Menewood

The Hild Sequence #2

by Nicola Griffith

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.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Queer, LGBT, Medieval

720 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2023

About the author

Nicola Griffith has won the Los Angeles Times' Ray Bradbury Prize, the Society of Authors' ADCI Literary Prize, the Washington State Book Award (twice), the Nebula Award, the Otherwise/James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award, the World Fantasy Award, Premio Italia, Lambda Literary Award (6 times), and others. She is also the co-editor of the Bending the Landscape series of anthologies. Her newest novels are Hild and So Lucky. Her Aud Torvingen novels are soonn to be rereleased in new editions. She lives in Seattle with her wife, writer Kelley Eskridge, where she's working on the sequel to Hild, Menewood.

Series:
* Aud Torvingen

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real Rating: 4.5* of five, rounded up to reflect reading pleasure

The Publisher Says: In the much anticipated sequel to 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 Edwin needs his most trusted advisor. Old alliances are fraying. Younger rivals are snapping at his heels. War is brewing—bitter war, winter war. Not knowing who to trust he becomes volatile and unpredictable. Hild begins to understand the true extent of the chaos ahead, and now she must navigate the turbulence and fight to protect both the kingdom and her own people.

Hild will face the losses and devastation of total war, and then she must find a new strength, the implacable determination to forge a radically different path for herself and her people. In the valley, her last redoubt, her community slowly takes root. She trains herself and her unexpected allies in new ways of thinking as 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 picks up where that journey left off, and exceeds it in every way.


I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: 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.

[Sherwood Smith]

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.

[Teleseparatist · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a review copy thanks to NetGalley.

The waiting was well-worth this lovely, beautiful, utterly moving wonder of a novel. Hild was one of my favourite reads of the year ten years ago, and the sequel surpasses it with its scope and terror and, sorry to repeat myself, sheer beauty. The novel covers a few years in Hild's life - a tumultous time of change and upheaval for both her and Britain. Hild must survive great losses and setbacks and emerges older, wiser, more experienced.

There is much story here, but I don't wish to spoil it (history provides some pointers as to what one may expect anyway). What I want to praise, instead, is Griffith's astonishing perfectionist attention to detail and loving crafting of Hild's world. I loved the relationships between characters, but I loved their ways of being in the world even more. The work they do, the environment they shape and that shapes them. The plants, the animals, the technologies, the ways bodies feel when hurt. All of this is written with such skill and beauty.

And then there's the alliterative, beautiful language that made me gasp even when what was being written about was so tragic that I wanted to cry (I cried on the tram at one point).

Highest possible recommendation.

[Michael Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been a history junkie all my life, and that extends to historical fiction. And because my undergrad degree was heavy on late classical and early medieval Europe, I really enjoy a good novel set in that period. (Cecelia Holland is one of my favorite novelists for that reason.) All of which is to say that I really, really wanted to love Hild,>/i> the fictionalized early life of the 7th century Hild Yffing, who became St. Hilda of Whitby, and the earlier book to which this one is a sequel and continuation. But it was a real struggle to get through that one, it took me several times as long as usual, and it was ultimately a disappointment.

The second volume, unfortunately, suffers many of the same problems as the first. A successful author of historical fiction will have learned several lessons early on. The most obvious one is “Don't make things up that are contradicted by the historical record,” and at least that's not a problem here. But the second one is “Don't show off your research with data dumps,” and that is rather a problem. The thing is that few of Griffith's readers will have any experience at all of the complex tangle of little kingdoms of the 650s in the north of England, and being thrown into the midst of it just adds to the reader's load. Griffith also has a habit of using admittedly authentic period idiom and place names, but she does it so much that it drags the narrative down to a crawl and confuses the reader. Hild, for example, is a hæges and godmouth, as well as oath-keeper to her spearmen – but we're never really told what any of those mean, or the social and political roles they imply.

