A few months ago I posted a blog about The Darkland Tales – a series of six novellas written by different, contemporary, bestselling Scottish authors, who each re-imagine stories from Scottish history, myth and legend. At the time of writing I’d only read three of the six, but enjoyed each of them hugely. So much so, in fact, that I recently tracked down Columba’s Bones by David Greig, which was published in October 2024. And you know what? It’s just as good as the others.
David Greig is a well-known Scottish dramatist, playwright and theatre director who, after eight years as Artistic Director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, stepped down in October 2024 to focus on “writing, directing and other literary projects”.
This story starts on the beach of Iona in 825 AD. On Iona there are a number of peasants, and a rich monastery of monks guarding and celebrating their relic, a bone from Saint Columba, who came to Iona from Ireland some 200 years earlier.
On this lovely spring morning a sail is sighted from the beach, far too close, and it’s a red sail. Red sails belong to the Vikings from Shetland, and their sail means only one thing: a raid.
All too quickly these raiders overwhelm the island, dealing out robbery, rape and murder. The men of the island are slain; the women captured as slaves; and the monks put to torture to reveal the whereabouts of the relic in its silver case. They monks all refuse, and so all are killed. And one old Viking who has been killed is buried in shallow grave on Iona while the rest of the raiding party leave disgruntled, having been deprived of the silver.
After these astonishingly brutal first 20-pages the book changes tone. The only people to have survived the raid are the woman who had been making mead and a young monk who had hidden in the outhouse pit … as well as the Viking, who turns out to be not dead. Over the following gentle summer months, the three manage to rub along, and gradually the Viking comes to see that there could be more to life than pillage, rape and murder. There’s a gentle woman; there are bees, the heather and the mead; and although he searches half-heartedly for the relic, he doesn’t find it.
Autumn comes, and the red sail is sighted again, and with it the prospect of more blood-curdling brutality. How the three survive and the raiders are defeated I will not reveal. Let’s just say that it’s both poignant and darkly funny.
My verdict
Columba’s Bones is a great little book, beautifully written, almost lyrical. The switch from the early brutality to the later idyllic summer is shockingly abrupt, but very clever. And the dread when the sail is again sighted is felt both by the three on the island and the reader. This may be a quick read but it’s a really good one. I loved it. 4+ Stars.
Review by: Freyja
PS: If you want to read more about the other Darkland Tales I’ve enjoyed, you can find my original blog here.
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