Genre: historical fiction
Northumbria, Britain, 632-635 CE

Menewood begins where the novel Hild leaves off: Hild, newly married to Cian, and granted title to Elmet in Deira, is faced with new challenges of estate management and pending motherhood, on top of being Seer for the King. But 7th century Britain is a dangerous place, filled with rival kings and new theologies and religions infiltrating the British Isles.

Nicola Griffith brings her incredible worldbuilding and storytelling skills to life in Menewood. It’s the next chapter in the life of St Hilda of Whitby, still decades before she became nun and abbess. Hild and Menewood are rich tapestries of early medieval life, tracing the solidifying power of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria and the expansion of Christianity.

Menewood is heartbreaking, with grueling war and devastating battles, and the hunger and fear common to life in the 7th century. Griffith exercises restraint in her writing as she describes these horrific moments but never veers into blood and gore for the sake of the writing. Each moment on page contributes to Hild’s character, making her a stronger leader in the face of devastation and grief. As Hild climbs out of her depression in later parts of the book, the story returns to the hopeful and brave tone of the first novel.

Power, leadership, and authority come not from gender. Hild proves that they come from an ability to protect, strategize, and see. Her followers take no note that she prefers to sleep with women - a fact I highlighted in my review of Hild is that the queer normativity of these books permeates an age a contemporary reader would assume has strict gender norms.

Hild says at one point years into leadership and campaign, “But men follow me because they believe I’m more than I seem.” Her lover responds, “Once, perhaps. Now they follow you because you are exactly what you seem: a woman who wins. They follow you because you take care of them, because they get fed and their horses are fed – because they have horses.” This snippet of conversation captures both the powerful and the mundane, Hild was known for her visions and transformed into as a leader because she sees the humanity in the people who follow her.

Deeply researched, and with the major power players also real historical figures, Menewood is a sharp, bold imagined hagiography, filling in the blank spaces of history left open by Bede (8th century author of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People), bringing an incredible character to life. Despite the religious overtones of Hild’s story, Griffith has chosen to portray the rise of Christianity in a contemplative manner: despite her later role as an abbess, Hild as war-leader and peace-seeker, while baptized, views Christianity as tool to shape her goals, as many kings did in the era.

I don’t tend to recommend readalikes as a part of my reviews, but I can’t help comparing Menewood to She Who Became the Sun/He Who Drowned the World. Both feature a woman who steps out of tradition and takes on a male role to claim power to protect her people and her people and her vision for humanity. Both take on gender, sexuality, and queer normativity in time periods where a contemporary reader may assume strict gender roles.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an eARC for review. I ended up purchasing and listening to the audiobook, narrated by Pearl Hewitt, largely because my bandwidth to read a 730 page book with my eyes these days is limited. This book requires patience, but you’ll be rewarded with a stunning character sketch of an incredible woman.

I loved this book which is a sequel to the first wonderful story. Such a talented author. I started it and finished it 2 days.

As Nicola Griffith, author of Menewood, second in her Hild series, said in a recent interview, she expects to be writing about this seventh century British saint (the abbess of Whitby in her later years) for the rest of her life. The character of Hild she has created through 20 years of research is unforgettably there on every beautifully written page. She is fully alive along with every other person she meets, every animal and natural process she comes to know, every act of violence she participates in. Menewood, covering just two crucial years of Hild’s life, long before her entry into a religious order, is a staggering achievement of imagination that brings a vast world to life.

While Hild (2013) dramatized a young girl learning about life, the Hild of Menewood, about 20 years old, has mastered every sphere of living in the North of England where Anglisc, British, Irish and Latin and the traditions those languages support are very much alive. It’s a world where kings fight for wealth, for the loyalty of warriors and for control of lands through brutal battles and constant plotting and back-stabbing. In this world Hild is a giant in stature, military prowess, close knowledge of nature and an ability to see the individuality and value in each person. And Griffith makes this world live in us through Hild’s eyes and every other sense. I’ve never felt so completely drawn into the reality of a world so different from our own.

As Menewood opens, Hild is married to the young noble warrior, Cian Broadcloak, assigned by Edwin Overking, to protect a region called Elmet in the old kingdom of Deira, the eastern part of Northumbria where the major fort and town of York were located. Hild has been called a seer since childhood, one who knows everything, but for her the reality is that she sees patterns in things. The patterns of kings fighting for power, of warriors longing for gold and fame, of the changes of seasons and weather, of the movements and habits of animals, of the myriad processes that sustain life in the seventh century, from weaving, to raising and butchering livestock to navigating the perils of life in a royal family. She has integrated all this knowledge in a way that strikes her contemporaries as miraculous, apparently giving her insight into the future. But it is really her keen senses and mind that let nothing slip by.

