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The Hermit of Eyton Forest

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As with several other entries in the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, at the center of this book stands one of the younger members of the community of the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, and his relationship to the community versus his romantic relationships in the world outside. But this time the youngster isn't a novice who made a mistaken commitment to the cloister after a love affair gone wrong, nor even an embittered older man seeking solace after a disastrous marriage.

No, Richard Ludel (his father's namesake and only child) is ten years old, doesn't yet see any use for girls, and is happy enough to be one of the handful of students boarded at the monastery, well away from his formidable grandmother's plans to marry him off to the heiress of a neighbouring manor - "quite old", being past twenty, and a nuisance rather than a person from Richard's point of view. This makes an oblique, fairly subtle contrast to the events of the ongoing civil war between the empress and the king - the empress, like Richard's intended, is years older than her husband, tied to him in a marriage with little love lost, as demonstrated when Geoffrey of Anjou not only refuses to send so much as a single soldier to her aid while she is under siege in Oxford, but has lured away her half-brother and best general to help *him* with the battles for the Norman lands in contention in the struggle for the throne.

Upon the death of the elder Richard Ludel (still young, but never recovered from wounds suffered in the battle of Lincoln), Richard's elders plan to let matters proceed according to their settled routine - but there's a disagreement about what that routine is. Hugh Beringar as sheriff has no wish to antagonize the loyal Ludels by interfering with Richard's inheritance, despite his being a minor; his only concern is that the Ludels' steward should be competent and loyal. Abbot Radulfus (by charter the boy's guardian until he comes of age), intends for the boy to stay in school - as Radulfus objects to children being handed over as infant oblates into monastic vows before they can consent, he also objects to children being bound in marriage, without any designs on pressuring the boy into becoming a monk. But Dame Dionisia Ludel's idea of the status quo is to continue with her campaign to marry the boy off, beginning by playing on public sympathy for a poor bereaved widow, cruelly kept from bringing her grandson home for a visit (and backing it up with judicious threats of taking the abbey to law).

Even as Dame Dionisia piously installs the hermit Cuthred in a long-empty hermitage in Eyton forest - who unlike the brothers of Shrewsbury would be under vows to remain solitary and enclosed in his hermitage, with only a youngster acting as his errand boy for regular company - the lady at first seems piously resigned, though she sees no use in having him educated and a *lot* of use in getting the neighbouring manors of Wroxiter and Leighton joined with the Ludel's manor of Eaton. Curiously, events then seem to conspire against the brothers, as accidents become disturbingly frequent in the abbey lands near Eaton, and the hermit (through his errand boy, the mischievous Hyacinth) issues a public warning to the abbey that perhaps these signs of nature in revolt should be taken as a sign that Richard should not unnaturally be kept away from his only remaining blood kin.

Despite this, young Richard immediately takes to Hyacinth, after waylaying him upon Hyacinth's delivery of the message, and the much older Hyacinth is happy enough to give Richard all the information his elders have been withholding from him, in exchange for being put in the picture about Richard's own situation. So when Richard later overhears an abbey guest in pursuit of a runaway villein being informed that Hyacinth matches the runaway's description, he immediately sets out for the hermitage at Eyton to warn his friend, naturally leaving no word at the abbey that he's playing truant, let alone venturing into his grandmother's reach.

But Richard fails to return to the abbey (and as his fellow students cover up for him into the next day, his absence isn't discovered until many hours have passed). Well aware of Dame Dionisia's plans for the boy, the lands in her care are searched thoroughly - but with no trace of the boy, and as the manor folk are more loyal to the boy than to her, it's hard to see where he could've been hidden - or how he can be rescued before being browbeaten into saying vows and signing marriage settlements.

As always, I recommend the unabridged recording narrated by Stephen Thorne. And as usual in Cadfael novels, there *are* love stories amid the pair of loveless arranged marriages for joining lands and titles featured in the story of the civil war and the private war over Richard's future. My congratuations to the reader who manages to spot *all* the puzzles to be solved, and not to be distracted by the enjoyable drama and romance that accompany them. Not least, one of the most dramatic episodes of the war - King Stephen's siege of Oxford, with total victory almost within his grasp as the empress is trapped within the castle - is playing out as the people of Shropshire are concerned with events nearer home.

Drive-in totals:
- Three disappearances (counting the mystery of the missing villein, being hunted ruthlessly by his former masters).
- Three deaths (counting Richard's father).
- Three love stories (the most dramatic of which is played out entirely off-stage, but no less affecting for that).

In October of 1142, Empress Maud is still besieged in the town of Oxford, surrounded by the forces of King Stephen. She sends an emissary bearing jewels and money to her brother, begging him for help, but the man's horse is found with the leathers bloodstained and, of course, with no sign of the money or jewels. A local Lord and father of Richard, one of the young pupils at the Abbey of St.Peter and St.Paul dies and Brother Cadfael is charged with the duty of escorting the boy to his home to attend the funeral. The boy's grandmother, a harsh and grasping woman, wishes to force Richard into a marriage with an older girl, the daughter of a neighbour, so that the lands may be conjoined, but the 10 year old wants only to return with Cadfael to the Abbey and his friends. A minor, local landowner stays as a guest at the Abbey while mounting a search for his missing villein and enlists the reluctant help of Sheriff Hugh Beringar who agrees to help with the search, knowing that the man is a brutal master who treats his servants very badly. A series of events causes Richard to be kidnapped and forced into a marriage by his grandmother and Cuthred, a local hermit and holy man. Yet another stranger arrives at the Abbey with a slight wound and so is taken to be treated by Cadfael who makes his usual assessment of all the events and uses his insatiable curiosity to tie all the loose ends together for a very satisfactory conclusion.

