Customer Reviews

An Earthly Knight

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sixteen-year-old Lady Jeanette Avenel, called Jenny, is the younger daughter of a minor Norman nobleman. Because of this, she has enjoyed relative freedom while growing up on her family's estate in Scotland. But now that her sister has been disgraced, everything has changed. Suddenly, Jenny finds herself thrust into the role usually belonging to the eldest daughter, and is chosen as a potential bride for William de Warenne, the king's younger brother and heir. In spite of her upbringing, however, Jenny wonders what if might be like if she could chose her own husband, someone she loved. When she meets Tam Lin, a young man who is rumored to have been kidnapped by fairies and who still remains tied to their world, she learns what it is like to be in love. But will her relationship with Tam only lead to heartbreak in the end?

Set in medieval Scotland, An Earthly Knight combines history, romance, and fantasy to make a wonderful story for teens that I highly recommend. I absolutely loved this book, and couldn't put it down. The characters were wonderful, as was the romance, and I loved the medieval setting.

Jenny has always had more freedom that most- at least for her time period, considering the year it's only 1162. Not particularly concerned about marriage, it suddenly is thrust upon her when her older sister shames the family by running away with a suitor.
When Jenny is recommended as a bride for William de Warenne, heir to the crown of Scotland, her family is thrilled, and immediately determined that a marriage shall be made. Yet to her surprise, Jenny finds the man cruel, aloof, and utterly broke. She is much more attracted to a young man named Tam Lin. Rumored to be under a fairy spell, Jenny has been warned of the dangers lurking about him...but her heart tells her that she can trust him. Should she marry for the possible good of her family and forget any hope of every having happiness, or shame herself like her sister did for a love that will last her entire life?
A wonderfully written book, not only did I get swept up in the story, I learned a lot about life nine hundred years ago. Five stars! (Fantasy fans will especially enjoy this story.)

Set in twelfth century Scotland, An Earthly Knight is a strongly historical Tam Lin retelling, which, as its title suggests, is much more interested in the earthly elements of the tale than the fantastic. There may be fairies in the woods, but they are little seen amidst the bustle of banquets, weaving, dowries, pilgrimages, and contemporary Scottish politics that fill the life of Lady Jeanette Avenel, youngest daughter to an ambitious Norman vicomte. At sixteen, Jenny is outspoken, strong willed, and fond of wandering the woods alone. Neither entirely sharing nor disdaining her father's ambitions for connections with the Scottish crown, she is resigned to being married off to advance his interests-- until she meets the mysterious Tam Lin on one of her forest rambles...

Painstakingly faithful to the ballad, to the point where it quotes actual lines with little modification, An Earthly Knight is a retelling, not any real reinvention or reworking. Unoriginality of plot isn't the problem, however, since an original plot can hardly be demanded of a retelling; rather, it's the fact that the story of Tam Lin, when dominated by uninspiring protagonists and a truly unconvincing romance, becomes the tale of a rather clingy girl who pulls some bloke off his horse.

Jenny Avenel, despite being all the things likable young fantasy heroines generally are these days, is rather bland and occasionally irritating, basking in the glow of other characters' and McNaughton's own clear admiration. An anachronism of her time, Jenny alone sees clearly and critically through the oppressiveness of her society and acts with great courage to change her fate, etc., etc. She avoids the sin of dull, perfect, goodness, but her bouts of selfish and immature behavior make her no more likable, and she never fully comes together as a person. Conversely, Tam Lin is a contemporary female fantasy of Mr. Right transported directly into 1162 Scotland. Not only is he gentle and handsome (with long blonde hair!), he also cooks, cleans, and plays shrink/doctor/fairy godmother for Jenny. There is almost as little personality evident in his character as there is chemistry in their romance.

Supporting characters like Jenny's sister Isabel and the bard Cospatric can be interesting, but they are explored too little to compensate for the lackluster quality of the romance that occupies the center of any Tam Lin. The fairy queen is a particular disappointment. Like most fantastic elements in the novel, she almost fails to put in an appearance; and when she does, she clashes violently with the prosaic historical setting that dominates the book.

