Beadbonny Ash

by Winifred Finlay

"The stars danced like this the night Saint Columba died on Iona," Kenneth said, "and the monks thought it was the angels carrying his soul to Heaven."

The whole day had been strange. First there was the sound, like thunder or a sonic boom, as the four walked in the woods of Argyll. John thought he heard a call for help. Later there was the harp music - a tune that filled Bridie's heart with deep longing. An old woman was singing, and when Kenneth saw her, he became aware of danger. "Don't listen!" he cried.

For over a year Bridie had moved in and out of an imaginary world. Now she had entered it for a moment. The MacDonalds had accepted her as one of the family, but today they had quarreled. It had something to do with the ruined fort, and the sooner they got away from it, the better.

But the harp music draws Bridie, and after her Kenneth and Sheena and John, into a world thirteen centuries dead - into the pagan kingdom of Dalriada at the time when Saint Columba first brought Christianity to Scotland.

Winifred Finlay's imaginative mood fantasy dramatically re-creates another age. And though her adventurous dream of Dalriada, Bridies finds a place fore her true self in the real world.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Novelist and Folklorist.

'Winifred Finlay, born in the north of England to Scottish parents, was brought up on tales and ballads of Scotland's past glories. "All my stories are set in real places," she says, "places which I know well, and revisit, and read about before start to write."'

- taken from Beadbonny Ash

Reviews

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Scottish time travel (back to the 6th century) almost was very very good, but sadly for me, when the time travel kicked in, the central pov character totally became her 6th century counterpart. In her aspect of living Dark Ages goddess, she wasn't as interesting a character to me, and the modern characters back in time aspect of the story was extinguished. Since this is what I find most interesting in time travel, I was both resentful and disappointed. (By happy chance, two weeks ago I happened to read the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem the title comes from, and it's a good one.)

[Sula · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book quite confusing overall. Initially we are introduced to modern-day Bridie, and while the chronology of this part is a little confusing, I was starting to get to grips with it, when suddenly we are in the time of Saint Columba, and some of the modern day characters appear, but they don't all seem to know of their modern selves, and seem to be different characters? From here onwards I was lost on how the stories relate to each other as a whole, and didn't find this section of story where Bridie is the daughter of a goddess particularly successful in its own right. It makes 2 stars just because the first bit was starting to get somewhere more interesting and have some more developed character relations.