Afterglow and Nightfall, by Edith Pargeter. Book review

First published 1977. Edition reviewed: The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet, Sourcebooks 2010, ISBN 978-1402237607. This edition includes all four of the Brothers of Gwynedd novels in one binding. Afterglow and Nightfall, 199 pages. Complete quartet, 782 pages. Uncorrected advance review copy kindly supplied by publisher.

The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet covers the following four novels:

• Sunrise in the West


• The Dragon at Noonday


• The Hounds of Sunset


• Afterglow and Nightfall

Afterglow and Nightfall is the final instalment in the Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet, set in 1278–1283. It completes the story of Llewelyn ap Griffith and his brother David. Most of the main characters are historical figures, including Llewelyn and David, Llewelyn’s wife Eleanor de Montfort and King Edward I of England. The narrator Samson, Llewelyn’s friend and confidential clerk is fictional, as is his beloved Cristin and her husband Godred.

After his brother David’s third and worst betrayal, and the consequent disastrous defeat by Edward I, Llewelyn is left as prince of a much-reduced Gwynedd and forced to swear fealty to Edward as the price of peace (events told in The Hounds of Sunset.) The bitterness of Llewelyn’s defeat is at least partly compensated by the happiness of his marriage to the beautiful and heroic Eleanor, daughter of Simon de Montfort. But no-one with Edward I for a neighbour, or David for a brother, can expect to live peacefully for long. Edward and his officials relentlessly undermine the terms of the peace with injustice after injustice. As Welsh grievances against Edward mount, David is goaded into action. His loyalty may prove more fatal to Llewelyn than his treachery, as he strikes the blow that unleashes Edward’s wrath against the princes of Gwynedd.

With a title like Afterglow and Nightfall, you can probably guess that the history on which the novel is based is not the sunniest of subject matter. If Hounds of Sunset was full of a sense of gathering clouds, in Afterglow and Nightfall the storm breaks with a vengeance. The novel is a beautifully written elegy on tragedy and loss. The lyrical prose that is one of the great beauties of this quartet of novels if, if anything, even more poetic in this final act. It has the rich detail and brilliant colour of a stained glass window.

Narrated throughout by Samson, Llewelyn’s friend and clerk, the story is told entirely from the Welsh viewpoint. Whether Llewelyn was in reality quite as heroic a figure as portrayed here is open to debate, but there is no doubt which side the reader is expected to be on (and will be on, unless you have a heart of stone). Nevertheless, the novel doesn’t slip into one-sided sentimentality. Llewelyn may be remarkably free of flaws, but he is clear-eyed about the limits to Welsh patriotism:

“What they want now is what they wanted then, to preserve their own small rights. […] These are still only a thousand little divided souls clinging desperately to their own privileges and their own lands, and seeing nothing beyond. As they turned from me to Edward, when he seemed best to offer them security, so now they will turn from Edward to me, now they are looking for another saviour. […] There is no salvation there.”

The political and legal machinations that led up to the war of 1282-1283 are clearly set out. For example the Arwystli lawsuit, which can seem an incomprehensible legal quagmire of the sort described by Dickens in Bleak House, emerges here in its full political significance. Its tortuous progress is used as an indicator of Llewelyn’s gradual (and, as presented in the novel, justified) loss of faith in Edward’s honesty. If you have ever been puzzled as to how the war and its disasters came about, this quartet (especially Books 3 and 4) is a good place to start. What is especially impressive is that the political and legal events – which might sound rather dry stuff, on the face of it – are key to the emotional drama. It is these events that force Llewelyn and David to their final agonising choice, and in this novel the reader understands how that was brought about.

Although Llewelyn is the peerless hero of the novel, as throughout the quartet, it is David who is the pivot of the story. Brilliant, ambitious, vibrant and dangerous as ever, it is David’s action that triggers the final act in the drama. His treachery in Hounds of Sunset set the destruction of Llewelyn’s work in train; now that he and Llewelyn are finally reconciled his loyalty proves no less perilous. David has grown in stature over the quartet and is at least as memorable a character as Llewelyn himself – possibly more so because of his contradictions and complexities.

Samson’s star-crossed love for the beautiful and noble Cristin, which has been a constant backdrop throughout the series, is finally resolved in Afterglow and Nightfall. Very cleverly, too, in circumstances that raise intriguing parallels with the greater storyline. ‘Brothers of Gwynedd’ can be taken in more than one way. It also allows the book to end on an uplifting note – a small light amidst the great shadow, as Samson says at the end.

