The Silver Hand

The Silver Hand is the second book of the Song of Albion trilogy. Like most mid-trilogy books, it's a bit darker than the other two (I have actually finished the whole thing now - I couldn't put the third book down until I was done!), but still a very good book. I don't want to give away the story, so I'll just continue my look into the characters themselves.

This book is written from Tegid's point of view, instead of Llew's. Tegid is the chief bard in Albion, and is Llew's main councilor. Lawhead said that he had to write this book from another point of view because there was no way he could show what a great king Llew was any other way. If he'd tried to show it from Llew's point of view, Lawhead said he'd have come off as a stuck-up megolomaniac, which is definitely true.

The job of a bard in Albion is very complex. They are storehouses of information on every subject - they study plants, animals, medicine, politics, culture, music, art - they are basically walking universities. Their most important role, though, is in holding the sovreignty of the nation. Kings rise and fall, but sovreignty - the ideal of kingship and leadership - remains forever, and it is the role of a bard to keep that sovreignty and bestow it on the most able man. It's a different way to look at what makes a leader and where their authority comes from. Ultimately, it comes from the people (a leader can't lead if no one follows), who trust the bard to make their choice for them. Tegid is an incredible man in that while holding this unbelievable authority, he is completely trustworthy and honest, wanting the best for the people and for Llew himself, and giving himself totally to making that happen. He literally is the power behind the throne, but is a man of such integrity that he is never even tempted to misuse that position.

The struggle between Llew (Lewis) and Siawn Hy (Simon) is still a central theme. I was completely blown away to see just how far Simon had let his desire for power take him. After the brief glimpse we were shown of him in our world at the beginning of The Paradise War, I picture him as lazy and careless. Now he is, quite simply, evil. But he's also sneaky and conniving and has a silver tongue. When he gets the chance to talk to Llew and his leaders, he almost convinces them that he was right to do what he did, even though they all know how wrong it was - and how it nearly destroyed Albion itself, not just the people. He's the smooth politician type who can make genocide sound like the right and noble thing to do, and it's scary to watch him do it.

Then there's Llew, who is driven to try to make things right in Albion but struggling to find the way to do it. Tegid wants to make him king, but Llew thinks that's a terrible idea - partly because he feels unworthy, and partly because he knows that he ultimately does not belong in Albion at all, but in Britain. Llew is a very "real" person - Tegid is almost too good to be true, and Simon is so horrible you don't want to think he could be true, but Llew is someone you can hold on to. He wants to do the right thing, struggles with his inadequacy, questions everything, worries, loves, hopes, dreams, fails, and succeeds.

Lawhead claims this series is about sovreignty and others say it's the classic struggle between good and evil. Those are both true, but I would also submit that it's a character study. The characters Lawhead has created are so clear and so beautifully made that just watching them is perhaps my favorite part of this series.