Hild was the niece of King Edwin of Northumbria and the series is heavy on the politics between Edwin and the rival state of Elmet, in what is now Yorkshire, and also on the Christianization of the North, which began with Edwin's conversion (he married a Christian princess) when Hild was thirteen. She had already come to note by her ability to foretell coming events. Not much is known of her early life so Griffith fills in the gaps by having the bright, headstrong girl train in arms (which almost certainly could not have happened), as well as developing into a shrewd advisor to the powerful. Now Edwin has just created her Lady of Elmet, which she will have to defend against her jealous kinsman and neighbor, Osric, Lord of Craven. She and her new husband, Cian (who is also her half-brother) will be responsible for holding all of Southern Northumbria for Edwin. Which means skirmishes in which Hild wields her long lance to effect -- and which also just doesn’t sound like the sort of woman who would go on to become abbess of several religious institutions, ending with Whitby, where she hosted the famous Synod.

All of that is covered in the first hundred pages, which are very slow-paced, and it took me several days to get that far because I had to keep pausing to reread paragraphs to try to understand what was being said. And this thing runs more than nine hundred pages. I hate to admit it but I threw in the towel at that point. Life is too short for that kind of struggle.

[eyes.2c · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.)

[Paromita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Menewood is the sequel to Hild and having enjoyed the latter a fair bit, I was excited to read about the next phase in Hild's life.

This book has been immaculately researched (much like Hild). The level of detail that the author provides about the places, the methods of travel, the customs is incredible. The story is about a particularly tumultous period in Hild's life and how she faces many challenges, some seemingly insurmountable, with wit and grace. There are many heartbreaking moments, all executed with the care and deft writing that I have come to expect from Griffith.

My sense of disappointment arises from the fact that despite spending two novels with Hild, I don't really have an answer to the question - Who really is Hild? She remains an enigma, almost a vehicle for the events that shape her life and the world around her. This is not to say that she doesn't play an active role in decision-making, quite the contrary, but the interiority of Hild's nature remains largely unexplored for me. I would have preferred a little less historicity and a little more character work, not just with Hild, but also some of the side characters.

Overall I think this is a very strong novel. For me personally, the intricate historical detail came at the expense of some plot progression and character work, which is not my preference as a reader. However, I expect readers of immersive historical fiction to thoroughly enjoy this novel. I did learn a lot by reading it.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship]

A decade later, I can no longer access whatever it was I liked about the first book. And now the sequel is almost 700 pages long? And at the end of it, our heroine is still at least a decade from becoming an abbess? How long can this series even be?

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I just ran a marathon. The last hundred pages were everything I love about Nicola Griffith’s writing: atmospheric, propulsive, clever, full of threat and energy. With a few exceptions, these qualities were absent from the first 600 pages which were bogged down by minute (albeit fascinating!) historical detail. Hild believes in the pattern of the world and we get to see every blessed inch of that pattern. Looking back, the build up does make the eventual victory more satisfying because you get to see how it’s down to equal parts Hild’s genius and fickle chance. But still, 600 pages of set up is a big ask. I do hope there’s another book in this series where we get to see Hild the abbess. Please give it to me.

[Care · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Finishing Menewood this morning, I'm reflecting on this month-long reading experience. I read Hild in August and started this one not long after. Hild was bright and shiny and sharp. This one is bloody and epic, all things I hoped for and expected after Hild.

But it's also a protracted and deep meditation on grief. That pain ebbed and flowed through this novel. I didn't expect this book to be so sad. Its effect surprised me, and each pang shivered through me. Pondering grief as deep as a lake.

The impact of war. Messy, bloody, heartbreaking, grim. Holding space in my heart and mind all month for that visceral tone. The permanent ache of family gone. The fear of losing everything. It's a big book on feeling small. And then rising up and becoming legendary.

So while it didn't captivate and enchant me like Hild did with its sparkling light of the world, it lay in my mind as dead weight and made me reflect on the suffering in the world caused by cruelty. How some never come out from beneath that oppressive weight. Some do manage to overcome, but can they ever be the same?

Nicola Griffith is a talented wordsmith and a storyteller and this time, she confronted me with the darkest shadows of humanity.

content warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Death, Grief, Incest, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual content, Classism, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Animal death, Medical content, and Rape

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second volume in what Nicola Griffith is now calling The Hild Sequence, is huge in many ways. Almost 700 pp in hardcover, scores of characters, and at least two wars. As a huge gift to the reader the book also includes maps, a character list and a glossary. Unless you have a better memory than I do, you will need all three of those.