A family tree at the beginning helps to keep the characters straight, though I found the text sufficiently clear that I never needed to refer to it, and a glossary of Welsh terms at the back may be helpful to readers unfamiliar with the period. Readers who like to trace the campaigns and journeys on a map may like to have an atlas to hand, as there is no map in the book (at least, not in the advance reading copy).

Hauntingly beautiful final instalment in the story of Llewelyn and David ap Griffith, the last princes of independent Wales.

The Hounds of Sunset, by Edith Pargeter. Book review

First published 1976. Edition reviewed: The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet, Sourcebooks 2010, ISBN 978-1402237607. This edition includes all four of the Brothers of Gwynedd novels in one binding. The Hounds of Sunset, 196 pages. Complete quartet, 782 pages. Uncorrected advance review copy kindly supplied by publisher.

The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet covers the following four novels:

• Sunrise in the West


• The Dragon at Noonday


• The Hounds of Sunset


• Afterglow and Nightfall

The Hounds of Sunset is the third in Edith Pargeter’s quartet of novels telling the dramatic story of Llewelyn ap Griffith, last prince of independent Wales, and his turbulent younger brother David. The first two books, Sunrise in the West and The Dragon at Noonday have been reviewed here earlier. The key characters are historical figures, notably Llewelyn and David, Llewelyn’s bride Eleanor de Montfort, and King Edward I of England. The narrator Samson, Llewelyn’s friend and confidential clerk, is fictional, as is his beloved Cristin and her husband Godred.

The Hounds of Sunset covers the period from 1269 to 1278. Llewelyn is now the prince of (more or less) the whole of Wales, recognised as such and now at peace with England after the Treaty of Montgomery. His brother David, who has betrayed him twice and twice been forgiven, is apparently content with his lands and a pretty young wife. The future looks bright, and Llewelyn seeks to marry his long-affianced bride Eleanor de Montfort, who was betrothed to him by her father Earl Simon de Montfort just before his fatal defeat at the hands of the future Edward I at the battle of Evesham (told in The Dragon at Noonday). But Edward, who has never forgiven the de Montforts, has other ideas. When David turns to betrayal again, this time blacker than ever before, Llewelyn stands in danger of losing his bride, his patrimony and even his life.

Like the other volumes of the quartet, The Hounds of Sunset is beautifully written in intelligent, glowing prose. It isn’t a quick read, and at first glance it may even seem on the dry side, but the writing has a deceptive skill that drew me into the world of medieval Wales. The heroic, steadfast Llewellyn and his passionate, tormented, inconstant brother David are brilliantly illuminated, fiercely opposed and yet bound together by ties that cannot be broken. They dominate the novel and will remain long in the reader’s memory. David in particular is a powerful and compelling character. In Sunrise in the West I compared him to a fallen angel, and that analogy holds even more true now that he has grown in stature.

The third point of the triangle, Edward I of England, is equally strongly drawn. I am afraid he does not appear in a very flattering light, though Samson strives to understand him and Llewelyn seems almost unduly willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Edward’s ability is matched only by his duplicity, both of which were demonstrated in his war against Earl Simon and both of which have grown in the intervening years. He makes use of the interminable petty squabbles between the Welsh lords with ruthless skill, and when he has provoked an excuse for war he promulgates it with an iron resolve and all the vast resources at his disposal. The princes of Wales have historically relied on the geography of Wales – deep rivers, dense forests, high mountains – to protect them from enemy invasion, and no-one has bargained for a king who is prepared to force geography to bend to his will. Edward’s implacable military engineering reminded me of the way the Roman Empire used roads and forts to subdue southern Britain a thousand years earlier.

As might be guessed from the title, the whole novel is shot through with a sense of vast foreboding. As the narrator says, “It is a strange thing that Welshmen should undo Wales, but so it was.” That might make it sound gloomy, but it is not, because it is never dull. Sad though it may be to watch Llewelyn’s years of patient hard work destroyed by enmity, fraternal rivalry, ambition and greed, it is never less than absorbing. Furthermore, none of the characters is given to self-pity. Llewelyn retains the hope of making a new beginning and of rebuilding what has been lost, and his love for the beautiful and heroic Eleanor de Montfort shines like a shaft of sunlight through the gathering storm clouds. And David, as always, is unpredictable and capable of dealing out great joy as well as great hurt.

The value of using Samson as a narrator is shown again in The Hounds of Sunset. Being fictional, Samson can be placed wherever the dramatic conflict is at its height, and his intelligence and detached observation make even the most complex political and legal wrangles clear.

