Wild: Tales from Early Medieval Britain

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Both the academic and the storyteller/lover crave for more, these brief glimpses into a whole wild world are just not enough to satisfy my wildly voracious tale-hunger. As we visit every corner of the nation from Orkney to Cornwall, from Snowdon to Stonehenge, Amy creatively peers through the eyes of characters who have only ever been given supporting roles, allowing us as readers to appreciate the stories from a different perspective. This book is like a murmuration of starlings, perhaps - “wayless” in flight patterns governed by little rhyme or reason that most could discern - a conglomeration of voices of the past from the Exeter Book and other medieval sources, coming together to create something new and beautiful. It also doesn't hurt that (the hardback edition at least) has a larger print, making it a really friendly book to get into. When I started off, there was this adrenaline to it and it was fading as I got 45 illustrations in and having to do a lot of other things at the same time.

While the writings are beautiful, they also add enough to the writing itself that I was tempted to reread and capture what I had missed the first time around.

Ultimately, Amy’s retellings open up a remarkable world brimming with wonderous tales of giants, legends and magical myths; one that is hard to put down and ever-enthralling to explore.

Jeffs ventures to show the reader a way to live upon that cliff’s edge with grace and perhaps even joy, through the celebration of unity that the monks used to create some of the most beautiful art of all ages. Once more Amy Jeffs supports these tales with beautiful ink prints at the start of each story, this time wood engravings, which tease the tale in graphic form. With her musical creations equally as enchanting as her other work, there is no doubt that Amy is a multi-talented artist and author with plenty more to come. They blend reflections of travels through fen, forest and cave, with retelling of medieval texts that offer rich depictions of the natural world, from the Old English elegies, the Welsh Englynion, the Norse poetic Edda – stories that largely represent figures whose voices are not generally heard in the corpus of medieval literature: women, outcasts, animals.Featured image: A linocut illustration by Amy Jeffs depicting the ancient story that saw Merlin, the wizard of Arthurian Legend, create Stonehenge. Jeffs explains the fabricated etymology of the word avian that Isidore of Seville provided in his Etymologiae. The seven chapters, entitled Earth, Ocean, Forest, Beast, Fen, Catastrophe, Paradise, open with fiction and close with reflection. One very interesting thing about Bladud is the resemblance between the story of Icarus and Daedalus.

An extraordinarily multidimensional work, moving seamlessly from creative retellings of the stories to explanations of the texts and where they came from, underpinned all the time by sound academic understanding. By the end of the book, however, the beauty in the “wayless” wild is clear, much like the flight patterns of birds.For me this gives the poems and tales far more immediacy and a way to relate to them more than reading a translation, no matter how good. In a commentary that follows each retelling, Amy expands on the historical references and hidden meanings buried within the original source materials – a fascinating and much-welcomed addition to the book.

From the Old English elegies to the englynion and immrama of the Celtic world – stories that largely represent figures whose voices are not generally heard in the corpus of medieval literature: women, outcasts, animals. I was fascinated by how the illustrations in the Brut legend followed the narrative action but they were very concise illustrations and communicated so many elements of an episode so efficiently. As I sat down with the author, printmaker and art historian this month, it was a delight to slip away through the mists of time. From the Old English elegies to the englynion and immrama of the Celtic world - stories that largely represent figures whose voices are not generally heard in the corpus of medieval women, outcasts, animals. There is a genuine attempt at real storytelling which seems to be lacking in straight translations, making them a living and breathing thing once more as they would have been when originally written.In Wild, Amy Jeffs journeys - on foot and through medieval texts - from landscapes of desolation to hope, offering the reader an insight into a world at once distant and profoundly close to home. They weren’t necessarily of deep academic interest but I felt that not enough people appreciated the hilarity and drama and beauty of these origin myths of Britain. A lovely, truly accessible insight into early medieval Britain (by way of poetry and folklore) - complete with beautiful woodpress illustrations and a very thorough selection of further reading. The mix of modern iterations, translated originals and modern commentary providing a smooth and engaging link betwixt past and present. What is most remarkable about Amy’s reimagining of this particular story is that it is depicted through the eyes of Bladud’s son, Prince Leir – Shakespeare’s King Lear – which adds another layer of complexity to the narrative as we think about what and who ‘Leir’ became in later life.