Peter Tremayne

• Born: March 10, 1943
• Place of Birth: Coventry, Warwickshire, England

TYPES OF PLOT: Historical; amateur sleuth

PRINCIPAL SERIES: Sister Fidelma, 1993-

Contribution

Before turning to the mystery genre as Peter Tremayne, Peter Berresford Ellis had written dozens of books, primarily biographical and critical works under his own name or fiction (principally war and fantasy novels) under pseudonyms. Although respected as a scholar in England and Ireland, he did not win wide international popularity until he embarked on his Sister Fidelma series in 1993 with four short stories introducing the Irish nun. The series, at over thirty-two volumes, continues into the mid-2020s. 

The Fidelma stories introduced the author, as Peter Tremayne, to an international audience. The Fidelma series proved especially popular in the United States, where the International Sister Fidelma Society was established in 2001. The society publishes a magazine, The Brehon, about the author and Fidelma-related matters. In September 2006, Féile Fidelma, the first international conference on the Sister Fidelma stories, was held at Cashel, Ireland.

The Sister Fidelma stories occupy a unique position in mystery writing. They have a seventh-century Irish setting, detailed historical context, reflections of early Irish Christianity, and a protagonist who seems both historically credible and engagingly modern in her attitudes and attributes.

An occasional reviewer has complained that Tremayne idealizes early Celtic society, but most critical responses have been positive. Overall, the historical dimensions of the stories have been viewed as accurate and essential to the series' success.

Biography

Peter Tremayne was born Peter Berresford Ellis on March 10, 1943, in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, to Alan J. Ellis and Eva Daisy Randell Ellis. Peter most likely inherited his interest in writing from his father, a journalist who began his career writing for the Cork Examiner and also wrote for the pulp market. The family’s extensive Celtic ancestry may have contributed to Ellis’s lifelong interest in Celtic history and culture.

Ellis earned a Bachelor’s degree with first-class honors and a Master’s in Celtic studies at the Brighton College of Art and the University of East London. He initially chose a career in journalism, starting as a junior reporter for the weekly Brighton Herald in 1960. He became deputy editor of the Irish Post in 1970 and editor of Newsagent & Bookshop in 1974. In 1966, he married Dorothea P. Cheesmur.

Ellis published his first book, Wales—A Nation Again! The Nationalist Struggle for Freedom, in 1968. The book recounts Wales’s struggles for freedom and previews its author’s lifelong interest in Celtic political, historical, and cultural matters. Those interests continued to appear in several books that he wrote in the 1970s.

By 1975, Ellis had established himself as primarily a professional writer rather than a journalist. He continued to write extensively on Celtic culture, including Celtic Women: Women in Celtic Society and Literature (1996), which reflects the scholarship on Celtic women that Ellis would also draw on for his Sister Fidelma mysteries. Biographical works, including accounts of the lives of the British adventurers and popular writers Henry Rider Haggard, Captain W. E. Johns, and Talbot Mundy (William Gribbon), undoubtedly helped him learn how to create a fully realized character who could retain the readers’ interest.

Ellis began his career as a novelist in the 1970s, writing principally horror and fantasy novels and short stories under the pseudonym Peter Tremayne. These forays into popular literature included three Dracula novels and the Lan-Kern trilogy. In addition to other novels in the horror and fantasy genres, Ellis, under the pseudonym Peter MacAlan, published eight adventure novels primarily set in World War II, beginning with The Judas Battalion (1983) and concluding with The Windsor Protocol (1993).

By 1993, Ellis, as Peter Tremayne, was ready to embark on another genre, the mystery novel, which would bring him to a far larger audience than his previous writings. He published four short stories featuring Sister Fidelma. The London publisher Headline then offered a three-book contract for novels starring the mystery-solving nun. The first book of the series, Absolution by Murder: A Sister Fidelma Mystery, appeared in 1994. Since 1994, his writing has primarily consisted of scholarly studies of Celtic culture and the Sister Fidelma stories. By the mid-2020s, Tremayne had completed thirty-two Sister Fidelma stories and had cemented plans to continue publishing them. The fandom surrounding the Sister Fidelma mysteries also remained robust. The International Sister Fidelma Society is a group of avid series readers who promote the books and discuss their contents. The fan magazine, "The Brehon," also continued to be published. Sister Fidelma conferences are held every two years in Cashel, Ireland. With plans to continue publishing the series, fans remained enthralled by Tremayne’s ability to weave cultural and historical events into a mystery narrative. 

