Cadfael
is a Benedictine monk and herbalist at Shrewsbury Abbey in Shrewsbury, a small town in Shropshire, England. Cadfael himself
is of Welsh extraction; his full name is Cadfael ap (son of) Meilyr ap Dafydd and he was born around 1080 to a villein (serf)
family in Trefriw, in Gwynedd (northern Wales). The stories are set between about 1135 and about 1145, during the civil war
between the forces of King Stephen and Empress Maud.
Cadfael became a monk in middle age, after going on the
First Crusade as both a soldier and later, a sailor. As a result, he is more familiar with the secular world than most of
his brother monks. In addition, his personality more reflects modern attitudes and progressive ethics than his own time which
often puts him in conflict with his brethren on matters of justice and conscience. Among other things, Brother Cadfael disobeys
his superiors (in Monk's Hood) and condones euthanasia (in The Rose Rent).
Arguably, however, this very background makes him a more
worthy foil for Hugh Beringar (Deputy Sheriff and eventually Sheriff, of Shropshire) than would have been a cloistered brother.
Over time Beringar — and Heribert and Radulfus, Cadfael's abbots — come to recognise his slightly unusual skills,
and use him as detective, medical examiner, diplomatic envoy (to the Welsh princes), and counsel.
One interesting twist which Pargeter develops over the
course of the novels is that, unlike his fellow monks, Cadfael proves to have a son, with whom he has met only on rare occasions.
Thirteen of the books were adapted for a series of television
movies starring Sir Derek Jacobi although the sequence of the television episodes differs from the sequence of the novels.
Within the individual teleplays, most are reasonably faithful to the books, being modified primarily to minimise the size
of the speaking cast, the running time of the script, or the need for extravagant special effects. One episode, however, The
Pilgrim of Hate, bears almost no resemblance to the eponymous book save the presence of a few of characters sharing the
names (but not the actions) of the characters in the book.
