“Blood and fire, gold and steel and poetry, a river’s voice in the silence of the night, and the shining strings of a harp – all these and more I have known in my time... Now they are all gone, the men and women I knew when I was young, gone like words on the wind, and I am left here in the twilight to tell you their tale. Sit, then, and listen if you will to the words of Gwernin Kyuarwyd, called Storyteller…”
So begins the tale of the young Gwernin’s adventures as a wandering storyteller and would-be bard in the chaos and contradictions of 6th century Britain. Along the way he encounters allies and enemies both human and supernatural, finds love and friendship, and learns the lore - and the true meaning - of a Bard’s profession.
"Meticulously researched, engagingly written" What is - or was - a bard, in Dark Ages Britain? What did the people of that time and place mean when they said that? "Bard" is one of those archetypal words which are often misused - but not in this case. Meticulously researched, engagingly written, the book does not fit easily into a usual category. There is adventure - but it is not only an adventure story. The protagonist is young - but the book is by no means intended for a juvenile audience. Like the late, great Rosemary Sutcliff, G.R. Grove has the knack of dropping the reader into the location and time - sight and scent, sound and sense - and making them aware of the concerns of a person of that era, rather than merely those of a modern individual in different clothing. Some things, however, are fairly universal: wariness of the enemy in the night, the seeking for deserved esteem from those one admires, the ability to make a total fool of oneself and to recover... More > from it - all these are familiar to intelligent humans in any century. I think that most folk interested in Dark Ages British cultures would enjoy this book. I said above that most folk interested in Dark Ages cultures would enjoy this - ? True, but so would folk who simply like a good tale - or series of them - set in a world that's almost far enough away to be fantasy, but as real and immediate as our own. So why is this book called "Storyteller" and not "Bard?" Ah, I will let Gwernin tell you that for himself.< Less
