Helm by Sarah Hall is a singular, fascinating novel that, in its simplest form, tells the story of a wind. But it’s so much more than that. Sarah Hall takes us on an engaging journey that spans this Cumbrian idyl from the dawn of creation to modern day.
Hypnotic landscape descriptions combine with mind-boggling climatic phenomena and superb storytelling to produce a novel that’s as compelling as it is unique.
Synopsis
Helm is the name of a wind that spasmodically blows through Cumbria’s Eden Valley. But Helm is not just any wind, it is a mysterious, violent, sometimes-malevolent wind that destroys anything breakable and unfortunate enough to be in its path. To some, Helm is a Holy Grail, a natural phenomenon they are drawn to challenge, measure, contain and understand.
This is Helm’s life story and the stories of those it has taunted and enchanted through the ages. From a Neolithic tribeswoman to a modern-day scientist, we share their quest to survive Helm’s power.
My Review of Helm by Sarah Hall
It took me a while to get into Helm. Although immediately drawn by Hall’s superb descriptions of Eden Valley’s landscape, I initially found the novel staccato and confusing. Told through the eyes of Helm, at first we speculate on Helm’s creation before moving on to meet a series of characters down the ages, beginning with NaNay, a Neolithic tribeswoman.
NaNay from the herding tribe is an old woman now. She has three scars on her chest. She has mushroom-grey hair down to her calves, twisted and braided into columns, and threaded through with polished stones from the river shore. The people say her anma is as strong as the Halron. But they did not always listen to her.
NaNay stands between the gateway stones of Magsca with a long bast rope and a sharp wooden stake. The winter, on the smallest day, she will measure and mark the place where the magstone will stand, once it has been found. The ground is white and hard under her skin boots. Above, teal-blue sky like a fisher-bird; cloudless. The sun is weak, flying low and tired towards the horizon. Soon it will fall between the standing stones and go into the other world. She waits for the moment.
But then just as we’re getting to know each character and be drawn into their quests, we leave them and find someone new to follow. Given the fact having multiple stories being narrated in parallel is hardly a unique writing technique, I’m struggling to understand why I found Helm confusing. For some reason, I thought each story was simply being left there, like the debris after one of Helm’s appearances. It isn’t until we’ve met all five protagonists and been introduced to their stories that we return to NaNay and her quest to find the magstone. As each story progressed I became ever more entrenched in Helm’s world.
Hall’s ability to draw the reader in to her narrative is laudable. Her characters themselves are as diverse as the many faces of the landscape she describes. In the space of their unfolding stories, I moved from fascination through anger to laugh-out-loud funny.
And her use of language is superb, combining complex meteorological phenomena and ancient folklore with contemporary vernacular, so when describing how Helm came into existence, you get passages like:
A poetic birth moment would be nice. Perhaps curled inside the turbulent virginal atmosphere, Helm dreams of being a storm, has a prophetic vision of destruction, feels a natural calling. The foetal beat of air beats all around Helm like a beating heart (must elegantly variate). Or the sky, a bit bloated, lets one off. Helm loves a fart joke.
The top of the mountain, also as yet unnamed, is the perfect spot from which to observe evolution. It’s all kicking off below. Lavic displays and dramatic columns of ash. The rearrangement of rivers and lakes. Meltwater. Spores. Vegetation. Creatures crawling out of gunk, their legs extending, their toe-webs rescinding, amoebic eyes getting harder.
And all the while Helm sits, observes, tries to understand and from time to time, wreaks havoc.
Having taken a while to get into Helm by Sarah Hall, I finally plunged headlong into the strong wind and let it carry me over the ages. I was sorry to leave Helm and his cast of characters, and I hope he’s still causing occasional havoc in Eden Valley.
