Title:

The Golden Goblet

Author:

Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Category:

Literature

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

February 28, 2023

enjoyed reading Mara - Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, and I noticed that she had won a Newberry award for three of her other books, so I decided to check one of them out, and see if I liked it also. I picked The Golden Goblet (winner of the Newberry in 1962) because, like Mara, it was sent in Ancient Egypt. I liked this book even better than Mara!

The Golden Goblet is the story of Ranofer, a young boy (about 12 years old) working in a goldsmith's shop. Ranofer is an orphan. His dad had been a master craftsman, and he had already started to teach Ranofer the secrets of working gold when he died. Upon the death of his father, Ranofer was awarded into the custody of the stoneworker Gebu, his half-brother. Unfortunately, Gebu is a violent brute. He beats Ranofer, and barely feeds him. Gebu refuses to pay the fee to a master goldsmith that would allow Ranofer to be an apprentice. Instead, Ranofer can only labor at menial task, even though he longs to participate in all aspects of gold design. Once, Ranofer's father took him to meet the great Zau, the best goldworker in all of Egypt. The young Ranofer showed what he already, and Zau had seen that the boy had talent - but Gebu is not interested funding Ranofer's apprenticeship, and so Ranofer labors at basic, boring tasks in the shop of the kindly Rekh.

One day, Rekh announces that the weight of gold in the shop is below its expected tally for the week. And a shortfall has been noticed for the last several weeks. The scales were checked and found to be accurate. The only conclusion is that someone in the shop is stealing gold. Ranofer is shocked - someone is stealing gold from the shop. He immediately suspects the odious Ibni. Ibni is always so unpleasant; he is always give Ranofer a wine sack to bring home to Gebu, but Gebu does even drink the date wine, he just dumps it out.

A new apprentice, Heqet begins working at Rekh's shop. Ranofer can see that he has more talent than Heqet, but it is Heqet who has the apprenticeship. Nevertheless, Ranofer instructs Heqet on how to execute various task in the shop, and the two become friends. Heqet can see that Ranofer is half-starved by Gedu, so he pretends to be full so that he can share his lunch with his new friend. Ranofer tells Heqet his suspicions about Ibni and the missing gold, but he has no proof. The two decide to solve the mystery.

McGraw appears to have done a lot of research about ancient Egyptian gold working. She convincingly describes how ingots are melted and drawn into thin wires; how jewelry is fashioned and thin bowls are pounded into form. McGraw also does a good job describing the Egyptian society, with it many laborers constructing the tombs and temples of Thebes. Ranofer finds himself working in Gebu's stone mason shop for a while, with its grit and heavy lifting, along with the ever present danger of getting crushed by the huge stones. Unlike Mara, Daughter of the Nile, there is no unlikely romance in this one - I don't think a female character is even mentioned until the very end.

I liked Ranofer. He is a well portrayed character, courageous and resourceful. McGraw places him in several perilous situations as the drama in the book ramps up toward the ending. I felt that McGraw successfully created tension about whether Ranofer might thwart the evil thieves, or perhaps his own life might be forfeit. I think I will have to check out the next Newberry winner from McGraw - I see that The Moorchild (Newberry winner in 1997, thirty-five years after McGraw won for The Golden Goblet) is available in the library catalog.