A couple of months ago, whilst travelling in New Zealand after visiting Lynne & Steve, I picked up a copy of Watership Down and proceeded to torment Phil with its lessions for the church as I read it over the following days.

I came home to search for the unread copy of Shardik by the same author that I knew I had picked up second hand some time ago. Despite my searching I couldn’t find it, but (as so often happens) I came across it the other day. I had tried to find a copy when I thought I had lost mine so I know that it is hard to come by. So the following contains some spoilers, but none that will diminish your experience in reading the book.

The book is about as different from Watership Down as you could imagine, whilst retaining the same mystic narrative that is at once both an entertaining read and deeply challenging and thought provoking. If you ever get a chance to pick up this book in a second hand store or whatever, I highly recommend it.

The book follows the tale of Kelderek, a simple hunter from the tribe of Ortelga who comes across a huge bear which he believes to be Shardik, a mythic beast which carries the power of God. On the strength of this sighting, he risks his own life by insisting on speaking to the priestesses who have charge of the cult of the bear, and departs on a journey to find and follow Shardik. This simple man, struck by the power and importance of the bear, devotes his life to following it and doing its will.

Along the way, he is convinced by those more sophisticated than him that the bear intends the Ortelgans to make battle with the provincial city of Bekla, a city of riches and power. He is convinced to drug and capture the bear to aid in the battle, and severs his relationship with the priestesses who believe that Shardik is to be followed rather than coerced. The attack succeeds and he becomes the priest king of Bekla whilst war rages on to capture the provinces of the city. Along the way Kelderek is plagued by guilt and questioning as he sees increasing atrocities committed in the name of Shardik, and as he witnesses and guides the departure of the cult from its orthodoxy.

A compelling image is the power and might of the great Shardik recaptured after the successful campaign and brought to be imprisoned in a barracks in the city of Bekla, no more free to roam and dictate his will, but captured as a symbol to legitimise the struggle for power and wealth that is being conducted in his name.

The book is amazing in its ability to portray the human desire to corrupt and control the divine, our willingness to deal with the devil in order even to accomplish godly ends and our inability to deal with shame, guilt and failure in the face of God. And it talks a message of forgiveness, brokenness and redemption. For more than 500 pages I was transfixed and challenged. I wondered how often am I like Kelderek, how much do I need the same redemption and lessons taught of sacred duty and unassailable calling. I certainly can’t do justice to this book in a short review, but I leave you with a selection. The conversation is between Kelderek and Melathys, one of the priestesses of the cult of the bear. She abandoned her duty in fear and fled the bear, spent several years as a possession of criminals and outlaws in a frontier town and eventually reunited with a broken and distressed Kelderek. She refers to the Tuginda, the sacred high priestess of the bear.

I haven’t told you something else the Tuginda said to me before I left Zeray. I asked her whether, if I found you, I should give you any message from her; and she said, “He’s troubled because of what he did years ago, at moonset on the road to Gelt. He hasn’t been able to ask forgiveness, although he wants it. Tell him I forgive him freely.” And then she said, “I am guilty too - guilty of pride and stupidity.” I asked, “How saiyett? How could you be?” “Why,” she said, “you know, as I do, what we have been taught and what we have taught to others. We were taught that God would reveal the truth of Shardik through two chosen vessels, a man and a woman: and that He would break those vessels to fragments and Himself fashion them again to His purpose. I had supposed, in my stupid pride, that the woman was myself, and often I have thought that I was indeed suffering that breaking. I was wrong. It was not I, dear girl,” she said to me. “It was not I, but another woman, that He chose to be broken and whom He has fashioned again.”

[Just to be clear, she was saying that Melathys herself was the other vessel]

The story of the vessels being broken to fragments in the book is hugely traumatic. Not just a struggle or a difficult time, or even the exile and hardship that was endured by the Tuginda. No, this is a story of being broken into fragments, with all that imports. In the case of one, use and abuse at the hands of criminals. In the case of the other, exile, ill health, threat of death and imprisonment by a slave trader. I wonder whether we would ever have the courage to allow ourselves to be broken into fragments, to surrender ourselves fully, so that God could fashion those fragments to his purpose.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 30th, 2005 at 10:02 pm by dan and is filed under books and dvd's. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.