Customer Reviews

Gudrun's Tapestry

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Anyone who likes Medieval History, or wants an introduction to Medieval History, will love Joan Schweighardt's Gundrun's Tapestry. Set in the 5th Century, Gundrun's Tapestry follows the adventures of Sigfried, Brunhilda, Gundrun, and the gang in the ancient Niebelungen Saga. Scholars think this legend tells the history of the arrival of the Huns in Europe, and Schweigherdt gives us that history with full measure, woven into a thrilling plot that fills out the action of the legend, and adds exciting twists that keep even an old Niebelungen Hound like me turning those pages. I just loved seeing the story come alive under Schweighardt's pen (well actually keyboard, I'm sure.) I got a sense of the clothes, the food, the houses, and the life styles of people both living with Atilla, and living in the Europe through which he rampaged. Everyone felt as real as anyone walking the streets today. Characters in an ancient saga are usually larger than life and heroic. That's okay for the version written inthe 5th Century. That was the style in those days. Today we like reality charcters with warts as well Christy Brinkley looks, and Gundrun's Tapestry has them. For example, Brunhilda is attractive, yes, but her eyes are watery. Siegfried is handsome and bold, as he should be, but he can also be a touch cocky. His enemies? Well, some are bold. Others? Shhhhh! I 'm not explaining, because finding out about them made good reading for me, and I want it to for you as well. Another neat thing about Gundrun's Tapestry is the main character's perspective. It isn't the kind of person who normally has much to say in a traditional Norse Saga. Again, I'm not saying why. You will have to enjoy the discovery for yourself, and believe me, you will. Finally, understanding the title of the book comes at the very end. Learning that was fun too. Best fo all, the enjoyment came in an elegant but easy-to-read style. For me Gundrun's Tapestry and Joan Schweighardt blew the dust off long forgotten memories of Medieval History Class. For people who have never had any Medieval History, here comes a wonderful introduction.

Gudrun's Tapestry is a compelling story of one woman's life, a Burgundian woman whose people are among the many victims of Attila the Hun. Some years after her home at Worms is destroyed, Gudrun's dreams of a peaceful life with her love, Sigurd, are shattered by the beautiful valkyria, Brunhild. Gudrun risks what is left of her personal life by setting out to destroy Attila.
Schweighardt has drawn on history and poetic myth to create a context for a tale of the most basic human emotions--love, greed, jealousy, and revenge.
Although the story is set over fifteen centuries ago, these characters from the Dark Ages are revealed as people whose motivations and actions are clearly recognizable to us. After all, is the pursuit of a dragon's gold really so different from the pursuit of an expensive sports car? Jealous lovers still lie to get what they want; families nearly destroyed by tragedy still find the will to rebuild and be happy again. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
But there's more here than just a great page-turner of a tale. This is a story as skillfully woven as the tapestry within it. Schweighardt plays the woof of Gudrun's time spent in the city of Attila over, under, around, and through a warp of Gudrun's personal history. Schweighardt reveals the past as its impact becomes meaningful. In that way there are two stories of Gudrun's life here--the events that forged her character, and the use the fates made of that steely determination. It is fascinating to read the two intertwined.
I believe this book has the potential to be a surprise bestseller if only the word gets out.

This is an astonishing book! It leads the reader into a strange historical landscape--the world of Attila the Hun--and effortlessly (or so it seems) provides the details to make that time period and the people in it very, very real. Schweighardt's extensive research is impressive, yet it never holds the story back, "dries it out," or weighs it down. Instead, we're given a complex heroine on a sacred mission. Her mission drives the story forward at a breathless pace, but Schweighardt refuses to rely on plot alone. She has created a protagonist who experiences it all--love and hatred, passion and despair, strength and weakness, courage and fear--and placed her against a backdrop of unfamiliar and often shocking historical events. Gudrun's voice is convincing and often heart-wrenching, and the story she tells is one that stays with you long after you close the book. This is a novel in which history (or more correctly, her-story)and myth collide. It is a tour de force for this very talented writer and a perfect reminder that real people, as well as those in myths , legends, and stories, can transcend their circumstances and triumph. A definite must-read.

In the fifth century Attila the Hun leads his invading horde against the collapsing Roman Empire, which offers little resistance. Used to taking charge and care for her family and desperate to save her people, the Burgundians, Gudrun decides she must stop Attila before he destroys Burgundy. She devices a simple plan similar in a sense to the Trojan Horse as she guesses on what makes Attila tick.

