Description
Famous characters surge irrepressibly through this eventful novel about twelfth-century Wales: beautiful Nest of Pembroke, furious victim of war between Cymry and Normans; her nephews the disinherited Brothers Deheubarth, determined to win back their rightful kingdom; their spy Bleddyn Cyfarwydd, the travelling story-teller who perhaps inscribed the Mabinogion tales; Henry II who “plucked Peace screaming out of turmoil with as rude a gesture as when he made war”; and Lord Rhys of Deheubarth himself, the “battered, cunning, coarse, courageous man that they called king”, who was loved as well as feared and used his disasters as stepping-stones to success.
We watch the ebb and flow of his long struggle with Henry towards the final partnership and firm establishment of Rhys’s power; observe the chequered career of his spirited cousin, Gerallt, Archdeacon; are torn by the turbulence of his family life-his difficult relationship with his steadfast Queen, Gwenllian of Powys, his wayward sons, and his Norman-French daughter-in- law Mallt de Breos; cheer at his Great Eisteddfod; and admire the establishment of the Cistercian Abbey of Ystrad Fflur in Ceredigion, the flower of his determination to root in Deheubarth the Word of God that was, for all his sins, A LANTERN FOR LORD RHYS
- Gomer Press 1987
- English language
- Paperback, 304 pages
- Measures 21 x 2.4 x 13 cm
Condition: very good: a few creases and scuffs to cover, but otherwise looks unread