Gundrun's Tapestry
Joan Schweighardt
(Guest Reviewer - Rocco M. Lobosco)
2003 Beagle Bay Books
ISBN: 0967959136

A woman, with a cursed sword, seeks to preserve her people by confronting Attila the Hun. Along the way she discovers the capacity to love a man who may be her mortal enemy.

Guest Reviewer Rocco M. Lobosco writes:

Set in the 5th century crumbling Roman Empire, Gudrun's Tapestry consists of two perfectly interwoven & elegantly conceived historical stories: Gudrun's heroic quest to single handedly bring down Attila The Hun, & her life among her tribe prior to that dangerous venture, a life poignant & beautiful, culminating in the kind of cathartic tragedy the Greeks would have envied.

Disguised as Ildico, Gudrun enters the dark & terrifying city of Attila bearing a brilliant war sword that is cursed & brings misfortune to its owner. She offers the sword as a gift to Attila who we meet in terrible glimpses as if his evil is too complex & profound to take in all at once.

In brilliant stokes Joan Schweighardt paints a deeply psychotic character so chillingly rendered that we might think the author met him in person. Attila “rewards” Gudrun by sparing her life, imprisoning her in a guarded hut where she spends much her days recounting the past that has shaped her quest.

During this past she lived among her people, cleaving close to her family & caring for her mentally challenged younger brother. She was helplessly in love with Sigurd, a young warrior destined for greatness, & from the very first moment we see them together, it becomes apparent that theirs will be a love story for the ages. The tender & painful encounters they share, the complexity of their situation, & their loyalty to each other & their tribe draw the reader into an ancient but utterly believable world & infuses Gudrun & Sigurd with so much life, that their story will be remembered long after the book is put aside. It is during this time that a series of intriguing twists of events puts the sword in Gudrun's possession, & she hatches her plan to destroy Attila.

In the city of this most notorious War Lord, Gudrun is befriended by Attila's second-in-command, Edeco, a member of her people, & a tormented soldier who is torn between his fearful loyalty to Attila & his growing love for Gudrun.

Though a prisoner under Attila's constant suspicion, she is made to serve in his hall & eventually picked to be one of his many wives. With events in Attila's city closing in around her, with the past weighing heavily in her mind & the fate of her people in her hands, with Edeco's afflicted affection for her in razor sharp tension with Attila's desire to make her his wife, Gudrun must negotiate her way through monstrous adversity to realize her task.

Within the two main stories that weave Gundrun's Tapestry, there are stories within stories that further color this time & its characters. This gives Gudrun's Tapestry an epic feel. Yet it never loses its intimacy, its timeless relevance, & amazingly, with all this embarrassment of riches, it accomplishes something further still: it gives the reader a deep sense of an older consciousness that was ordered by values vastly different then the ones we now honor. Furthermore, the narrative makes this ancient consciousness both believable & respectable.

Powered by a plot packed with intrigue, betrayal & romance, peopled by characters of astonishing depth & color, & rendered in a melodic & powerful voice, Gudrun's Tapestry is a work as literary as they come while still being a page-turner capable of competing with the best of the pot-boilers sitting in the racks of airport stores.

If you like to read in the evening, then start Gudrun's Tapestry on a Friday night, otherwise you'll go to work bleary-eyed from lack of sleep. When you finish it, all too quickly, you'll have that feeling of being deeply satisfied, yet still wishing there were more pages.
(10/24/04)

Guest Reviewer - Rocco M. Lobosco
2004©Rocco M. Lobosco