Darkmistress's Full Review: Morgan Llywelyn - Druids
History is written by the victors. The fact that the Celts did not write anything down due to a distrust of the written word made it that much easier for the Romans to convince the world that Pax Romana was a good thing. It brought peace to a warring Europe. Much the way Reaganomics brought stability to the economy, I suppose.
Druids, by Morgan Llywelyn, is history from the point of view of the losers. You know when you begin the book, reading about the druid Ainvar as a boy and student, that his great goal of keeping the land of the Gauls free from the Romans is doomed. (You remember Pax Romana, Ceaser, soon so forth.) But Llywelyn is such an excellent writer that in the middle of the battles you truly believe the Celts could win. You can’t see how they can lose. Ainvar is such a powerful Druid and Vercingetorix is such an excellent war leader. Unfortunately, as soon as Caesar is mentioned, you are forced to remember that Caesar isn‘t going to lose for a long time yet.
When things begin to crumble, you can pick out the mistakes. And the mistakes the characters make are perfectly matched to their personalities. Nothing is forced for the sake of history. I marvel at the deftness with which Llywelyn creates history while creating a fantastic and realistic human struggle.
You’ll most likely find this book shelved in fantasy, but I feel that it’s being given short shift. This book is history. When I’m asked to recommend a fiction book on Irish history I always recommend Llywelyn. There is magic in it, Ainvar is capable of giving people headaches and summoning rainstorms, but I have the suspicion that when a large portion of the population believes in magic, it works. (Everybody believes in computers and they work, mostly.)
One flaw of Llywelyn’s, she can be a little loose with the descriptions. I had read books of hers before I went to Ireland and built these ideas about what she was talking about and when I got there and saw what she was talking about, well…. This probably won’t detract from your enjoyment of the story, but just for informational purposes (and to show off) the walls of the forts the Celts built were dirt and wood. They are about five feet thick and ten feet tall. I have a hard time imagining one of these things to be big enough to hold 80,000 people, but I have a hard time imagining New York sometimes too.
So, if you’re curious about the Celtic way of life before the Romans and Christianity wrecked it read this book. It’s not pretty at times, but neither is real life.
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