November 28

A Rare Benedictine: The Advent of Brother Cadfael (1988)
By Ellis Peters

Three interconnected stories tell how Cadfael left the Crusades for the monastic order.  Ellis Peters actually wrote 20 books featuring Brother Cadfael, a Welch monk who has found a calling as an herbalist during the first untamed century of English history - and even the cover illustration seems to refer to his various "lives".   A Rare Benedictine was written late in the sequence, in order to provide readers with the origin of Cadfael's calling.  The series includes lots of 12-century detail, including descriptions of monastic life, early English village and rural life, and references to early English history.

Monk's hood, the third book in the series, is a good example.  "Monk's hood" is a healing herb used by Bro Cadfael for rubbing into aching muscles.  Unfortunately, it's lethal if swallowed, and someone has apparently laced Master's Bonel's dinner with oil of monk's hood.  Cadfael works to exonerate Bonel's young stepson Edwin (whose mother, much to Cadfael's surprise, turns out to have been Cadfael's sweetheart from his teenage pre-monastery years).  The atmosphere and descriptions made me think of Tintern Abbey.