There are dual stories artfully told in Gudrun’s Tapestry: one of a wild woman who would dare to enter into Attila’s camp, thereby to deal with the consequences of her actions ,and the heartrending story of the unimaginable grief that drove her to such rash behavior.
Gudrun and Sigurd’s love story becomes star-crossed with the appearance of Brunhild, an achingly beautiful valkyria who manages through her divine runes -- or perhaps just her womanly wiles -- to bewitch Gudrun. She does this despite (or perhaps because of) Gudrun and Sigurd’s marriage and her own marriage to Gunner, Gudrun’s brother.
While it is a bit disconcerting to get involved in the plot of that story only to have it break off and switch to the other of Gudrun’s revenge, most of the pacing mechanics are well-handled. The characters are written so that the reader can visualize Brunhild’s beauty, Sigurd’s torment, and Gudrun’s anguish. The character Edeco is equally well-formed so that we feel his loyalty being torn asunder and wonder up to the last page which side he will ultimately choose. The emotions the characters depict are so charged with heat that they nearly leap from the page to burn the reader’s hand.
This novel has everything: pathos, romance, intrigue, violence, and sex. The attention to historical detail is impressive. The mark of a good novel is whether it transports the reader to the time and place in which it is set. Gudrun’s Tapestry does that and does it well.