Killing Hares

I came across this book because it was being promoted by the Welsh Women in Publishing group on Facebook. Then I saw that the author, E M Duffield-Fuller, was doing an event at a local bookshop in Llandeilo, so I went along to meet her. I’m glad I did.

In some ways Killing Hares is a strange book. The cover screams romantasy at you. The publishers (a Welsh feminist small press) are marketing it as mainstream fiction. It is neither of these things. It is a fine piece of feminist fantasy about the difficulty of being the village witch.

Cerys is a huder (pronounced heeder), a worker of magics who, if the need arises, can call upon the power of the land to protect her village. The only trouble is that such powerful magic is likely to be fatal. Cerys’s mother died when the warlord known as the Iron Crow brought a dragon into their valley, causing young Cerys to have to grow into her role with no mentor.

Years later, the Iron Crow is still a threat, but Cerys is chafing against the restrictions of her role. Most importantly, for her to have a successor, she must have a girl child. Cerys has no desire to marry any of the young men of the village. Marrying an outsider would be unthinkable. And the village elders are getting impatient.

The village of Mervale is not actually in Wales. The book is set in an alternate world. But if you think of the nearby big town of Hardritch as Cardiff, and the Iron Crow as the English, it is all very familiar. Besides, Cerys is a Welsh name and huder is pronounced as if it is written in Welsh. Also there are some locations in the book that are familiar to anyone who knows Aberystwyth, which is where EM Duffield-Fuller lives. (She’s doing a doctorate in Literature at the university.)

Because the book is not set in our world, it does not need to be set in a specific historical period, but it feels quite 19th Century. The Iron Crow’s people are experts in metal magic, which leads to industrialization. Also the social attitudes of people in Mervale seem quite Victorian to me.

The plot revolves around the fact that the Iron Crow is once again seeking to extend his power to encompass Mervale. There is a spy active near the village and he has been setting magical traps for unwary locals. Meanwhile Cerys finds a young girl called Thraigthe who appears to be a runaway slave of the enemy. She takes the girl in with a view of making her an apprentice. The villagers, of course, are suspicious of any outsider, and with the looming threat the need to get Cerys pregnant seems very urgent to some.

I really like the way that the book portrayed small village politics, and the way in which it makes clear that what really matters is what sort of person you are. Someone whose family has lived in the village for generations can be a monster, while an outsider newly come to the community can be a good person. The book also makes the point that it doesn’t matter how important and powerful a young woman is, some men will still see her as someone whom they can order about and use as they see fit. In the book, at least, they come to regret those attitudes.

Title: Killing Hares
By: E M Duffield-Fuller
Publisher: Honno
Purchase links:
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Bookshop.org UK
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