I've been waiting to read this series for so long, and I have almost all of Morgan Llywelyn's books in her Celtic World series, but I have been unable to find this first one. This book was incredible! The Horse Goddess is beautiful, magical, and historical. 'Afterwards.' was valuable for the information on the Celts and their eventual geographical expansion their connection with horses and their pantheon, e.g., Epona, the horse goddess Cernunnos, lord of the animals Taranis, god of thunder.

'Down the road from the pass, a horseman came riding.' She cocked her head slightly, a smile playing at the edges of her mouth. and her face wore the intense expression of one who listens. The last section was poignant and I found myself in tears. There were no wasted words and the story flowed easily.

and he doesn't hesitate to kill, first in the Carpathians. The author's concept of the Celts' culture sounded fairly authentic, but I wonder how authentic is the author's concept of Scythians and their customs? The evil Kernunnos seems like a forerunner of the werewolf, because of how he can change himself from a man to wolf to man. Finally, Kazhak sends her back to her people, with his loyal friend. She saves a mare from death and is successful at a foal's breech birth. She cannot fully adapt to the nomadic life and Kazhak, the man with whom she falls in love, and he with her, cannot fully understand or accept her culture.

Kernunnos follows her to bring her back and often changes into the shape of a silver wolf. She travels to the 'Sea of Grass' with these men and lives among the Scythians.

In order to escape life under Kernunnos as a trainee drui, Epona runs off with a small band of Scythians who came to her village to trade. The protagonist, Epona, daughter of the chieftain, is discovered by Kernunnos, the shapeshifter/shaman or drui to have extra-special powers, such as connecting with the spirits and talking with animals, especially the horse. I had an inkling of this from the names of characters in the Celtic village, from the very beginning of the novel. Really enjoyed the author's conception of how possibly her early Iron Age human Celtic characters, through the mists of time and legend, might have been gradually transformed into the Celtic pantheon of gods and goddesses.

The Horse Goddess by Morgan Llywelyn