Brother Cadfael - The Virgin in the Ice

Brother Cadfael - The Virgin in the Ice
by Sebastian Graham Jones

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Movie Reviews of Brother Cadfael - The Virgin in the Ice

Movie Review: One of Cadfael's best cases...
Summary: 5 Stars

The time is the mid-1100s. Queen Maude and King Stephen, first cousins who each claim the throne of England, have divided the land in Civil War. "The Virgin in the Ice" is set in the town of Shrewsbury England, near the border with Wales. Brother Cadfael (Jacobi) is an ex-Crusader, who in his old age has become a member of the Abby of Saints Peter and Paul. When he was as a Crusader, Cadfael acquired the knowledge healing from Miriam, a woman he knew in the Holy Land (and the Biblical sense). He ministers to the monks at the abbey, the town folks, and any others who may need his services.

One bleak mid-winter night, Cadfael's young assistant is found half frozen on a road near the abbey. He has been badly beaten and is semicomotose from a skull fracture. Cadfael nurses him back from death's door. Meanwhile, Brother Jerome, the abbey "snitch" and troublemaker overhears Cadfael's assistant ranting about a woman. Brother Jerome jumps to the conclusion the young man has done something very bad. The young monk had been in the company of a young noble woman and her tutor a young nun when last seen. Now he has been found alone. What could possibly have happened?

Cadfael, being a careful and sensible monk does not jump to conclusions. He goes in search of clues. In the process of tracking footprints in the snow, and other traces of the party of travelers, Cadfael stumbles on a young boy who says he was overrun by brigands and separated from his sister and her tutor. Cadfael discovers the boy is the son of a nobleman loyal to Queen Maude's side of the civil dispute. En route back to the abbey, while crossing a stream, Cadfael spots a face peering up at him from the frozen water--a virgin in the ice.

The rest of the story Cadfael tries to determine what happened. How did the young woman die? Who killed her? Where is the sister and where is the nun? Was the party attacked by King Stephen's loyalists? Was it attacked by a rebel band of ex-Crusaders who have become thieves and highwaymen? Did the young monk attack the women? How does the young nobelwoman's fiance figure into the equasion. And then, there's the mysterious young man with an olive complexion who was clearly a Crusader, and has orders to bring the young man and woman to a preselected destination south of Shrewsbury.

"The Virgin in the Ice" was one of the best of the dramatizations of one of the best of Ellis Peters 20 volume series on Cadfael.

Summary of Brother Cadfael - The Virgin in the Ice