The Saxon Tapestry

In eleventh century England, King Edward the Confessor relinquishes his crown to the courageous Harold, just as Viking and Norman forces prepare to sweep into England and political intrigue runs rampant

Rice's debut novel of 11th-century Britain on the eve of the Conquest, related in lusty, lyrical language, mixes Anglo-Saxon battles and Celtic charms. Patience is needed to bite into a text as chewy and resistant as this often is, with its pseudo-archaic diction, but effort is repaid. Hereward, second son of Leofric, earl of Mercia, grows up in the fens of Swan Mere. Called the changeling because of a facial mark and strange gaze--one blue eye, one gray--Hereward cannot find a woman till he and sidekick Hogni Tricksleeve are shipwrecked on an Irish isle. Hereward farms in the wilds, living idyllically with raven-haired enchantress Muirgheal, who bears him a flowerlike daughter. As Vikings bear down from the north, Harold, successor to Britain's feeble Edward the Confessor, is doomed to yield to Norman rule after Duke William, favored by the pope and treacherously abetted by Harold's brother, invades from across the Channel. Hereward rows home with his comrades to drive the pillagers from his father's hall. Unhappily, Rice skimps on the hero's last stand and moves abruptly away from the appealing Hereward and Muirgheal, but sustains throughout her vivid portrayal of a magical Britain, beguiling and robust in a half-pagan age. 30,000 first printing.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

As the forces of William the Conqueror strive to bring England securely into the fold of the European Church, a few defenders of an older way of life and religion struggle against the tide of inevitability. Rice's story of the rebellion of Harold, the last of the great Saxon leaders of England, is at one and the same time a look at history from the losers' point of view and a magical reinterpretation of a land mark event in Western civilization. Though technically not a work of "fantasy," this saga of pre-Norman England is fraught with omens and laced with undercurrents of the supernatural. Fantasy readers with an interest in pre-medieval cultures should enjoy this crossover novel.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.