The Dark is Rising and Welsh Pronunciations.

[Scott]

Amy Z wrote:
"Oh well.  I'll read them [Arthurian Legends] anyway for the 
intrinsic value."

--Never read them either, but I feel as though I should. Does "Mists 
of Avalon" count?

Amy again:
"Yeah, Wales definitely captured my heart (more than Will or Bran).  
Talk about needing a glossary though...please, oh please, will 
writers who use Welsh put a pronunciation guide in?  I hate reading 
words that I can't remotely pronounce.  I kept flipping back to 
Will's crash course from Bran in order to try to figure out the words 
that came up later."

--Every week I get these Welsh tutorials from the BBC in my e-mail. 
Sadly I've yet to read them. Welsh seems interesting but not very 
practical. Then again that sounds just right for me as I'm a totally 
impractical person. 

Now this might sound like a dumb question but how do you pronounce 
the Welsh surname Llewellyn? As in "He Flew Like a Madman" by 
Kennilworthy Whisp (a biography of "Dangerous" Dai Llewellyn). Not 
our Dai, the book mentioned in QttA. I would pronounce it FOO-flinn, 
but I'm guessing that's way off.

Amy (?) Rebecca (?) wrote:
"Agreed. They remind me a bit of the Weasleys, actually.  Probably 
just because there are so darn many kids and they relate to each 
other in that same comfortable, teasing way that the Weasleys do.

<snip loads of discussion about The Dark is Rising and other Susan 
Cooper books>
"Nicer, even, I thought.  I never would've said I'd like to be the 
youngest of nine--being the younger of two was quite enough--but I 
found I envied Will."

--It's been years since I've read Susan Cooper, but I remember "The 
Dark is Rising" the only book I read as being quite interesting. It 
was darker than HP, but maybe what made it not so good (as others 
pointed out) was the lack of characterisation. 

Scott