An Earthly Knight isn't so much steeped in history as it is stuffed with it, to the point where it is actually awkward and intrusive. Jenny can hardly take a sip of wine without being interrupted by chatty narratorial comments on Norman beverage preferences and transportation problems. Characters insist upon telling other things (i.e. that Queen Maud was King David's sister) that everyone at that time and location should already know. The overabundance, and often awkward insertion, of historical sidenotes actually has an adverse effect on how convincing Jenny's world is. At the same time, anachronisms in the way the characters speak and act further disrupt the spell that historical fiction should ideally cast. In particular, the glaringly modern usage of words like "nicer" and "grumbly" give the book the feel of a play in which contemporary actors have imperfectly learned their roles.

Neither quite adequate as historical fiction nor as fantasy, An Earthly Knight still retains some appeal for ballad lovers. One of its gems is the surprising and graceful interweaving of another ballad with Jenny's story. Their juxtaposition, which raises some really interesting questions about heroines, their actions, and others' perceptions of both, is the single most compelling reason to read this book. As it is, An Earthly Knight is moderately enjoyable, if far from groundbreaking. Other authors, like Diana Wynne Jones in Fire and Hemlock and Elizabeth Marie Pope in The Perilous Gard, have written considerably more innovative and satisfying explorations of Tam Lin.

It's a standard retelling of the Tam Lin story, aimed for a young adult audience. Characterization-wise, the lead is the (stereo?)typical strong female in the young-adult genre who defies convention and her rather foolish father, who is presented as a bit of a fool in the beginning (although the author presents a softer picture of the father toward the end). The writing is decent - no awkward moments where the reader feels embarrassed for the writer - but it definitely doesn't sparkle. The author includes miscellaneous historical details such as a rivalry between monastic communities and a nice believable presentation of priests who are unpleasant and others who are kind, although sticklers for the rules. It's obvious the author has done quite a bit of research to get historical milieu down - from the note in the back, it appears she earned a ph.d. in just this sort of stuff.

Overall, it's a standard retelling with the inklings of original ideas, mostly coming through the author's obvious attempts to be as historically accurate as possible. Hard to do with Tam Lin, but this perhaps explains why she minimizes interactions with the Queen and for magic, only deals with glamour.

Let me start by saying that I absolutely adored this book. It's by far the best story based on the Tam Lin myth I've read and, as I only borrowed it from our library, it's going to be the very next book I buy! For those not familiar, the Tam Lin folk ballad tells the story of a young man who was under the Faerie Queen's enchantment and a maiden who fell in love with him.

Everything about this book was perfect for me. I loved the heroine, Jenny because she seemed very real. Our story takes place in 1162 and these were bad times to be a woman. Many, many a writer tries to make historical heroines into carbon copy of our standards of today's independent woman and thus seem extremely out of place. Not so for McNaughton. Although our heroine is a bit of a free spirit [I am sure there were exceptions to every rule even back then] she still torn between what she feels and how she must act. One perfect example is how, at one point, she treats some of her servants. This is a time when servants could be beaten and mistreated and no one would see anything wrong with that. Jenny, having grown up without a mother to teach her how to run a household and seeing how some of the other nobles act, thinks that maybe that's how a lady of her station should behave. Nonetheless she still feels bad and sad if this is how she is expected to act. When she sees another noble girl actually being kind to the servants she understands that she was wrong and makes up for it.

Tam Lin is, well, perfect in his role. Really, there is not much I could say since I found him to be just wonderful. I also loved the look into the harsh life people had back then. It was hard to swallow some of the men and how they viewed and treated women but we all know our history and it would have hurt the book a lot if Janet had tried to make it fit with our ideals today.

The love story is beautiful and I must say I enjoyed the secondary story of Jenny's sister Isabel. She was a fallen woman yet she was merely a victim of a time where women where blamed for just about everything. LOL.

My verdict, as if you haven't guessed by now, is to run to your local bookstore and get your hands on this jem. You won't be disappointed!

A solid 5 out of 5!

An Earthly Knight is a magical story about Lady Jeanette, based on the old tale of Tam Lin. Fairy glamour and enchantment are described throughout the book. McNaughton knows how to keep you interested by constantly making references to what happened to the fair Isabel, Jenny's elder sister, when she ran away with a knight. The mystery of Tam Lin was, also, intriguing. As Jeanette fights between her duty to her father and love for Tam Lin the readers are brought to a medieval world of magic and fairies. Though, I did find the story slow at times I did enjoy it and recommend it to all those who need delightful story to read.