Her first book in the sequence, Hild, was one of the best books I ever read. In it we are introduced to a curious and bright young girl who is a niece of King Edwin of Northumbria. She is based on a real woman known as St Hilda of Whitby, though history has not given us much about her. Nicola Griffith imagines her into being based on meticulous research into seventh-century Britain.

Hild’s intelligence and curiosity as a child was spent on studying everything around her and recognizing patterns. She developed the ability to predict what would happen in most any situation. Edwin thought she was a seer and off she went at the age of eight, riding with the King into war. The King won.

In Menewood, Hild has been granted a piece of land on which she intends to create a safe haven for her family and friends: Menewood is what she names it. She is 18 now, married and newly pregnant. The King is headed into another war and demands her presence. She obeys but only after she has overseen the caching of food, animals, and other supplies to keep her people fed and safe.

From that point on it is non-stop action, devastating loss, and her growing ability to lead her warriors with the same perception she gave the King. If you are a woman with strength and a strong will, you will recognize that skill she has of keeping at least one thousand things in mind at all times.

I found Menewood to be quite a different experience than Hild. In the first book, she is a child coming of age in a violent world. In this one she is a young woman coming into her full powers as well as pondering moral imperatives. It was in some ways deeper than the first book but in other ways more serious. I read it over seven days. It was a reading marathon!

Of course, I wanted the next book immediately. In an interview, Nicola Griffith promised not to make us wait another 10 years. I want so much to see how Hild becomes St Hilda. I don’t think she will be your usual kind of saint. She will be fully herself.

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Stefanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was there ever any doubt I'd give this five stars? I waited ten+ years for the sequel to Hild, and while I really don't want to do that again, I can happily say that Griffith gave us a fitting and satisfying follow up.

This chonky book essentially tells the tale of Hild stepping out from under her uncle king Edwin and her role as seer in his court, and into her own life and her own power. That involves: getting Menewood started as a functioning little burg, navigating her relationship with Cian, getting drawn back into Northumbrian politics - first against her will and then by choice - and reconfiguring her relationships with almost everyone around her. It is damn hard to actually find a path that melds what people need from you, and what you want! That's what I learned from Hild's journey in this book.

Like the first, this book takes its time building the story. Griffith really makes you feel dropped into the time period and the lives of these characters like they're real. She is a master of understatement; and yet the emotions behind the dialogue come through so clearly. All of our favorite characters from Hild are present in Menewood, and I loved how Hild's relationship with Gwladus changed and grew in this book. There are also some new characters in the mix that make a memorable presence. This book wrung my heart out at least two times.

The cool thing is, I don't think you even necessarily need to read Hild before starting this one? (Though why wouldn't you, it's phenomenal.) The also cool - and somewhat agonizing - thing is that this long book absolutely leads to a satisfying conclusion, and yet I was immediately left with the feeling that there was more story to tell! All told, the events in this book only take about a year or so to take place, and we are still nowhere near the life of "Saint Hild" on which the character is based.

Griffith could easily write a third book in this sequence. And I would devour it! But please Nicola, not so long again this time...

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly, this is epic. It is wonderful, it is deep, it is carefully plotted and full of gorgeous detail. It is full of characters who grow and relationships that deepen. And at the center of it, Hild herself is magnificent.

Mind, exactly none of that equates to being a quick read. At times in my life when I moved through books more quickly, this still would have been at least a week, and as is, it was a full month. I regret nothing — rather, I look forward to circling back around to reread the first book. And then probably reading this again.

On that point, I’d say yes, if you have the time, if your memory of book one is fuzzy, do reread Hild before diving into Menewood. If I hadn’t had a NetGalley ebook with a countdown clock for this one, I would have. As is, I caught up within the first few chapters, but I’m sure there were details that would be more resonant if I’d read the first book more recently.

Fellow ebook readers, also know that there’s a glossary and a pronunciation guide waiting for you at the end. I’ll be picking up a hard copy of this one for the next read. (And to sit on the shelf next to Hild, as it so richly deserves.)

The arc of the book spans periods of preparation and information gathering that build up to two major battles. Hild is constantly weighing what she knows, working out what others are likely to do, and maneuvering to put herself at the best advantage. Her eye — and thus ours — is keen to patterns in the natural world, and she’s a very canny judge of character. The skills she learned as a young girl to make herself seem witchy are still serving her well, and her reputation continues to grow.