A family tree at the beginning helps to keep the characters straight, though I found the text sufficiently clear that I never needed to refer to it, and a glossary of Welsh terms at the back may be helpful to readers unfamiliar with the period. Readers who like to trace the campaigns and journeys on a map may like to have an atlas to hand, as there is no map in the book (at least, not in the advance reading copy).

Third in a powerful and evocative quartet telling the story of Llewelyn ap Griffith, last prince of independent Wales.

The Dragon at Noonday, by Edith Pargeter. Book review

First published 1975. Edition reviewed: The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet, Sourcebooks 2010, ISBN 978-1402237607. This edition includes all four of the Brothers of Gwynedd novels in one binding. The Dragon at Noonday, 193 pages. Complete quartet, 782 pages. Uncorrected advance review copy kindly supplied by publisher.

The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet covers the following four novels:

• Sunrise in the West


• The Dragon at Noonday


• The Hounds of Sunset


• Afterglow and Nightfall

The Dragon at Noonday is the second in Edith Pargeter’s series of four novels telling the story of Llewellyn ap Griffith, the last Prince of independent Wales, and his mercurial brother David ap Griffith in thirteenth-century Wales. The Dragon at Noonday follows Llewellyn from his achievement of a (more or less) united Wales in 1258 to the Treaty of Montgomery in 1267 in which England formally recognised Llewellyn as Prince of Wales. It also follows the closely linked story of the civil war between King Henry and a reforming party among the English barons led by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. Many of the major characters are historical figures, notably Llewellyn and David, their mother Lady Senena, King Henry III of England and his son Edward (later to be Edward I) and Simon de Montfort and his family. The narrator Samson, clerk and secretary to Llewellyn, is fictional, as is his lover Cristin and her husband Godred.

Scarcely a month after most of the Welsh lords and chiefs swore homage to him, one of them breaks his oath and Llewellyn has to take military action to punish him. Together with his youngest brother David, currently proving an able and active ally, Llewellyn successfully maintains order within Wales and defeats any attempts at external aggression. But when their mother Lady Senena dies, her dying words inflame the rivalry between the brothers all over again. When the reform party in England led by Earl Simon de Montfort asks for Llewellyn’s tacit support, David repudiates his promise to Llewellyn and goes to England to fight alongside his childhood friend Edward, son of King Henry III. As the bitter civil war between the English monarchy and Earl Simon’s reformers builds to its tragic climax at the bloody battle of Evesham, once again David and Llewellyn find themselves on opposing sides, and the growing conflict between them threatens Llewellyn’s dream of a united and independent Wales.

The Dragon at Noonday takes up within days of where Sunrise in the West (reviewed earlier) left off. As with Sunrise in the West, the characters of Llewellyn and David dominate the narrative, though Earl Simon is also a powerful, if temporary, presence. The remarkable complexity of David’s character and his contradictory feelings for Llewellyn, which started to emerge in Sunrise in the West, come fully to the fore in The Dragon at Noonday. David is so skilfully portrayed that the reader can understand and sympathise with him without necessarily condoning his actions. Llewellyn remains the hero he appeared in Sunrise in the West, honourable, generous and large-minded, always putting his country’s interests before himself. Earl Simon is another heroic figure, though perhaps cast in a more inflexible mould, prepared to fight and die for a principle. Whether these two were quite as heroic in history as they appear in the novel is a moot point, but even if their motivations are idealised it doesn’t detract from the compelling story as Earl Simon’s tragedy plays out.

Among the other characters, Henry III is shown as a weak and rather spiteful man, distinctly not up to the job he was born into. His son Edward (later to be Edward I) is a more complex character. How anyone ever trusted Edward’s word for anything again after his double-dealing and oath-breaking to Earl Simon is beyond me, but although Edward’s cheating does him no credit he is not merely demonised as a tyrant and is capable of controlling his desire for vengeance when it makes good policy. Edward, David and Llewellyn are the chief actors in the remaining story of independent Wales, and in The Dragon at Noonday they all take their places on the stage.

As in Sunrise in the West, the use of Samson as a narrator allows complex political events in both England and Wales to be recounted with clarity. Samson stands slightly outside the conflicts, an observer rather than a driver of events, and as a fictional character he can be placed wherever the conflict – military or emotional – is sharpest. Thus he can witness Earl Simon’s campaign as well as the conflict between Llewellyn and David.

