The Last Rainbow
March 31, 1987
A review of "The Last Rainbow" by Parke Godwin.
Copyright © 1998 Property of Deborah K. Fletcher. All rights reserved.
The Last Rainbow is a Celtic legend, written by Parke Godwin. It is the third book in a series, preceeded by Firelord and Beloved Exile.
Parke Godwin, who is called Pete by his friends, was born in New York City. He drifted a great deal while growing up, and was involved in a variety of activities including: the army, government, professional acting, research technology, advertsing lay-out for Sports Afield, short-order cooking, dishwashing, and maître d'hôtel.
In 1952-1954, Godwin appeared in Stag and Male. He later contributed to Popular Embalming and The American Pederast. Following these activities, Godwin submitted to the Donner Pass Cookbook a recipe for filet d'enfant Cretient, which uses basil, ginger, and pressed garlic juice. In 1971, Godwin won the World Fantasy Award for his novella "The Fire When It Comes."
Godwin was an early student of Parker and Lardner, and firmly believes in shutting up when it's been said once. His chief delight is drinking coffee and wasting time. He enjoys watching the beaches at Cape Cod or relaxing on the Staten Island Ferry. He loves dogs and Prokofiev, cooking, jogging, and collecting obscure records. He tolerates children and cats (if tethered) and conservatives (if muzzled). Sources reveal that, following investigation, he was found to be completely uninvolved in the mystery death of Warren G. Harding.
The Last Rainbow is four hundred seventeen pages long. It consists of seven major sections, each of which is divided into smaller chapters. The seven sections are: "Dorelei," "Gift from Raven," "She Who Is Called Mabh," "Rod into Snake," "Glory to God Alleluia," "The Road of the God," and "Where the Magic Lives."
The Last Rainbow is set some time before the birth of Artos-Rix Cymri. It is the story of the life of Magonus Saccatus Patricius, better known in later centuries as Saint Patrick.
The story begins with a brief description of the relationships within Dorelei's fhain, or clan. It is a small fhain of the Prydn people, who lived in the isle of Britain even before the Druids. The fhain consists of Dorelei, who is Gern-y-fhain; her husband, Cruaddan; her sister, Neniane; Neniane's husbands, Atcois and Bredei; Dorelei's cousin, Guenloie; and Guenloie's husbands, Drust and Malgon. The Prydn are children in age, but are more mature, in their way, than children because of their difficult life in the open. Like children, they make up stories to explain their world. Their gods are Earth Mother and her husband, Lugh Sun, who created everything. The Prydn search for Tir-Nan-Og, which is their version of Paradise. This lays the basis for much of the story.
Meanwhile, the other main character is also introduced. He is Magonus Saccatus Patricius, a young priest of the Roman Church, obsessed with God. He is sent to the Pictish peoples as a missionary. Coincidentally, the Pictish lands are also the Prydn lands. This gives Patricius the chance he needs to fulfill his dream:
I want to find the Grace I preach, else I'm no more than a scribe babbling his master's word. I want to find it where it is, dig for it, hold it in my hand, define it. Hold it up and say, "Here! Here is ultimate truth!"
From this point the story outlines how Patricius is hurt by the Picts and left to die in Cnoch-nan-ainneal, a circle like the Giants' Dance in the south. Dorelei and Cruaddan find him, and the fhain nurses him back to health. The Prydn rename him Padrec, and he lives as one of them. He learns their ways, and begins to teach them of Christ. His teaching is ineffective until he learns to speak in their language:
Now, Jesu, the Man-Son of God, was of the House of David. Tens of seasons before He came into the world, David was a king who was himself born a shepherd, even as Dorelei. In his obedience to the fhain-way of his people, he made many songs to God, and they are the first words that I would teach you to say with me.
The words of Luke mean nothing to them, but this story of a shepherd-king touches them all. As the story progresses, Drust becomes thoroughly enthralled by Christianity, and worships with pure conviction. As part of their awareness of God's power, Dorelei's fhain learns to control iron, which is an evil to them - an eveil so terrible that they can be literally burned by the touch of the substance - so terrible that it can be spoken of only as Blackbar, never as iron. Their convictions and faith in Padrec's God allows them to overcome their almost instinctive fear of iron. Their faith also allows them to be more generous to the people of Pictland, spreading God's word with Rainbow's gold.
This brings us to the middle of the section titled "Rod into Snake." Here, Padrec decides that it will not damage his vows in the priesthood to admit his love for Dorelei, and they are married in both their traditions. Soon after the marriage, Padrec sets Malgon to making iron weapons. He has a talent for weapons-craft, and makes swords and knives for the fhain. Soon, Padrec and Dorelei bring many fhains together and teach them of iron. Dorelei's faith is so strong that she leads all the fhains.