It’s not the only thing that’s growing. During the first third of the book, Hild is pregnant — but she’s still at the beck and call of the king, and she feels her position is somewhat precarious. The way she feels herself forced to balance her own family with her obligations to the wider world feels very relatable, even while the details of her situation are like nothing I ever expect to experience.

Content warning for child loss. Also for the occasional imagery that some may find gruesome, ranging from digging up a hastily buried body in order to bury it more properly, depictions of butchering and sausage-making, and battle scenes.

As alluded to before, thanks very much to NetGalley and @fsgbooks for sending me this ebook.

[Ashley]

Putting this one on hold for now until I'm in the mood.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have finished the first book of the year! It’s later than I intended and later than usual even for a 700-page book (usually I read the first 600 pages in December and then I can finish it on January 1 or 2), but I’ve done it! The honors this year go to Nicola Griffith’s Menewood, the long-awaited sequel to Hild, which further follows the fictional adventures of the early life of the renowned seventh-century abbess Hild of Whitby.

Menewood kicks off a few months or so after the end of Hild (if I recall correctly) and things seem to be going well for the now 18-year-old Hild. She is the Lady of Elmet alongside her husband and secret half-brother Cian Boldcloak, sworn gesith to King Edwin and Lord of Elmet, and she is pregnant. Elmet is small and under-defended but they are building it up, and Hild and Cian are also secretly supplying a refuge in a hidden valley within the boglands of Elmet: the titular Menewood.

Hild hopes they won’t have to use it, but the winds of war are blowing, and this promising beginning–all the things Hild has won for herself by the end of the first book–are set up pretty much just to be brutally knocked down, so Hild has to start building all over, and that’s what makes up most of the book. King Edwin is threatened by a Southern king named Cadwallon, who loathes the Yffings and wants to burn them and everything they have ever touched (which is… most of northern England) to the ground and kill them all and steal their gold. He has essentially no interest in ruling Northumbria; he just wants to loot it and make sure nobody else within six degrees of separation from the Yffings gets to rule it either. Cadwallon has allied with another southern king named Penda, who is slimier if less psychotic, and taking out Penda is shaping up to the subject of Book 3, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Cadwallon and Penda manage to pincer a desperate and pretending-to-be-confident Edwin Yffing and decapitate him, killing off a good half of the cast we’ve met so far in the process, including Cian Boldcloak. Hild is grievously injured in the battle that she wasn’t able to avoid being caught in, despite being literally nine whole months pregnant, and as you can probably imagine that doesn’t go well for baby. With the help of her former slave Gwladus and her young runner Morud, Hild manages not to die, but she’s pretty severely injured, both physically and emotionally. I must say that Griffith does an excellent job of building up the dread and sense of claustrophobic inevitability leading up to Hild’s darkest hour, and having read nothing at all about the book beforehand I was definitely caught up in the oh no how are they going to get out of this one, I don’t see how they’re going to get out of this type of anticipatory dread and it is because, broadly speaking, most of them don’t get out of this. The first third of the book is some of the bleakest shit I’ve read in a while, and it was hard to read more than a couple dozen pages at a time. It was very good January reading after all.

Menewood, however, serves its purpose, and after Hild spends a couple months recuperating with a bunch of poor fisherfolk who live on the very edges of what passed for civilization even in seventh-century Britain, a bit of tough-love therapy from Gwladus, and a surprise visit from some of Hild’s former group of mutilated spearmen–the Fearsomes, technically sworn to King Edwin when he was still alive–Hild and co. make their way to Menewood and start slowly and carefully rebuilding, gathering allies and news and resources as Hild starts to put together a plan to take down Cadwallon Reaver and install a suitably sensible, non-psychotic king of Northumbre. This involves a lot of fun intrigue and heists and letter-writing and diplomacy and teaching a bunch of traditional gesith types how to do things like “sneak” and “steal” and “ambush very quietly” instead of always charging honorably into battle face-first with your flag flying. After the bleak and brutal first part of the book, it’s incredibly satisfying to watch a complex plot come together, with all sorts of characters and resources and stuff, and all go off magnificently, as Hild takes the offensive back and pulls all the squabbling factions of People Cadwallon Has Fucked Over into one big, complicated, sneakily implacable instrument of revenge. I feel like I just ran a marathon and can’t wait to see them take on Penda (although I am hoping this campaign does not necessitate the total destruction of everything Hild built over the course of this book, both because we’ve already done that and because I’m not sure I could take it).