I originally bought this book more than five years ago when I was in my early teens, and I became obsessed. Since then this book has become my escape as I reread it often. While you could say this book is no jaw dropping literary wonder, I found the characters so relatable that I found myself even in love with Tam Lin. If you are looking for an easy going pleasure reading with some fairy magic and forbidden love, I would definitely read this.

I went through a phase a few years ago where I sought out every retelling of the Tam Lin story that I could get my hands on. So the title _An Earthly Knight_ was instantly familiar to me, and I knew I needed to read this book. I was especially intrigued by the author's choice to return the story to its original setting, namely medieval Scotland.

Unfortunately, I agree with previous reviewers' complaints that the historical aspect falls a little flat. McNaughton has a tendency to get a bit infodump-y. I wasn't familiar with the politics of that time and place, and so I appreciated being brought up to speed, but there has to have been a more deft way of doing it than having one character expounding history to another character who already knew that history.

I also wasn't thrilled with the romance. Tam Lin was too Generically Nice, and his rival, Earl William, was too one-dimensionally nasty. I belong to a LiveJournal community called Fanficrants, and I'm reminded of a post there a few months ago that talked about how a villain is much more interesting if he/she has some subtlety, rather than constantly telegraphing his/her villainy by raping people, kicking puppies, and taking ice cream from orphans. (I guess William didn't get the memo about the ice cream.) I'd have preferred either a bad man who was charming on the surface, or an honorable man that Jeanette simply had no feelings for.

As for the supernatural, it feels a little tacked on, and it might have worked better if it had been either emphasized more or omitted entirely. (Tam Lin without the supernatural--that could be intriguing. What if Jeanette had thought he was fae-touched, only to learn he was *just* the dispossessed heir to Carter Hall...) As it stands, that aspect comes almost out of nowhere and seems rushed. (McNaughton isn't in bad company. I had the same gripe about Pamela Dean's version.)

What did work was the coming-of-age aspect of the tale. Jeanette begins as a free-spirited teenage girl, and as she is pushed into a social-climbing role, she allows herself to be swept up into snobbish and selfish attitudes for a time. I didn't like her much during the middle of the book. After several events that make her question this new outlook on life, Jeanette begins to find her old self again, albeit a more mature version of that self. In the end, on some level, she's not so much choosing between William and Tam Lin, but between the person she is when she's with William and the person she is when she's with Tam Lin. I did find that aspect interesting.

This was an excellent book. It is about a 16 year old girl named Jenny who needs to find a husband. After her older sister Isabel is disgraced, it rests on Jenny's shoulders to marry someone of status to insure her father's honour. This book seems to take place in midieval times. The story is based on two ballads, "Lady Isobel and the Elf Knight" and "Tam Lin". Fairies and magic are incoporated into the story. Janet Mcnaughton is very descriptive, and by the end of the book, I felt as though I knew each character personally. One thing that I found confusing was the fact that during the whole story, Isobel is poorly thought of because of her disgrace. It isn't until the end of the story that you find out WHAT she exactly DID to make everyone disapprove of her so. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction and fairy tales. I should say that I believe that the content of "An Earthly Kinght" is best suited to readers ages 13 and over. Another thing to consider is that since the main character is a girl, female readers would enjoy it better than males. Great story! Exciting! Romantic! Mysterious!

Jenny Avenel is the daughter of a (somewhat) wealthy landowner. After her sister is disgraced by a wayward knight, it falls to Jenny to make a marriage with a powerful man to benefit her family. As sweet, kind and beautiful as she is, she is considered as a potential match for the King's own brother, Earl William. Jenny tries to impress him, but the arrogant man cares little for her and her feelings. At the same time, Jenny finds herself falling in love with Tam Lin, the man whose family once lived in Carter Hall, which is now her dowry. She is forbidden to have anything to do with him, because he is rumored to have connections with the fairies. As the cruel Earl closes in, Jenny finds herself trying to protect her sister, and still stay with Tam Lin. WHen he reveals that he may have to return to the realm of the fairies forever, she is heartbroken. When Tam Lin's staying becomes a matter of her life or death, and of their eternal souls, will Jenny be able to save them both and avoid Earl William to find true love with Tam?