Magic & Nature in A Marvellous Light

December 09, 2021

While reading A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske, I had some thoughts about the connections between their magic and the natural world.

The magical world Marske’s created is wonderful. It’s like nothing I’ve ever read or seen before; it’s fantastical and creative but also… down to earth at the same time? The magic has many limitations and complexities, which is part of what makes it feel so much more realistic.

If you recall, William Morris was mentioned by name and his work referenced numerous times throughout the book.

Robin ignored the bustling of the upstairs maid who was clearly doing her best to prepare a room on five minutes' notice, and went to run his hands over the wallpaper.

"This is William Morris."

"Yes, sir," said the maid.

In addition to the willow bough wallpaper Robin initially noticed, the paper in Maud’s room at Penhallick House with the birds and strawberries - a famous pattern called The Strawberry Thief - was also one of Morris’s designs.

"The housekeeper took me up to a room with birds and strawberries on the walls."

"Maud's assigned bedroom in Penhallick House really was covered in strawberries. The wallpaper was a Morris design that Robin had once seen on a cushion, all greens and blues and curious birds, with eye-catching blobs of red."

Morris was one of the main influences of the Arts & Crafts Movement of the late 19th century which, aesthetically speaking, focused largely on using and depicting natural elements (trees, birds, flowers, etc). (Frank Lloyd Wright, later working down his own branch of the Arts & Crafts Movement, made this a particular focus of his work, famously - and literally - bringing the outdoors IN in such projects as Falling Water and Taliesin.)

Like those famous works of Arts & Crafts architecture, themes of nature are embedded into every aspect of this story. I think it’s important to note that their magic comes from the earth. It’s not specified how, exactly, but magicians work with elements like the soil and trees and water to make powerful magic. Examples abound in the book; there are many lines that connect the use of magic to nature.

There are scenes where magicians make blood vows into the ground of their property to imbue their homes with magic and fortify their connection to the land. One scene has wall panels with carvings of ivy in them that come to life, the ivy becoming temporarily real in order to save the life of the estate’s owner. Here the lines between magic and nature are blurred, as if they are one and the same. And there’s an important scene featuring the use of a piece of oak wood that holds a powerful amount of magic in it. And of course Flora Sutton makes mention of how the ley lines of the earth intersect at Sutton Cottage, making the magic even more powerful. Again, the distinction between magic and nature is fuzzy at best.

Here are some quotes that tie magic to nature and life:

“Any kind of potion with magical properties has the magic applied to the plant ingredients first. Magic tends to adhere to life, or at least a place where life was.”

“she and three of her friends had formed a kind of ladies’ club and simply … done it themselves. They’d looked into the land as a source of magic”

“Life and death. Night and day—oh, that too had been in that silly poem all along. The gifts of the dawn. Seasons and solstices. It was all highly agricultural.”

The A&C movement was much more than a simple nature aesthetic; it was an anti-industrial socialist philosophy that fought to protect workers and craftsmanship which I think can connect to these themes as well but is a bigger ball of wax than I’m prepared to get into here. But all in all, I think the setting of Edwardian England was a very interesting, purposeful and well-executed choice, as it was the perfect vehicle to make those connections by using William Morris and certain key aspects of the Arts & Crafts Movement. The whole book, cover design and all, is like a Morris pattern brought to life.

If you haven’t already, google William Morris + Willow Bough and The Strawberry Thief. Compare them to the cover. His intricate and infinitely repeating patterns recall several scenes from the book such as what happens in the hedge maze, Robin’s crawling tattoo, and of course the ivy scene.