The novel is essentially a coming of age tale, as Hild must learn to navigate May have been helpful in completing spinning, weaving, and the many other tasks However, in a world where women’s lives were so consumedīy the task of producing clothing, it is quite possible that such partnerships Women, as depicted in Griffith’s description of the gemæcce. Not aware of any documentation of formal relationships between two Anglo-Saxon Necessarily known historical facts, but they are plausible. What is actually known about Hild and her time. Story and the world she creates are compelling, believable, and consistent with Griffith takes these few details and builds an entire story around them. As Griffith observes in the author’s note, everything we know about theįirst half of Hild’s life can be summarized in a few sentences from Bede’s Ecclesiastical History.

Life of Hild, with only the slightest foreshadowing of her later role asĪbbess. Griffith instead depicts the childhood and early adult – or is about to do so, when she first appears in Ethelreda. In all three of these books, Hild has already entered religious life The abbess appears in Ethelreda by Moyra Caldecott and A Swarming of Bees by Theresa Thomlinson,Īs well as Thomslinson’s young-adult book Wolf Her time whose name is still known in the present day. Of Whitby, as she is usually remembered today. The entire novel is narrated from the perspective of Hild, or St. Griffith’s use of older terms helps remind us that we are in a Garden are not the same as the cows and strawberries of nearly fourteenĬenturies ago. Longhorns I pass by on my way to work and the juicy strawberries in my backyard That is the only concession she makes for the traveler to this long-ago world. Griffith does provide a glossary for the most commonly used words, but Present day, at least in British usage or as an archaic form or a technical Without learning some of the language of the time that has survived to the Likewise, we can’t go to seventh-century England AfterĪll, we wouldn’t want to go to France without reviewing some basic French Was part of Griffith’s way of transporting the reader to Northumbria. Up, I wondered why Griffith sometimes found it necessary to use older spellings,Īs in strayberry instead of strawberry. And even when I didn’t have to look a word Realized that Griffith must be using some conjugation of the word tell in its old meaning of count, as in telling rosary beads. Write cows instead of kine? I spent a long time trying to find I was a little annoyed at having to look up words. I congratulated myself onįor killing), but I still found myself turning often to a dictionary. Reasonably familiar from Anglo-Saxon history texts.

Some of these words are still in current spoken usage or are She minimizes her use of Latin-derived vocabulary in favor of words found Griffith recreates seventh-century England is through her masterful use of

Hild book review