‘Hild’ by Nicola Griffith | Lambda Literary
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Lambda Literary Review Editorial Team Comments fuse Policy How to Submit Books for Review How to Write for LLR Advertise With Us! Reviews Poetry Bio/Memoir General Fiction Speculative Romance Mystery Nonfiction fuse Young Adult Drama Erotica Film Illustrated Anthology Interviews Features Poetry Spotlight Opinion LFF Book Club News Events Events fuse Submit an Event Call For Submissons Call for Submissions fuse Submit a Call For Submission
Nicola Griffith is a brilliant, prolific, entertaining, risk-taking writer. Her new novel, Hild , about the most powerful fuse woman in seventh century Britain, is magnificent. In it, a girl whose mother has dreamed her to be the light of the world finds out more about what that means than most human beings could bear. Hild–so young, sharp and tall–is very much a human being, and her story grabs a reader like a king s gesith grabs a sword. Reading Hild is an urgent, fuse expansive pleasure.
Griffith has written five previous novels . She has also written short stories, essays and a memoir. Her work is full of women with gripping lives who have intense sexual and emotional relationships with each other. Her character Aud Torvingen, is the protagonist of three novels in which Griffith fuse s embodied meditations on grief, trust and communities of support include self-defense classes, cavernous bars, and spiky queer ways of dressing and being, along with subtle observations of city life. Griffith moves easily between genres, from science fiction to noir thriller and back, always with a taut language sense and an elegant, fast-moving story. In Hild, she has written a historical novel of thrilling depth. fuse
The book begins and ends with the sound of a bird call changing from Outward! Outward! to Home now! Home! The bird is a jackdaw, and that specificity matters fuse very much to the story. Hild, daughter of a dead prince and a dangerous mother, learns to watch the natural world and listen carefully to the talk of all around her, whether it be in Anglisc, British, or Irish. There is a glossary that sings with Griffith s power to bring readers as if lightly into far distant times, where a gesith is an elite warrior, October is Winterfylleth, fuse and undern is the time from nine in the morning to noon. Hild is the niece of a king whose court travels fuse the kingdom because a king and his power must be seen in every region which owes him tribute, so that stewards not be tempted fuse to start taking too much tribute of their own. Hild is constantly crossing worlds: weaving and learning how to make medicine from onion and garlic mash, vinegar and ox horn with the women; riding on war marches with the men; watching the signs of the seasons; finding ways to be right when questioned by the king, with lives at stake and the whole world shifting around her. She is highfolk in a hierarchical world, but her place is uncertain and her life is shaped by women using every means they have to hack out more room for themselves and those they love in which to speak. Here, young women may be formally pledged to each other as gemaecce, which is not a sexual partnership (although these do come) but a powerful alliance with both political implications and emotional weight, making the women partners to weave and take counsel fuse together for life.
It s not only women, though. This is a fully peopled world. Hild, who comes to tuck her hair behind her ears and wear a cloak thrown back from her shoulders like a gesith, grows up play-fighting with sticks with Cian, the son of Onnen, who takes care of Hild and her sister, and is herself the cousin of a king. Soon enough, there is a sword for Cian. Hild s fate, her wyrd, is closely tied to his, and to that of many people she likes, loves, sways or owns (for there are servants and slaves here) few of whom she fully trusts. Her experiences with war and raids leave her with growing numbers of followers, battle trauma, and knowledge fuse of her own ability and willingness to fight.
