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Alfred of St. Ruan's Abbey is a monk and a scholar, a religious man whose vocation is beyond question. But Alfred is also, without a doubt, one of the fair folk, for though he is more than seventy years old by the Abbey's records, he seems to be only a youth. But Alfred is drawn from the haven of his monastery into his dangerous currents of politics when an ambassador from the kingdom of Rhiyana to Richard Coeur de Leon is wounded and Alfred himself is sent to complete the mission. There he encounters the Hounds of God, who believe that the fair folk have no souls, and must be purged from the Church and from the world.… (more)
Three great books in one large edition. Follows Alfred, a monk of St. Ruan's that is pulled out into the world against his will.
A foundling, he has lived at St. Ruan's all his life. And as all his friends and peers age and become men, he stays a youth. As such, he is kept a secret of the abbey, protected from the Church and the rest of the world.
A beautifully written set of historical novels featuring kings and intrigues and knights and ladies and monks. It just happens to surround an idea of elves and magic. ( )
A Fantasy where Elves interact with us in a late 12th Century setting. But they're relatively Twee Elves, and there's no real feel of the 12th century, either. very like a 1950's "costume" movie. ( )
At the time I read this, I was definitely not impressed. The early 80's were full of good quality fantasy, and this wasn't a good example. The characters are flat and the plot isn't very interesting. ( )
It’s rare that you read a series where the main character is a saint. Filled to the brim with doubting. With faith. With dialectic thought.
Yeah, yeah, adventure, battles, witch hunts and loss.
What I love about the series is the characterization. Alf, the main character, is a foundling, an Elvin magical thing that doubts the existence of his own soul. Struggles with his faith, and thus his faith is a thing worth having.
Really, the best of all Tarr’s books. The series wanders from Richard the Lion hearts Anglia, to Byzantium’s fourth crusade washed shores to ruined Rome.
The Isle of Glass Quis est homo? Mancipium mortis, transiens viator, loci hospes --Alcuin of York
What is a man? The slave of death, the guest of an inn, a wayfarer passing. --Helen Wadell
The Golden Horn O City, City, jewel of all cities, famed in tales throughout the world, leader of faith, guide of orthodoxy, protector of learning, abode of all good! Thou hast drunk to the dregs the cup of the anger of the Lord, and has been visited with fire fiercer than that which in ancient days descended upon the Five Cities ... --Nicetas Choniates
The Golden Horn ...and therefore I have sailed the seas and come To the holy city of Byzantium --W. B. Yeats
The Hounds of God He knows distinction in three abstractions of sound, the women's cry under the thong of Lupercal, the Pope's voice singing the Glory on Lateran, the howl of a wolf in the Coast of Broceliande. --Charles Williams, Taliessin Through Logres
Dedication
The Isle of Glass For Meredith
The Golden Horn For my parents
The Hounds of God For Willie and Bonnie For Brett And for Jonika
First words
The Isle of Glass Brother Alf!
The Golden Horn Rain and sun and thirty years' neglect had faded the tiles of the courtyard and softened the curves of the marble dolphin in the center.
The Hounds of God The fire had gone out some time since.
Quotations
Last words
The Isle of Glass She ran before him, and he followed her, striding to Jerusalem.
Alfred of St. Ruan's Abbey is a monk and a scholar, a religious man whose vocation is beyond question. But Alfred is also, without a doubt, one of the fair folk, for though he is more than seventy years old by the Abbey's records, he seems to be only a youth. But Alfred is drawn from the haven of his monastery into his dangerous currents of politics when an ambassador from the kingdom of Rhiyana to Richard Coeur de Leon is wounded and Alfred himself is sent to complete the mission. There he encounters the Hounds of God, who believe that the fair folk have no souls, and must be purged from the Church and from the world.
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Book description
Omnibus of the following novels:The Isle of Glass The Golden Horn The Hounds of Glass
For 60 years, ever since he was found abandoned in a snowstorm on the abbey's doorstep, he has been Brother Alfred of the Abbey of St. Ruan, in King Richard the Lionhearted's Anglia. His God, his Church, and his studies are Alfred's entire world.
But Alfred is no common monk. His golden, cat-like eyes, his unearthly beauty and impossible youth despite his many years, his ability to see into others' minds and to heal, all mark him as something else... as something more than human.
There are people who believe him to be one of the soulless Fair Folk, the elvenkind - condemned by the Church as the Devil's work. And Alfred suspects they're right.
With the passing years, he has been content to hide his differences, remaining cloistered in the isolation of his abbey, privately tortured by doubts of his worth to the God he serves and loves. But that can no longer be.
One howling winter night, the outside world invades Alfred's peaceful haven. The shattered, half-dead body of Alun, ambassador of the elf-king Gwydion, appears at the abbey's gates. War is brewing between Anglia and neighboring Gwynedd, and Alun has sought to stop it. But he ran afoul of the very source of the trouble - the ambitious, warmongering Rhydderch, one of King Richard's barons - and barely escaped alive. Now only one man can complete the mission... a man whom the elvish envoy recognizes as one of his own: Alfred.
Suddenly thrust from his safe cloister into the brutal arena of politics, power and violence, Alfred finds himself in a world where he must teach peace to a warrior king, and learn of his own ability to harm; where fanatical enemies turn his Church into his deadliest foe; and where the beautiful, magical elf Althea shows him how to accept his nature - and to stop fearing love.
Across kingdoms torn by war - from Anglia to Constantinople to the elven kingdom, Rhyiyana - always at the center of royal conflict and religious controvercy, Alfred follows a twisted destiny to discover what he truly is: human of Fairy, servant of God or of the Devil, savior or annihilator.
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Wikipedia in English (2)
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A foundling, he has lived at St. Ruan's all his life. And as all his friends and peers age and become men, he stays a youth. As such, he is kept a secret of the abbey, protected from the Church and the rest of the world.
A beautifully written set of historical novels featuring kings and intrigues and knights and ladies and monks. It just happens to surround an idea of elves and magic. (