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The Saxon Tapestry
Alternate cover edition of ISBN-10 & ASIN 1559701587 / ISBN-13 978-1559701587
Woven around the figure of Hereward the Wake, this book tells the story of the final tragic end of Anglo-Saxon England. Hereward's boyhood in the fens of East Anglia unfolds against a background of intrigue and ambition as the ailing Edward the Confessor prepares for death.
Woven around the figure of Hereward the Wake, this book tells the story of the final tragic end of Anglo-Saxon England. Hereward's boyhood in the fens of East Anglia unfolds against a background of intrigue and ambition as the ailing Edward the Confessor prepares for death.
397 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 4, 2019
This is a reread, after many years. I bought the paperback new in 1992, read it almost at once, and again circa 2005, and a third time in this last week. The novel is, by turns, surpassingly beautiful, harrowing, and even puzzling. The story of Harold Godwinson and Hereward, known as 'the Wake,' is told across several decades of their lives, from early beginnings when Saxon England enjoyed a brief and transient peace, to the shadow of war ... invasion, and the attempted genocide that followed in the years after King Harold's defeat at Hastings.
I don't believe the English countryside has ever been described with such lyricism and adoration, before or since, and Rice is so familiar with this landscape, she's steeped in it. The land, particularly of the Fen District around Ely, comes to life in such color, vitality and detail, the country itself becomes a major player in the story.
The narrative is often reminiscent of Tolkien, which isn't so surprising when one knows how he loved 'The Shire,' which was ... yes, England; and also the people of that land in centuries gone by. It would also be fair to say that Tolkien is often easier to read than Rice: she favors a great many archaic terms which, frankly, only scholars will know. I started out with my phone to hand, running Merriam Webster, but you usually draw a blank there because the app ignores most archaic terms. I switched to Wikipedia with better luck, and for about 100pp was looking up meanings as I read. However, there are so many that the flow of reading is interrupted to the point where you're spoiling the book, trying to learn the language. So I just jotted them on a sticky-note adhered inside the back cover, and, now I'm finished, will chase down all those terms (gonfanon, and crozier, and coystril, and skep, niello, ligure, draff, and -- so on, and on).
These days I suppose this book ought to carry a 'reader beware' notice on two counts. First, the sex, though not terribly frequent, is very explicit. Being all growed-up, this doesn't bother me one jot (ye gods, I've been reading Mel Keegan for almost thirty years!); but what did get to me was the last 100pp or so, where much the same explicit treatment is given to the brutality of war and the genocide which followed...
Yep: this was war, in that era. The ending of the book is very moving, but the truth is, one tends to be somewhat bludgeoned by the brutality of the previous (lengthy) section, so the buckets of tears and boxes of Kleenex one would have predicted, much earlier in the work, don't (for me) happen.
Is the last third of the book depressing? Yes. But this is more or less history, at least in the broad strokes: every English kid should know the story of 1066. Not so many know the rest of the tale. The pogrom. Rice covers it in merciful shorthand, but the story of Hereward is undeniably tragic.
In fact, she created a Hereward who is much nicer than the historical person. Reading the "historical" accounts (and I use the term loosely!), the portrait of the real Hereward one finds is of a scoundrel with only courage, brawn, skill, stubbornness and, until the end, luck, to recommend him. Rice's Hereward is a hero, husband, father, and nice guy -- but if the historical record is anything to go by, he really is her creation.
Much of the novel is actually either invention or a delicate picking of one's way through the pseudo-historical labyrinth. Example: in this version, Harold is killed at Hastings and his body, hacked to bits, is claimed by his followers and buried ... a resolution which is much more satisfying than that recorded by various monks. According to this account and that, Harold's body was never found at all, having been virtually destroyed ... or else he escaped the field and lived for decades as a breast-beating penitent ... or Duke William treated his remains with honor (a likely story) and allowed him to be buried as a king. In fact, Sile Rice's version may be fiction, but I prefer it.
Same with her account of Hereward: he's an amalgam of characterizations recorded by monks and scholars over several centuries, before Rice takes this patchwork and makes of him a very nice man which, by all accounts, he ... probably wasn't! Read Charles Kightly's "Folk Heroes of Britain." Mmm. Kightly synopsizes and analyzes the records of the day, but his book really is an exercise in the toppling of idols! In fact, I prefer Rice's version of history -- which the exception of Hereward's demise.
The only 'truth' is that nobody really has a clue what became of him. In Rice's version he's so overwhelmed by what's happened in the seven or eight years since he became the rallying point for the Saxon people, a juncture arrives in his life where he virtually self-destructs. I would much rather have seen him do as his wife wanted, and vanish back into the Irish mists from whence he came. But I guess, given the carnage which had unfolded around him, he had to die. I can understand this; but I still wish he'd gone back to Ireland!
Recommended if you adore the English language for its own sake, and if you love the landscape that is England -- if you don't mind some very explicit sex, and if you can make it through a harrowing account of the pogrom which destroyed the Saxons as a people so thoroughly, they never recovered. I must give this book five stars because it's overwhelming, and very few books indeed fall into that category.