What Hild sees and thinks brings out not just her keen perception but extraordinary empathy and love for the natural and human processes and beings of her world. She doesn’t catalogue vast knowledge, she lives it by entering into the experience of every other being, from a tiny vole risking emergence from the safety of its home to the power calculations of kings. Her insight makes her seem like a seer to those who know her, or simply know of her by reputation, but there is nothing mystical or magical about it. Her being seems to merge in a way with all the varieties of living things, from the innocent to the murderous, from the care a gardener or farmer takes with plants to the skills of a butcher, from the nurturing of children and family to the vicious killing of combat.

Hild has a great arc of experience to live through in the two years covered by this novel. The story is structured around two great battles, and we see Hild brought down by the first, her world destroyed, her spirit almost broken. But then she heals and sets about restoring plundered lands, reassembling warriors, rallying the people of Deira. She shows herself to be a great manager of land and people, a natural leader who inspires those around her to have faith again in their future. However, this arc of loss and recovery is no conventional hero’s journey that ends with the slaying of a monster. Instead it poses deep questions about Hild’s future, her hold as such power as she retains and her search for deeper insight into the world around her.

Her whole being is so attuned to all the cadences of life, it seems a small step for her to evolve later in life to a more religious existence, especially as she witnesses the constant destruction and ravaging of a warlord-driven society. But that will obviously be a complex journey since her world presents conflicting faiths and ideas of the sacred, as well as clashes within Christianity between Roman and British forms of worship.

Nicola Griffith captures all of this in Hild’s experience and perceptions of the totality of her world. Griffith says the next novel in this sequence will take Hild to the beginning of the religious life. I hope that book will take a bit less than ten years to appear, but whatever the time, it will be worth waiting for another great chapter in this dazzling fictional life.

Hild, the niece to Edwin Yffing, Overking and Lady of Elmet. No longer a child, Hild is now a woman who advises kings. Hild faces war and the change that war brings, and must devise a new path forward for her and her people.
Menewood is the stunning sequel to Hild is brimming with historical details and Nicola Griffith's rich prose.

Menewood is the much-anticipated sequel to Hild, which follows the life of the real Hild during 7th century Britian. If you haven't read the predecessor, you need to do so immediately--this isn't the kind of book you can just pick up mid-series. I'd also guess that if you read the previous installment, you either loved it or hated it. For me, Hild was an immediate 5 star read: a lush, thoughtful journey into the past with a kind of deep interiority that only a skilled writer can produce. I recommend it to fans of Mantel's historical fiction (another favorite author of mine!) but I acknowledge that it's not for everyone. If you have the time and the patience, give this book a try and let Hild work her magic on you. You won't regret it!

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for an early copy of this book.

I liked this book overall, and enjoyed it more than Hild. If you are into historical fiction that is well-researched & accurate, this series is absolutely for you. As a reader, the amount of detail Nicola Griffiths provides can make you feel weighed down, but it didn’t impact the enjoyability for me.

What keeps this series as 3 stars is the fact that I still don’t feel like I know Hild as a character. She exists, we travel alongside her, we know her journey, but we don’t know HER.

Overlong and tedious. I think it’s close to greatness but falls flat before ascending. The author knows the time period quite well but messes with it much, put this more into fiction (surprise?) as we hardly know anything about the historical Hild.

I have to start out by confessing I didn't love <i>Hild</i>. I felt it was a little sluggish, wielding the double-edged sword of meticulous historical detail (and I spent the whole book waiting for some sort of fantastical element thanks to its in-retrospect-insane nomination for a Nebula Award). <i>Menewood</i> is better, though it does suffer from some of the same sluggishness at times, so I would not recommend it to anyone who got overly frustrated with <i>Hild</i>. I admire what Nicola Griffith is doing from a historical fiction perspective, constructing a plausible-if-perhaps-unlikely backstory for St. Hilda of Whitby as discussed in the author's note at the end of the book, although there are some predictability traps there: cursory knowledge (or Wikipedia-ing) of the historical setting will tell you that [historical spoiler, I guess] Edwin is defeated and killed at the battle of Hatfield Chase (or Hædfield, here), and certain other consequences of the battle aren't hard to foresee from a meta level. <spoiler>Hild's husband is killed in the battle and Hild's child (whom she is actively in labor with throughout the battle, in a fairly over-the-top dramatic turn) dies a few days after birth due to an impact Hild takes to her stomach while fighting in the battle. For Hild to be sufficiently unencumbered, in the terms of 7th century English society, to engage in independent role Griffith has in mind for her, it is evident early on that something has to clear her family out of the way. Griffith spends a while really hammering Hild with grief, including some unnecessarily gruesome dead-child scenes, which I lost patience with because of how transparently necessary the deaths were for Griffith's intended plot trajectory. Give the girl a break, Nicola.</spoiler>

