This novel finds its roots in Arthurian legends, specifically the medieval folktale, The Wedding of Dame Ragnell and Sir Gawain – a reversal of the well-known fairytale, Beauty and the Beast. In this retelling of the story, the Beast is the real Beauty.
The Roman Empire has retreated from the British Isles, and the old druidic ways are losing ground to the new Christian faith. The dragons that once protected the kingdom have vanished or been enslaved. They are on the verge of becoming a thing of myth, even for the weavers from the Isle of Skye who knew them best.
In this world, Ragnell, the daughter of a great lord, destined for marriage, falls prey to a terrible curse on the night of her fifteenth birthday, which transforms her from a beautiful maiden into a hideous beast. Reviled by those she loves the most, she escapes into the woods where she manages to survive for years, alone. Plagued by despair and moved by deep dreams, she seeks the help of the great druid, Myrddin Emrys, to discover who did this to her, why it happened, and whether solving a riddle to save King Arthur’s life will help unmake the curse that befell her. In the process, she learns to navigate the magical and political landscape of the times. And more importantly, she comes to understand that in order to be her whole human self she cannot fully abandon the beast she has become – or the dragons she has come to know – and that letting go of who she is to fit into a society that scorns and censures female agency may not be a bargain she is willing to make.
“Richly imagined and alive with the strangeness of a world caught between the old gods and the new, Ragnell, The Woman Who Was a Beast is a retelling that is magically an original. Drawing on the medieval tale of Dame Ragnell and Sir Gawain, Raïna gives us a story in which the beast is the real beauty, and female agency is not a flaw to be corrected but a power to be reckoned with. Raïna’s truest subject may be older than Arthurian legend and true more so today and asks the question, what does it cost a woman to choose herself?”
-Valerie Johns, author, Ashes in the Milk and Night Flights: The Poetry of Soul Retrieval