The texture of this series is great if you like really immersive historical fiction; it is less great if you don’t like reading about bees and sausage-making and tonsures and sealing-wax and 500 different people all named Os-something and basically every detail of life in seventh-century Northumbria that a character could possibly run across while interacting with every level of society. I personally love this shit, although there were a couple nits I had to pick with some of the words Griffith chose to not modernize–is it really necessary to say “middaeg” instead of “midday”? I don’t think “midday” would have hit me as sounding too modern, just that I expect the novel to be translated into modern English and not actually be written in “Anglisc” (Old English/Anglo-Saxon). If I want to read stuff in seventh-century languages I have a copy of the dual-text Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf (which is shouted out in Menewood as both new and a favorite of Edwin’s). But overall I love the language; the book contains not only a map and a cast of characters but also family trees and a glossary, to help those of us modern dumb-dumbs who don’t know our names for the different ages of sheep but still want to be able to follow what’s going on when the characters talk about sheep (Griffith isn’t going to insult us by pretending that nobles in the 7th century weren’t concerned about sheep. This was a pre-industrial society. You were never too rich to stop caring about sheep, certainly not if you wanted to stay rich).

I hope it doesn’t take a full 10 years for the third book to come out, but if it has to take that long to be as good as the first two, then Nicola Griffith should take her time and I will pick up that third book as soon as it’s published, likely no matter what else I have in the hopper.

Originally posted at Of Os-things and Yffings, and sheep.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The follow-up to Hild finally arrived and OMG it is JUST! AS! GOOD! And by good I mean mindblowing, stunning, amazeballoons. I never wanted to stop reading, I wish I was still reading it now.

[Ashley Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whatever Nicola Griffith deigns to write, I'll read it. This was brilliant. Beyond engrossing.

[carlageek · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I understand it, the eighth-century writings of the Venerable Bede comprise the only extant historical source material about Hilda of Whitby, also known as Hild, the fierce and willful protagonist of Menewood and the eponymous book that preceded it. Bede writes a bit about Hild's childhood at the court of her uncle Edwin of Northumbria following the death of her father Hereric (probably at Edwin's order). And he writes about her later in life, as the abbess at Whitby, instrumental in the establishment of Christianity in the kingdoms of England.

What happened in between is left as an exercise for the reader, and Nicola Griffith has stepped boldly into the breach with the second imaginative, rich, immerse, thrilling installment of her trilogy.

First, though, this book is good. It's lush and gorgeous, and Hild is a magnificent protagonist -- freakishly tall and strong, hungry both for love and for revenge, angry and stubborn, but also fiercely loyal to her friends, fair-minded, observant, intelligent, and curious. She really is a delightful character to spend hours and hours with — and Griffith’s books about her are lengthy. Even so, I've read Hild twice in the last decade, and after finishing Menewood I've been tempted to go back and read them both again. [ETA: three months later, I've done just that.]

Now, the particulars of Hild's life in the time frame covered in this book -- her twentieth and twenty-first year, more or less -- are, as I said, largely unknown. So, in addition to giving her a colorful sex life, Griffith has taken the liberty of placing Hild at the center of key historical battles whose details are less murky: Cadwallon's defeat of Edwin, his marauding of Northumbria, his own eventual defeat by an army putatively led by Oswald, the exiled prince of Berenicia. In the latter in particular, Cadwallon's comeuppance, Griffith gives Hild a history-making role which I suspect the real Hild didn't come close to.

But that doesn't make Menewood any less smashing as a work of historical fiction. Because Griffith has clearly done her homework about people and events that are preserved in the record. She knows the splintered Anglo-Saxon and Celtic kingdoms of the isles as well as she knows her own face. She knows the religious bifurcation between the their approaches to Christianity. She knows the landscape as well as her tuned-in protagonist. All this verisimilitude steeps the pages, painted with magnificent sensory detail, as her understanding of the material culture runs just as deep. The smell of horses, the feel of just-tanned leather, the sounds of smithing, the gory details of butchery, the taste of ale and mead and fresh-drawn cream, all deliver as complete and immersive a historical reading experience as you can hope for, with beautiful sensuous writing.

