Oh, I love this book - I actually read Over Sea, Under Stone a few times as a child before I realised there were any sequels, and so my experiences of The Dark is Rising are always overlaid with the disappointment child-me had at encountering a different character, but this book tipped me totally over into Will as a character, and it's lasted since (also, yes, Will and Bran were definitely one of those couples I slashed before I knew what it meant, although I am pretty leery of actually tracking down fic). I love the contrast between powers and humans and yes, the way humans can do so much more intimate damage.

Your review has many excellent questions to which I am mostly lacking answers. The riddles - the first two are Welsh Triads, groups of three things used as an oral tradition mnemonic to prompt stories (this is one version; I like the three powerful swinehers), and Will's comment about Arthur being more generous is also from one of the texts (previous post-read Googling, plus being trapped on holiday once with only a copy of the Mabinogion to read).

Bran as albino I'm also baffled by - he's not really albino, is he, with tawny eyes? I thought she was going for an owl comparison as well (which I think is explicit in the text), but it's such a distancing sort of marker to chose. Hmm. I've just hit the Herne the Hunter reference, flipping through Silver on the Tree. Is there an Arthurian connection somewhere, maybe?