The Angel and the Sword

Name: The Angel and the Sword
Rating: 3.53 (158 reviews)

by Cecelia Holland

First published 2000

Amazon

3.4(158)

Princess Ragny escapes a violent father and the murder of her mother by assuming the identity of Roderick, a young male warrior. Guided by visions she interprets as an angel’s protection, she travels into the fragmented Carolingian world and learns to survive through swordsmanship, disguise and an authority that others accept only because they believe her to be a man. Her private search for vengeance becomes entangled with the defence of communities exposed to Viking attack.

Roderick’s path leads towards Paris during the Scandinavian assaults of the ninth century and into the service of rulers struggling to hold West Francia together under Charles the Bald. The disguise gives Ragny freedom while threatening death if discovered, and the tension between spiritual vocation and constructed identity shapes every alliance she makes. Based on the medieval tale of Roderick the Beardless, the novel turns legend into an early-medieval adventure about gender, sanctity and military leadership.