Sure, there are elements that strain one's suspension of disbelief. Hild's riding fiercely into battle while in labor is one; the general frank nonchalance about Hild's lesbian relationships is perhaps another, though Griffith maintains that these early Anglo-Christians had no hang-ups about sex, and didn't much care who had it with whom. Color me skeptical. Still, it is pleasant in its own way that the people who love Hild (as much as those who stand in awe of her) aren’t critical of the particulars of what makes her happy in bed. “The Lady only rides mares,” one of her guardsmen deadpans, nominally speaking about Hild’s equestrian prowess, but the young man he's speaking to catches his meaning.

So if you're looking for a veridical course in Anglo-Saxon society, you won't find it here. But the fact is, history knows next to nothing about how the Anglo-Saxons actually lived. And if you want a rich, sensuous read with lots of blood and guts and fighting and religion and looting and feasting and loving and scheming, Menewood will not let you down.

[Chaitra · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's been so long since I've read Hild that I've forgotten it. I don't even really remember why I liked it because I didn't bother writing a review. That said, I definitely felt excited for Menewood.

When I started this book, my son was finishing up a class project that he went overboard on - he was supposed to do a couple things, which he did, but then he also did multiple things that were not asked of him, but he chose to do anyway. It took him several hours longer, and since the presentation was timed, he ran overtime too. It was interesting and the teacher appreciated that he put in the effort, but it wasn't necessary. As I read this book, I felt the same way about Menewood. This is all pure speculation as far as Hild's life is concerned. And Griffith's solution to that is that she starts her own town of Menewood and then basically goes on to give us a lecture on life in the 7th century.

There's nothing really wrong with it. There's nothing very interesting either. To draw a comparison again with something of my son's, he used to read picture books that explained life in a castle, life in a medieval town etc. This just felt like an expanded form of that. It's not offensive in any way. But after establishing a thriving Menewood, Griffith then makes Hild the person who killed Cadwallon. This is my pet peeve of books like this, to center your marginal (at this point anyway) character, you have to necessarily diminish others. In this case it's all Hild - the wedge tactics, the muscle, the weather witch who decides what to do and when to do it. And she's also the one who walked away from being king. It's... boggling.

She established Whitby, she was instrumental in getting the synod there, the synod changed religion in England, these are not small things. But then there wouldn't be battle scenes with a woman in active labor mowing down people on horseback. The beginning of this book is so dire that I stopped reading a couple times, wondering if it was worth it. I get that Cadwallon is a terrorist with no boundaries, but Cadwallon didn't kill Honey, Hild. You did. No one asked you to accept Edwin, you could have faked birthing pains and stayed in Menewood. They speak so much of wyrd, but refuse to actually accept deaths as part of that wyrd. That is someone else's fault.

I still want to read Saint Hild of Whitby, but not if the next book has more of Hild's OTT action sequences. But I'm afraid it will, because how else is she going to save her sister Hereswith from Penda?

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, a thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an eARC of this book.

Right off the heels of finishing Hild I dove head-first into Menewood, the next book in the Hild sequence. This book is a little bit longer, so I waffled between wanting to immediately start this one or break up my reading and do something short and sweet in between, but decided I didn’t want to lose steam.

I am not sure how I would have faired if I had read Hild all the way back when it was first published (which was like, a decade ago) and trying to read Menewood without a reread of Hild… It was because of this that I decided to just go for it, since I knew the longer I waited the more likely it would be that I wouldn’t remember any of the characters or what happened like, at all.

With that being said, having already done the “work” of getting into the setting, the language, the characters, the plot (etc) fairly recently, I didn’t find Menewood to be significantly more difficult than Hild (if y’all recall that review, I said that it was a ton of work on the upfront to get into the book) - but I think this is a “your mileage may vary” scenario.

Overall, I think I enjoyed Menewood more than Hild, just based on the character development and plot. Listen, it’s a hefty read, but I didn’t feel as if there were a ton of fluff and filler - even between battles (which frankly are the least exciting part of basically any book WITH fighting for me) there was so much rich text, character development, etc, that it all made it worth it.