The strength of Dorelei's fhain brings it to dine among the Venicone. Ambrosius is there, looking for an army to fight in a holy war. The Venicone challenge the Christian beliefs, and Drust declares that he will face the dogs in the arena, unarmed, to prove the strength of a faith in God. The victory he has over the dogs, calming them, rather than harming them, entices the men of the Prydn to join Ambrosius, in return for a promise of land for the Prydn to keep as their own.
The Prydn fight a losing war, ending with Drust, Malgon, Padrec, and two others as the only survivors of the Prydn army. The five are captured by the enemy, and Drust is crucified between the two others as an attempt to make a mockery of his faith. Drust's faith endures to the end, but Padrec's wavers:
The lowered is my septic and shall not mount. He leadeth me beside stale waters. Drust, you were the reality of my love, not that. Without you it was only an echo, a dream of vanity.
Ambrosius and his Romans arrive moments after Padrec witnesses Drust's crucifixion. Padrec is nearly mad with the pain as he smears Drust's blood on the face of the man who crucified him, saying:
It is the blood of the lamb, tallfolk. And none so deserving as you and I.
Padrec and Malgon, as the only men remaining to the Prydn, go north, searching for their fhain. In their travelling, they see visions which foretell the coming and the greatness of Arthur. They do not find their women for a long time. They walk all the way to the shores of the northern sea before finding them, living in an ancient, Roman tower.
When they are reunited, Dorelei's fhain begins searching in earnest for Tir-Nan-Og. They search ntil Dorelei has a vision from her ancestress, Mabh, who tells her how to take her fhain across the western sea (which would one day become known as the Atlantic) to a land of beauty and peace.
Padrec and Dorelei lead their fhain to the sea. On their way, they find Cruaddan, who has been lost since before the war. He joins them, and they go one. Padrec leaves them before they reach the sea, but they continue. They hire a ship and sail west until they come to land, where they find more of their own kind.
Meanwhile, Padrec returns to receive the See of Ireland. He scandalizes the clergy by wearing a cross, rather than the Chi-Rho. He defends his choice:
Padrec touched the cross. "Call it my last heresy. Rome need never know."
"Not from me at any rate," Meganius promised. "Why, Sochet?"
Padrec had settled unconsciously into that stillness never learned in Auxerre. "Do you think it is Christ's death I remember in this?"
Meganius remembered Malgon and eloquent pictures in the earth. "No, I suppose not."
"Chi-Rho is Christ in symbol. It was on that dirty cross that I saw the reality. What He tried to say and how we are made to hear it. Some of us. Better men than me. From the cross it was that I was taught. It is not for other men but myself."
The novel ends with an exerpt from a letter to the Virginia Company, London, on the vanishment of the Roanoak Colony, September, 1652:
Thus far I digress only to return to the surer of my argument, that the vanished company most certainly met them and knew their name which falleth on the ear as CRUATHAN and is writ in English as CROATAN ....
The conflicts in The Last Rainbow are conflicts of faith and survival, which are closely meshed for the disappearing race of Prydn. Their acquired faith in God helps them to survive, although many of them die in the name of their faith. It is a classic theme of one race wiping out another because of superficial differences of culture and belief.
The point of view is third person omniscient, allowing thoughts to be understood. This is very important, since the Prydn have some telepathy with the animals, and have several conversations of the telepathic variety. It is also important for the sake of the many visions and dreams, about half of which foretell the coming of Arthur, and the rest of which lead to the fhain's journey to Tir-Nan-Og.
The main characters are well-formed, and they interact very realistically. They change as their circumstances change, and each has a definite personality. The characters behave as natives of Roman Britain and pre-Arthurian Pictland would behave, rather than with the Renaissance attributes usually given to characters in tales of that period.
The greatest irony is the wealth - both material and spiritual - of the Prydn, who are conquered by the more civilized, and more barbaric, Roman-Britons. Their gold and their faith cannot save them from the larger, more modern men who fill their island.
The setting, as with others of Parke Godwin's novels, is very historically accurate. It is vividly described, and it ties in directly with the story. It seems that no aspect of the setting is out of place.
The language of the novel is simplistically beautiful and realistic. The archaic overtones make the speeches seem like songs, while not using unnecessary verbage. There are few metaphores, and there is little figurative language; the pictures in the words are painted with description and emotion, not with word games.
I like every part of The Last Rainbow. It is a beautiful, poetic ending to a very realistic trilogy about the misty past of the British peoples. I rate it as a ten or better on a scale of one to ten, and recommend it highly for its historical, poetic, and narrative qualities. The entire trilogy is a must for students of early British history and lore.
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