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{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)
|author=Owen Sheers
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=192
|publisher=Seren
|date=November 2009
|isbn=1854115030
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>1854115030</amazonuk>|amazonusaznuk=1854115030|aznus=<amazonus>1854115030</amazonus>
}}
In this new tale, a young girl has just walked away from her brothers who, in the wake of the devastating foot and mouth outbreak, are despoiling their heritage by rustling and illegally slaughtering sheep. She meets an old man who tells her a story involving the superstitions about the ravens in the Tower of London, propaganda work during World War II, and an equally doomed love affair.
I'm completely in awe of the way Owen Sheers has drawn together multiple contempoary contemporary elements and linked back to the original to refresh this story from the Mabinogion. We begin in the Britain of today, but much of the story is set in the fairly recent past, just after World War II. It's understood that fighting in wars or witnessing catastrophically violent events - here, the slaughtering of a farm's sheep due to foot and mouth - has a profound effect on people. Their own subsequent actions can become disproportionate or even violent. This truth of the original story is brought very much to bear in ''White Ravens''.
I like the way the legend of the Tower of London's ravens - if they leave, Britain falls - is incorporated into a story based on another legend. It creates mirrors of meanings that come very close but can never quite be caught. Parochialism is another theme - ''Their physical horizons were broad - on a clear day Matthew's father reckoned he could see Wales from the top of the Wicklow hills. But their personal horizons were narrow.''
But most of all, it's a story of love and violence and the way passion connects them both, and it's a more than worthy continutation continuation of an original that has survived for the best part of a thousand years.
Recommended.
My thanks to the nice people at Seren for sending the book.
We don't do enough [[Top Ten Retellings of Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales|re-working of the old myths and stories]], you know, despite the fashion for all things ancient in fantasy. All the books that spring to mind are actually teen or young adult books. First and foremost, of course, is [[The Owl Service by Alan Garner]], which makes use of another of the Mabigonion's stories. Also, and most shamefully unreviewed by Bookbag is the post-industrial setting of the ''Volsung Saga'' in ''Bloodtide'' by [[:Category:Melvin Burgess|Melvin Burgess]]. But there's also [[Exposure by Mal Peet|Mal Peet]] putting Shakespearian tragedy into football in South America. Otherwise, if ''The Ninth WaveWhite Ravens'' appeals, I think you might also enjoy [[Flint by Margaret Redfern]].
We've reviewed another book in the series, [[The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) by Russell Celyn Jones]] and you really shouldn't miss it.
{{toptentext|list=Bookbag's Christmas Gift Recommendations 2009}} {{amazontext|amazon=1854115030}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=66022101854115030}}
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[[Category:General Fiction]]
