The Virgin In The Ice (1993)
This wonderful mystery set is already here at Times Past in a copy from the original broadcast at 32K and is from 1993. This wonderful new copy is at 128K and from BBC Radio 4 Extra.
It is Written by Ellis Peters; a full-cast dramatisation starring Philip Madoc as Brother Cadfael, with Sir Michael Hordern as "The Narrator" and Douglas Hodge as "Hugh Beringar"
The Virgin in the Ice is a medieval mystery novel set in the late autumn and winter of 1139 by Ellis Peters, first published in 1982. It was Brother Cadfael is a Benedictine monk at Shrewsbury Abbey. In his youth, he has been on Crusade, has been a seaman and lived for some years in Syria, but is content in his middle years with the cloistered life. The novel is set during The Anarchy, when England is in the grip of civil war between the factions of King Stephen and the Empress Matilda. The Empress's armies have attacked and pillaged Worcester. Among the many refugees were two noble children in the Benedictine Order's care, and a nun who was in charge of them, but they have since vanished. The childrens' uncle, Lawrence d'Angers, who has recently returned from the Holy Land to enter the Empress's service, seeks leave to enter the King's lands to search for them, but he is refused permission by the King's officer in Shrewsbury, Sheriff Gilbert Prescote.
As the first snowstorms of winter sweep the countryside, Prior Leonard of the Benedictine Priory at Bromfield near Ludlow asks for Brother Cadfael, who is a skilled physician and apothecary, to tend a monk there who has been waylaid by robbers, beaten and stabbed. At Bromfield, the injured man, Brother Elyas, babbles about a party of refugees which might well be those sought. Cadfael rides out into the snow-covered countryside to search for them and finds one of the children, thirteen year old Yves Hugonin, sheltering with a forester. As they ride back to Bromfield through the evening, Yves tells Cadfael that he, his elder sister Ermina and her tutor, Sister Hilaria, had been staying at the smallholding of John Druel. The headstrong Ermina eloped with a lover some nights previously. When Yves tried to follow, he became lost in the woods. Sister Hilaria is presumably safe with Druel.
As they cross a frozen stream, Cadfael sees the body of a young woman frozen into the ice, and fears that it is that of Ermina, so conceals his discovery from Yves. At Bromfield, Cadfael finds that his friend, Deputy Sheriff Hugh Beringar, has arrived to help search for the missing children, and reports his distressing find to him.
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Replies
Rick -
Thanks so much for such fine offerings. I truly appreciate them and they make my days.
Bob