Samson’s own star-crossed love for the beautiful and noble-hearted Cristin, which was briefly introduced in Sunrise in the West, develops further in The Dragon at Noonday. In particular, Cristin’s husband Godred who in his brief appearance in Sunrise in the West seemed an inconsequential lightweight, emerges here as a snake, all malice and venom. With his characteristic charity Samson attempts to understand Godred and see his behaviour in a favourable light, but he has to look very hard to find anything resembling a redeeming feature.

The end of the novel is not really an end, more of a pause before the story moves on to its next phase, so any readers who aren’t reading an edition with all four books of the quartet in one volume would be well advised to have a copy of the next book, The Hounds of Sunset, to hand. A family tree at the beginning helps to keep the characters straight, though I found the text sufficiently clear that I never needed to refer to it, and a glossary of Welsh terms at the back may be helpful to readers unfamiliar with the period. Readers who like to trace the campaigns and journeys on a map may like to have an atlas to hand, as there is no map in the book (at least, not in the advance reading copy; there may be one in the final edition).

Second in a thoughtful and evocative quartet of novels telling the powerful story of Llewellyn ap Griffith, last prince of independent Wales, and Simon de Montfort’s attempt to establish political reform in England.

Sunrise in the West, by Edith Pargeter. Book review

First published 1974. Edition reviewed: The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet, Sourcebooks 2010, ISBN 978-1402237607. This edition includes all four of the Brothers of Gwynedd novels in one binding. Sunrise in the West, 186 pages. Complete quartet, 782 pages. Uncorrected advance review copy kindly supplied by publisher.

The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet covers the following four novels:

• Sunrise in the West


• The Dragon at Noonday


• The Hounds of Sunset


• Afterglow and Nightfall

Sunrise in the West is the first in Edith Pargeter’s series of four novels telling the story of Llewellyn ap Griffith, the last Prince of independent Wales, and his mercurial brother David ap Griffith in thirteenth-century Wales. Many of the major characters are historical figures, notably Llewellyn and David, their mother Lady Senena and their two other brothers Owen Goch (“Owen the Red”) and Rhodri, and King Henry III of England. The narrator Samson, clerk and secretary to Llewellyn, is fictional, as is his lover Cristin and her husband Godred. Sunrise in the West tells the first part of Llewellyn and Samson’s story, from their birth in 1228 to Llewellyn’s achievement of a (more or less) united Wales in 1258.

The result of a single night’s liaison between one of Lady Senena’s waiting-women and an unknown father, Samson is brought up by the monks of Aberdaron and educated as a clerk, learning to love books and music. When he is twelve, his life changes for ever when Lady Senena makes a bargain with the English King Henry III and Samson goes in her retinue to the English court in London. But far from buying her husband Griffith’s freedom as she intended, Senena finds she has only succeeded in exchanging his Welsh prison for an English one. A tragedy at the Tower of London results in Samson returning to Wales, where Senena’s second son Llewellyn has been carving out an independent princedom of Gwynedd in defiance of his mother. Samson becomes Llewellyn’s clerk and confidante, placing him at the heart of the turmoil in Gwynedd as Llewellyn strives to unite the notoriously fractious Welsh lords under his leadership – thwarted at every turn by his brothers, who vie ruthlessly for power.

I read the Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet years ago, and am pleased to see it reissued. Edith Pargeter’s writing style is deceptive. When I started re-reading Sunrise in the West it seemed excessively dry, especially the long and detailed opening account of Samson’s conception and birth. I began wondering if my memories of the novel from the first time round were absurdly rose-tinted. However, the writing has a quiet skill that soon drew me back into the complex, colourful, contradictory world of medieval Wales. Samson, first as a child and then as Llewellyn’s clerk, is more of an observer than a participant and recounts the twists and turns of politics and betrayal with a cool detachment that brings clarity to events that might otherwise be difficult to follow. It has to be said that Samson himself is not the most compelling of characters, especially in this first book of the quartet, and his star-crossed love for the noble Cristin is barely introduced. Centre stage belongs to Llewellyn and his charming and enigmatic youngest brother David, both fully developed as complex individuals. These two, and the fraught relationship between them, are the best features of Sunrise in the West (and I would say of the whole quartet).

