The Riddle - Alison Croggon [0]
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2004 by Alison Croggon
Cover illustration copyright © 2006 by Matt Mahurin
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First U.S. electronic edition 2010
First published by Penguin Books, Australia
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Croggon, Alison, date.
The Riddle / Alison Croggon — 1st U.S. ed.
p. cm. — (The second book of Pellinor)
Summary: The further translation of a manuscript from the lost civilization of Edil-Amarandh, which chronicles the experiences of sixteen-year-old Maerad, a gifted Bard, as she seeks the answer to the Riddle of the Treesong and continues to battle the Dark forces.
ISBN 978-0-7636-3015-7 (hardcover)
[1. Supernatural — Fiction. 2. Magic — Fiction. 3. Riddles — Fiction.
4. Self-realization — Fiction. 5. Fantasy.] I. Title.
PZ7.C8765Rid 2006
[Fic] — dc22 2005047169
ISBN 978-0-7636-3414-8 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-7636-5252-4 (electronic)
Candlewick Press
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Somerville, Massachusetts 02144
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THE Riddle continues the translation of the Naraudh Lar-Chanë (The Riddle of the Treesong), which I began with the first two books of this classic romance, published as The Naming. The response to The Naming has been most encouraging, and confirms my feeling that this major work of Annaren literature deserves a broader public. It speaks to a modern audience as much as it did to those nameless Annarens, now lost in the mists of time, for whom it was originally written.
In The Naming we are introduced to Maerad of Pellinor and Cadvan of Lirigon, and learn of Maerad’s destiny as the Fated One and her unique Elemental heritage as she comes into her Gift as a Bard. The Riddle picks up from the events at the end of The Naming and, against the darkening background of the coming War of the Treesong, takes us on the second stage of Maerad’s quest: that for the Riddle of the Treesong itself.
In The Riddle the quest moves outside Annar for the first time, and we encounter some of the broad cultural diversity of Edil-Amarandh. For the purposes of this translation, I have taken Annaren, the original language of the text, to be the equivalent of English. For the most part, I translate all Annaren into English, but otherwise have left other languages untranslated, although I hope the context makes their meanings clear.
The Riddle consists of Books III and V of the Naraudh Lar-Chanë. I have preserved the general structure of the narrative, although I have found it necessary, in transposing this text from Annaren to modern English, to take some liberties: in particular, the divisions of books in the translation do not correspond to the divisions in the original text, and some sections have been rearranged or slightly extended. In my defense I will say that I have excised nothing and added little, making only such changes I deemed necessary, within my limited judgment, to give the narrative the immediacy it would have possessed in its own time. I hope the result does not displease. For those who are curious about the complex structures and tropes of the original story, I understand that Mexico’s University of Querétaro Press, one of the leading patrons of this exciting field of study, has begun the massive task of preparing a fully annotated Annaren publication of the Naraudh Lar-Chanë. Sadly, we will have to wait some time until this major project reaches completion, but such an investment of time and scholarship indicates the deep interest this field is now attracting.
As a convention, throughout The Riddle, I have used the Speech word Dhillarearën to refer to Named Bards with the Gift who have not been trained in