Spencer Paul Thompson

Rheged Spencer Paul Thompson

Magic and mundane, sacred and profane; once upon a time, they were one and the same. Inspired by JRR Tolkien, Gabriel García Márquez, and the Holy Bible, drawing from the bottomless wells of Celtic mythology, Rheged tells the story of a world in ruins - of its former glory and its future hope. The holy priests known as the Shai have long since departed from the shores of Tur, cursing the seas in their wake to leave the continent isolated from the outside world, devastated by imperial ambitions, and consumed with ancestral feuds. Aelhairn Urien, King of Rheged, has returned from a mystical pilgrimage to restore the halcyon days of the Old Kingdom, when Rheged spanned the length and breadth of Tur. Yet his task is still unfinished, for only his son, Bedwas Owein, can fulfil the prophecy given to the Old Fathers - that one day, when the Shai return, there will be no need for kings and kingdoms. As Owein embarks on his own journey, he finds himself walking in the paths of his father, and the paths of his father's fathers. Along the way, he meets the affable Mungo Caldbeck, whose childlike faith shows the way to the New World - a world in which sleepers awaken into dream, in which the ancient ways are followed for the first time, in which the blessings of the Shai rise from the earth and pour down from Heaven.