THE HERMIT OF EYTON FOREST is another installment in Ellis Peters' popular Brother Cadfael series. I've read most of them and fully intend to read the rest. Clearly, I'm something of a fan. Not because the mysteries are so riveting. They aren't. In fact, most of them are fairly transparent. The how and why might not always be so obvious, but the who isn't usually too hard to figure out. The suspicious characters are rarely difficult to identify.

Further, the picture Ellis paints of life in the eleventh century is sanitized for our enjoyment. Despite the violence of the civil war raging in the background, life in Shrewsbury is slow-paced, calm, and ordered. Filth, squalor, brutality, disease and the appallingly short life expectancy of the period rarely intrude here.

Despite this (or perhaps because of it), the stories are engaging, the characters charming, and Peters' idyllic vision of the time is very attractive. Her prose has an elegant, graceful quality that enhances the pleasure of the overall experience, making these books a delight to read. I never fail to enjoy them, and THE HERMIT OF EYTON FOREST is certainly no exception.

The fourteenth Cadfael book I have read and it was as enjoyable as the first thirteen. I admit that some of the plots have been predictable, but this is easily overlooked because Peters does such an expert job at bringing the 12th century to life, and Cadfael is such an entertaining character.

This particular installment happens to be one of the better mysteries in the series. Like the previous thirteen, it is a well-written and finely crafted story, but there are also some clever surprises. It is a cut above the average Cadfael book, but doesn't quite reach the five star qualities of the first two (Morbid Taste for Bones and One Corpse Too Many) that are true mystery classics.

This is number 14 in the Cadfael series by Ellis Peters. In this book, with the 12th century English civil war in the background, several unhappy events take place in and around Shrewsbury and beyond. Peters fits these seemingly unrelated events together for readers making for a good story.

As the book opens, the Lord of Eaton finally dies due to battle wounds; his son and heir named Richard is ten years old and in school at the abbey in Shrewsbury. The boy's grandmother is determined to take him home and marry him off right away to a neighbor who has only a daughter and very good lands. She is thwarted in her plans by the abbot, since the boy was put into his charge by the boy's father who wanted him educated.

At the Lord of Eaton's funeral, readers get the first glimpse of the hermit for whom the book is named. The grandmother installs this hermit in a small dwelling in a forest on Eaton land. Soon after, some disasters take place nearby on abbey land which are reported to the abbot. Not long after this, the hermit's servant appears at the abbey to announce that the hermit believes the disasters are God tying to tell the abbot to send Richard back to his grandmother. The abbot is not convinced.

Somewhere around this point in the book, news concerning some treasure of the Empress Maude's that has apparently been stolen comes to Shrewsbury. The messenger carrying this treasure is presumed dead given the condition of his horse when found. This turns out to be very important in the story.

A very unpleasant man named Bosiet shows up to lodge at the abbey. He is in search of a bondman of his who has run off - apparently for good reason. Bosiet shows up dead in the forest not long afterward. It looks like the hermit's servant is the missing bondsman.

The servant has made friends with the boy Richard. The boy finds out that Bosiet is heading off to find the servant, so he goes off to warn him, and does so, but disappears on the way back to the abbey. A massive search is started for the servant now suspected of the murder and for the boy.

As the story progresses, the boy is found, the hermit is killed and the mystery of the missing treasure is solved. The details are left out here so as not to spoil the plot.

I figured out what happened before it was actually revealed by the book, but only about a page or so beforehand. It is always exciting when that happens. I mean figuring it out ahead of time, but only at the last moment, so the book was indeed worth finishing.

Cadfael played a major part in this book, but he was not involved in several scenes. This may be why this book was not used for the TV series, which is a shame because it tells a very good story.

Anyway, if you like the Cadfael series, certainly give this one a try.

Many a twist and turn - no one is who they seem. The ending may be too neat and tidy, but still a great cast of characters and Peter's charming telling make this a good read.

Cadfael doesn't know the young boy who is orphaned and left in the car of Abbot Radulfus, but young Richard Ludel will make his life interesting. Richard's grandmother has plans to increase the family's holding by a early marriage for her grandson. His dead father wished to allow the child to grow to manhood before the responsibilities of his heritage are forced upon him.
King Stephen has Empress Maud surrounded in the castle at Oxford and only has to wait until starvation drives her into his hands. But history never plans as one plans.
Richard acquires a friend who is a servant to a hermit who serves as his grandmother's confessor. Things get twisted for Cadfael and Abbot Radulfus when murder stalks the dales.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS.

Once again there is the backdrop of the political turmoil that surrounds the civil war interweaved in the story. Without it, the mystery would not stand, and by far that makes the telling the weaker. There are several nice twists to arrive at a conclusion but that we need something that touches the war between Maud and Stephen seems a stretch once again.

Ellis is gone and Cadfael shall have no new mysteries in the canon, but with the knowledge of others in the field, the violent times of the dark ages should more than lend itself to murders without the need for princes and kings. The Abbey and Shrewsbury have more than an abundant wealth of detail that we have seen previously to support a rich environment for mayhem.

This story and the mystery seem to stem from just such an environment, but the murders that come about end up being related once more to our civil war and the impetus of life going on in spite of such a war is denied.

I am a Brother Cadfael junkie. Ms. Peters depth of detail brings the period to life. The social structure and mores of both England in 1041 and the Benetictine order are a facinating contrast to today. If you have never enjoyed a Brother Cadfael, I do suggest that you start with the first "A Morbid Taste for Bones".

The Hermit of Eyton Forest if focused around a young boy named Richard Eaton, who's father recently died from a disease of war. His father place him in the Benedictine Abbey School. The abbot at the abbey says that his father wanted him to be schooled there until he was an adult. His grandmother wants him to come home so she can force him to marry and join his manor with a neighboring one. This starts a mindboggling medievil mystery that everyone should love.