![]() ![]() Besides Saint Patrick, Saint Brigid is perhaps still one of the best known Irish saints and one of the patron saints of Ireland. One of the consequences of this dialogue is that many Celtic gods and goddesses were transformed into saints. ![]() Instead, the monks had to learn and understand the beliefs held by the Irish people and actually try to convince them of the merits of this new religion. Because Ireland was never conquered by the Roman Empire, the missionaries who came to the island to convert the local inhabitants couldn’t force them to “convert by the sword” as happened in many other places in Europe. The original legend is set during the time period when Ireland and Britain were both in the process of converting to Christianity, which resulted in the production of extraordinary literature that blends Celtic mythology with personages from the Bible. Therefore Princess Iseult’s homeland of Ireland was transformed into the island kingdom of Iveriu, and Tristan’s birthplace of Cornwall became Kernyv. To give myself more creative flexibility, I decided to set Branwen’s story in a more fantastic context. The medieval legend rose to prominence in the French and Anglo-Norman courts of the twelfth century, but it’s based on the oral and written traditions of early medieval/Post-Roman Britain and Ireland. ![]() When I sat down to write Sweet Black Waves, I knew that I wanted to tell the classic tale of Tristan and Iseult’s star-crossed love from a different perspective – that of Princess Iseult’s lady’s maid, Branwen. ![]()
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