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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent start in Anand's Bridges Over Time Series, 9 Dec 2008
Sir Ivon de Clairpont is a Norman knight with holdings of his own and comes to England as part of a large escort to Alfred Atheling. Suspecting treachery, Earl Godwinson and his men attack the group and slaughter Alfred and most of the knights, although some are spared and sold into slavery. One of those is Sir Ivon, who is bought as a thrall by Eric Olafson and taken to his lands in the north. Ivon always dreams of retuning to his holdings in Normandy, but after several escape attempts Ivon is finally crippled in the foot and unable to try again, and must accept his lot in life as a thrall.
Ivon is married to another thrall Gunnar and the story eventually picks up again in 1065 with the story of Ivon's grandson in 1065, Ivon Oddeyes (a de Clairpont trait to have two different eye colors). After the battle of Hastings, Williams tires of the revolts in the north and sends his knights in to destroy all sources of rebellion with what has come to be known as the Harrying (or Harrowing) of the North. All males over the age of ten are murdered, homes burned and crops destroyed. With no food and no homes, the women and children of Eric's Dale head for York, but the harsh winter conditions and lack of food hamper their journey, leading some to take drastic measures to survive, and the memories of what the Norman knights did haunt Ivon Oddeyes for the rest of his life. Ten year old Ivon is taken in by monks, but his hatred for the Normans who destroyed his home and family is never lost, nor is his desire to be a free man, as his grandfather once was and he keeps a handle from a knife carrying the device of bridges (hence the Bridges over Time name of the series) from his grandfather and that device and the story of his free birth is passed down to subsequent generations. Ivon impresses a Norman lord and as a reward he is given his own land to serve as a villein, a tenant farmer and owned by the land, although it was not quite what Ivon expected, he did not understand that villeins were tied to the land and not free.
The rest of the story follows Ivon Oddeyes and two subsequent generations of his family as Anand lets the reader see how the lesser folk deal with the wars of the lords and kings, including the Civil War between Stephen and Maude. Anand's writing is beautiful, but while the Harrying of the North and the destruction caused to the land and the villeins during the Civil War were terrifying, the rest of the book is a bit slow paced at times, and perhaps not for all readers. You're not going to see much of kings, knights, lords and ladies or battles, this book is about the lives of those who didn't rule and really didn't care who ruled as long as there was peace. For those interested in getting a look at the other side of the coin in medieval England this book and the subsequent books in the series might be of interest.
The series in order,
The Proud Villeins
The Ruthless Yeomen
Women of Ashdon
The Faithful Lovers
The Cherished Wives
The Dowerless Sisters
Some are a bit spendy on the used market, but I'm going to give my library's ILL program a whirl and see how lucky I am. This one came from a Benedictine Abbey outside of Salem Oregon. 4/5 stars.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
First in the moving "Bridges over Time series", , 4 Mar 2007
This is the first of five volumes in the Bridges over Time series, and tells the story of Ivon de Clarepont, whose descendants are to become known as the Whitmead family. "Bridges over Time" is a very moving series, and beautifully written, but one which I found extremely sad.
The full series is
1) The Proud Villeins
2) The Ruthless Yeoman
3) The Women of Ashdon
4) The Faithful Lovers
5) The Cherished Wives
The series tells the story of the Whitmead family from the point where the founder of the family, a norman knight called Ivon de Clairpont, is sold into serfdom through the treachery of Earl Godwin at Guildenford in the 11th century.
Ivon and his descendants could probably have had their freedom when Duke William of Normandy becomes King as William the conqueror, but William has no idea that one of his loyal knights is still held in serfdom in the Northern reaches of his new kingdom. Then Ivon and his family are on the receiving end of the "Harrowing of the North" and no longer want anything from William or the normans.
William the Conqueror responds to a rebellion by deliberately devastating much of northern England, causing the deaths of up to two-thirds of the local population of the areas affected through slaughter or starvation as a result of the ruthless "scorched earth" policy which his norman knights applied.
The account of the "Harrowing of the North" is one of the most moving and powerful scenes in the book, and the pattern of events it describes does reflect a real historical event. There is a scene where Ivon fights a younger generation of norman knights, which is both one of the best written and least probable sections of the book. I cannot believe that a former soldier fighting against a ruthless attack from his own compatriots could resist the temptation to swear at them with the strongest insults in his and their native language. If he had done so, the book and series might have followed a very different path.
Ivon's descendants become known as Whitmead: one of the few posessions he retained from his former life bore the family crest of the de Claireponts. This design, a stylised picture of a bridge over a river, becomes the Whitmead crest (Hence the series title, Bridges over Time.) In the last book of the series, the similarity of the Whitmead and de Clairpont crests gives one of Ivon's descendants the start from which the story of the family history can be reconstructed.
This series includes some powerful reacreations of the great events of British history and how they affected the lives of ordinary people. The series could be described as quasi feminist in the sense that the women of the family often get a particularly raw deal, occasionally at the hands of their own menfolk, and the final book particularly celebrates women's suffrage and the move towards equal rights for women. However, the books are certainly not hostile to all men, and most of the male members of the family are also sympathetic characters.
If you like this book, Valerie Anand has also written another hiatorical novel called "Guildenford" which tells in more detail the story of how a Norman army was treacherously betrayed by Earl Godwin (the father of the future King Harold).
A good series to read if you like a good history or a good weepie. Not one to read if you are in need of cheering up.
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by Valerie Anand
by Sharon Penman
