Library 2026-01-20
Rating: Not rated
Tags: Fiction
Summary
A
brilliant, lush, sweeping historical novel about the rise
of the most powerful woman of the Middle Ages:
Hild
In seventh-century Britain,
small kingdoms are merging, frequently and violently. A
new religion is coming ashore; the old gods are
struggling, their priests worrying. Hild is the
king’s youngest niece, and she has a glimmering
mind and a natural, noble authority. She will become a
fascinating woman and one of the pivotal figures of the
Middle Ages: Saint Hilda of Whitby.
But now she has only the
powerful curiosity of a bright child, a will of adamant,
and a way of seeing the world—of studying nature,
of matching cause with effect, of observing her
surroundings closely and predicting what will happen
next—that can seem uncanny, even supernatural, to
those around her.
Her uncle, Edwin of Northumbria,
plots to become overking of the Angles, ruthlessly using
every tool at his disposal: blood, bribery, belief. Hild
establishes a place for herself at his side as the
king’s seer. And she is indispensable—unless
she should ever lead the king astray. The stakes are life
and death: for Hild, for her family, for her loved ones,
and for the increasing numbers who seek the protection of
the strange girl who can read the world and see the
future.
Hild is a young woman at the
heart of the violence, subtlety, and mysticism of the
early Middle Ages—all of it brilliantly and
accurately evoked by Nicola Griffith’s luminous
prose. Working from what little historical record is
extant, Griffith has brought a beautiful, brutal world to
vivid, absorbing life.