Blurb
from the first edition (1984)
It is 3000 BC. The cult of the Earth Goddess is controlled throughout the vast empire of Europe by the secretive and unscrupulous Red Order, the priesthood which manipulates all power for its own ends. The land that is now called England has been annexed and its lord, Brennis Gehan Fifth, betrayed and murdered. The Lady Altheme, his consort, has escaped to the forest. She is carrying his son, Paoul, rightful inheritor of the Valdoe domain.
But his inheritance is usurped by his illegitimate half-brother. Ignorant of his parentage, Paoul is orphaned, sold into the priesthood, and sent to the mainland citadel for instruction. His teachers predict a great destiny for him. Only later, beyond the point of no return, do his doubts begin ...
This remarkable novel, complete in itself, follows The Stone Arrow and The Flint Lord and concludes The Pagans, a trilogy whose theme finds form in Paoul's disillusionment and in his illicit passion for his half-brother's wife, the gentle and beautiful girl who becomes for him the true Goddess of the Earth. The story of their love races to a climax of tragedy that signals devastating consequences for the evil men of the priesthood and the empire.
I have a soft spot for this book. After The Flint
Lord I read a good deal more about the late neolithic, particularly
with respect to the achievements of Stonehenge and Newgrange. These are the
works of a sophisticated priestly class, with a highly developed religion.
The Earth Goddess is a speculation about that.
The Bronze Age is just beginning; so too are the profound, far-reaching, and ultimately disastrous consequences of the invention of agriculture.
Synopsis: October 1981
Final draft: March
1984
Editor at William Heinemann: Amanda Conquy
Publication: October
1984
Revised for electronic publication: January 2008
Extent: 73,653
words
William Heinemann, London, hardback,
1984 Reviews of paper-based editions
William
Morrow, New York, hardback, 1985
Grafton, London, paperback, 1986 (omnibus
edition of The Pagans)
Ballantine Books, New York, paperback,
1987
Publishers' Weekly
Love, religion and destiny intermingle in a strong plot in which a young man realizes his special powers and difficult choices.
Midwest Book Review
One book that manages to get away from the beaten track is The Earth Goddess by Richard Herley ... The first two books in the Pagans trilogy were a gripping vision of pre-history, a brutal forest world of ambush and enslavement. The cult of the Goddess now grips the land, operated by the sinister Red Order, a kind of sacerdotal Krypteia whose methods of indoctrination blend Zen with the public school ethos, while a young hand-picked novice begins to smell the truth.
Observer
... a combination of archeological speculation and rich imagination ...
Roanoke Times & World News
The portrayals of village dwellings, religious ceremonies and ancient culture are well done and convincing.
The Tennessean
This is not a novel which insults the reader with glib action scenes, and its sense of daily household detail is a steady delight. Commendable.
Kirkus Reviews
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