Taliesen

Taliesen is the druid of the Hawk Queen books, described in The Hawk Eternal as the last of the gatekeepers: the men who know how to open the Gates between times and between versions of the world. He is very old, a thousand years by that novel's reckoning, and his long view sets him apart from the clansmen around him, who think in terms of cattle and feuds. In The Hawk Eternal he sees the Aenir threat coming before most of the Farlain are willing to accept it, and his knowledge of the Gates offers the clans a way out that nobody else could. He is also puzzled, as the reader is for a while, by the arrival of Sigarni, the Hawk Queen, in a land that is not quite her own. He has a smaller part in Ironhand's Daughter, where he acts as a guide rather than a lead. He is a supporting figure more than a hero, but much of the strangeness in both books comes through him.

Appears in

1. 1Ironhand's Daughter (1995)The last of the highland royal line is a wild, selfish young huntress. The Outlanders who rule her country are about to give her a reason to lead.
2. 2The Hawk Eternal (1995)In another version of the highlands, a clansman thief sees the Aenir invasion coming before anyone will listen. The Hawk Queen is a visitor here.