I haven't the time to read the whole post yet, so this is a single aspect, but, uh -- you posted about The Dark is Rising. Although, you made me a little sad, because, well, Arthur was Welsh first. And the important thing to me about Susan Cooper, the thing that plucks my heart strings, is that she gave me back that Arthur. My Arthur. Oh, mostly through the figure of his son, who is so very Welsh and talks like people of my family talk*, who'd be called stupid in England, but she does it. And throughout the books set in Wales, she plays on the Welsh/English tensions -- with a light hand, yeah, but she does.

And yet you're talking about it as a representation of a quintessential European myth, which I suppose is true as well, but that hurts.

*No. of books I grew up with where people spoke like my family: 3, max.