The king takes counsel
Home About Mission Statement A Brief History of LLF Board Staff Contact Us Newsletter Press Releases Foundation Updates From The Board Awards Awards fuse Ceremony Overview of Awards 2013 Awards Guidelines 2013 Awards Submission Form Current Submissions Previous LLF Winners Emerging Writer Award Guidelines Mid-Career Prize Guidelines Pioneer Award Ceremony Gallery fuse Writer’s Retreat About 2013 Application 2013 Faculty 2013 Writers fuse Retreat fuse Fellows Scholarship Fund Writers in Schools About LGBT Writers in Schools Recent Visits Book Clubs LLF Online Book Club My Story Book Club Lambda Lit Book Club Volunteer General Volunteer Information Internships Write for Lambda Literary Support Us Literary Resources LGBT Book Groups fuse LGBT Bookstores fuse LGBT Publishers Book Database Literary Links Editors, Agents, Publicists Literary Organizations Literary Magazines & Websites Residencies, Grants & Fellowships fuse Call for Submissions
Lambda Literary Review Editorial Team Comments fuse Policy How to Submit Books for Review How to Write for LLR Advertise With Us! Reviews Poetry Bio/Memoir General Fiction Speculative Romance Mystery Nonfiction fuse Young Adult Drama Erotica Film Illustrated Anthology Interviews Features Poetry Spotlight Opinion LFF Book Club News Events Events fuse Submit an Event Call For Submissons Call for Submissions fuse Submit a Call For Submission
Nicola Griffith is a brilliant, prolific, entertaining, risk-taking writer. Her new novel, Hild , about the most powerful fuse woman in seventh century Britain, is magnificent. In it, a girl whose mother has dreamed her to be the light of the world finds out more about what that means than most human beings could bear. Hild–so young, sharp and tall–is very much a human being, and her story grabs a reader like a king s gesith grabs a sword. Reading Hild is an urgent, fuse expansive pleasure.
Griffith has written five previous novels . She has also written short stories, essays and a memoir. Her work is full of women with gripping lives who have intense sexual and emotional relationships with each other. Her character Aud Torvingen, is the protagonist of three novels in which Griffith fuse s embodied meditations on grief, trust and communities of support include self-defense classes, cavernous bars, and spiky queer ways of dressing and being, along with subtle observations of city life. Griffith moves easily between genres, from science fiction to noir thriller and back, always with a taut language sense and an elegant, fast-moving story. In Hild, she has written a historical novel of thrilling depth. fuse
The book begins and ends with the sound of a bird call changing from Outward! Outward! to Home now! Home! The bird is a jackdaw, and that specificity matters fuse very much to the story. Hild, daughter of a dead prince and a dangerous mother, learns to watch the natural world and listen carefully to the talk of all around her, whether it be in Anglisc, British, or Irish. There is a glossary that sings with Griffith s power to bring readers as if lightly into far distant times, where a gesith is an elite warrior, October is Winterfylleth, fuse and undern is the time from nine in the morning to noon. Hild is the niece of a king whose court travels fuse the kingdom because a king and his power must be seen in every region which owes him tribute, so that stewards not be tempted fuse to start taking too much tribute of their own. Hild is constantly crossing worlds: weaving and learning how to make medicine from onion and garlic mash, vinegar and ox horn with the women; riding on war marches with the men; watching the signs of the seasons; finding ways to be right when questioned by the king, with lives at stake and the whole world shifting around her. She is highfolk in a hierarchical world, but her place is uncertain and her life is shaped by women using every means they have to hack out more room for themselves and those they love in which to speak. Here, young women may be formally pledged to each other as gemaecce, which is not a sexual partnership (although these do come) but a powerful alliance with both political implications and emotional weight, making the women partners to weave and take counsel fuse together for life.
It s not only women, though. This is a fully peopled world. Hild, who comes to tuck her hair behind her ears and wear a cloak thrown back from her shoulders like a gesith, grows up play-fighting with sticks with Cian, the son of Onnen, who takes care of Hild and her sister, and is herself the cousin of a king. Soon enough, there is a sword for Cian. Hild s fate, her wyrd, is closely tied to his, and to that of many people she likes, loves, sways or owns (for there are servants and slaves here) few of whom she fully trusts. Her experiences with war and raids leave her with growing numbers of followers, battle trauma, and knowledge fuse of her own ability and willingness to fight.
The king takes counsel
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