Shared five-star honors for two simply gorgeously illustrated coffee table books full of facts and knowledge about medieval monastery life (Benedictine and otherwise), the healing arts of the medieval monks, and the plants they used. Must-reads not only for fans of Ellis Peters’s Brother Cadfael series but for anyone interested in the Middle Ages, monastic history, social history in general, botany, medicine, and pharmacy.
Incidentally, a third book by this pair of authors — Cadfael Country: Shropshire & the Welsh Borders — provided, together with Ellis Peters’s own Strongholds and Sanctuaries: The Borderland of England and Wales, important information and stimuli for the “Welsh borderland” part of my trip to Britain in late July 2017, and will certainly be consulted again should I make good on my plan to spend some time in Wales proper some day.
Shrewsbury: Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, and abbey foregate
Shrewsbury: the castle (left) and the battlefield of the 1403 battle between the Plantagenets (Henry IV (Bolingbroke) and Prince Harry, King Henry V-to-be) and the rebels led by Henry “Hotspur” Percy — 3 1/2 centuries after the setting of the Cadfael series, but novelized by Ellis Peters under her real name Edith Pargeter as well (A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury) … in addition, of course, to the play by William Shakespeare.
“I am Hugh Beringar of Maesbury, (Under-)Sheriff of Shropshire …”
Left: the tiny church of Maesbury; right: St. Eata’s church at Atcham, another village close to Shrewsbury repeatedly mentioned in the Cadfael novels (typically as a way station on trips out of town, following the River Severn going east).
Oswestry: Castle Hill and St. Oswald’s church
The Welsh mountains at / near the ruins of Valle Crucis Abbey (dissolved in 1537) — and yes, Gwytherin is still on the agenda as well. (All above location photos mine.)
Related Posts
Project Page: The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael
Reviews and other Blog Posts:
Ellis Peters: A Morbid Taste for Bones
Ellis Peters: The Devil’s Novice
Ellis Peters: The Raven in the Foregate
Ellis Peters: The Rose Rent
Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael’s Penance
CADFAEL (Carlton / Acorn Media) – TV series
Brother Cadfael: An Ideal Teacher
I just wanted to mention that at the moment, I won’t be able to blog here, since I don’t know how to handle the new editor. If I manage to figure it out, I’ll keep blogging here, if not, I may not be able to. For the time being, I’ll just post on Tumblr and Dreamwidth.
You can still use the classic editor — I have no plans of using the block editor, and if they ever make it compulsory, I’ll be out of here like a shot.
Your classic editor dashboard is at
https:// [blog name] .wordpress.com/wp-admin/index.php
(It should translate as
https://veganlynx.wordpress.com/wp-admin/index.php
in your case, but better make sure.)
Find and bookmark that page, then work from there!
Thanks. 🙂 Well, that looks ok. And now I’ve told a number of my followers here that I won’t be blogging here for a while. LOL. It was a short while. The book review I planned on posting will be out soon. 🙂