The Spellcoats (1979) is the third published novel in Diana Wynne Jones's series Dalemark Quartet, but chronologically the first.

Tanaqui and her siblings flee to avoid being killed by the people of their own village; they physically resemble Heathens.

The first spellcoat tells of how the five siblings (Gull, Robin, Hern, Tanaqui and Duck) traveled downriver on their boat.

Tanaqui weaves frantically and finally she completes her spellcoat with a waking vision she experiences.

In an epilogue written by Elthorar Ansdaughter, Keeper of Antiquities, we learn that the spellcoats were discovered hundreds of years later, during the approximate time period of Drowned Ammet and Cart and Cwidder, in the mountains of North Dalemark near Hannart.

[3] Elthorar notes the close correspondence between various figures in the stories and their apparent counterparts in the legends and folktales of the people of Dalemark.

As in the other three books, the presence of magic is not readily apparent at its beginning, but slowly creeps into the story.