Hild
Nicola Griffith, 2013
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
560 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250056092
Summary
A brilliant, lush, sweeping historical novel about the rise of the most powerful woman of the Middle Ages: Hild
In seventh-century Britain, small kingdoms are merging, frequently and violently. A new religion is coming ashore; the old gods are struggling, their priests worrying. Hild is the king’s youngest niece, and she has a glimmering mind and a natural, noble authority. She will become a fascinating woman and one of the pivotal figures of the Middle Ages: Saint Hilda of Whitby.
But now she has only the powerful curiosity of a bright child, a will of adamant, and a way of seeing the world—of studying nature, of matching cause with effect, of observing her surroundings closely and predicting what will happen next—that can seem uncanny, even supernatural, to those around her.
Her uncle, Edwin of Northumbria, plots to become overking of the Angles, ruthlessly using every tool at his disposal: blood, bribery, belief. Hild establishes a place for herself at his side as the king’s seer. And she is indispensable—unless she should ever lead the king astray. The stakes are life and death: for Hild, for her family, for her loved ones, and for the increasing numbers who seek the protection of the strange girl who can read the world and see the future.
Hild is a young woman at the heart of the violence, subtlety, and mysticism of the early Middle Ages—all of it brilliantly and accurately evoked by Nicola Griffith’s luminous prose. Working from what little historical record is extant, Griffith has brought a beautiful, brutal world to vivid, absorbing life. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—September 30, 1960
• Where—Yorkshire, England, UK
• Education—Michigan State University Writing Workshop
• Awards—Nebula Award; World Fantasy Award; 6 Lambda Awards;
James Tiptree, Jr. Award;
• Currently—Seattle, Washington, USA
Nicola Griffith is a British science fiction author, editor and essayist. Griffith is a 1988 alumnus of the Michigan State University-Clarion science fiction writing workshop and has won a Nebula Award, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, the World Fantasy Award and six Lambda Literary Awards.
Personal life
Nicola Griffith was born in Yorkshire, England, the fourth of five sisters. The youngest, Helena, died in a police-chase in Australia in 1988, and one of her older sisters, Carolyn, died in 2001. Griffith has stated in interviews that grief and rage over her sisters' deaths have played a large part in the writing process for her novels. In March 1993, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Griffith lives with her partner, writer Kelley Eskridge, in Seattle, Washington (in the US).
Career
Nicola Griffith published her first novel Ammonite in 1993. It won both the James Tiptree, Jr. Award and the Lambda Award. Her second novel, Slow River (1994), won the Nebula Award, for best novel, and another Lambda.
Together with Stephen Pagel, Griffith has edited a series of three anthologies, Bending the Landscape: Fantasy (1997), Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction (1998) and Bending the Landscape: Horror (2001). These explore gay and lesbian issues in fantastic settings.
The Blue Place (1998), Stay (2002), and Always (2007) are crime novels. Her collection of stories, With Her Body (2004) is science fiction and fantasy. Her memoir And Now We Are Going to Have a Party: Liner Notes to a Writer's Early Life (2007) won the Lambda Literary Award in the Women's Memoir/Biography category. It is a multi-media memoir, a "do-it-yourself Nicola Griffith home assembly kit."
Griffith's historical novel Hild (2013) is set in seventh-century England and based on the real life of St. Hilda of St. Whitsby. It takes place at the time of the Synod of Whitby in CE 642, in which Oswiu of Northumbria decided whether or not to adopt Celtic or Roman Catholic Christianity. In 2013, Griffith was also awarded the Jim Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize from the Lambda Literary Foundation in 2013. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 12/18/13.)
Book Reviews
[A] fictional coming-of-age story about real-life Saint Hilda of Whitby, who grew up pagan in seventh-century Britain.... Griffith goes boldly into the territory, lingering over landscape, wallowing in language, indulging the senses, mixing historical fact with feminist fiction in a sweeping panorama...: the Dark Ages transformed into a fantasy world of skirt and sword.
