Brothers of Gwynedd Part 2 - Dragon at Noonday

At the beginning of the summer (Northern Hemisphere season that is because it isn't particularly warm here at the moment), the Sourcebooks Summer Reading Club was announced. The book that we were going to be reading was The Brothers of Gwynedd by Edith Pargeter. It's fair to say that a fair proportion of the participants in the club really struggled with the first part of the book (myself included), but it seems that continued for most people with the second part of the book, and therefore the club was cancelled.

I might have been one of the few participants who was disappointed at this outcome, because as much as I struggled with the first part, I really enjoyed the second part of the book, so at this point I am planning to try and stick with the original time frames. We'll see how we go with that. The story was engaging, and I was disappointed when I had to put the book down a couple of times, because I would rather have been able to keep reading than to go to work.

Once again, I found myself thinking back to my reading Sharon Kay Penman’s Welsh trilogy a few years ago, with the events in this second part of the book equating with a lot of the storyline from Falls the Shadow. I am thinking that when I do finally finish this book, then a reread of the Welsh trilogy may be in order.

Part 2 of the Brothers of Gwynedd, which was originally published as a separate book under the title Dragon at Noonday, opens with Llewellyn returning to his lands in triumph. He is the head of a mostly unified Wales, with most of the major players having agreed to follow him. What followed was a period of relative prosperity and strengthening in Wales, helped in no small way by the fact that the attention of the English was not focused on their borders, but rather on internal strife.

Of course, the history of the relationship between Wales and England being as it is, even when things are peaceful it is never really all that calm, and for Llewellyn one of the worst things about this particular period of prosperity is the desertion from his ranks of one of his most important men, who also happened to be one of his relatives. On the flip side, it also meant a deepening respect and friendship between himself and Simon de Montfort, who at one point was the virtual leader of England during the baronial opposition to Henry III which is sometimes referred to as the Second Baron's War.

Rather than talk too much about what happened, I wanted to comment more on a couple of the characters, specifically the narrator Samson, and also Simon de Montfort.

It is always interesting when reading historical fiction to see what device authors use to get their fictional characters close to the action. Having Samson be a clerk who is a dab hand in a fight as well as having some religious background turns out to be very clever. By virtue of his occupation, Samson is able to be right in the action whether it be with Llewellyn, or as happens several times, by having Samson be temporarily seconded to Simon de Montfort's camp and by in the action I mean that he very well could be either confidante in his role as clerk or in the heat of battle.  The other advantage to having our narrator be a clerk, is that there are times when more background information can be shared through letter form, and it doesn't feel unnatural or out of place.

At the time that this book is set, King Henry III was being called to task by many of his lords for not living up to the agreements that he made in relation to the taxation and governance of the people. The leader of the rebels was Simon de Montfort who happened to be married to the King's sister. The relationship between the two men had started out in friendship, with Simon being one of Henry's son's godfathers, but it soon turned to animosity. Throw in some meddling from the church, and it seems like it was never going to end well.

One thing that I did find interesting is that in both this book and Falls the Shadow - again comparing to Sharon Kay Penman - the portrayal of Simon is so positive. In this book,  words that he are used to describe him include pure and saintly. An effort is made to admit that he does have failings, but for the most part it is obvious that the author really admires everything that Simon de Montfort stood for. He did do some amazing things, and is generally agreed to be one of the founders of modern parliamentary democracy, but I have also heard that there are some suggestions that there might be things to be less enamoured of, particularly in relation to the action he took part in whilst on crusade. However it is that he behaved in his time, I do find him a very interesting and dynamic character from history to read about, especially in the hands of excellent authors.

My plan now will be to pick up the third book at the beginning of next month and see what happens next, both in relation to Llewellyn and his family, in the relationship between England and Wales, and also in Samson's personal life. I am looking forward to it.

If I was to rate this second part, Dragon at Noonday, I would give it 4.5 out of 5, which is quite a contrast to the 3.5 out of 5 I gave the first part.

Teaser Tuesday: The Brothers of Gwynedd by Edith Pargeter

Sorry for the radio silence this week so far. I have a house guest and so have been busy, busy, busy. I have also been starting to get some of the entries up at Australian Book Blogger Directory! Need to spend some time catching up on blog hopping later this week!

My teaser this week comes from The Brothers of Gwynedd by Edith Pargeter. I have teased from the first part, Sunrise in the West, a couple of times at the beginning of May, and now this teaser comes from the second part,  The Dragon at Noonday. I am taking four sentences from page 360:

As for thinking of what I had left behind me, or of what I had to tell, I thought not at all. I could not. Everything I had seen, and suffered, and done, was live within me, and I so full of it there was no room for thought. I lived and acted, and that was all.