I don't believe the English countryside has ever been described with such lyricism and adoration, before or since, and Rice is so familiar with this landscape, she's steeped in it. The land, particularly of the Fen District around Ely, comes to life in such color, vitality and detail, the country itself becomes a major player in the story.
The narrative is often reminiscent of Tolkien, which isn't so surprising when one knows how he loved 'The Shire,' which was ... yes, England; and also the people of that land in centuries gone by. It would also be fair to say that Tolkien is often easier to read than Rice: she favors a great many archaic terms which, frankly, only scholars will know. I started out with my phone to hand, running Merriam Webster, but you usually draw a blank there because the app ignores most archaic terms. I switched to Wikipedia with better luck, and for about 100pp was looking up meanings as I read. However, there are so many that the flow of reading is interrupted to the point where you're spoiling the book, trying to learn the language. So I just jotted them on a sticky-note adhered inside the back cover, and, now I'm finished, will chase down all those terms (gonfanon, and crozier, and coystril, and skep, niello, ligure, draff, and -- so on, and on).
These days I suppose this book ought to carry a 'reader beware' notice on two counts. First, the sex, though not terribly frequent, is very explicit. Being all growed-up, this doesn't bother me one jot (ye gods, I've been reading Mel Keegan for almost thirty years!); but what did get to me was the last 100pp or so, where much the same explicit treatment is given to the brutality of war and the genocide which followed...
Yep: this was war, in that era. The ending of the book is very moving, but the truth is, one tends to be somewhat bludgeoned by the brutality of the previous (lengthy) section, so the buckets of tears and boxes of Kleenex one would have predicted, much earlier in the work, don't (for me) happen.
Is the last third of the book depressing? Yes. But this is more or less history, at least in the broad strokes: every English kid should know the story of 1066. Not so many know the rest of the tale. The pogrom. Rice covers it in merciful shorthand, but the story of Hereward is undeniably tragic.
In fact, she created a Hereward who is much nicer than the historical person. Reading the "historical" accounts (and I use the term loosely!), the portrait of the real Hereward one finds is of a scoundrel with only courage, brawn, skill, stubbornness and, until the end, luck, to recommend him. Rice's Hereward is a hero, husband, father, and nice guy -- but if the historical record is anything to go by, he really is her creation.
Much of the novel is actually either invention or a delicate picking of one's way through the pseudo-historical labyrinth. Example: in this version, Harold is killed at Hastings and his body, hacked to bits, is claimed by his followers and buried ... a resolution which is much more satisfying than that recorded by various monks. According to this account and that, Harold's body was never found at all, having been virtually destroyed ... or else he escaped the field and lived for decades as a breast-beating penitent ... or Duke William treated his remains with honor (a likely story) and allowed him to be buried as a king. In fact, Sile Rice's version may be fiction, but I prefer it.
Same with her account of Hereward: he's an amalgam of characterizations recorded by monks and scholars over several centuries, before Rice takes this patchwork and makes of him a very nice man which, by all accounts, he ... probably wasn't! Read Charles Kightly's "Folk Heroes of Britain." Mmm. Kightly synopsizes and analyzes the records of the day, but his book really is an exercise in the toppling of idols! In fact, I prefer Rice's version of history -- which the exception of Hereward's demise.
The only 'truth' is that nobody really has a clue what became of him. In Rice's version he's so overwhelmed by what's happened in the seven or eight years since he became the rallying point for the Saxon people, a juncture arrives in his life where he virtually self-destructs. I would much rather have seen him do as his wife wanted, and vanish back into the Irish mists from whence he came. But I guess, given the carnage which had unfolded around him, he had to die. I can understand this; but I still wish he'd gone back to Ireland!
Recommended if you adore the English language for its own sake, and if you love the landscape that is England -- if you don't mind some very explicit sex, and if you can make it through a harrowing account of the pogrom which destroyed the Saxons as a people so thoroughly, they never recovered. I must give this book five stars because it's overwhelming, and very few books indeed fall into that category.
March 24, 2009
I know its cheesy to use the title as a descriptive word in your review but Sile has woven a rich tapestry of images emersing you in the wetlands of the past, complete with the agony of being an outcast in a superstitious time and culminating in the Battle of Hastings. I loved it. My only comment contrary is that the sexual imagery was a bit much. I could never recommend it to my churchy friends.
December 30, 2021
A lovely and easy read, although the descriptions are a little bawdy and gory in places
August 2, 2023
A novel about the last years of Saxon England and the Norman Conquest. Particular focus on Harold Godwinesson and Hereward, son of Earl Leofric and exiled for crimes that weren't really his fault. Not the least bit complimentary of William the Conqueror or the Normans in general. Hereward returns to England from Ireland after the Conquest to lead a rebellion. Not successful.
The overly explicit sex gets in the way of the story. Chapters short. Slow going at the beginning
The overly explicit sex gets in the way of the story. Chapters short. Slow going at the beginning
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 30, 2024
Little tales that make a whole. The ending years of Saxon England and the Norman invasion. Hereward the Wake is one of the main characters. I enjoyed reading some of the superstitious beliefs.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews