It's been a long while since I've reviewed anything on this blog and today, finishing a short book report/review for class, I felt I had to share this.
Confessions of a Pagan Nun, written by Kate Horsley, gives us a first-person account of the "death" of Paganism in 6th Century Ireland.
The foreword of the book explains, via "Translator's Note", that a box made of clay and iron was found in a well holding human remains. In the box was a codex bound in leather and dated to around 500 A.D.
The story is told by the "nun" Gwynneve, who tells us of her birth and early years (up until her mother's death) in the clan village of Tarbhflaith. Gwynneve leaves home to study with the druid Giannon, a person neither warm nor friendly, and from whom Gwynneve learns about the magic of reading and writing and is introduced to the immortality offered by little black marks scratched into paper and the way the little marks share knowledge.
In between the pieces describing her past, Gwynneve keeps us up-to-date with happenings at the monastery at which she lives, the shrine of Saint Brigit, where she and the other nuns maintain the ever-burning flame of the saint. The arrival of the new abbot sparks different fears among both the nuns and the community. When a baby's grave is desecrated night after night, the youngest nun, Sister Ailenn, inadvertantly points the finger at Gwynneve when she points out that Gwynneve still visits the forest to collect herbs and natural remedies.
All in all, this story is worth the read, even if it is a bit slow. As it is written in the style of a memoir, don't go looking for accounts of magick and swordplay. Instead, look for the lessons Gwynneve tries to leave in her writings, and as a final piece of advice, take her three opinions to heart - they mean so much to me personally.
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