Much of the rest of the book charts a course somewhere between <i>The Pillars of the Earth</i> and Lauren Groff's <i>Matrix</i>, which I enjoyed, though both of those books are more successful. The book ends with Hild about to embark on a new chapter in her life, which I look forward to reading, although I do despair at the prospective length of this series. For a pair of books about the future St. Hilda of Whitby we're still a loooong way away from the Synod of Whitby (12 years, if I remember my math correctly). This book only covers a couple of years, and took Griffith 10 years to write, or at least get published. At this rate I don't know if we'll ever get there. Although, perhaps that's not the point: Griffith seems to really love filling in the blank space in Hild's CV, so once there's historical documentation, meager as it is, she might not see any point in continuing.

didn't like the first one but this one was better
thank you netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review

Another tour de force from Griffith, bringing us into the past through the power of language. I'm not convinced this is how things really were, especially with regard to the view of religion, but it's terribly convincing for the time of the reading. Some tightening up would not come amiss, though; the length and number of characters is a bit of slog sometimes. Still, Hild is a marvelous character and I hope we'll find out more of her story.

Pearl-clutchers get your grips ready: I'm going to say some nice things about a christian abbess.

Of course, her christian belief is...muted? inflected? yes, inflected...by the ancient practices of seventh-century Northumbria (a name she wouldn't have known of or used, but firmly established in our modern idea of the time and place). Her christian belief is, by most modern standards, heretical. The Roman priests in this story don't come off that well. They're not alone. King Edwin, whose godmouth Hild is still, is singularly blind to the way his rulership's grip drives the agendas of many angry, ill-willed forces around him.

They are using deeply predictable pathways to bring his rule down, yet he needs Hild's counsel to identify the threats. It's ever thus: Power is as always its own worst enemy. Look at the extensive historical record. All dictators eventually fall, even if it's sometimes quite a lengthy process. What Griffith does brilliantly is in the construction of the story of Hild's rise and the fall of an older world. Her inventions and fictionalizations of this history make sense of some things that our few contemporary(ish) sources apply generous slatherings of handwavium to. It's not, in the end, a story with huge depths of character but rather one with immense scope and sweep of events, and actions taken, purposes found, lives changed and morphed. That being a good kind of historical epic strategy, I'm on board.

Good thing, too, as there are seven hundred-ish pages of Hild's story.

Expect action, don't expect explication. The last book's, um, meatyness and squalor as I think it's fair to characterize it, is still a major register of the narrative voice. You're going to want to bookmark the maps, the notes, and the glossary. There is also, in the ebook, a hyperlink to the author's website where there is a wealth of information about who was who and who never really was and what the hell all those freaky-deaky names mean. In fact this historical novel has more source citations than many history books claiming factuality I've read here recently. It works very much to Author Griffith's favor that she spends a goodly amount of time in her endnotes explaining why she made some choices regarding names and naming conventions, as well as giving a Cliffs Notes course in the unreliability of our best sources on the grounds of non-neutrality.

For this cranky old man reader, Hild is only coming more and more to matter as she moves from fey young girlhood to her surprisingly potent womanhood. I love the fact that this woman, this member of a group outrageously repressed and abused for the majority of the millennium-plus since Hild's death, is the only person powerful enough to change the course of the world (go look up the Synod of Whitby). That isn't in this book, but it'd better be in a future one. This character is far, far too amazing to drop now!

A hardcover of this length is pricey and hard for older and disabled people to manage as an object as well as a significant purchase. All I can say is that the read is worth accepting these obstacles to get in your head.