I have to say, I am no expert on battles or on nature, so there is a lot of stuff in this book (and its predecessor) that I’m just trusting that Griffith either knows mor than me on or that, you know, it’s fiction so I just took it all at face value.

I will say that apart from both books being a lot of work upfront, I am not sure I could suggest this series to someone because… Like when are we going to get the next book? In another decade? While you could read each book and just sort of wash your hands of the story (since there are no like MAJOR cliff-hangers or anything at the end of each novel), to enjoy it as it is meant, a series, I think you’d need to either have a really good memory, not really care, or be at peace with a 1,000+ page reread in… whenever in the future.

I don’t know where I fall yet, meaning - when the third (and supposedly final) book comes out, I’m not sure if I will reread or just sort of do my best off memory alone and googling. I guess we’ll see, and who knows! Maybe the next book will come out sooner than this volume - but also there is probably so much research and it is so detail-dense I am not sure how Griffith could quickly pump out the next one.

I also have mixed/complicated feelings about my rating - what I mean by that, is that my head seems to think both Hild and Menewood should be 5 star ratings, rationally speaking based on my reviews and my enjoyment that seems right, but for some reason my heart is really only there to 4 stars. I don’t think this is necessarily a reflection on Griffith because I think both of these books are literally feats and I greatly enjoyed reading them both, but my heart says they don’t quite have that… je ne sais quois that lifts a book up from a 4 to a 5 for me. Ah well.

Overall a splendid and spectacular sequel to an already amazing first novel, and it didn’t even fall into the worst trap I feel almost all 2nd-novel-in-a-trilogy falls into… essentially being only long-winded fluff and filler to set up the third and final book (which I hate! Just right a duology then!!).

My only real complaint is there are so many characters, it was easy to forget who someone was or what they had done - and at the end a character dies and I’m not quite sure if I somehow missed this person’s death OR if it truly was just an after the fact “ah yes and also this guy died as well, c’est la vie.”

I’m a bit surprised more people haven’t rated/reviewed this book yet since it’s been out for a few months, but also I am not sure how many people who read Hild are in a place of remembering to want to read this one - and frankly, I haven’t really seen any buzz about it, not like with Spear.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Menewood is long, but utterly powerful. Strong prose and lush historical fiction worldbuilding for 7th century Britain. It's 700 pages (and book 1, Hild, is 500 pages), but if you have the patience, it's worth it.

The best readalike I can think of is She Who Became the Sun/ He Who Drowned the World with a powerful woman taking on a male role to claim power to protect her people and her vision for humanity.

Menewood is heartbreaking, with grueling war and devastating battles. But it's hopeful, and there's a reason Hild is called The Light of the World.



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.

[Marie Z Johansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Read - Another Winner From Nicola Griffith

I was a huge fan of “Hild” and found, after some consideration, that I am equally pleased with “Menewood”.

I cannot call this book a particularly easy read, but I absolutely loved what made it that way! I felt immersed in not only the story, but also in Anglo-Saxon times thanks to a proliferation of Anglo-Saxon terms; times of day, names of months and moons, how their world was driven by natural forces and by nature. As a proud descendant of Celtic peoples I was enthralled to think that, for just I little while, I could immerse myself in what their world might have been like; how it might of smelled (rank most of the time I think!), what foods might have been cooked and served, how wounds were cared for just to name a few of my thoughts.

As for the continued story of Hild - well, it is so very well told and is peopled with such a crush of interesting and well fleshed characters that I felt as if I knew them - and, in some way, was invested in their futures and the outcomes of their bloody and vicious battles - because, make no mistake, this was indeed a time of brutality and bloodshed. Nicola Griffiths has a real talent as a storyteller who can make this time in history come alive under her well researched plot lines and skillfully created sub plots. What a talent Ms. Griffith has!

Why 4 stars and not 5 then? There were a few times when I thought things were a bit dragged out - and yet, even then, I remained fully vested in turning the pages of this most excellent book. In general I use 4 stars for books I loved reading and I tend to be rather parsimonious with 5 star reviews.

I did read this as an e-book (via the Kindle app) and I was very happy that I did because it was so much fun looking up words, phrases, place names, and other interesting tidbits as I read from an online Anglo-Saxon reference website.
A wonderful story and some historical instruction along the way - what a winning combination!

