The Horse Goddess - Morgan Llywelyn

Tells the fictionalised story of Epona (historically the goddess of horses and one of the most widely worshipped European deities of the pre-christian era), who has her coming-of-age in the early Hallstatt Celtic era.

Refusing to accept the limitations of her life, she flees her home village and travels with Kazakh the Scythian. Whilst in his company, she demonstrates almost psychic abilities allowing her to tame and communicate with animals, particularly the horses of the Scythians (a tribe who are generally considered to have domesticated the horse some 5,000-8,000 years ago).

When her "magical" abilities become manifest, she is pursued by the shaman Kernunnos of her own tribe, who wishes to force her to return home as he sees the influence of the Scyths as a force for unwelcome change to traditional life and values.

Essentially, Kernunnos is obsessed with using Epona's powers to best benefit her own tribe. (The Kernunnos of mythology was the Celtic god of the hunt, and here, his fictional namesake follows Epona from the mountains of modern-day Austria to the endless steppes of modern-day Ukraine).

I enjoyed this book, if I was rating it, I'd probably give it 8 to 8.5 from 10... A fine tale of our ancient way of life and the old religion.........