Menewood
by Nicola Griffith
Pub Date: 03 Oct 2023

Making a much-anticipated return to the world of Hild, Nicola Griffith’s Menewood transports readers back to seventh-century Britain, a land of rival kings and religions poised for epochal change. Hild is no longer the bright child who made a place in Edwin Overking’s court with her seemingly supernatural insight. She is eighteen, honed and tested, the formidable lady of Elmet, now building her personal stronghold in the valley of Menewood.

But old alliances are fraying. Younger rivals are snapping at Edwin’s heels. War is brewing—bitter war, winter war. Not knowing whom to trust, Edwin becomes volatile and recalls his young advisor to court. There Hild begins to understand the true extent of the chaos ahead—and realizes she must find a way to navigate the turbulence and fight to protect both the kingdom and her own people.

She will face the losses and devastation of total war, and then must summon the determination to forge a radically different path for herself and her people. In the valley, her last redoubt, Hild draws strength from the fierce joy she finds in the natural world, as, slowly, her community takes root. She trains herself and her unexpected allies in new ways of thinking, learning what it means to gather and wield true power. And she prepares for one last wager: risking all on a single throw for a better future.
In the last decade, Hild has become a beloved classic of epic storytelling. Menewood exceeds it in every way.

"Menewood" by Nicola Griffith is a stunning and much-anticipated sequel to "Hild," transporting readers back to seventh-century Britain, a time of rival kings and religions poised for significant change.

The story follows Hild, who is no longer the bright child but an eighteen-year-old formidable lady of Elmet, building her stronghold in the valley of Menewood. As old alliances fray and younger rivals threaten Edwin Overking's rule, war looms on the horizon. Hild is recalled to court by Edwin, and there, she begins to understand the extent of the impending chaos.

Griffith masterfully weaves a tale of political intrigue, war, and personal growth against the backdrop of a historical setting. The depiction of seventh-century Britain is vivid and immersive, bringing to life a land on the brink of transformation.

Hild's character development is exceptional as she faces the challenges of war and the complexities of court politics. Her growth from a young and insightful girl to a formidable leader is portrayed with depth and authenticity. Hild's connection with the natural world adds a layer of richness to her character and serves as a source of strength and solace.

The novel explores themes of power, leadership, and the struggle for a better future. It delves into the complexities of loyalty, trust, and the consequences of war. The author's prose is exquisite, evoking the atmosphere of the time and immersing readers in the world of Menewood.

"Menewood" is not only a gripping historical novel but also a profound exploration of the human spirit and its capacity for resilience and transformation. It surpasses its predecessor, "Hild," in its storytelling and depth.

Nicola Griffith's ability to bring history to life, coupled with her rich character development and evocative prose, makes "Menewood" a must-read for fans of historical fiction. It is a captivating and immersive journey that will leave readers eagerly awaiting more from this talented author.

Set in Northumberland in Northeast England, during a fascinating period in British history where paganism and Christianity meet, MENEWOOD is the second novel in Nicola Griffith's Hild Sequence, imagining the early years of the woman who would be best known later as Saint Hilda of Whitby.


Hilda's real-life biography is nonexistent. A few pages of The Venerable Bede's Ecclesiaseical History of England briefly recount a hamdful of moments from her birth in 614 until her death in 680. Yet she is a widely known figure in early English lore, Bede's "recolections" half a century after her death having become the makings of a small legend. Bede immediately announces that her life took on two major parts, the first 33 years in secular settings, the second half in God's service. Being an "Ecclesiastical" history, only the second half is given to any detail, which is to say very little.


The lack of detail gives Griffith plenty of maneuvering room as an author. If there is no way to confirm anything, neither is there any to refute it. The reader's view depends wholly on how well Griffith depicts her heroine, working with a handful of accounts of women we would today consider progressive in Hild's time, and our own modern sensibilities, to craft a relatable tale that could as easily have really happened as not, with known historical details outside her life as anchor points. Griffith's talents are such that any reasonable reader will land on the side of her story as given in Hild and Menewood, and presumably a later book or books that feature the eventual continuation and conclusion still barely hinted at in Bede.


Writing, then, in a more speculative historical than historical vein, Griffith eschews the trend of petite but powerful women warriors. Hild is awed by everyone around her as a giant of a woman, tall and muscular. She is also every bit as confident and assured a commander of men as any king of her time. Her physical power arises from her physical characteristics. Her wisdom, however, proves just as puissant. She offers a fierce loyalty to family and allies alike, a wary eye left out for all others, potential enemies or proven ones.