Disguised as Ildico, she gains entrance to Attila's terrifying hometown. Then she does the impossible she meets the brilliant war strategist and offers him a special present. Gudrun presents Attila with a war sword, but fails to tell the warrior that this weapon is cursed to bring adversity and tragedy to whoever possesses it as she knows from first hand experience. Attila incarcerates Gudrun, but also makes her one of his wives to the chagrin of his loyal second-in-command, Edeco, who has fallen in love with the foreigner.

GUDRUN'S TAPESTRY is a fantastic historical tale with a touch of romance and a coming of age backdrop. There is much more than just the above paragraph, as readers see flashbacks into Gudrun's life in Burgundy including her family woes and her love for Sigurd the warrior. The audience also receives an incredible look at what motivated the great warlord as Joan Schweighardt provides deep insight into Attila interwoven throughout the exhilarating story line. Ancient times historical readers will appreciate this copious insightful and thrilling fifth century saga.

Harriet Klausner

I will admit, up front, that my typical reading material is niether historical nor supernatural. And the name "Gudrun" did not inspire me. Had I not been encouraged by an aquaintence to read this, I would have truly missed out on an exceptional book.

Like the work of art for which the book is named, Gudrun's Tapestry is a brilliantly woven masterpiece. Ms. Schweighardt has penned a wonderfully enchanting tale that captures the reader all the way to the last page (and the ironic ending).

Five stars really does not do this book justice. I cannot wait to read the rest of Ms. Schweighardt's work.

Though this book seemed a bit slow to me in the beginning, it turned out to be one of the best books I've read in quite awhile. Gudrun's Tapestry is the story of a young woman and her quest to destroy Attila the Hun and end his reign of terror. The book goes back and forth between Gudrun's past and her present, thus showing the reader why she's so determined to eliminate Attila. The book is engrossing, stirring and written with wonderfully expressive prose.

Gudrun's Tapestry by Joan Schweighardt is a sweeping novel set in the era of fifth century against a background of the depredations perpetrated by the invading armies of Attila the Hun. Gudron is a woman with a cursed sword who must set out to protect her people, the Burgundians. Along the way Gudron discovers her ability to love the man who may be her deadly mortal enemy. An emotional and sweeping epic tale, Gudrun's Tapestry is original, exceptionally well written, and documents Joan Schweighardt as a gifted and skilled storyteller with a flair for historical fiction.

Gudrun's Tapestry is set in the 4th century A.D., when Attila the Hun and his hordes of stocky, scar-faced warriors were menacing Europe, the western Roman Empire enjoying its last gasps. Gudrun is a Burgundian, whose people were decimated by Attila at the behest of the Romans during her childhood. We meet her as an adult, when she has made her way into the city of Attila under false pretences. She is kept prisoner there, and her story--told in the first person--jumps between her intrigues and survival strategies among the Huns and her earlier life among the Burgundians. The latter story builds to explain fully why she came to be with Attila.

Schweighardt's story is based on the history and legends of the Germanic and Hunnish tribes. I confess that I was ignorant of the relevant stories prior to reading the book. My experience as a reader will thus presumably have been rather different from that of someone who approached the book already knowing, for example, the significance of Gudrun to the Attila story. But one doesn't need to be well-versed in the period to enjoy the book.

As we are introduced to Gudrun's story in medias res, and because information Gudrun imparts in the book's first chapter is purposefully deceptive, I found the beginning of the story a bit confusing. It can also be confusing when Schweighardt's characters discuss the various machinations of the various political forces at play in the western Empire--Visigoths and Romans and Franks and Huns. As a final negative, I'll mention that the author's dialogue can be stilted:

"I laughed. 'Who would bother to seek out such a thing among the remains of the dead?'

"'No one, perhaps. I used the songs only as an example. There are many other ways in which writing has been useful to the Romans.'

"'Name them.'

"Edeco's eyes twinkled. 'I shall, my ignorant friend.'"

I can't really fault the author on this account, however, as the writing style seems to be a convention of the genre--why I've never understood (it's a reason I tend not to read much historical fiction).

All that aside, I must say that by the end of the book I had been thoroughly sucked into the story, the characters and the setting having become very real to me. The author's pace is leisurely: she takes the time to describe Gudrun's life among the Burgundians, for example, in great detail--hay drying in the fields and the seasonal slaughtering of animals, her father's grave, the servants' huts--so that the world she describes is quite vivid. The characters, too, are complex, their allegiances not always clear, and sometimes vacillating. There is a gret deal of intrigue and deception in the lives of Gudrun's small circle! In short I am glad to have read the book, and I expect that scenes from it will stay with me for a long time to come.

