cover image Keeper of the Crystal Spring: 1

Keeper of the Crystal Spring: 1

Naomi Baltuck, Deborah Baltuck. Viking Books, $24.95 (448pp) ISBN 978-0-670-87963-2

In 1067, a sensitive young boy named Gandulf watches the army of his cruel father, the Norman baron Lord Ralf fitzGerald, destroy the home of the Saxon lord Aethelstan in Sceapterbyrig, a fictional town modeled on medieval Shaftesbury in southwestern England. He sees a straw basket secretly lowered over the castle wall to waiting hands and later hears a Saxon priest swear to the Normans that Aethelstan had only one heir, an infant girl, and she has died. This turns out not to be true. Twenty years later, the love triangle of beautiful Aldyth, godchild of the crone Sirona, the village healer and wisewoman, Gandulf, who has been educated in a monastery, and Bedwyn, a handsome Saxon outlaw, begins. Aldyth has been raised in the healing arts and to serve the goddess of the Crystal Spring, the only water source in a nearby village, and expects to dedicate her life to the Great Mother. Fate, however, has other plans. In this ambitious first novel, the authors, who are sisters, provide accurate historical background of Norman-Saxon conflicts in the era immediately following the Battle of Hastings. They also convey interesting material about herbal and medieval folklore. Unfortunately, these digressions burden the narrative early, as does a seemingly unending parade of insufficiently introduced characters. There is an excess of florid prose, and transitions are often awkward. The plot is unlikely (the crone Sirona dangles by her hands from a ledge for hours until Aldyth, recently rescued from a dungeon pit herself, and a young orphan gallop to save her). But readers will probably also hang on as the Baltucks eventually bring their love story to a satisfactory finish. Doubleday Book Club selection. (May)