Her battle expertise is what we see first of Hild in MENEWOOD, defending her territory from the hostile scouts of a nearby leader with an eye to expand his own holdings if he can avoid too much trouble doing it. Which is what Hild dislikes most about Kings: they exist, she says, only to fight other kings and acquire yet more land that must be defended. The fast alliances that are required to maintain such defensive ties and keep trade routes open are another area of Hild's expertise, having served under her Uncle, Edwin King of Deira, for years as intercessory and putative seer. Perfectly aware she is no seer, but merely a gifted observer of human nature and politics (and of nature itself, so illustrative of what occurs in the latter spheres), Hild stays silent and accepts any titles that imbue her with influence, the better to serve her close family and friends, particularly once these are centered together in Menewood, the community that anchors the personal holdings conferred upon her by Edwin before his death - as Hild would have guessed it, fighting another king.


"Fate goes ever as it must": When not running to Edwin's summons or engaging in the leadership and defense of Menewood, Hild frequently muses on her wyrd, her fate, how it got her where she is at any given moment, how it will carry her forward: to triumph or death. Howsoever it may go, one thing taught her by the kings around her, living and dead: a king she will not be - for the singular task and fate of kings is to kill other kings and one day be killed themselves. A leader she will reluctantly be, but never a ruler.


According to Bede, Hild was born in 614 to Hereric, nephew of King Edwin of Deira in a part of Northeastern England that Edwin would later rule as the much larger Northumbria. Hild's tale takes place in a place and time of change, just as Christian inroads are overtaking pagan worship in an uneasy alliance of worshippers on both sides of the coin. Baptised along with her uncle Edwin at 13, the Christian god is never far from her thoughts, though like the kings around her with Roman missionaries in their courts, she is always suspicious of Popish influence. Her religion is really, in Griffith's telling, a love of the land that gives her and hers life, and she waxes poetic whenever out of doors - which is often - her relationship with the natural world so close that she sees its patterns, knows them intimately, with a concurrent ability to suss out the patterns of men and women, peasants and kings, resulting in predictions so uncanny that she is early on branded a seer.


Where HILD explores nearly a score of years in her early life, MENEWOOD catches up to her after her marriage to Cian Boldcloak at the end of HILD, and encompasses only another three years and 3 months of her life, from January 632 to March of 635. Not just glossed over but totally absent from Bede's account, Griffith's picture of this time, rooted firmly in the known politics of early Northumbria, is quite eventful for both Northumbria and Hild personally. About to give birth while charging into the largest conflict of its time in this part of England, her already uneasy life threatens to unravel completely. Menewood is the community central to Hild's part in these events, a home she struggles to maintain for those around her as "fate goes ever as it must". MENEWOOD tells the story of years fiercely violent and uneasily peaceful as Northumbria is invaded by not just one but two invading kings - one of which has vowed to bury the people and name of Hild's family, the Yffings, forevermore.


Griffith skilfully portrays this time and the character of Hild as built up in her previous novel, showing us all facets of the young woman: The Light of the World, as her mother calls her at her birth; haegtes, or witch, as many styled her in fear and awe for her apparent seerdom; Butcherbird, her warrior side, towering over many of the warriors she encounters in and out of battle; and finally just Hild, the gentle, mothering soul that relishes nature and would spend all her time observing it if she could. But, instead, "Fate goes ever as it must" and Hild must marshal her meager forces for the epic battle and its aftermath. It's the only major fight you'll see in MENEWOOD. There are other skirmishes, but a fair chunk of the novel is the story of Hild keeping her people together and seeking the best vengeance she can for her own and her people's losses when the battle finally comes. I've left the fuller cast of characters for the interested reader to discover. In Griffith's capable hands many, both real and imagined, would be served well by larger explorations of their lives as well.


In HILD and MENEWOOD, Griffith has fashioned an excellent and fascinating look at much of the first half of Hild Yffing's life. Plenty of time for Griffith to explore more of Hild's pre-monastic life. Whatever the author has in store from here I am confident she will do so with an intelligence and aplomb not unlike Hild's own.


This review stems from reading an e-book Advance Review Copy of MENEWOOD provided by publisher Farrar, Strauss and Giroux (Macmillan) via NetGalley, none of whom influenced my thoughts in any manner about this excellent novel. They are lucky to be the publishers of such a thoughtful and entertaining work.

Thank you to NetGalley and MCD for the ARC.