I should also mention that the afterward, historical notes, and pronunciation guide found the end of the book were excellent. I would encourage anyone who reads the book to spend a bit more time reading and learning from these pages.

[Maia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this on audio back to back with Hild and loved it just as much, though the pacing in this second book is very different. In book one, Hild grows from 3 to 18 years old. By contrast Menewood only takes place over three years, so the story unfolds much more day by day instead of skipping over whole seasons or years. The descriptions of tended England land and of crafts, trades, and tasks was just as rich and lovely- this one has passages about surveying pasture for sheep, butchering animals, making sausages and parchment. But these occur between some devastating losses and battles which threaten to take everything from Hild, including her life. The violence of war presses very close, and the way the pride of kings dooms their men to bloody, unnecessary deaths is keenly felt. Once again I loved the audio narrator, and also struggled to track all of the names. I am astonished at the amount of research, creativity, and work that went into this volume and delighted that Hild's story is likely to continue in at least one more volume.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is perfect! I'm so glad I decided to read this sequel and listen to the audiobook. The narrator did a brilliant job. I can't wait to read whatever Nicola Griffith writes in the future.

[vic · Rating 5 out of 5]

wowoowowowowww that was good. substantially longer than the first one but more gripping and devastating and just soooo good. tragic and hopeful and just the best

[Jennifer (formerly Eccentric Muse) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well that was a humdinger of a way to end 2023!

[Simms · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to start out by confessing I didn't love Hild. 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). Menewood 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 Hild. 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. 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.

Much of the rest of the book charts a course somewhere between The Pillars of the Earth and Lauren Groff's Matrix, 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.

Thanks to NetGalley and MCD for the ARC.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Menewood by Nicola Griffith is an excellent historical fiction that has action, drama, elements of fantasy, and a strong cast of characters that had me swept away from the first page.

This is the sequel to Hild and is the second book in The Light of the World trilogy. While one does not have to read the first book, it really should be read to fully appreciate where this story begins and the background of the characters.

The maps of seventh century lands and the family tree at the beginning of the book really help with a point of reference for the readers. The author’s note of historical context and the glossary at the end are very awesome and I highly recommend everyone look at both.

To read such a stunning account of a woman that truly lived in the 600s, Hild was a woman full of life, intelligence, complexities, and to see her story come to life through the author’s works…well let’s just say I am impressed.

Highly excited about the conclusion of the trilogy.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, MCD for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 10/3/23.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book does have less of a story than 'Hild', to which this is a sequel. There is a build-up towards a battle over the first 200 pages or so, which is over in about 2 minutes, and we knew from the beginning how it would end. The description and the circumstances of the childbirth border on the ridiculous and should be one more reminder to not describe a childbirth (or -death), if you have no clue what you are talking about. I think the weakest part of the book is what then follows over the next 250-300 pages. Endless exaltations about plants and foodstuffs, sausages,... detail upon household detail, which clearly shows off a great deal of research. And while this is all pretty fascinating here and there, it kills whatever story is brooding in the background. This sort of hibernation carries on for far too long. The many names do not help the story either. Often we only get a 'walking name', not characters, so this just adds confusion. The story picks up some steam again (finally!) on the last 150 pages or so, but not enough to save it for me. One of the more ponderous reads of the last few years.

[Katherine Hastie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite simply, this is one of the best books I have read in a long time--perhaps ever. It's historical fiction, but because it's set in 8th century Britain, it has many of the hallmarks of epic fantasy--kings, warriors, seers, grand battles, political intrigue, and more--as well as a keen focus on the natural world and how we as humans interact with it, from the seasonal patterns of planting, harvesting, and preserving food to how a bird's sudden, startled flight might warn you of strangers nearby. Griffith's worldbuilding (or is there another word for that when it's our world she's depicting?) is richly detailed and intensely, vividly real. Her ability to evoke any mood, from the deep, prolonged grief of heart-rending loss to the thrill of battle to the fizzing anticipation of waiting for all the delicate pieces you set moving to fall into place, is impressive, to say the least. There was one battle scene that was so exciting and intense that it took my breath away and felt like the end of the book--how could anything come after this?! But I looked up and I had only reached the one-third mark! The whole book has left me in awe of its author. Highly recommend.