Llewellyn is portrayed as a true hero, able, courageous, honourable, generous and intelligent, selflessly working for the good of his people. He is thoroughly admirable as well as likeable, though I occasionally found myself shaking my head over his apparently naïve determination to think the best of David’s actions. David is an altogether more complex and contradictory proposition. Like Llewellyn, he is able, brave and intelligent. He is also handsome and charming, but even though he is only about twenty by the end of the novel a darker side to his character is already apparent. This is shown not only in his dealings with Llewellyn, but also when he rebukes Samson for not murdering a defenceless man. It seems David is torn between noble instincts and baser ones, between his love and respect for his brother and his own greed and ambition. He reminds me of a fallen angel, half wilfully destructive, half striving towards the light. “He is as deep as the sea of Enlli, and as hard to know,” his mother Senena says of him when he is still a child, and that seems a fair summing up. If Llewellyn is the hero of the quarter, David is its star.

There is some battlefield action, though much of the conflict between the brothers is emotional and verbal rather than physical. Landscape descriptions are a particular feature in Edith Pargeter’s writing, and Sunrise in the West is no exception. The steely mountains of Snowdonia, the rolling sheep pastures, the salt marshes of the coast are all beautifully painted in words. There is no map, at least in the advance review copy, so readers who want to follow Llewellyn’s campaigns and Samson’s travels will need to have an atlas to hand. Also no author’s note, which is a shame but probably reflects the period when the novel was originally written. A glossary of Welsh terms at the back of the book will be helpful for readers unfamiliar with the setting, though I found the terms clear enough to understand from context. I expect the alarming number of typos in the advance copy will have been fixed in the final edition.

First in a thoughtful and evocative quartet of novels telling the powerful story of Llewellyn ap Griffith, last prince of independent Wales.

The four Brothers of Gwynedd novels are featured in the 2010 Sourcebooks Summer Reading Club, May – August 2010. For each novel, online reviews are posted in a specific week and an online discussion hosted a few days later. The discussion for Sunrise in the West will be held at Passages to the Past tomorrow, Monday May 24, at 7pm-9pm EST. The other reviews for Sunrise in the West are as follows:

May 17 Reviews

The Burton Review
http://www.theburtonreview.com/

The Bibliophilic Book Blog
http://www.bibliophilicbookblog.com/

Rundpinne
http://www.rundpinne.com/

A Reader's Respite
http://readersrespite.blogspot.com/

History Undressed
http://www.historyundressed.blogspot.com/

Linda Banche Blog
http://lindabanche.blogspot.com/

A Hoyden's Look at Literature
http://caramellunacy.blogspot.com/

Renee's Reads
http://theroyalreviews.blogspot.com/


May 18 Reviews

Between the Pages
http://www.betweenthelinesandmore.blogspot.com/

The Broken Teepee
http://www.brokenteepee.blogspot.com/

Books and Coffee
http://bookswithcoffee.wordpress.com/

Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell
http://books-forlife.blogspot.com/

Tanzanite's Shelf and Stuff
http://shelfandstuff.blogspot.com/

Passages to the Past
http://www.passagestothepast.com/

The Book Faery
http://tbfreviews.net/

A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore
http://agirlwalksintoabookstore.blogspot.com/

Martha's Bookshelf
http://marthasbookshelf.blogspot.com/

May 19 Reviews

Beth Fish
http://bfishreads.blogspot.com/

Deb's Book Bag
http://debsbookbag.blogspot.com/

Book Tumbling
http://booktumbling.com/

A Work in Progress
http://danitorres.typepad.com/workinprogress/

Stiletto Storytime
http://www.stilettostorytime.wordpress.com/

Queen of Happy Endings
http://alainereading.blogspot.com/

May 20 Reviews

The Literate Housewife
http://literatehousewife.com/

Reading Adventures
http://readingadventures.blogspot.com/

Books Like Breathing
http://bibliophile23.wordpress.com/

Kailana's Written World
http://myreadingbooks.blogspot.com/

Confessions of a Muse in the Fog
http://muse-in-the-fog.blogspot.com/

Wendy's Minding Spot
http://mindingspot.blogspot.com/

Mrs. Q Book Addict
http://web.me.com/quirion

The Life and Lies of a Flying Inanimate Object
http://www.haleymathiot.blogspot.com/

Starting Fresh
http://startingfresh-gaby317.blogspot.com/

May 21 Reviews

Loving Heart Mommy
http://www.lovingheartmommy.com/

Peeking Between the Pages
http://peekingbetweenthepages.blogspot.com/

Celtic Lady's Ramblings
http://celticladysreviews.blogspot.com/

Bookfoolery
http://bookfoolery.blogspot.com/

One Literature Nut
http://mjmbecky.blogspot.com/

The Book Tree
http://thebooktree.blogspot.com/

My Reading Room
http://myreadingroom-crystal.blogspot.com/