I panicked because I realized that I hadn't read Hild, the first novel in this series, but I managed to read it before getting to this one in a reasonable time. And so worth it to read both consecutively!

It's such a treat to get such a vivid picture of the Anglo-Saxon culture, which we know relatively little about, in such an imaginative and immersive novel. My favorite books are the ones that fully embrace all of the senses; I can taste the food they're eating, feel the pain, happiness, etc that characters feel, smell what they smell, and so on. Menewood checks all of these boxes. A lot of the details here, I'm assuming, are guesswork about early medieval England, but all of it works and none of the story feels forced or cliche. On top of that, there is some truly beautiful writing skill on display.

My only qualm is potentially that, after two novels, I still don't really know who Hild is from the inside. Everything seems to be happening to her or adjacent to her, rather than from her point of view. More of an inner monologue might have been effective, but perhaps that wasn't the intention for this series. Either way, Menewood is a strong entry and I'll definitely be reading more of Griffith's work in the future.

The first word that comes to mind when I consider Griffith’s writing in Menewood is “authentic.“ Though I can’t say that I personally have done research on the verbiage of that era, the form and pattern to which she adheres in both the background material and the dialogue is consistent in such a manner that you, as the reader, are drawn into Hild’s very believable world for that time. And you are drawn in, One thing, however, that did present some difficulty at the beginning was the similarity of so many of the character’s names. However, I also believe it should be said that this practice was used successfully to augment the appearance of being very believable for this time period. Again, I can make no claims as to veracity on the many facets of the politics of the time, but the presentation of this element of the story – which is a very large part – certainly seems genuine. In particular, these two aspects are things I considered when I used the word “authentic.“ Just observationally, I found this to be a somewhat “weighty“ book – not one that could be read quickly, And I offer this as a note and not criticism. But it does take more time to cement the characters – especially with those similarity names – and the less familiar political structure, while being written in Menewood’s distinctive word pattern, it is a characteristic of consideration. I found no loose ends in either the continuity of the storyline or the consistency with which the world of Menewood is maintained. I give this book 4 1/2 stars.

The Hild saga continues!

Early Middle Ages, Northumbria. The Romans have mostly left Britain. This is no cohesive country, but rather kingdoms or tribes that are constantly at war. The roman priests are gaining some influence. Importantly they bring the written word. Communication is enhanced. It is a record of accord, especially if all parties have a signed and witnessed statement. Hild uses this to ensure her conditions of agreement are not set aside later in the novel.
I also noted that later Hild warned King Oswald about letting the bishop speak to his people for him.
Hild Yffing, “light of the world and godmouth; hægtes and freemartin; Butcherbird and king’s fist ... [and] new-made Lady of Elmet.”
Hild is niece to Edwin Yffing, Overking of the people north of the Humbre. A woman surrounded by mystique, legend and song.
Hild has seen what kings can do to the common people and to the land. (After winning a battle kings have a war-host that needs to be kept occupied. That’s trouble.) She has already planned for a safe place to live and hide deep in Elmet, in Menewood. Hild’s had caches of food and supplies hidden, and unobtrusive gardens sown throughout the countryside. She’s walked and ridden that land, payed attention to the seasons, the flight of birds, the way the streams run. She notes it all. That sense of oneness with the land lifts her story.
When King Edwin plans to face a cunning and ruthless foe, Cadwallon, (who is determined to wipe all Yffings of the faces of the land), Hild is troubled when some of Edwin’s allies haven’t sworn to him in the traditional way. Edwin is unconcerned. He should be!
Hild has been called to bless the warband and Edwin’s undertaking in the coming battle. She had planned to leave straight after, but Edwin insists on taking his ‘godmouth’ with him to the front.
Big with child, Hild and her Hounds, her gesith (elite fighting force), are trapped between the opposing armies. They can’t escape the surging hoards, filled with battle lust. Betrayal is the key to the fiercesome, brutal battle that follows. It is the death knell, the tragic loss of all Hild holds dear.
Her escape back to Menewood will be sorely endured and won over many months.
Hild is religious, both aware of the old ways and the new ways. She merges pagan and Christian practices, seeing the strengths of both.
Her final battles has her seeking the best for her people, but always the will of kings will be troublesome. Hild is special, she is fierce and true, and kings want to control her.
I loved the glossary. It helped me to come closer to the story.
Colorful, raw and splendid writing gives shape to the person Hild is become. Her Wyrd is not finished.
An enticing, readable and at times harrowing continuation of Hild’s story brought to life in startling ways. A book that simultaneously gives us an insight into what many thought of as the Dark Ages. An age that reveals the beauty and the hell of human history … that continues into today.

