I’m coming at this as a viewer of the television programs with Sir Derek Jacobi, not as a reader of the books.
We were watching A Morbid Taste For Bones last night, the episode in which Brother Columbanus is revealed as a murderer and gets killed. Cadfael helps fake an ascension, in the process restoring Saint Winifred’s bones to her grave. At some point, he strips Columbanus of his cloak to set up the “miracle.”
I assume that Columbanus’ body is placed in the sealed casket intended to transport the bones of Winifred, and not in the grave with her bones and the body of the landowner. That being the case, what would prevent the decaying body of Columbanus from making itself known on the trip back to the monastery? Did Cadfael treat the body, drawing from his knowledge of herbs? Or would it be possible in the story’s era to seal the casket tightly enough to avoid the revelation of the wrong body within?
These things may be covered more thoroughly in the books, if someone could weigh in…or if someone could comment regarding burial/preservation practices of that century (the 12th, I think?).
Thanks in advance…
Thread title edited to correct a typo that made it just too icky for words.
– Uke, Cafe Society Mod
According to the book, the casket was lead-lined.
According to the book, the casket was lead-lined, which would both seal the contents and conceal the difference in weight.
I seem to remember Brother Cadfael considering the change in weight and feeling confident that if it was noticed, it would be considered to be another mystery of the saint.
Thanks for the fix, Ukulele Ike…sorry for the distress, gastric or otherwise. 
Thanks for weighing in, everyone. I was hoping our own BrotherCadfael would step up, and I was not disappointed.
Yllaria and BrotherCadfael…if you see this thread again, what are your favorite books/shows in the series? I really liked Morbid Taste and The Virgin In The Ice, probably because they were the first ones I saw.
My one complaint about the shows is that Brother Jerome and Brother Prior seem to have no learning curve, meaning that invariably they seem to have the same pissing matches or personality traits in their interactions with Cadfael from show to show, which makes them seem very one-dimensional as characters. Do they come off the same way in the books, or do they eventually (or ever) cut Cadfael some slack?
Prior Robert and Brother Jerome are rather one-dimensional in both the TV show and the books. They remain so, to some degree, throughout the series. However, in some of the later books, they both run into situations that show at least a trace of humanity.
For example, in *The Holy Thief Prior Robert carries on delicate negotiations regarding the possession of the remains of Saint Winifred, and, while he gets a certain degree of comeupance, he also manages to show a bit of sensitivity and wonder at the way events unfold. In the same novel Brother Jerome discovers that his rectitude is not as unshakable as he had assumed.
By the way, Prior Robert and Abbots Herribut and Radolphus are all historical figures. Robert eventually did become abbot, about five years after the latest books in the series. I always thought it would have been very interesting had Ms. Peters written about events that late: Newly installed Abbot Robert intending to clamp down once and for all on Cadfael’s activities, only to discover that he needs both his skills and his willingness to go beyond the Rule to resolve some crisis that threatens the survival of the Abbey.
It could have been interesting.
I like all of the books pretty much – but then you probably could have guessed that. The early TV shows were excellently done. Some of the later ones were dreadful.
The worst TV conversion was easily The Pilgrim of Hate. The character of Hugh Berringar was turned into an ignorant, superstitious bully, the identity of the killer was changed – in fact, the hero of the book became the killer of the TV show – the central miracle of the novel was turned into a cynical fake in the show, and the saintly innocent Rhun became a lying sneakthief.
When converting a novel for a one-hour TV show some degree of compression is expected. Some traits of one person may well be given to another. The many assistants that Cadfael had over the course of the novels were all compressed into Brother Oswin in the series, and that’s fine. But, to invert the novel so that the good guy becomes the villian is well beyond the pale.
But anyway: I really liked One Corpse Too Many, Monk’s Hood, Leper of St. Giles. The TV versions of these novels were excellent. I also really liked The Summer of the Danes and The Heritic’s Apprentice.
I won’t claim that these novels are Great Literature. They follow a fairly predictible format and there isn’t a whole lot of growth among the characters. But they provide a view of everyday life in a period that few of us are really familiar with. Without making the error, all too common in historical novels, of drawing the characters as modern people, with modern concerns, beliefs, and reactions, Ms. Peters has peopled her books with ordinary folk, going about their day to day business in ways that we in the modern era can at least appreciate.