-- Debra Hamel

Schweigherdt has borrowed from a Norse Mythology story called the Niebelungen Saga and adapted it and its characters (even using the original names) and mythological events to fit in with the last days of the Western Roman empire and its more long lived Eastern cousin (the setting is close to present day Serbia)as they and the Gothic races pause to instead do battle with the menace of the Huns or at least attempt to ward them off via treaty till they can find a way of ridding themselves of these invaders.

If you like a bit of "fantasy" then you wont mind the Nordic mythology the author is blending into to the story. If you prefer a straight historical epic blending fact and fiction with believable characters only then you might be disappointed. After all tales of dwarf comrades-in-arms,fire conjuring Sorceresses and dragon slaying Goths (Sighurd) and a magic sword set in Roman Empirical times dont tend to lean towards that element.

The bulk of the story revolves around these Nordic fables and revenge. Gudrun the title character seeks to revenge her massacred and desecrated people by finding a way to get close to the architect of their massacre -Attila. In between she has her reputed dragon slaying lover Sighurd. Lovers quarrels ensue due to Gudruns rivalry for Sighurds affections with the sorceress beauty Brunhild. Without giving much away Gudrun does end up in Attilas camp and basically not a lot happens as she wittles away time plotting, and making an ally of a former tribesman turned Attila lieutenant and trying to make small talk with the servants. In fact you will be able to say most of Gudruns time in this novel is spent in a tent (Hun encampment) or in her village and her familys large hut (given her father and brothers are her peoples leaders)where lover quibbles, family plots, hidden agenda's, misunderstandings, personality clashes are the main fair.

Its not too difficult to research basic village life of Ancient German peoples or Hun behaviour hence i have to question why some reviewers exhorted the depth of research of the authoress or implored that the book was overly exciting. Even Attila hardly comes out as more than a grunting, meat eating, bad tempered killer who loves his Roman gifted wine and bowl of meat in the evening in his quarters as he both rally's his leadership groups morale as well as enjoys scaring everyone witless with his psyschotic and unpredictable nature.

Its a quiet read, not boring but not terribly exciting. You wont learn a terrible lot about the times. The writing is quite flowing in style and very nicely structured that is not in question. It jumps back and forward in time as well as Gudrun recalls her life and times and what brought her to Attila only to do it all again (but its necessary I suppose given she is under guard in a Hun tent for half the book). If the jumping back and forth wasnt enough its the jumping from fable to the historic that also tests ones concentration. All-in-all I found this made continuity a bit blurred, so much so I lost track as to where and when she had her own baby in the story (and no i didnt skip any pages). I am still looking to find the "happy" event :-)

I received this book as a review copy from the publisher. "Gudrun's Tapestry" was an enjoyable and interesting historical fiction with a bit of legend mixed in. The historical details were nicely woven into the story to bring the world alive in my imagination. The characters were interesting and seemed inclined to make enough bad decisions (with the help of a cursed sword) so as to make their lives...interesting...in a Hamlet-tragic sort of way.

The story started off with Gudrun arriving at the City of Attila with the intent of gifting him with a cursed sword as a way to avenge his army's slaughter of her tribe many years before. But once she finally gets it to him, the sword seems to bring him luck instead, and, as long as she's a prisoner, her only hope to hurry up Attila's death is to turn his loyal second-in-command into her ally.

Periodically, the story switched back to the events that led to her bringing the cursed sword to Attila. This section told of her crush on Sigurd, a man intent on slaying a dragon to get gold, the cursed sword, and everlasting fame, and of another woman who coveted his love. I had no problem keeping track of the events in the two sections and enjoyed the greater action provided by the "leading up to Attila" portion of the story.

Which brings us to the novel's slower-the-typical pacing. It's partly due to Gudrun being stuck in a hut as a prisoner and forbidden to speak with anyone but Attila's second-in-command for a significant portion of the book. This part wasn't boring--there was plenty of verbal sparing and news of Attila's victories and such. There simply wasn't a lot of physical action. The action picked up as the story moved along, though, and the story had a satisfying ending.

There was no explicit sex and the only illicit sex (not by Gudrun) brought realistic consequences. There was no bad language. I'd recommend this well-written, clean novel to readers who enjoy historical fiction and/or who want to know a bit more about Attila the Hun.


Reviewed by Debbie from Genre Reviews (genrereviews. blogspot. com)