Understanding “The Shining Mountain”

The Shining Mountain The short story “The Shining Mountain” is written by Alison Fell, a Scottish writer who has written poetry and fiction both for adults and children. She is a feminist, i.e. someone who supports the rights of women in society, and she often writes about relationships between the sexes. Mountains and mountaineering is a theme that she returns to in several of her books.

A fairy story ...? In some ways “The Shining Mountain” feels like a fairy story. It starts, for example, with the words “Once there was ...” and, with the exception of Pangma-La, the characters don’t have personal names, but are just referred to as “the father” and “the mother”. We are never told where the mountain itself lies (although if you look in an encyclopaedia you will see that one of the peaks of the Himalayas is called Shishapangma). Not least, the story contains events that we might call magical, and that we recognize from other fairy tales, like when the girl turns into a swan.

… or a realistic story? On the other hand, we are told that Pangma-La is “a Scottish girl” and that she goes to school, watches BBC and rides buses – none of which is typical for a traditional fairy story.

Magic realism This mixture of the realistic and the magical gives “The Shining Mountain” rather an odd, unsettling feeling. Writers often “steal” from the world of fairy tales as a way of dealing with difficult and personal issues in a more distanced, impersonal way. One way to understand this story is to see it as a story about relationships that uses elements from fairy tales to make its point.

Living up to your name Pangma-La and her famous mountaineering father have a complicated relationship. He demands that his daughter be “tough and hard as nails” and never cry. It is he that has given her her name, after a famous mountain, so that she “will stand tall and be proud”.

Living up to your name But although Pangma-La tries her best to live up to his expectations, she is always afraid of disappointing him. Her mother, on the other hand, has the opposite role; she expects nothing of Pangma-La, but only worries about her safety.

The ultimate test As a small child Pangma-La is told that one day she and her father will climb the mountain that she is named after. We can see this as being the ultimate test where she can prove herself worthy of the name he has given her. Her dream on the plane, where she becomes a white swan unable to find anywhere to land, reveals her terrible loneliness and anxiety at the prospect of failing the test.

The fairy godmother? But in true fairy tale fashion, Pangma-La receives help from a supernatural source; from the mountain goddess. Perhaps we can see the goddess as representing motherhood, a more powerful version of her own weak, fussing mother. Perhaps she represents Pangma-La’s inner self, the part that refuses to bend to her father’s will. Or perhaps she is simply a mountain goddess!

Giving in to the goddess Whatever she is, the goddess appears to begin with in the shape of a Sherpa woman. (The Sherpas are a people who live high in the Himalayas, traditionally used as guides for foreign climbers.) She offers to lighten Pangma-La’s burden by magical means. At first Pangma-La is sceptical, but as she gets more and more exhausted, and the woman’s offers are repeated, she gives in. Each time she accepts help from the goddess, Pangma-La drifts further from her father, who has governed her life until now. She feels shame at what she is doing, but has no alternative.

Pangma-La is lost … When she finally gives up her heart to the goddess, she is transformed into a swan. The goddess reveals her true self to Pangma-La’s father and confronts him with his crime. He has made his daughter achieve his dreams, but lost her in the process.

… and found! But this story has a happy ending, for the goddess is no wicked witch. When Pangma-La’s father shows he is truly sorry and cries real tears, she is satisfied that he has changed. She brings his daughter back to life and together they climb down from the mountain.

Fathers and daughters What is really going on here? If we choose to see this not just as a story about magic and goddesses, but as a story about fathers and daughters, it is not difficult to make sense of it. Most children feel they have expectations to live up to – ways they should behave or things they should want in order to make their parents happy. Some parents consciously try to shape their children in this way. Pangma-La’s father is one of these. He is proud and fond of his daughter, but only in so far as she does what he wants her to do.

Growing up Part of growing up is finding out who you are and what you want from life – even if it’s not what your parents had planned. It is only when he loses his daughter that Pangma-La’s father realizes that it is her he loves, not his ambitious dreams for her. As they climb down the mountain together, we are told that “never again was Pangma-La afraid that her father would be disappointed in her.” Pangma-La has grown up – and so has her father!