Megge of Bury Down
The Bury Down Chronicles: Book One
A potent historical novel about an unwanted inheritance, Megge of Bury Down opens its series with a story of helpful women guarding their legacies.
A Cornish girl wrestles with her feelings of duty to her clan in Rebecca Kightlinger’s intricate historical novel Megge of Bury Down.
Murga, a seer, was persecuted as a witch. She left the Book of Seasons behind her, and its ritual inheritance along a line of seers and healers preserves her knowledge. Centuries later, in Cornwall, Megge is poised to become the book’s heir, while her cousin Brighida stewards a companion text, the Book of Time. Megge worries that she is unequal to the task.
Textured with lavish, beautiful descriptions of natural features like honeysuckle and rowan, the herbalism central to Megge’s family, and ceremonial rituals, the book strikes a bucolic tone at first. Its medieval setting is fleshed out in terms of the village of Bury Down, local farms, and a market. Megge’s all-female lodge is integral to the community’s lifeblood, even though its residents’ vocations set them apart. Indeed, the healers of Bury Down are rumored to be cursed.
Megge is surrounded by her terse mother, aunts, Brighida, and an elder bard who exudes patient wisdom. They are fleshed out in terms of their duties and their proximity to the past and present keepers of the books; some of their characterizations are limited beyond this, including that of Megge’s huntress aunt. Brighida, who embraces her apprentice role and sparks jealousy in Megge, is also fleshed out most as Megge’s foil. Megge, in contrast, is developed in terms of her internal struggles: She’s “no one’s darling,” and she concentrates on shearing, herding, and weaving instead of stepping into her healing apprenticeship.
Suspense builds around whether Megge will come to accept her fate. The book’s progression is gradual to reflect the weight of her choices. She has a visceral response to the Book of Seasons. The magic that governs both books, including the idea that their powers cannot be “united” until a chosen one arrives, are underexplained, though, and the ancestral lore surrounding them is just touched upon. However, late in the book, word of an adversary who wants the books gives more shape to their import and the challenges they carry.
Megge’s growth is hastened by her mother’s patience, which stirs respect and trepidation within Megge as she pitches in to help heal sick and injured people. Danger mounts near the book’s end because of heightened accusations, though this sequence includes hints of reincarnation that are somewhat jarring.
A girl comes of age as an apprentice healer in the gripping historical novel Megge of Bury Down.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
