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New Tales from the Mabinogion #6
The Prince's Pen
Drawing from two medieval Welsh manuscripts with roots dating back many centuries earlier, this series of 11 stories sheds light on Celtic mythology and Arthurian romance while providing a new perspective on Great Britain itself. From enchantment and shapeshifting to the age-old dichotomies of conflict versus peacemaking and love versus betrayal, all of these tales are uniquely reinvented, creating fresh, contemporary narratives that portray the real world as much as they depict the past.
The Welsh myth of brothers Lludd and Llefelys transforms into that of Ludo and Levello in this modern retelling, in which Wales and Pakistan are the only countries left in the free world. England is now a defeated archipelago, but somewhere in the higher ground to the far west, insurrection is brewing. Ludo and Levello are the self-styled kings of Wales, and they are taking prisoners, but can they free the British Isles without the help of Islamic princess Uzma and the power of Pakistan? Set in a land that is at once contemporary and mystical, this narrative offers a lyrical look at love, grief, and familial relationships.
The Welsh myth of brothers Lludd and Llefelys transforms into that of Ludo and Levello in this modern retelling, in which Wales and Pakistan are the only countries left in the free world. England is now a defeated archipelago, but somewhere in the higher ground to the far west, insurrection is brewing. Ludo and Levello are the self-styled kings of Wales, and they are taking prisoners, but can they free the British Isles without the help of Islamic princess Uzma and the power of Pakistan? Set in a land that is at once contemporary and mystical, this narrative offers a lyrical look at love, grief, and familial relationships.
- GenresFictionRetellings
200 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2012
About the author
Horatio Clare
37 books98 followersHoratio Clare (b. 1973) is a writer, radio producer and journalist. Born in London, he and his brother Alexander grew up on a hill farm in the Black Mountains of south Wales. Clare describes the experience in his first book Running for the Hills (John Murray 2006) in which he sets out to trace the course and causes of his parents divorce, and recalls the eccentric, romantic and often harsh conditions of his childhood. The book was widely and favourably reviewed in the UK, where it became a bestseller, as in the US.
Running for the Hills was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award and shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Horatio has written about Ethiopia, Namibia and Morocco, and now divides his time between South Wales, Lancashire and London. He was awarded a Somerset Maugham Award for the writing of A Single Swallow (Chatto and Windus, 2009).
Running for the Hills was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award and shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Horatio has written about Ethiopia, Namibia and Morocco, and now divides his time between South Wales, Lancashire and London. He was awarded a Somerset Maugham Award for the writing of A Single Swallow (Chatto and Windus, 2009).
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 12, 2012
Quite enjoyed reading this one, though it was difficult to keep in mind the original story and match things up. The idea of Wales as the ideal home of a guerilla army isn't hard to take: it's the way the Welsh have always fought, as far as I know.
One really good quote: "There's enough ammo on half a library shelf to bring down any tyrant - remember that, though I hope you never need it."
One really good quote: "There's enough ammo on half a library shelf to bring down any tyrant - remember that, though I hope you never need it."
July 22, 2017
Imagine a dystopian future: most of England is reduced to an archipelago; the world is ruled by some nefarious world order; and only Pakistan and Wales have held out, the latter relying on its geography to mount a guerilla war against the occupying forces -- much as it did in ancient times against the Romans and the English. Into the frame step sibling warlords, Ludo and Levello, who assemble a team to plan and coordinate an effective resistance. Barely literate, they rely on hackers and scribes to ensure their success, and thus it is that Ludo's scribe, Clip, comes to be the narrator of this future history, providing the title and subtitle of Horatio Clare's thoughtful novella.
The three parts of The Prince's Pen deal with three threats to this Welsh resurgence: surveillance, most visibly through the use of drones; anxieties over issues about faith, tradition and patriotism once a fragile peace is found; and the sinister and covert power of supranational corporations. For a novella published in 2012 it is significant that all these issues not only remain pertinent now but that they are likely to continue to be so for some time to come, making The Prince's Pen somewhat prescient.
All the more interesting, then, is the fact that this story is an updating of a medieval Welsh tale, Lludd and Llefelys, itself based on a gloss on the 11th-century ragbag that is Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. The original story recounts three plagues that strike Britain, an invasion of outsiders who are able to monitor every conversation, a dire scream heard by everybody annually which is traced to two dragons fighting, and a rapacious giant who under cover of night appropriates all the prepared food stored in Britain during the day. How well Clare takes the bare bones of this old tale and builds it into something equally mythic, yet one which also allows us to suspend our disbelief, is an indication of his narrative skills. I was only shaken out of an acceptance of the novella's possible reality by a shift to a magic realist episode towards the end, but that could be put down to the unsuspecting narrator's drugged state at the time.
