Alina: A Song For the Telling (Hardcover)

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A young woman in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem

Fri, 4 Jun 2021 | Review by: Mark O.

'Something tugged at me - a dream of seeing distant lands'. Ch. 3 In the Spring of 1173, Alina and Milos, who are only 14 and 15 years old, set out from Provence. They have lost their parents, and although Milos is supposed to eventually inherit his father's land, the estate is controlled by their uncle and Alina's has only a bleak marriage to look forward to. Alina's lot in life is strictly limited due to her being a woman. But as we all know, once you leave home on a journey almost everything looks different. When the siblings reach the far land, the holy land, 'Outremer', almost anything seems possible, perhaps even an independent future which for Alina had been an impossible dream. And her dream is to become a trobairitz like Beatriz de Dia, that is, a woman troubadour. 'In Jerusalem, nobody will care that we are the children of an improvised troubadour .. or that his wife was falsely accussed of witchery.' Milos to Alina, Ch. 3. I have always loved stories set in medieval times. I devoured books by Henry Treece, Geoffrey Trease, Rosemary Sutcliff, Alfred Duggan and Zoe Oldenburg. Most of these novels featured knights or barons - men in a male world. Only one or two, such as The Lady For Ransom by Alfred Duggan, placed a woman centre stage, and these were the wives of powerful men. In Malve von Hassell's story, however, heroine Alina is very young, not well connected, not wealthy, not married, and not beautiful. What she does have is the highly valued gift of making music and song. I enjoyed the children's journey from Provence to Venice to Acre and on to Jerusalem almost as if I had become a tourist a thousand years ago and was seeing the sights for myself. Once in Jerusalem the pace changes as Alina and Milos rely on the dubious promises of crafty men and get drawn into the complexities of the court. The author skilfully disentangles the reasons for all the plots and factions and the competing suitors for the hand of princess Sibylla - who is even younger than Alina. I galloped through the last half of this story as suspicions mount and danger follows danger. This is book so deftly written that you would almost not realise the depth of the research it must have taken to create it. The story is fascinating and Alina is a wonderful creation. I also enjoyed the portrait of Princess Sibylla, imperious and arbitrary to Alina, but really just a child struggling to face her imminent responsiblities in a little kingdom facing danger on all sides.

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