Customer Reviews

The Children of Llyr (Ballantine Adult Fantasy)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Being 30 I could not, in good conscience, give this book the full five stars. I read it in sixth grade and re-read it only a couple of months ago. The writing style is a little simplistic and the background not as full as I would like, yet it still stands as a classic. It is the re-working of one branch of the Mabinogion - equate it with the Bullfinch of Welsh mythology. It tells the story of the demigod children of Llyr, making the magic of myth seem plausible. Let me warn you, however, Celts apparently have a well-developed sense of melancholy and there are no happy endings to any of their tales. There are tragic moments and brutal events but there are also poignant passages. The subject of Celtic mythology is much more popular today than in 1981, but few have related it with the spirit of Ms. Walton's work. It was her introduction in this volume to which I credit my abiding interest to this day. I highly recommend this story to anyone over the age of ten.

Evangeline Walton's brilliant re-workings of the Mabinogion are the place to begin exploring this body of Celtic legend -- understanding that she has taken fiction's liberties with the sacred text (as did the Medieval scribes who wrote them down, by the way). Read the books in order, beginning with Price of Annwn, or start with the best one, Song of Rhiannon, to appreciate them.

One of the glories of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series of the early 1970s was its revival of Evangeline Walton's tetralogy drawn from the Welsh Mabinogion. "The Children of Llyr" is the second of the group, a dark and sometimes overwhelmingly grim account of a war between ancient Britain and the New Tribes (Ireland) that lays waste to both realms despite desperate efforts to bring about peace. The book is worth reading simply for the depiction of Evnissyen, a prince tormented by rage and self-loathing, who eagerly fans the flames of war and then stops them in a moment of tragic grandeur. Degradation of women sets the stage for the war and accidentally keeps it rolling; I have no idea if this is an element of the original story, but Walton's use of it adds an undertone of moral outrage to the narrative.