Analysis

Peter Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma stories are successful because they combine several elements: a fully realized hero, a historical context that permits her to function as both a religious person and a detective, and mysteries that engage the reader as they attract the interest of Fidelma. The stories typically integrate these elements effectively.

Tremayne persuasively depicts the substantial rights accorded Irish women in the seventh century. Fidelma’s education at the bardic school at Tara to the level of anruth, one degree below the highest level possible, and her profession as a dálaigh, or advocate, of the Brehon Court thus appear convincing within the narratives and also give her access to the world of crime. Contributing to Fidelma’s ability to move freely at the highest levels of Irish society is her royal status as a sister to the Muman king, Colgú.

Although a nun, Fidelma is sexually experienced, acknowledging in Shroud for the Archbishop: A Sister Fidelma Mystery (1995) a number of earlier affairs. In Act of Mercy: A Celtic Mystery (1999), she encounters her first lover, and throughout the series, she progresses in her relationship with Brother Eadulf from a partner in solving crimes to friend, lover, wife, and mother of Eadulf’s child. All of this is possible for Fidelma because the seventh-century Celtic church, as the stories often remind readers, did not require celibacy for religious vocations.

Fidelma is very much a transitional woman in an age not far removed from the pre-Christian world of Druids and in which many remnants of the old ways still persisted. In at least two novels (Shroud for the Archbishop and Suffer Little Children: A Sister Fidelma Mystery, 1995), for example, she practices dercad, the ancient Druidic form of meditation. In addition, she eschews the type of individual confession to a priest favored by the Roman church, instead taking a soul-friend, or anamchara, who serves as her confidant, spiritual guide, and personal confessor.

Tremayne’s use of historical events, including the Synod of Whitby (664), and depiction of such seventh-century cultural artifacts as beehive huts, the clepsydra (a water clock), hanging leather satchels used for storing manuscripts in monastery libraries, and texts written in the Ogham alphabet add to the appeal of the Fidelma stories.

The mysteries confronting Sister Fidelma challenge her intellectually and often place her in physical danger. Brother Eadulf assists Fidelma but inevitably proves far less perceptive than she. Fidelma’s recognition of the uncomfortable position in which her superior talents place Eadulf contributes to the psychological realism that characterizes the account of their relationship. Once Fidelma and Eadulf have a son, she also recognizes her ambivalence toward the maternal role, which gets in the way of her original love, the law. These internal conflicts help readers see Fidelma not only as a seventh-century woman but also as a woman of their own time.

Absolution by Murder

The first Sister Fidelma novel, Absolution by Murder (1994), is set during the Synod of Whitby that Oswy, king of Northumbria, called in 664 to settle disputes between the Roman and Celtic churches. Several murders occur during the gathering, and Fidelma, a member of the Celtic delegation, answers Oswy’s request to solve them. She reluctantly agrees to Oswy’s suggestion that she work with the Saxon Brother Eadulf to give the investigation a greater sense of impartiality, beginning a relationship that continues throughout the series.

Fidelma carries out her sleuthing among several other historical personages who, along with the synod itself, create a pattern of historical context and verisimilitude that Tremayne followed throughout the series.

The novel also established Tremayne’s practice of linkage between novels. The immediate plot of a specific novel is brought to a definitive resolution through Fidelma’s investigative efforts. Still, the conclusion also typically leads the reader to anticipate what will come next. In this first novel, Brother Wighard appears as the designated successor to the current archbishop of Canterbury, but in the second novel, Shroud for the Archbishop, Wighard is murdered. At the end of the first book, Fidelma receives word that she is to go to Rome on behalf of her religious order, making her available to be called on to solve the mystery when Wighard is killed.

