Not a fantasy threat - a story which will not be allowed.

[Treaclemine]

I've been watching "His Dark Materials" and listening to "The Dark is Rising", and this came to me. It may need more work. But is so easy to spot the Dark in fantasy, and wonder why anyone would support it. When it is rising al around us.

When the Dark comes rising it will not come
Riding on a black horse out of the blizzards of Fimbulwinter
Surrounded by swirling clouds of rooks cawing wildly
By ravens watching and feeding back to the Morrigan
By an authority ruling through hard men
Stealing souls of children by cutting machines
And casting out truth with cries of heresy
It will not be defeated by a very few children
Suddenly possessed of ancient powers.
When the Dark comes rising it will wear bright colours
And frills and petticoats, looking from dark lashes
And simpering sweetly, "Be kind, be kind,"
We are weak, and despised, treated badly, "Be kind,"
And it will seduce the children into rejecting truth
Into laying aside their powers of thought and sense
And giving up willingly their bodies to the knives
And it will persuade the adults to fear a word
A word without meaning, and see the truth as hate
It will not take one gifted child to light the dark
It will take all of us, all who see the light

And know the dark for what it is

Is this the original?

When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back;
Three from the circle, three from the track;
Wood, bronze, iron;
Water, fire, stone;
Five will return and one go alone.

Iron for the birthday, bronze carried long;
Wood from the burning, stone out of sound;
Fire in the candle-ring, water from the thaw;
Six signs the circle, and the grail gone before.

Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold.
Played to wake the sleepers, oldest of the old;
Power from the green witch, lost beneath the sea;
All shall find the light at last, silver on the tree.

Yes that's the original

Thanks. I got worried about enthusiastically suggesting OP shared her (beautiful) poem far and wide.
I think posters advising caution have a point worth considering.
Seeing the original, I think it's clear it's inspired by rather than directly derivative, apart from the opening line being exactly the same perhaps?
It's just such an evocative and communicative (and stand alone) piece of writing, but yes, in these sensitive times it's worth being mindful.

I did reference, obliquely, Cooper and Pullman when I initially posted. I should also have referenced Alan Garner. I haven't looked at his spell verse in a long while, and of Cooper's, only what has been broadcast this week. I think the form draws more on translations from OLd English. I didn't set out to use alliterative verse, but there it is. It wuld probably have suffered if I had forced it. As I said, it came to me from somewhere unconscious, found myself reciting it. Certainly there should be acknowledgement, but perhaps "a response to" which would distance them from the content.

One part I wasn't happy with, so I've revised the intercission lines - and found one wanted an alliteration.

When the Dark comes rising it will not come
Riding on a black horse out of the blizzards of Fimbulwinter
Surrounded by swirling clouds of rooks cawing wildly
By ravens watching and feeding back to the Morrigan
By an authority ruling through ruthless men
Stealing souls of children with cutting blades
And casting out truth with cries of heresy
It will not be defeated by a very few children
Suddenly possessed of ancient powers.
When the Dark comes rising it will wear bright colours
And frills and petticoats, looking from dark lashes
And simpering sweetly, "Be kind, be kind,"
"We are weak, and despised, treated badly, Be kind,"
And it will seduce the children into rejecting truth
Into laying aside their powers of thought and sense
And giving up willingly their bodies to the knives
And it will persuade the adults to fear a word
A word without meaning, and see the truth as hate
It will not take one gifted child to light the dark
It will take all of us, all who see the light
And know the dark for what it is.

So, if disseminating, please use this version and acknowledge the debts.

Nothing resonated quite so strongly with this then-11 year old negotiating the grim world of child psychiatric services as reading Pullman's chilling description of the Bolvangar facility, driven to torture and deny the innocent out of fear that they may grow up to transgress against an established order that hates and fears difference.

Given Pullman wrote His Dark Materials as a challenge to the dogmatism and cruelty that masquerades as benevolence within worldly clericism, it seems hardly surprising to me that he stands in support of self-determination for the marginalised and brutalised. He is, in his own words, 'of the Devil's party, and does know it.'

that's brilliant writing.

That's amazing ,OP. I can't wait until the light comes .😭💔