Talan and the Welsh Boy

In the sixth century much of Europe was under great upheaval. The end of the Roman Empire meant that vacuums of power were being filled by Saxons, Angles, Vikings and other tribes. On the far west of the world the remaining Celts lived in the last of their isolation. Cornwall, Wales, Brittany, Ireland and Galicia were all similar communities with a relatively peaceful existence, the only invasion being that of the new faith, and the early Saints who preached a quiet asceticism and simple life.

Among the new communities Talan is living as a medic, instructed in the arts by both the old druidic system and the churches tuition he treads a fine path between those of the old and new faith.

In this introductory Novella, we find Talan after he has left the community at Hartland after the death of St Nectan. After treating Nectans sister Morwenna, he is instructed to treat a young boy with an illness in an isolated community high on the moor. His skills and deduction are tested severely in the difficult situation he finds there.