Publishers Weekly
Based on the real-life St. Hilda of Whitby (614-80 CE), Griffith's Hild may be too remarkable to be true, but the novel provides a fascinating view of women's lives in the early Middle Ages, from their vital roles in textile production and keepers of the household to sleeping arrangements and sexuality. Recommend to readers of historical fiction. —Reba Leiding, formerly with James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, VA
Library Journal
Griffith realistically represents the brutality of everyday life in this milieu. She is interested in exploring the costs of slavery...the ramifications of illness or injury...and the effects of political change...on the lives of individual people.… In its ambition and intelligence, Hild might best be compared to Hilary Mantel's novels about Thomas Cromwell—Jenny Davidson.
Bookforum
(Starred review.) In her first foray into historical fiction, Griffith explores the young life of Hild, the future St. Hilda of Whitby.... Griffith expertly blends an exploration of seventh-century court life and a detailed character study of Hild as she balances a need for acceptance, love, and friendship and a desire to escape the strict gender roles of her time ... Griffith triumphs with this intelligent, beautifully written, and meticulously researched novel. —Kerri Price
Booklist
[B]ased on the real life of the "Anglisc" girl who would become Saint Hilda of Whitby. Of Hilda's...life not much is known, save that she was an adept administrator and intellectually tough-minded champion of Christianity in the first years of its arrival in Britain. The lacuna affords Griffith the opportunity to put her well-informed imagination to work while staying true to the historical details.... Elegantly written.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. As you watched the young Hild serve as cupbearer, what intelligent decisions, what connections, did you see her make? It takes physical strength to lift the cup, but what other strengths make this possible?
2. What does Hild’s mother, Breguswith, teach her about survival? Do you think Breguswith is on Hild’s side? How is Hild’s sense of security affected by the memories of her sister, Hereswith?
3. What qualities does Hild possess that make her a good seer? Do those skills help her in other ways?
4. Hild has a lifelong relationship with Cian, from their early childhood to the book’s closing scenes. How do they manage their power imbalance and their kinship? Ultimately, what do they need from each other?
5. Do you admire Edwin as a leader? Would you want him to be your king?
6. In Hild’s world, what roles do of the conquerors and the defeated wealh (strangers) play? Do you think the Angles are really that different from the native British?
7. How is Hild affected by her sexual awakening? Does it make her stronger or more vulnerable?
8. What did you discover about the early kingdoms of Britain by reading the novel? Which aspects of medieval life were startling to you? Which aspects were timeless, echoed in modern culture and twenty-first-century politics? How would you have fared in this society?
9. How does mysticism shape Hild’s perception of life and death, before and after her conversion?
10. As their lives unfold, the people of Hild’s community seek to know their wyrd, or fate. What do they believe about their ability to shape their destiny? What do they expect from religion?
11. Discuss the significance of the scene in which Gwladus’s collar is removed. What does freedom mean under those circumstances? How does that moment change the way Gwladus sees herself and her role in Hild’s life?
12. Discuss Hild’s relationship to the land and to the unpredictable natural elements. How does her love for Menewood compare to her love of humanity?
13. Do you believe in Hild’s fighting prowess and her ability to lead?
14. What gives Hild the ability to counsel Angeth with clarity, although Hild hasn’t experienced motherhood? How does Angeth’s role in Cian’s life compare to Hild’s?
15. How are Hild’s rites of passage as a woman distinct from those of the other women in her life? What advantages does her gender provide?
16. If you have done a bit of online research on Saint Hilda of Whitby, the historical figure who inspired this novel, what parallels do you see between the fictional Hild and Saint Hilda? In Saint Hilda, do you find a woman who was empowered or disempowered by the church?
17. What is unique about the female characters Griffith creates, in Hild and in any of her previous novels that you have read? What traits do her most memorable characters possess, transcending the diverse settings Griffith has designed for them?
18. What books does this novel remind you of?
(Questions issued by publisher.)