Teaser Tuesday is host by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

Brothers of Gwynedd Part 1 - Sunrise in the West

Over the next couple of months I am participating in the Sourcebooks Summer Reading Club, where the chosen read is Edith Pargeter's The Brothers of Gwynedd. When it was originally published back in the early mid 1970's, it was released as four separate books, with the first one being Sunrise in the West, which is the part that I am concentrating on today. This reissue is being released as one volume, and it is huge!

Have you ever read a book, or an author, that just spoiled you for any other authors that you read that dared to set their story in the same time and place? I have, and unfortunately for The Brothers of Gwynedd that story was Sharon Kay Penman's fantastic Welsh trilogy (Here Be Dragons, Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning). Admittedly the setting is not exactly the same. The first book in SKP's trilogy was Here Be Dragons, and focused on Llewellyn the Fawr, who is the grandfather of the Llewellyn who is the main character in this book, but some of the events that are covered in the first part of this novel, are covered in the later novels in the trilogy.

As soon as I started reading this book, I found myself trying to remember what had happened in SKP’s books, and my mind wandering off towards a reread of those books. As I think about it now, that leads me to wonder, what precisely was it that didn’t initially capture my imagination in this novel? In the first instance it is probably the density of the language, and a feeling of distance, of not getting to know the characters. Initially I was attributing this to an almost old-fashioned style of writing historical fiction, but I am currently reading a book that was published around the same time, and I am having to rethink that conclusion.

Don’t get me wrong. The language is beautiful. While I was reading this first part, I shared these two teasers as part of Teaser Tuesday, from pages 11 and 107 respectively:

By the upland road we went, turning our backs on that blessed sea that leads outward over the watery brightness to the beauteous isle of Enlli, where the saints are sleeping in bliss. We went towards the rib of Lleyn, that leads into Wales as an arm leads into the body: from rest into turmoil, from peace into conflict, from bliss into anguish.

And:

For these family relationships with their hates and loves were the trammel and bane of Wales as they were of the marches, and indeed, from all I could ever learn, of England and France and those troubled realms beyond the see no less. And the more the great laboured to make dynastic marriages, the more they tied their own hands, and put into other hands knives for their own backs. Their histories and ours was ever a chronicle of such expulsions and revenges, the tide of fortune flowing now this way, now that, and never safe or still.

There is definitely a lyricism to the words, but a whole book full of this kind of language is a bit time consuming to read. Normally I read somewhere between 60 and a 100 pages a day, so based on these averages I would have expected to get through the first section of this book, which is about 180 pages, in maybe 3 or 4 days tops. It took me more than 10. If I was a reader who gave up on books easily, there’s a fair chance that I would have put this down with the intention of never picking it up, but I am glad I persevered, because once I got more than half way through this first section, my enjoyment of it did increase.

So far I have talked about my reactions to the book, but not a lot about what it is actually about. Our narrator is Samson. He was born to his mother who was a lady in the Welsh court, but he does not know who his father is. As a young boy he played with Llewellyn whose father was the illegitimate oldest son of Llewellyn the Fawr. Normally illegitimacy does not preclude inheritance under Welsh law, but his father had decided to follow the English tradition of allowing only legitimate children to inherit, and therefore the younger son, David inherited the Welsh lands of his father. The scene is therefore set for dissension, constant battles between the supporters of both men, between those who want to follow and uphold the Welsh traditions and those who see the sense in trying to unite Wales under one leader.

In addition to being a playmate to Llewellyn (the younger), Samson’s mother was milkmaid to his brother David, and so Samson shares strong bonds with both the brothers. When still a young boy, he is sent off to begin a life of religious instruction, and this is what he expects his lot in life to be, until as a young man he is called back to Court, and finds himself working as clerk to the Welsh prince and one of his closest confidants.

One of the legacies of his father is ongoing issues between Llewellyn and his three brothers, agitated by their mother to a great extent. The three brothers, including the charismatic, changeable and vibrant David, have all pledged loyalty to the English king Henry, in the hope that their own claims will be upheld.

Llewellyn is sure of his right to rule Wales, but his greatest challenge is how to unite the whole country so that instead of fighting against each other, they can stand united against their greatest foe, England.

The difficulty of having Samson as the narrator, is that whilst he is sometimes part of the action, there are other times when he is merely retelling the facts for the reader. He is also somewhat under developed as a character personally. We find out what happened in his life, but I didn’t really feel as though we were allowed any intimate knowledge of him as a person until late in the book.

For all the denseness of the language, I will be continuing to read along, and I am confident that there will be a worthwhile result in the end. At this point, if I was to rate this book , I would probably give it a grading of 3.5/5

As part of this Summer Book Club, there is going to be a monthly chat about the book, each hosted at a different blog. The discussion of this first part of The Brothers of Gwynedd will be hosted by Amy at Passages to the Past on Monday night, May 24 at 7.00 EST (US time), and please check out what other people in the book club had to say about their experiences of reading this part of the book.

