(no subject)

[skygiants]

This is for real the last post about Scotland I'll make, but I've just finished rereading Quest for a Maid, which was one of my favorite books as a child, which is one hundred percent the result of going to go see the Crown Jewels in Edinburgh and being presented with various tableaux about Significant Moments in Scottish Royal History.

TABLEAUX: here is Robert the Bruce bathed in heroic golden light as he's promoted to King!
ME: so why was Robert the Bruce being crowned WAIT! a faint memory is stirring of the one bit of Scottish history I know, was this the Maid of Norway situation?
BETH: hmmmm maybe? let's consult the family tree over there. Maid of Norway died 1290 .... Scottish ask King Edward of England to decide among a bunch of claims for who should be king ....
ME: what? would they do that. I've spent literally all day hearing stories about England attempting to invade Scotland, why on EARTH would you ask the guy who is constantly invading you to pick his favorite new presumably most-invadeable king.
[one long Wikipedia rabbit hole (highly recommended, that article is extremely funny) and several rooms full of crown jewels and tapestries later]
BETH: .... AND THEN England invaded and Robert the Bruce was crowned in 1306, so yeah, it was basically all still the result of the Maid of Norway situation!
ME: [wild cheering!]


And in retrospect now that I've reread Quest for a Maid the Robert the Bruce hagiographic tableaux is even funnier because the de Bruces do NOT come off well in that book. More importantly, however: book not only as good as I remember it from the last time I read it two decades ago, but indeed perhaps even better.

Quest for a Maid begins: When I was nine years old, I hid under a table and heard my sister kill a king. To elaborate slightly further, at the start of the book, protagonist Meg extremely unambiguously hears her eldest sister Inge murder the king of Scotland with witchcraft for personal gain, and is like "well, I didn't love that, but I do love Inge, so ... not much to do about that I guess ...."

And then after that we get a couple more chapters in which Meg and Inge are both still living with all their sisters in the big medieval household of their father's shipyard before things really start Happening to see why she loves Inge, and that Inge loves her too. It works extremely well to get you to care about the characters, while also confidently immersing you in Meg's twelfth-century world: when I first read the book at age ten, I did not know to particularly pay attention to how Meg and all her sisters are casually doing some kind of textile work in every scene, or how big a deal it is whenever anyone gets a New Garment, but as an adult, I'm admiring it! The first big set piece that happens after the king murder is a whale washing ashore and the whole town turning out to be like "WHALE PARTY," and it's all drawn really vividly and with such affection and understanding for medieval life and communities and the way people have a good time with whatever opportunities are given to them to have a good time with.

Anyway, during and after WHALE PARTY Meg does some accidental heroics and ends up engaged to a merchant's son a couple years younger than her with a severe cleft palate, and then she rescues a runaway servant lad from his horrible situation, and all three of them spend several happy years joined at the hip having some charmingly drawn Kids And Boats hijinks while the political situation in kingless Scotland slides increasingly into chaos.

Then a.) Inge gets accused of witchcraft and b.) Meg's future in-laws get involved in the trip to bring the dead king's preadolescent heir home from Norway, and everything starts going very hard very quickly. Storms! Shipwrecks! Poisoning! Stabbing! Tragic sibling divorce! Extremely good thing those kids spent all that time on boats!

I loved this book to pieces as a kid, and it is a delight to find that as an adult I love it just as much and also think it's genuinely good. I should, someday, probably read another Frances Mary Hendry book -- apparently she wrote several, although none of the others ever came into my hands -- but for now I will continue to cherish this one.

Comments

[brownbetty]

Someone writes an opening line that good, I love them forever

[skygiants]

Really truly nailing it from page one!

[ambyr]

I loved Quest for a Maid extremely as a child, but had no idea she'd written other books. I look forward to any future reviews!

[skygiants]

Quest for a Kelpie ... Quest for a Babe ... Hendry characters go questing, apparently. I look forward to discovering why!

[sovay]

I should, someday, probably read another Frances Mary Hendry book -- apparently she wrote several, although none of the others ever came into my hands -- but for now I will continue to cherish this one.

I'm so glad to hear this. I read this book on my sixth-grade end-of-the-year camping trip to Nova Scotia, in the course of which I ran out of books I had brought myself and went through as many books as the other occupants of the girls' cabin would loan me as well as whatever was lying around in the main house that no one appeared to be reading at the time. Decades later I learned it is supposed to be a retelling of "Sir Patrick Spens," which would chime with the shipwreck, but I still need to re-read it myself now that I actually know the ballad. The edition you linked to is the same one I read.

[skygiants]

The cover's just fallen straight off this much-loved copy of mine in the rereading it, or I'd lend it to you for the experience. (I knew there was a ballad but somehow it never occurred to me to listen to it until now!)

[sovay]

(I knew there was a ballad but somehow it never occurred to me to listen to it until now!)

It may even be mentioned in the book! I just didn't know it in sixth grade, so it didn't register with me. As opposed to cloves for toothache.

[skygiants]

Literally every time my tooth hurts I think about cloves for a toothache.

