Synopsis "The Raven's Quest"
Book DescriptionThis mystery is based on a true historical occurrence of the loss of Papal gifts in Central France headed for Duke William in Normandy. The record shows the gifts were recovered in two weeks time but does not say how. This story is a fictionalized version, strongly based in historical fact, of how the gifts were recovered.In late 1065, Roger Corbeau loses his soul for coveting his older brother Hugh's inheritance of their father's Barony. When both fall ill with the pestilence, Hugh dies, and Roger, near death, has a fever dream in which he kills a wolf-like monster, guarding the Corbeau Manor, that turns into his brother. A striking, fire-haired lady with a raven on her arm appears and tells him he has committed a mortal sin. He must undertake an unknown quest to regain his soul. He survives the illness but feels responsible for his brother's death and becomes despondent. In early 1066, Abbot Lanfranc, a family friend and counselor to Duke William of Normandy, is on his way to Rome to petition the Pope for the designation "Dei Gratia Rex Anglorum" in support of the Duke's claim to the throne of England, and asks Roger to accompany him. Two of Roger's friends, Diego a half-Moorish school mate of Spanish nobility, and Juergen, a recently met Saxon scop/jongleur exiled due to his epilepsy, join the journey. The Pope agrees to the request, and charges Roger with escorting His legate, bearing the formal Papal Declaration and gifts for the Duke, from Tournus on the river Saône in Burgundy to Normandy. But the delegation is slaughtered before reaching Tournus near the village of Le Villars. Yet the legate is not among the bodies. He and the Pope's parcel have disappeared. The mystery plays out through two important occurrences that underlie the story. The first is the historical melding of the Norse and Christian cultures in Normandy. The Lady and the raven in the fever dream, symbolize the Norse "Hero's Quest" in which a dragon has a pivotal role. Juergen believes Roger to be on a Hero's quest, that the lady in his dream is a Valkyrie, the raven one of Odin's two messengers, and that he, Juergen, was sent to encourage and assist Roger on his quest. The Hero's Quest contributes to the Christian Code of Chivalry. The second is the confluence of the "quests" of three other major characters: Loup, the Wolfman, leader of a local band of thieves who wants to rid himself of the wrongfully given "Dragon's Curse; Genevieve (and her brother Braque), young orphans living at the St. Madeleine Church and Convent/Hospital in Le Villars, who wants to avenge her mother's murder; and Gilbert Gros, the only good member of a tyrannical and corrupt family, the liege lords of the region, who wants to atone for his family's actions; and Pére Henri, a local priest who wants to save the soul of his brother Loup. During the process of finding the missing Papal gifts, all the quests come to a surprising resolution.
