The Hedgewitch of Foxhall

by Anna Bright

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 389
Rating:

Synopsis:

Ffion is the last hedgewitch in Foxhall. To work her magic, she takes only what nature can spare, unlike the witches of the powerful Foxhall coven, who sacrifice whole forests to fuel their spells. But across the warring kingdoms of Wales, all magic is fading. Even the dragons have vanished.

Prince Taliesin would love nothing more than to watch magic die. But when his father charges Tal and his brother, Dafydd, with destroying King Offa’s dyke—the massive earthen wall raised by their Mercian enemies to the east, which may be the cause of magic’s disappearance—he begrudgingly seeks aid from a witch.

Because whichever prince succeeds in destroying the dyke will win the throne, and Tal is willing to do whatever it takes to become king. Even if the Foxhall coven refuses to help him. Even if he’s forced to team up with a spitfire hedgewitch who hates him almost as much as he hates her magic. And even if Dafydd proves to be a worthier rival than he anticipated…for the crown, and for Ffion’s heart.

Anna Bright’s The Hedgewitch of Foxhall caught my attention because it’s set in a historical-fantasy Wales, with Offa’s dyke presenting a huge problem because it affects magic. The main characters are Ffion, Taliesin and Dafydd, and yes… there’s a love triangle, alas.

In many ways it’s a very typical quest narrative, not very surprising, but the very Welsh setting adds some grounding to it. I mostly enjoyed that aspect, though I wasn’t always absolutely certain about the Welsh stuff. (E.g. does it make sense to ask another Welsh person, in Welsh, if they feel hiraeth, and then have to define hiraeth? Well… maybe, yeah, maybe you just hear the word and you don’t really know the full definition other than “homesickness, sort of”, so I’ll give it a pass. It did feel more like Welsh people speaking in English, though — I have absolutely asked another Welsh person if they feel hiraeth, and been asked too.) The historical grounding was probably all over the place, but I actually don’t know that much about that sort of period or Offa’s dyke, so that all got a pass from me, even though it might annoy others to no end.

There are some interesting concepts and interesting ways of handling the witchcraft, plus the various magical creatures; nothing groundbreaking, though I liked the fact that it was based on folksy songs etc. My main quibble was the constant POV-switching, and the love triangle. I just wasn’t into it and didn’t really believe in it as-given.

Warning: the pet fox Cadno dies in the first few chapters. It’s story relevant, and it’s not all it appears (trying not to spoiler), but Ffion grieves intensely, so it’s worth knowing about.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)