary weapons is rendered in great detail. In these unstable times where looting, 
pillaging and raiding are presented as being nothing unusual, many innocent villagers are 
murdered or maimed. Not only are the Early Middle Ages a decisive phase for the fate of the 
stone but also the period with the most incidents of graphic violence. Among the carnage 
portrayed, the poisoning of the Irish king Patrick appears almost harmless.
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In more modern 
times, the frequent mutilations on the archaic one-to-one basis recede more into the 
background. Instead, weapons of mass destruction are used. Certainly, the casualties
still 
happen, and, due to the wide-range weapons, exceed those of the Middle Ages by far in 
numbers.  
112
Ibd., p. 144.
113
Colin Foreman. Keepers and Seekers. To the End of the World. Glenlomond: Myroy Books, 2005 [2004], p. 
33. 
114
Colin Foreman. Keepers and Seekers. Killer in the Dark. Glenlomond: Myroy Books, 2006, p. 347. 

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The period of the Second World War contrasts sharply with that of the Early Middle 
Ages. Even though both strands of the narration are concerned with war, their strategies and 
weapons differ fundamentally. In the Middle Ages, even in battle, the tactility of duel combat 
at close range prevails, whereas the fighting of the Second World War takes place over a 
distance. Without immediate contact with the enemy, the killing seems to become more 
anonymous and abstract. It is in the present that the conflict around the stone culminates. In 
present-day Britain, the main character Peter has become the Last Keeper of the Stone. 
Although the second volume ends with the death of Peter’s girlfriend, the third volume 
reveals that the killings were nothing but an illusion. Nevertheless, the graphic violence 
continues in the third volume.
A special feature of Foreman’s novels is the interweaving of the above-mentioned 
different time levels. Even if it may not become apparent at first glance, everything is 
connected. Present and past are shown to be dependent on each other, especially when their 
borders are crossed in both directions in crucial moments for the future of the stone. Not only 
the Gods but also Keepers and Seekers can traverse the borders of space and time. As a result, 
people from the present can meet those of the past and vice versa: For instance, Scottish 
warriors from the Early Middle Ages or Second World War soldiers around Peter’s granddad 
are shifted through time and actively participate in battles fought long after their own death, 
and the Scottish warriors Donald and Hamish fight Odin’s Valkyrie on a train of the 
Metropolitan Line in London without batting an eyelid. The fact that the train they are on is 
being pursued by a longship only adds to the fantastic consequences of the overlap of times.
It is already in the foreword that Beddor’s The Looking-Glass Wars
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draw the 
reader’s attention to the fact that this supposedly original version of the story of Alice in 
Wonderland is not intended for readers “of a more sensitive disposition”.
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Indeed, this is no 
understatement. We are informed that “the true story of Wonderland involves bloodshed, 
murder, revenge and war.”
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This admittedly unusual start of a fantasy novel for children 
outlines and anticipates the developments and events to follow. The latter revolve around a 
general mood of explosive aggression and violence. A flashback into the past of the related 
events reveals that twelve years before the story sets in, in the wake of carnage and 
115
Frank Beddor. The Looking Glass Wars. London: Egmont, 2005. [2004] 
116
Ibd.; foreword. 
117
Ibd.; foreword.

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destruction, “unbridled bloodshed spattered the doorstep of every Wonderlander.”
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On her 
way to power, Redd murders everyone but Alyss standing in the way of her succession to the 
throne. Her niece only escapes death by leaving Wonderland. Twelve years after Redd’s 
seizure of power, she has firmly established her reign of terror: In labour camps, she has 
prisoners tortured, slaughtered and thrown into mass graves. A strong reminiscence of such 
parallel atrocities for example committed under the Nazi regime during the Second World 
War cannot be overlooked.
Violence, just like magic, is one of the threads running through Rowling’s series. This 
is not to say that positive values such as love, courage, trust, respect and friendship do not 
play an important role. As the moral message of the novels, no doubt they are intended to 
outweigh any evil deeds in the end. Still, as the series progresses, the intensity and frequency 
of violent acts increases parallel to the threat personified by Lord Voldemort. The positive 
aspects are heterodyned by an increasingly gloomy, laden atmosphere, which eventually 
discharges during the Last Stand. Even after the successful defeat of the dark wizard and the 
end of his reign of terror, numbness and shock prevail. Too many people have lost their lives 
in the series, especially in the seventh volume, leaving no room for any exuberant celebrations 
in honour of the final triumph. For good reason, the epilogue is set nineteen years after 
Voldemort’s defeat. Yet in the chronological order of both print and reading the epilogue 
nevertheless follows immediately after the final chapter, so that the intended distance cannot 
really make itself felt. Since the necessary digestion of the events is suspended, the light-
hearted, nostalgic family scenes at the Hogwarts’ Express appear artificial and their 
cheerfulness forced.
In Rowling’s Harry Potter series there is no shortage of incidents where graphic 
violence is used. It is already in the first volume
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that we learn about the violent death of 
Harry’s parents by the hands of Voldemort. At the end of the same novel, Harry himself faces 
his archenemy for the second time in his short life, and, as before, Voldemort tries and fails to 
kill the boy. This duel between Harry and Voldemort repeats itself in the other volumes, in all 
but the seventh with the same result.
In The Chamber of Secrets, Harry is repeatedly threatened by the Basilisk’s murderous 
thoughts, but he is also injured physically during sports. Slowly, the intensity and significance 
of incidents of graphic violence increase, influencing the further course of the series. Right 
118
Ibd.; p. 7. 
119
J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. London: Bloomsbury, 1997.

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from the beginning, with an allegedly dangerous criminal on the loose, Harry Potter and the