A Farrar, Straus and Giroux ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

My opinions about Menewood are mixed. I’m deeply frustrated by it. The last half is a really interesting, well written, exciting epic historical fiction that is deeply researched and positively dripping with atmosphere. The first half is meandering, overlong, over complicated and full of the absolutely unnecessary and off putting thing that made me so angry about Hild. If you’ve also read Hild, and if you also found that end off putting and upsetting, it does not go away, and be prepared for it to consume the first 300 pages of Hild. If you were okay with it, then press on, I guess.

I also think the editor did a disservice in not forcing Griffith to cut some of this. 720 pages is a huge book and a huge ask for a reader. I go in expecting a book to earn every page over 350, and double earn every page over 500. This book did not do that. As I often say, there probably is a very good novel’s worth of pages in Menewood, but unfortunately there’s also a bad novel’s worth of pages, and it would have been to the story’s benefit to have them trimmed.

This book finished stronger than it started, and in spite of that review, I loved watching Hild come into her own, as a woman, and as a leader. Ultimately I was both disappointed by, and yet somehow really enjoyed this book, thanks to a strong ending. But I really don’t think I can recommend most people press on through the first 300 pages to get to the good part.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for this honest review.

I don't read much fiction set in early Europe, in particular those tumultuous decades between the fall of Rome and the rise of medieval kings, as most of it is men with swords laying waste to each other and everything else in their way. If nature didn't trash them first.

That said, there are a few names that will catch my eye, and Hild of Whitby is one of them, like Hildegard of Bingen, who flourished a few centuries later. Before I go on with the review, I should mention that I did not read the previous novel, as some reviews made it seems like it rubbed your face in dirt, disease, and blood and guts. But this second one, moving toward Hild's becoming abess of Whitby, made me want to give it a try.

I really struggled through a lot of it. The brutal, bloody aspects of life are right there front and center through the beginning, framed in a bewildering density of period names and vocabulary that one is supposed to gain from context. For the most part I did pick up what I believe was to be understood about this or that context (or conflict), aided by the author's deft use of nicknames to help differentiate the names that sounded so very alike, and by dialogue meant to convey characters' paradigm.

The reward was the occasional breathtakingly lovely insights about life, and also some of the relationships, particularly that with Hild's former bondwoman. Overall it was definitely a worthwhile read, but it did require close reading, and overcoming pulses of reluctance after especially grotty and gritty scenes. I've no idea how true to the period it is, but it felt true, and Hild's insights resonated.

Reaching the end, I was left impressed with the work the author had put in, and her humane take on a difficult period in the long and difficult struggle of human beings toward civilization. Though it did take me a long time to read, I felt rewarded both by the layers of complexity brought to this story, and by those shafts of insight.

I hope this gets nominated for All The Awards. I'll certainly vote for it.

Ms Griffith once again takes us into the medieval world of 7th century Britain with all of its splendor, dirt, greed, war, family and love. This is a continuation of the novel Hild, beginning four months after Hild ends and covering he next four years in Hild's life. These four years in Northern British history are filled with chaos, war and changes that bring kings and religions to critical points of change.

Hild is a a tried and true warrior, viewed as a "Godspeaker" or prophet across Britain and in Edwin's court. She is also the Lady of Elmet, a wife, soon to be mother, a daughter and protector of the people who make up her world. Hild's world will soon be a stronghold, a sanctuary from the ravages of an oncoming war she builds in a damp and marshy place called Menewood. Hild has reached adulthood, she's no longer the precocious and fey child to be used by those around her. She has grown weary of serving kings and fighting for King Edwin in the ongoing wars for power. Nonetheless, Hild will do what is necessary to protect the kingdom and her people. She has gained a keen understanding of the chaos and some of the changes and perils that will be faced in the near future and she intends to be prepared for her and her people to survive it.

Menewood is an epic tale and somehow, Nicola Griffith has managed to outdo herself and her prior book, Hild. And, Hild was extraordinary. I am anxious to read more of Hild, after all, Saint Hild had a larger story than just wars and minor kingdoms; There is so much more to learn about future Prioress Hild. I hope there's a third novel of Hild in the future and that it will be told to us by this very talented storyteller!