Earth Magic

Neither swords-and-sorcery nor Tolkienesque romance, Earth Magic presents an archaic world in the tradition of the Northern European epic poems. Haldane, the young son of the Get warlord Black Morca, encounters a witch in the woods who unsettles his composure with prophecies of strange events and major changes. He returns home to find the first of the prophecies already come true—his father has been off raiding the more civilized countries to the West and has returned with a Western princess for Haldane to marry. Morca's ambitions arouse mistrust and anger among the other Get lords, and soon Haldane finds himself fleeing for his life with only a wizard of uncertain skills as his companion. Their journey will take them through hidden realms, to a decisive moonlight battle on Stone Heath amid the great menhirs, a place charged with earth magic and bloody memory. Heroic fantasy novel, first serialized in Fantastic Magazine (April/July/September 1973) as 'The Son of Black Morca'.