Books: Falls the Shadow
Falls the Shadow by Sharon Kay Penman
A powerful baron rules England, creates Parliament, and wages war with his wife’s brother King Henry the III - 4 Stars ****
By Gabrielle Pantera
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/23/2008 - “Writers have morbid imaginations and we are always looking for creative ways to kill characters off,” says Falls the Shadow author Sharon Kay Penman.
Penman was searching for the site of the battle fought by Llewelyn ap Gruffydd against his own brothers in 1255. “We knew that it was fought on the Llyn Peninsula, so I went to the Caernarfonshire Archives. They could not have been more helpful, translating Welsh for me and hauling out detailed maps.”
The Llyn Peninsula is one of north Wales’ most beautiful locations, with much of its coastline maintained by the National Trust. “We concluded that the battle must have been fought at the Bwlch Mawr Pass, so I got into my car, took my maps, and headed out,” says Penman. “I’d been delighted to find a river on the map, thinking I could have some of the soldiers drown as they fled.”
“To my great disappointment, I discovered that the river was so shallow a snake couldn’t have drowned in it,” says Penman. “Now maybe it had been a raging torrent in the 13th century, but my Welsh readers would know it as this meandering stream, and I could envision them laughing hysterically as they read of soldiers being swept away in the river’s surging current.”
“But then I spotted a wonderful sign warning of quicksand!” says Penman. “I resisted going Hollywood, didn’t have any men swallowed up in the deadly quagmire like that memorable scene in Lawrence of Arabia. Instead I had Llewelyn’s brother Davydd and a foe blunder into the bog and lose all interest in bashing each other until they could get back on firm ground.”
In Falls the Shadow, Simon De Montfort 6th Earl of Leicester becomes the voice of the common people and opposes his wife’s brother, King Henry III. A powerful English baron, after the rebellion of 1263-1264, de Montfort becomes the de facto ruler of England. He calls the first directly elected parliament in medieval Europe. As his wife Nell keeps safe the castle at Dover, de Montfort faces a final confrontation with King Henry the III in the battle of Evesham.
Penman brings the locations and characters alive. The historical facts are woven into the story so well. Penman tells more then the story of Simon De Montfort. There are also Llywelyn Fawr, who ruled most of Wales, and the London Mayor Thomas FitzThomas, the man who stood up for the rights of the Jews in London.
“I did a great deal of on-site research, visiting the castles and battlefields that figured in Falls the Shadow, visiting the Reading Room at the British Library, the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, and local reference libraries,” says Penman. “Here at home, I made use of the University of Pennsylvania Library in Philadelphia, which has an excellent medieval selection. But it really helped to see the scenes for myself. At Lewes, we actually walked along the same path that Simon de Montfort and his men would have followed. It was breathtaking to stand on the Downs, gazing out upon the same view that he would have seen.”
“After I’d finished Here Be Dragons, I knew I wanted to continue the story,” says Penman. “At first I’d planned to write one book in which Simon de Montfort would share top billing with Llewelyn Fawr’s grandson, Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, who later wed Simon’s daughter. I soon realized, though, that this was too much to tackle in one book, that Simon and Llewelyn each deserved his own novel. So I decided to devote Falls the Shadow to Simon and The Reckoning to Llewelyn.”
“I’ve just finished Devil’s Brood, the final book in my trilogy about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine,” says Penman. “I guess we should call it a quartet, though, since I have decided to continue the saga of the amazing Angevins, history’s most dysfunctional royal family, with Lionheart, which will relate the history of the reign and crusade of Henry and Eleanor’s most famous son, Richard the Lionhearted.”
Sharon Kay Penman has written eleven books. Seven are historical sagas and four are medieval mysteries. Penman was born in New York City and lives in New Jersey.
Falls the Shadow tells a story of royal intrigue, battle, and the rise of democracy. There are a few times when the story bogs down, but it soon is back on track.
Simon de Montfort’s has one more claim to history than creating the British Parliament. One of de Montfort’s captains was the Sherwood Forest rebel bandit Roger Godberd, believed to be the inspiration of the Robin Hood legend.
Falls the Shadow by Sharon Kay Penman
Trade Paperback, 592 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Reprint edition
Released: August 19, 2008
ISBN-9780312382469