Credo (novel) explained

Author:	Melvyn Bragg
Publisher:	Sceptre
Published:	1996
Credo: An Epic Tale of the Dark Ages
Isbn:	9-780-34066706-4
Pages:	800
Genre:	Historical fiction

Credo: An Epic Tale of the Dark Ages is a historical fiction novel written by Melvyn Bragg and published in 1996. Bragg's sixteenth novel, it is set in the Celtic Christianity of seventh-century Britain.^[1]

Credo was published in the United States with the title The Sword and the Miracle.^[2]

Plot

Credo's protagonist is a young Celtic princess, the semi-mythical St Bega. Bega and the fictional Prince Padric desire to marry against her father's wishes, and she vows celibacy to avoid an arranged marriage with a warrior. Bega founds a nunnery, while Padric fights the Saxons. Bega reflects on religious conscience and duty while Padric fights his arch-villain, Ecfrith.

The story features venerated figures of the period, notably saints Cuthbert, Wilfrid, and Hilda, and features the Synod of Whitby.

Reception

In a negative review for The Independent, Hugo Barnacle called Credo "a very hard slog". Barnacle criticised the book's difficult language, which included anachronisms, "occasional lapses in sentence construction", and "leadenness of the style". He accused Bragg of "fall[ing] into an ungainly pomposity" by "misguidedly trying to do posh prose".

References

Web site: Barnacle . Hugo . 30 March 1996 . Books: Celtic arrangers . 22 December 2023 . . en.
Web site: The Sword and the Miracle by Melvyn Bragg . 22 December 2023 . Publishers Weekly.

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