Suffer Little Children

Suffer Little Children (1995) moves the personal story of Sister Fidelma forward at the same time that she solves yet another crime, in this case, the murder of a highly respected scholar named Dacán, which could embroil her home kingdom of Muman in a serious dispute with the kingdom of Laigin. The king of Muman is dying of the yellow plague (later known as yellow fever) and has instructed Fidelma’s brother, Colgú, his successor, to send for her to investigate the murder.

The novel continues Tremayne’s practice of informing the reader about life in Celtic Ireland, explaining how a king and his successor, known as the tánaiste, was chosen. Fidelma’s investigation at the abbey of Ros Ailithir, the site of the murder, leads her to the library where Dacán had spent much of his time and provides readers with information on the making and storing of books as well as on the Ogham alphabet in which texts were written on wooden wands.

The novel establishes the close bond between brother and sister that will be evident throughout the series. The absence of Brother Eadulf allows readers to focus on the sibling relationship, although Eadulf returns to Fidelma’s life in the next novel, The Subtle Serpent: A Sister Fidelma Mystery (1996).

Act of Mercy

Act of Mercy finds Fidelma in a period of uncertainty. She is questioning her feelings about Eadulf and her role as a nun. She goes on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Saint James in present-day Spain to sort out her feelings.

Onboard the ship carrying Fidelma to the continent, she discovers that a murder has been committed, one that she resolutely sets out to solve. Also on the voyage is Cian, who seduced the young Fidelma years before and then abandoned her. As a psychological exploration of Fidelma, the novel is especially interesting and marks a critical juncture in her life. She can see Cian for what he is now and bring closure to that period of her life. As she acknowledges to herself that Cian no longer has any hold on her, she thinks of Eadulf and realizes that, in some way, he has been with her on her entire voyage.

At that moment, Fidelma reads a message from her brother urging her to return to Cashel quickly. Eadulf has been arrested and charged with murder. Fidelma does return in the next novel, Our Lady of Darkness: A Novel of Ancient Ireland (2000). Her rescue of Eadulf will propel the two together, although Fidelma will still have many moments of uncertainty regarding their relationship.

Principal Series Characters:

• Sister Fidelma is a seventh-century Irish nun, daughter of a former king of Cashel, and sister to the current ruler. A dálaigh, or advocate of the Irish law courts, she has the power to gather evidence, ascertain whether a crime has been committed, and identify the criminal. She is a highly educated and strong-willed individual capable of answering the call to investigate mysteries at home and abroad.
• Brother Eadulf, a young Saxon monk, begins a professional collaboration with Fidelma early in the series. As the series progresses, he and Fidelma develop a close friendship and, finally, a love relationship that leads to marriage and parenthood. The relationship, which Fidelma has trouble balancing with her professional life, causes turbulence throughout the series.
• Colgú, the brother of Sister Fidelma and son of former Muman king Faílbe Fland mac Aedo, ascends to the throne of Cashel, the seat of Muman. At times, he is nothing more than part of Fidelma’s background; in other books, he plays an important role within the plot, either as an active participant or in his role as king, initiating or being the object of actions that ultimately involve his sister.

Bibliography

Chadwick, Nora. The Celts. Rev. ed., New York: Penguin Books, 1997.

“The Fascination for Sister Fidelma.” Historical Novel Society, 17 Mar. 2024, historicalnovelsociety.org/the-fascination-for-sister-fidelma. Accessed 24 July 2024.

Luehrs, Christiane W., and Robert B. Luehrs. “Peter Tremayne: Sister Fidelma and the Triumph of Truth.” In The Detective as Historian: History and Art in Historical Crime Fiction, edited by Ray B. Browne and Lawrence A. Kreiser, Jr. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 2000.

Mathews, Caitlín. The Elements of the Celtic Tradition. Boston: Element Books, 1991.

Rielly, Edward J. “Sister Fidelma: A Woman for All Seasons.” The Brehon: Journal of the International Sister Fidelma Society, vol. 3, no. 2, May 2004, pp. 3-13.

Sister Fidelma Mysteries - Official Website, www.sisterfidelma.com/main.htm. Accessed 24 July 2024.