The Fields of Bannockburn

This is a book for history lovers. It's a novel based on the legends and lore of Christian Scotland, all about how Christianity came to Scotland and the country's struggle for freedom. It has a modern-day setting, but the characters are searching for the truth about the Stone of Destiny - the Lia Fail. While doing so, they meet a sennachie (storyteller) whose tales take the reader back in time to "experience" the events of the past. It's a fun read.

The Lia Fail originally came to Scotland with Saint Columba in the 6th century, according to legend. He was the priest who brought Christianity to Scotland, standing up to the druids and baptizing hundreds into the faith. The Lia Fail has been called, in other places, the stone that holds Great Britain together - its lodestone, so to speak. It is the stone on which Scottish kings were crowned. During the coronation of a new king, each lord would bring soil from his own land to place under the king's foot, symbolically showing the king's lordship over it. Through the centuries this practice eventually resulted in the king's mound, a small hill on which the kings were crowned. The Stone of Destiny was immensely important to the Scottish people because of its symbolism.

When Edward I invaded Scotland and subjugated the people, he took the Lia Fail back to England with him and had a coronation throne built to hold it. (I have seen this throne, and the stone, in Westminster Abbey.) However, many Scots claim that the stone they sent away with Edward was not the true Stone of Destiny - after all, how was he to know one stone from another? - and that they still have the Stone, though they've never since tried to break away from England. The story is that as long as English kings are crowned with this stone in the chair (and they always are), Scotland will remain under their rule because their loyalty is bound up in the Stone.

The legends are many and impossible to verify, but it's a fascinating story. Crow does a wonderful job interlacing the history of Christian faith in Scotland, the history of the Scots, and the story of the modern characters searching for the truth of the Stone and finding instead the Truth of Christ. It's a bit of a daunting book to pick up - it's just over 700 pages long - but it's well worth the time to read. If you love history, legends, and stories that grip the imagination, this one is for you.