[osprey_archer]

Oh, I remember this book! I loved this book! I remember Meg and Inge and Inge's trial for witchcraft (Meg tries to help only everyone sees the white streak in her hair which does NOT help), and Meg and her fiance and their friend messing about in boats, and absolutely nothing about the whole Maid of Norway situation, so I guess that was not the part I reread over and over.

[skygiants]

The Maid of Norway situation is wild! I remembered the shipwreck and faking her death [in large part I think because this plays significantly into the Meg and Inge drama which is always what MOST stuck in my memory], but there's a whole huge dramatic plot in the middle with evil ladies in waiting that I had completely forgotten!

[chestnut_pod]

Hm! I definitely read this as a child, but I remember it not quite clicking. But the fact that I remember almost nothing of what you mention in this review suggest that the time is ripe for a reread!

[skygiants]

I'd definitely be curious to hear what you think as someone who did not read it at least ten times previously ....

[jothra]

Still have a copy on my shelf. Right up there for me as well.

[skygiants]

There are several very high tier children's books in the Girls And Boats sub-genre but this one I think is really absolute top of the list.

[sophia_sol]

please tell me more about the other high tier children's books in the Girls And Boats subgenre!

[skygiants]

True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and Bloody Jack are the other ones I was thinking of! both of which feature Plucky Twelve Year Olds Who Go To Sea -- Charlotte Doyle leads a mutiny and becomes captain of a whole boat (?!) and ... well, actually, so does Jacky Faber but it takes her like eight more books to do it with a whole bunch of variously cross-dressing adventures first.

[sophia_sol]

ooh yes can't believe I forgot about these! I was thinking more in the direction of Swallows and Amazons, on account of how the girls in those books simply ARE much more interesting than the boys. Amazons forever! but they're not actually girl books bc they ARE always about a multi-gender cast as co-protagonists

[skygiants]

Yeah, Enid Blyton also has some classic Crews Of Girls And Boys On Boats but I do think the Girl Heroine Grows Into Herself By Having A Lifechanging Experience On A Boat is a separate subgenre! very deliberately perhaps in the same vein of that classic Young Lad Grows Into Himself Etc. Etc.

[sophia_sol]

Boys get to have Lifechanging Boat Experiences far more often than girls, which is a real shame tbh

would Heidi Heilig's The Girl From Everywhere count, do you think? she grew up on the boat is the thing, but she continues to grow into herself on it!

[skygiants]

ooh, I've not read that one but it does seem to fit the vibe I would say!

[sophia_sol]

oh you should ABSOLUTELY read it and its sequel, The Ship Beyond Time! timey wimey shenanigans, and difficult mentor figure in the person of her own actual father!

[skygiants]

adding them to my list RIGHT NOW

[sophia_sol]

yesssss

[nevanna]

I remember that book! It reminded me a little bit of Monica Furlong’s Juniper and Wise Child; have you read those?

[bloodygranuaile]

I loved these books so much, I still have my copies although I'm afraid if I opened them all the pages would fall out, they are that old and well-loved

[skygiants]

Yes!! I loved those too, but not quite as much as I loved this one -- I think because Juniper and Wise Child were both pretty solitary children and my favorite books were always the ones where the kids had a crew.

[ceitfianna]

I remember this book and have great memories of it and might still have my copy. It gave me the same lovely vibe as A String in the Harp but of the time.

[skygiants]

I'm so glad I hung onto my copy, rereading it has brought me much joy!

[lacewood]

!!! I read this so many times when I was younger but haven't thought of it in years. Now I too have a sudden urge to dig it out for a reread. I feel like I've just never seen any other Frances Mary Hendry books around... definitely looking forward to what else you might find!

[skygiants]

I was shocked to discover she'd written so many more -- I wonder if Quest for a Maid was maybe the only one published internationally? But I definitely will be going on a quest for the other quests!

[clachnaben]

I was reading this post like huh interesting book about Scottish history so fun and then you mentioned Quest for a Kelpie in the comments and I sat up as a memory was yeeted out of my deep subconscious. I had no idea Hendry wrote other books set in Scottish history but Quest for a Kelpie is a great preteen book - I grew up where it's set and remember finding it in a library like OH they make books about here??? the middle of nowhere in Scotland??? a sudden nostalgic memory that made me so pleased her books are also loved and remembered fondly by others!

[skygiants]

ahhh that's wonderful, I'm so extremely happy to hear that you read it and had so much delight in it! Quest for a Maid is such a beautifully lived-in-feeling book, too -- I'm really determined to try and find Quest for a Kelpie now if I possibly can.

[sophia_sol]

damn I need to read this book!!!! this sounds like exactly my jam!

[skygiants]

YOU DO NEED TO READ THIS BOOK

[obopolsk]

Ooh, how did I never read this as a kid?! Definitely need to read it now.

[skygiants]

I really hope you enjoy it if you can get your hands on it, it's so good! (I'd pass you my copy next time I see you but I think after this read it may be on its last legs ....)

[bloodygranuaile]

I remember this book! I reread it some number of years ago and it was good, but also I appear to have konmari'd it during one of my pandemic purges, which I now regret! Poor decision-making, pandemic me!

[skygiants]

This is always what I fear when getting rid of books! Unfortunately now I have the reverse problem which is Not Enough Bookshelves ....