Who Is Angharad Myrddin? The Silenced Author of A Study in Drowning

Overview

Angharad Myrddin (née Blackmar) is the true author of the epic poem she and her—commonly known as Angharad—long attributed to her husband, Emrys Myrddin. She appears late in the narrative as a ghostly figure in the flooded basement of Hiraeth Manor, but her influence pervades the entire novel. After decades of silence, she reveals the truth to Effy Sayre and Preston Héloury, handing over the key to a locked box that contains proof of her authorship. Angharad embodies the novel's central conflict: a woman’s creative and personal voice stolen by men who claimed to love her.

Plot Role

Angharad’s direct role spans only the final chapters (16–18), yet her story drives the mystery that Effy and Preston pursue. She is introduced as a spectral presence linked to the Fairy King’s haunting of Hiraeth. When Effy and Preston are trapped in the flooding basement, Angharad appears and frees them. She then explains that Emrys Myrddin—later possessed by the Fairy King—took credit for her poetry and imprisoned her in a marriage defined by theft and abuse. Her act of revealing the locked box’s mirror and letters allows Effy to reclaim her own identity and gives Effy and Preston the evidence they need to write their thesis Uncovering Angharad. By the end, Angharad has cut her hair short and moved to a noisy apartment in Laleston, ready to face public scrutiny.

Motivations and Traits

Angharad is driven by a desire to restore her stolen legacy and to protect others from the same fate. She shows patience and cunning: she placed mountain ash, rowan berries, and horseshoes around Hiraeth not to keep the Fairy King out but to keep him trapped inside, allowing her to contain the supernatural entity that possessed her husband and later her son, Ianto. She also ordered Ianto to let Effy stay in the guesthouse, which was lined with iron to shield her from the Fairy King. Her kindness is evident in her care for Effy, whom she sees as a younger version of herself. Angharad also possesses a wry bluntness, dismissing her father’s poetry as “banal and redundant” and speaking without apology about the abuse she endured.

Chronological Arc

• Age 18: Angharad meets Emrys Myrddin, then 34, an employee of her father, Colin Blackmar. He reads her poetry, encourages her writing, and begins an affair. She later acknowledges that she convinced herself she wanted it because he offered attention her father refused.
• Marriage: She marries Emrys and her poetry is published under his name. The Fairy King, a real entity, begins to possess Emrys, growing stronger after they move to Hiraeth in the Bottom Hundred.
• Motherhood: She gives birth to Ianto. The Fairy King eventually transfers into their son after Emrys dies.
• Decades of silence: Angharad stays at Hiraeth, maintaining her “web” of mountain ash to contain the Fairy King. She does not reveal the truth to the world because she lacks proof and fears reprisal.
• Final reveal: During the story’s climax, she appears to Effy and Preston, produces the key from a chain around her neck, and shows them the locked box containing her original letters, a mirror, and her diary. She later signs Effy’s copy of she and her with her own name.

Relationships

• Emrys Myrddin: A predator who used his age and authority to exploit Angharad’s talent and body. She eventually saw the Fairy King behind his eyes.
• Colin Blackmar (father): Dismissed her writing as unfitting for a girl. She calls him “vile” and notes he never apologized for anything.
• Ianto Myrddin: Her son, who became a vessel for the Fairy King after his father’s death. She loved him but couldn’t bring herself to use a mirror against him, even though he was losing the battle to the entity.
• Effy Sayre: A surrogate younger self. Angharad protects Effy by ensuring the guesthouse has iron, and later hands her the key, trusting Effy to carry the truth forward.
• Preston Héloury: The scholar whose investigation leads to the truth. Angharad thanks him for finally uncovering the conspiracy that no one had cared to look into.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Theme and Symbol Connections

• Silencing of women: Angharad’s work was credited to her husband, mirroring the novel’s broader theme of women’s voices being erased by patriarchal institutions.
• Literary forgery: The forged letters drafted by Marlowe and the false attribution of the epic illustrate how power structures manufacture authorship.
• Drowning as metaphor: Angharad describes her life as an “unending drowning.” Her rescue of Effy from the flooded basement parallels the legendary Angharad’s rescue by the Fairy King—but in reality, it is a woman freeing a woman.
• Mirrors as truth: The mirror inside the locked box reflects Effy’s face, symbolizing reclaimed identity. Angharad taught Effy that seeing one’s own reflection is an act of survival.
• Water as threat and clarity: The sea that nearly drowns characters also carries revelations. Angharad’s story emerges from the flood.

5 Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. How does Angharad first meet Emrys Myrddin?
   She meets him when she is 18 and he is a 34-year-old employee of her father, Colin Blackmar. He reads her poetry and encourages her writing.

2. What evidence does Angharad produce to prove she is the real author?
   She hands Effy a key on a chain around her neck, which opens a locked box containing her diary, original letters with her own script, a mirror fitted in the lid, and other documents.

3. Why does Angharad keep mountain ash, rowan berries, and a horseshoe at Hiraeth?
   She uses them to trap the Fairy King inside the house, preventing him from escaping into the world—not to keep him out, as others thought.

4. How does Angharad protect Effy before the climax?
   She orders Ianto to have Effy stay in the guesthouse, which is lined with iron (a protective material against the Fairy King).

5. What does Angharad do after the truth comes to light?
   She cuts her hair short, moves to an apartment in Laleston with flowers in the window boxes, and prepares to face reporters and scholars. She also signs Effy’s copy of the epic with her own name.