Now the problem was that missionaries were coming into the various English kingdoms from the Celtic Church of Ireland and Scotland (though not from Wales, the people there still felt too much hostility towards the invaders), and from the Roman Church across the Channel in France and in Italy. It was largely a matter of converting the kings and queens the rest of the population of the various little kingdoms followed suit and did what they were told (or at least pretended to). The Angles and Saxons had arrived in Britain as pagans, worshipping the ancient gods of the north, and were still in the process of being converted to Christianity. This one is set in Northumbria, an Anglian Kingdom in the north of what is now England, during the course of the Synod of Whitby, the famous (or infamous, depending on your viewpoint) Church Council that took place in AD 664 under the auspices of King Oswy and his cousin Hilda, Abbess of the great monastery which hosted the representatives who came from far and wide to attend the debates that would decide the future of the Church in Britain. The setting of this book (and indeed of the second book in the series, Shroud for the Archbishop) is not in Ireland at all.

A woman I would love to have known.Īll that said, let’s get down to what actually happens in Absolution by Murder, the very first “Celtic Mystery” featuring Fidelma of Cashel. A world in which I would love to have lived. For it is one of the best and most appealing alternatives to our own medieval history I have ever come across. Let’s forget all this nonsense about whether or not it is historically true (of this universe!) and, as Tremayne himself puts it, “enter Fidelma’s world” and enjoy it. Tremayne has created a wonderful – and I do mean wonderful – alternative universe and a wonderful character – person – in Sister Fidelma. And (just one example of many, many): “The Irish laws gave more rights and protection to women than any other western law code at that time or since.” Not in this universe. She was the youngest daughter of Failbe Fland, the king, who died the year after her birth … etc.” Not in this universe. In a Historical Note at the beginning of Suffer the Little Children (the third in this series), Peter Tremayne writes “Fidelma was born at Cashel, capital of the Kingdom of Muman (Munster) in southwest Ireland, in AD 636.

A novel of Ancient Ireland featuring Sister FidelmaĪll good novels describe and recount what actually happened in some alternative universe.

Absolution by murder