What most allowed me to invest in the storyline were the small cast of characters, from a couple of bit parts (like Theo the computer boffin) to the two larger than life brothers, Uzma the proactive bride and of course Clip, the scribe and first-person narrator. Each was distinctive, with motivations I could credit. I liked too the ambiguity implicit in the nature of Clip, only finally resolved -- if the reader hadn't already guessed from clues scattered through the text -- after the last sentence of The Prince's Pen.
That the scribe also has a distinctive appearance from a cleft lip, despite an attempt at corrective surgery, is clear from both name and from unkind jeers received. Such a stigma may be symbolic of the outsider, as is also the case with Uzma whose marriage with Levello was a strategic measure, designed to counter a common enemy, but who's regarded with suspicion after the initial crisis is over. Outsiders can provide different perspectives from those who, because embedded from birth, may not always be in the best position to give unbiased assessments of their situation; but they can also become unwitting and even unwilling scapegoats when things go wrong.
Much of the success of The Prince's Pen comes from its near-realist grounding, and that includes a strong sense of place. London and Oxford get brief mentions but most of the action takes place in recognisable towns across South Wales, from Pembrokeshire to Powys, including specific sites such as The Bear Inn in Crickhowell. That saves it from the disadvantages associated with, say, the more dream-like nature of Fflur Dafydd's The White Trail ; this latter, also in Seren's series of Mabinogion retellings, I found a little less satisfactory because it felt more insubstantial and less focused than The Prince's Pen. But that's not to deny Dafydd's imaginative recreation of a native Welsh tale, for old tales told anew -- like Clare's novella, always have new things to say.
http://wp.me/s2oNj1-clip
The three parts of The Prince's Pen deal with three threats to this Welsh resurgence: surveillance, most visibly through the use of drones; anxieties over issues about faith, tradition and patriotism once a fragile peace is found; and the sinister and covert power of supranational corporations. For a novella published in 2012 it is significant that all these issues not only remain pertinent now but that they are likely to continue to be so for some time to come, making The Prince's Pen somewhat prescient.
All the more interesting, then, is the fact that this story is an updating of a medieval Welsh tale, Lludd and Llefelys, itself based on a gloss on the 11th-century ragbag that is Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. The original story recounts three plagues that strike Britain, an invasion of outsiders who are able to monitor every conversation, a dire scream heard by everybody annually which is traced to two dragons fighting, and a rapacious giant who under cover of night appropriates all the prepared food stored in Britain during the day. How well Clare takes the bare bones of this old tale and builds it into something equally mythic, yet one which also allows us to suspend our disbelief, is an indication of his narrative skills. I was only shaken out of an acceptance of the novella's possible reality by a shift to a magic realist episode towards the end, but that could be put down to the unsuspecting narrator's drugged state at the time.
What most allowed me to invest in the storyline were the small cast of characters, from a couple of bit parts (like Theo the computer boffin) to the two larger than life brothers, Uzma the proactive bride and of course Clip, the scribe and first-person narrator. Each was distinctive, with motivations I could credit. I liked too the ambiguity implicit in the nature of Clip, only finally resolved -- if the reader hadn't already guessed from clues scattered through the text -- after the last sentence of The Prince's Pen.
That the scribe also has a distinctive appearance from a cleft lip, despite an attempt at corrective surgery, is clear from both name and from unkind jeers received. Such a stigma may be symbolic of the outsider, as is also the case with Uzma whose marriage with Levello was a strategic measure, designed to counter a common enemy, but who's regarded with suspicion after the initial crisis is over. Outsiders can provide different perspectives from those who, because embedded from birth, may not always be in the best position to give unbiased assessments of their situation; but they can also become unwitting and even unwilling scapegoats when things go wrong.
Much of the success of The Prince's Pen comes from its near-realist grounding, and that includes a strong sense of place. London and Oxford get brief mentions but most of the action takes place in recognisable towns across South Wales, from Pembrokeshire to Powys, including specific sites such as The Bear Inn in Crickhowell. That saves it from the disadvantages associated with, say, the more dream-like nature of Fflur Dafydd's The White Trail ; this latter, also in Seren's series of Mabinogion retellings, I found a little less satisfactory because it felt more insubstantial and less focused than The Prince's Pen. But that's not to deny Dafydd's imaginative recreation of a native Welsh tale, for old tales told anew -- like Clare's novella, always have new things to say.
http://wp.me/s2oNj1-clip
February 22, 2012
The Mabinogion story of ‘Lludd and Llevelys’ forms the inspiration for Horatio Clare’s novel, and his reinterpretation is less oblique than Fflur Dafydd’s: the myth tells of three ‘plagues’ which befall Britain (an invasion by a seemingly omniscient people; the maddening screams of two dragons; and the disappearantce of food from the king’s larders); Clare translates these threats into the context of a near future where only remnants of England lie above sea-level, and Wales is one of the last outposts of the free world. The volume we hold is the story of the Welsh bandit kings Ludo and Levello and their battle against the Invaders, as told by Clip, trusted associate (and amanuensis) of the illiterate Ludo.
