I just started rereading Daughter of the Forest again, and I have thoughts:
Finbar’s speech to Colum (and also his words to Sorcha) about trying to understand your enemy and make peace with them is so relevant, and I love how the Warrior Bards and Shadowfell series show this theme as well.
Colum really is a terrible father. He only pays attention to his sons once they’re finally old enough to take part in his campaigns. And his treatment of Finbar is abusive. Not to mention he’s been ignoring Sorcha and doesn’t even know how old she is. I know it’s because of his grief and trauma re Niamh’s death, but it doesn’t excuse his terrible parenting.
I love Sorcha, but her thinking Eilis is boring because she doesn’t like the same things as Sorcha is so unfair? Eilis seems like a really nice girl, her not liking to run around and play in the forest doesn’t make her a bad person. Even Oonagh dismisses her. Justice for Eilis!
“Padriac will go farther than any of us” is such good foreshadowing, I love it so much.
The whole period where Sorcha is looking after Simon is so interesting, because it’s clearly a turning point for her and marks the beginning of Sorcha’s loss of innocence and end of her childhood. Before meeting Simon, Sorcha very much is innocent and optimistic like a child usually is, and once she sees what the Sevenwaters men have done to Simon and hears what they do to other people on their campaigns, there is no going back. She can’t go back to pretending that darkness and cruelty don’t exist in the world.
And then we come to Lady Oonagh. Oonagh is such a great villain, so cold and manipulative and deceptive. The way she managed to bewitch Lord Colum and Diarmid is so 😭. I wonder how Diarmid managed to get under her sway though when all of his other siblings were able to resist her?
The way Oonagh asks questions to Sorcha about the brothers and Sorcha is compelled to answer is creepy. It looks like she’s gathering information to use against the Sevenwaters siblings, especially the brothers.
It’s interesting how, though Finbar talks of understanding the Britons and how they are people, he is extremely quick to judge Simon and assume he intends some harm by giving Sorcha the wooden carving. He is right though that destroying the carving would probably be the safest course of action, especially with Lady Oonagh around now.
Padriac’s such a friend to all animals. I love his outrage when seeing Linn’s injury. It’s so sweet. :’) Also him being furious with Cormack over it.
Poor Cormack. You can tell that he’s devastated and ashamed that he hurt his beloved dog.
Oonagh killing all of Padriac’s animals hurts me more than anything else she does before she turns the brothers into swans. Mainly because she never intended to murder Eilis or Linn, but she murdered Padriac’s beloved animals knowing how it would break his heart. It’s the cruelest thing she’s done so far.
