Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings. Today’s post is a book review of the book Red Tree, White Tree: Faeries and Humans in Partnership by Wendy Berg. This is a book that had been on my to-read list for a while, and I was delighted to purchase it as the first book added to my Farey Library with the proceeds from my Patreon!
The book has a very interesting premise, looking at the Ladies of the Arthuriad as Faery in origin, Guinevere being the particular focus. There is a lot of delving into biblical tales and how Faery lore and Christianity overlap, which I found very intriguing, as we know how entwined they became due to the Christianization of lands that believed in the Fae, especially Celtic lands. I also enjoyed the parallels examined between Arthurian legends, Faery lore, and the Middle-Earth works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
However, I will state that while I did enjoy this book, I had some issues with how certain aspects were examined. There is a great focus placed on the interconnection between Faeries and humans, which I really like. However, there was some rather odd conjecture about how Faery and human blood may intermingle, bringing some science into the spiritual topic in a strange way. While I am all for using scientific knowledge to corroborate a spiritual theory that is being posited, this seemed to point to Faeries having white blood and humans having red blood, and that would make human blood hazardous to Faeries. It also included some of the combination of stellar origins among the stars for being the reason for the Fae having white blood. I found the connection between Christian lore, Faery lore, the science of blood, and star lore to not quite fit. It seemed almost like a theory that was not fully fleshed out, leading it to be confusing! That being said, I do think the concept may be intriguing if it was more well-rounded. I do believe that there is a long history of Faeries and humans having children together, and there is a large amount of folkloric evidence to back that up, so that is part of why these claims seemed so weird to me.
Now, I did love the deep exploration of Arthurian Romances throughout different eras and how they can be examined for their hidden Faery insights! That is what I wanted out of this book, and it did deliver that very well. I know that I will read the author’s other book, which is sort of a sequel to this one, still focused on Guinevere and her Faery nature but deepening into the lore a bit more. I am glad I read this one first, as it was published first, and I can understand the baseline of the author’s beliefs on the subject.
I do know from people who have read the second book that there are some other aspects of her beliefs that I will not jive with (similar to the blood things in this one), namely a truly baffling assertion that the Fae are not sexual! I cannot say exactly what her claims are, as I have not read the book yet, but I have seen that aspect discussed in some of the Facebook groups I participate in. It does make me want to know more, as I know the Fae to be very sexual indeed, as they so embody the wildness of nature! But, maybe just like the odd Faery and human blood discussions, I can take what is beneficial and leave behind that which does not seem accurate to me.
I would recommend this book to anyone with a keen love of Arthurian legend and Faery lore. I hope you have enjoyed this review. Have you read this book? Do you want to read it now? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Side Note: My Patreon members had early access to this post, as I posted this very same review on Patreon two days early! So, if you are interested in bonus content and occasional early access to content, please consider joining!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is the book cover. I found the image on https://www.amazon.com/Red-Tree-White-Faeries-Partnership/dp/1908011068.
LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: https://patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
Further Reading
- Red Tree, White Tree: Faeries and Humans in Partnership by Wendy Berg