Morbid Taste for Bones Ellis

¶ … Morbid Taste for Bones

Ellis Peters: A Morbid Taste for Bones Test

When I want to hear my echo, I will speak first (15).

Often the monks repeat merely what they are supposed to say, rather than what they really mean because of the order's collective vow of obedience. Cadfael expresses his frustration with this by calling the repeated speech an echo.

More and more I wonder how that younger ever came to commit himself to the monastic life (32).

This refers to both to Brother John, whose vocation is questionable, and ironically to Brother Cadfael's own unlikely journey to the religious life from Cadfael's previous, worldly existence as a Crusader.

And who's to say which of the three will give way first, where all look immovable? (45)

This refers to the initially intractable conflict as to who owns the bones of St. Winifred. This three-fold resistance results in the Welsh people of the town rallying against the monks and also symbolically to the Holy Trinity.

4. His short, defiant beard pointed at the sky. So, and at the very same slanting angle, did the feathered flight of the arrow that jutted out from under the cage of his ribs (68).

Even in death, Rhisiart, the man who protested the removal of the remains of St. Winifred is defiant. He has clearly been murdered, given the angle that the arrow is wedged under his ribs.

5. If Sioned is willing to allow her holding to be used, a prisoner could be safe enough there (84).

The suspect is to be housed in Sioned's quarters. Sioned is the women for whom two suitors are fighting for her hand, when the monks arrive. Both men are suspects, because one suitor could be trying to frame the other suitor.

6. You shall not show me the saint's grave. I will show it to you, if she will be my aid (100).

Rather than being led to the saint by a local guide in a conventional manner, the ability of the monk to intuitively speak to the spiritually gifted highlights the supposedly visionary monk's authenticity and his true communion with Winifred's wishes.

7. He gave a great, wordless cry, seemingly both of pain and triumph, and fell forward full-length on the earthen floor (123).

The afflicted brother's struggles are both painful and beautiful in the eyes of the monks who believe in the rightful nature of their quest or wish to believe in it for self-interested reasons.

8. Have all your household party and friends gather at the chapel to watch the grave opened, and make sure that Peredur attends (133).

The opening of the grave becomes a gathering place of all of the likely suspects as well as a kind of truth-telling about the real nature of Brother Jerome's visions.

9. Instead of being full to the stopper with the thick, sweet syrup, the bottle was three-quarters empty (150).

This shows how Cadfael's knowledge of herbs and the properties of matter help him solve the murder. He uses reason, rather than faith alone to find clues in the evidence left behind.

10. Do you think you can deceive me as you deceive your prior and your brothers? (165).