gwynhefar: (as shackles)
gwynhefar ([personal profile] gwynhefar) wrote2009-02-28 05:49 pm
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Grr . . .

It is rare for a book to tick me off in the very first sentence, but I've found one that manages it. If it hadn't been from an author I'd read before and enjoyed I might even have not continued.

The very first sentence begins: "Branwen ap Griffith sat on the grassy hillside with her back to an oak tree . . ."

Ok, first off, if you plan on writing historical fiction set in early Medieval Wales, for goodness sake, do your research!!

Branwen is a young woman, as such she would not use the patronymic 'ap' which means 'son of'. She would use 'ferch' or 'daughter of'. Secondly, 'Griffith' is a later Anglicization of the Welsh 'Gruffudd'.

So if she'd done her homework, the sentence should correctly read "Branwen ferch Gruffudd sat on the grassy hillside . . ."

Hmmph.

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