Perhaps more so than with Dafydd’s story, The Prince’s Pen gains effect from comparison with the source tale; Clare’s updating of the ‘plagues’ is smart and speaks firmly to contemporary concerns. The book faltered a little for me as a narrative at the beginning, in that the battle scenes didn’t feel to have as strong an anchoring in reality as they might. But The Prince’s Pen works well as a portrait of the complexities faced by rulers trying to stick to their principles in time of war.
Perhaps more so than with Dafydd’s story, The Prince’s Pen gains effect from comparison with the source tale; Clare’s updating of the ‘plagues’ is smart and speaks firmly to contemporary concerns. The book faltered a little for me as a narrative at the beginning, in that the battle scenes didn’t feel to have as strong an anchoring in reality as they might. But The Prince’s Pen works well as a portrait of the complexities faced by rulers trying to stick to their principles in time of war.
January 17, 2014
"The Invaders drones hear everything and miss nothing. England is now a defeated archipelago but somewhere in the higher ground to the far west, insurrection is brewing."
The Prince's Pen is part of a series published by Seren, that focus on retelling the stories of the Mabinogion in more modern contexts.
Don't be put off by the slimness of the book. It may only be 200 pages long, but it's not a quick or light read. Each paragraph is heavily packed with meaning and I often found myself re-reading parts to extract their full significance. This isn't to say that it's a particularly difficult read, because it's not. But you can't help getting the feeling that possibly this began life as a much longer work that's been relentlessly edited down until there's barely a superfluous word spare.
Read the rest of my review on my blog: http://wp.me/p14Til-bC
June 10, 2018
I'm slowly working through this series of modern re-tellings of the tales of the Mabinogion and this is my favourite so far. The story is well told and the characters fully rounded but it is the link to the original tale which is the most interesting. The tale of Lludd and Llefelys is a brief and less well known part of the original set of stories but it has more to say about our future, present and possibly past than many of the rest of the tales. The invader which is able to hear every whispered conversation has obvious parallels to our surveillance society which is exactly where Clare takes their version but it seems too modern and if the original is based on the old bardic tales of the 12th century it makes one wonder whether the original stories of youth were actually memories from an earlier civilisation which had risen to the heights of technological advance and then fallen away. Well that's what it makes me think anyway.
Either way, it's a great book.
Either way, it's a great book.
March 27, 2021
This was my favorite (and in fact one of the only ones I finished) of the series of modern novels based on the Mabinogion.
It had great, exciting bits; it had bits that didn't really make sense. I didn't love that the Invaders were perhaps the Chinese: in the few years since the book was written, that concept has become associated with a vein of thought that I'm sure the author had no intention of tapping into.
An interesting, worthwhile book.
It had great, exciting bits; it had bits that didn't really make sense. I didn't love that the Invaders were perhaps the Chinese: in the few years since the book was written, that concept has become associated with a vein of thought that I'm sure the author had no intention of tapping into.
An interesting, worthwhile book.
March 25, 2020
Has some very compelling passages and the update of the myth was well thought out. Didn't love the twist at the end, to be honest. It didn't really feel like the author addressed the inherent differences in queer, WLW relationships. I think it was set in a dystopian future, but there wasn't a sense of how queer people fit into this future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 16, 2022
Britain has been invaded and all but destroyed. Rebel leader Ludo strikes an alliance with Pakistani forces led by Uzma and seeks to overthrow the invading aggressors.
Clare's short adaption of the story of Lludd and Llevelys from the Mabinogion is striking and reinterprets the myth in such a way as to make it relevant to todays readers.
Clare's short adaption of the story of Lludd and Llevelys from the Mabinogion is striking and reinterprets the myth in such a way as to make it relevant to todays readers.
January 31, 2024
I greatly enjoyed this retelling of the Lludd and Llefelys myth from the Mabinogion. Its dark setting in a post apocalyptic setting of archipelago Britain and the battle for independence was very well done..
March 18, 2013
Beautiful, memorable and honest. Read it.
November 25, 2014
Quite a difficult book to study. Draws from two different myths as the summary states but they are not the most enthralling. Should be read however by anyone who loves myths and legends.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews