Count what matters
Gwenhwyfar is introduced in the novel’s character guide as an eighteen-year-old king’s daughter of Gwent who keeps accounts with tally-sticks.
The detail is worth holding beside the familiar name. Accounting asks questions about quantities, promises and what can be made to last. It offers a material way into a story whose published premise places people behind walls with a shared store of grain.
Her sister is Gwenhwyfach. Meurig is captain of her twenty spears. These are the opening relationships to keep in view; her choices belong to the novel.
A question to carry
How does the person who counts the resources see a crisis differently from the person who commands the weapons?