May 17 Reviews
The Burton Review	http://www.theburtonreview.com/
The Bibliophilic Book Blog	http://www.bibliophilicbookblog.com/
Rundpinne	http://www.rundpinne.com/
A Reader's Respite	http://readersrespite.blogspot.com/
History Undressed	http://www.historyundressed.blogspot.com/
Linda Banche Blog	http://lindabanche.blogspot.com/
A Hoyden's Look at Literature	http://caramellunacy.blogspot.com/
Renee's Reads	http://theroyalreviews.blogspot.com/
May 18 Reviews
Between the Pages	http://www.betweenthelinesandmore.blogspot.com/
The Broken Teepee	http://www.brokenteepee.blogspot.com/
Books and Coffee	http://bookswithcoffee.wordpress.com/
Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell	http://books-forlife.blogspot.com/
Tanzanite's Shelf and Stuff	http://shelfandstuff.blogspot.com/
Passages to the Past	http://www.passagestothepast.com/
The Book Faery	http://tbfreviews.net/
A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore	http://agirlwalksintoabookstore.blogspot.com/
Martha's Bookshelf	http://marthasbookshelf.blogspot.com/
May 19 Reviews
Beth Fish	http://bfishreads.blogspot.com/
Deb's Book Bag	http://debsbookbag.blogspot.com/
Book Tumbling	http://booktumbling.com/
A Work in Progress	http://danitorres.typepad.com/workinprogress/
Stiletto Storytime	http://www.stilettostorytime.wordpress.com/
Queen of Happy Endings	http://alainereading.blogspot.com/
May 20 Reviews
The Literate Housewife	http://literatehousewife.com/
Reading Adventures	http://readingadventures.blogspot.com/
Books Like Breathing	http://bibliophile23.wordpress.com/
Kailana's Written World	http://myreadingbooks.blogspot.com/
Confessions of a Muse in the Fog	http://muse-in-the-fog.blogspot.com/
Wendy's Minding Spot	http://mindingspot.blogspot.com/
Mrs. Q Book Addict	http://web.me.com/quirion
The Life and Lies of a Flying Inanimate Object	http://www.haleymathiot.blogspot.com/
Starting Fresh	http://startingfresh-gaby317.blogspot.com/
May 21 Reviews
Loving Heart Mommy	http://www.lovingheartmommy.com/
Peeking Between the Pages	http://peekingbetweenthepages.blogspot.com/
Celtic Lady's Ramblings	http://celticladysreviews.blogspot.com/
Bookfoolery	http://bookfoolery.blogspot.com/
One Literature Nut	http://mjmbecky.blogspot.com/
The Book Tree	http://thebooktree.blogspot.com/
My Reading Room	http://myreadingroom-crystal.blogspot.com/
May 23 Reviews
Carla Nayland's Blog	http://www.carlanayland.org/index.shtml

Teaser Tuesday: The Brothers of Gwynned by Edith Pargeter

I am about to do something that I don't recall doing before. I am not going to say that I have never done it, but I don't remember it. I am going to quote from the same book for two weeks running, mainly because I still am not all that far into the book.

So my teaser this week is again from the first part of The Brothers of Gwynedd which was originally published as Sunrise in the West, this time from page 107:

For these family relationships with their hates and loves were the trammel and bane of Wales as they were of the marches, and indeed, from all I could ever learn, of England and France and those troubled realms beyond the see no less. And the more the great laboured to make dynastic marriages, the more they tied their own hands, and put into other hands knives for their own backs. Their histories and ours was ever a chronicle of such expulsions and revenges, the tide of fortune flowing now this way, now that, and never safe or still.

It is likely that over the next couple of months there may be more teasers from this book. We'll see what else I am reading each Tuesday!


Please note that this teaser comes from an Uncorrected Advance Readers Copy so the final contents may change slightly.

Teaser Tuesday is host by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

Teaser Tuesday: The Brothers of Gwynedd by Edith Pargeter

Later this month I am participating in the Sourcebooks Summer Reading Group for The Brothers of Gwynedd by Edith Pargeter. Originally there were four books released individually that formed the whole series, but Sourcebooks are rereleasing the novels as one huge edition! In order to make the discussion work better and also to make it a manageable read, we are reading each book separately, one a month, and there will be discussion each month. I am really looking forward to it, but I realised that even though I am only reading one book initially, I really needed to hurry up and start reading the book! I am glad that I have started early because the writing seems quite dense so far.

My teaser comes from page 11 - very early in the first book which was called Sunrise in the West:

By the upland road we went, turning our backs on that blessed sea that leads outward over the watery brightness to the beauteous isle of Enlli, where the saints are sleeping in bliss. We went towards the rib of Lleyn, that leads into Wales as an arm leads into the body: from rest into turmoil, from peace into conflict, from bliss into anguish.

It may well be that you will see more teasers from this book over the coming weeks. Please note that this teaser comes from an Uncorrected Advance Readers Copy so the final contents may change slightly.

Teaser Tuesday is host by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!