Steven Till

The Sword and the Miracle by Melvyn Bragg

Hardcover
Publisher: Random House Value Publishing (November 17, 1998)
ISBN-10: 0517284537
Average Customer Review on Amazon: 4 stars

From Library Journal

Bragg’s title sums up exactly the tension he has created in this solid novel. In seventh-century Ireland, a priest has a vision of the Virgin Mary, who bequeaths him a sliver of the True Cross and tells him to pass it on to a young girl, who will serve the Lord in a remarkable way. That young girl turns out to be Bega, princess in the household the preist serves, and she indeed becomes inbued with her spiritual mission. But she is promised to the brutish Niall O’Neill, even as English prince Padric yearns for her. How Bega works out her destiny is a long time coming?this book has nearly 700 densely set pages?and though the prose is at best unremarkable and at times heavy-handed, British TV personality and director Bragg does offer much exacting detail, which draws in the reader and finally culminates in a satisfying read. Bragg was inspired to write this saga, a best seller in Britain, after discovering a lakeside church dedicated to St. Bega in his native Cumbria. A good bet for historical fiction collections.?Barbara Hoffert, “Library Journal”
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Bragg (A Time to Dance, 1991, etc.), an appealing, intelligent interviewer on cable’s South Bank Show, author of well-received bios of Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton, of 13 novels, of screenplays, and a director of several musicals and plays, now finds time to turn out a giant historical set in Britain’s Dark Ages. In a.d. 657, the scholarly and war-hungry British prince Padric and his student, the quasi-historical Irish priestess Bega (later Saint Bega), hope to battle the Northumbrians and restore the kingdom of Rheged, which had existed from before the Roman invasion. Ten years earlier, Donal, the lowliest of priests, had starved himself on a mountain and received from the Virgin a piece of the True Cross the size of his little finger, with instructions to pass this secret relic on to a girl-woman at the right moment. This happens to be Bega. Her father wants her to marry brutal rapist Prince Niall O’Neill and create an Irish dynasty. But O’Neill rapes Bega’s servant, who in turn kills him, is herself beheaded, and Bega’s father sends his daughter off to Rheged as Padric’s wife. The two meet the monk Cuthbert, who is baptizing hundreds and establishing mixed houses of monks and nuns as mission posts. He separates Padric and Bega when he hears of the holy relic she carries–although Padric knows nothing of the relic. But Bega must be God’s alone. For 50 years, Padric too becomes a soldier of God as the Word spreads throughout the isles, monasteries arise, four plagues come, dead Cuthbert fails to decay, and at last King Aldfrid brings art and education to the people. Serio-escapist fiction void of bodice-ripping, free of clich‚s, clean-limbed in style: a rich and powerful plunge into the Dark Ages. — Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval History, Historical Fiction on December 17th, 2008