O's Quick Guide to The Pillars of the Earth
Ken Follett's best-seller The Pillars of the Earth, now a lusty eight-hour miniseries, features these forces of good and evil.
By Jessica Winter
![Waleran Bigod Waleran Bigod](/g/image-resizer?width=670&link=https://static.oprah.com/images/201008/omag/201008-omag-pillars-101-600x411.jpg)
Waleran Bigod (Ian McShane)
Sepulchral bishop who would literally kill to be the first English pope. Makes the depraved saloon owner that McShane played in Deadwood look positively priestly.
![Lady Regan Hamleigh Lady Regan Hamleigh](/g/image-resizer?width=670&link=https://static.oprah.com/images/201008/omag/201008-omag-pillars-103-600x411.jpg)
Lady Regan Hamleigh (Sarah Parish)
Noblewoman in cahoots with ruthless clerics. Murders an enemy by bloodletting. Her face is covered in boils; presumably so is her soul.
![Maud Maud](/g/image-resizer?width=670&link=https://static.oprah.com/images/201008/omag/201008-omag-pillars-104-600x411.jpg)
Maud, Empress of England (Alison Pill)
Pitted against whiny King Stephen for possession of the throne. Doting mother. Tantrum-thrower. Looks fabulous in chain mail. Not above extorting cash from hard-up monks.
![Tom Builder Tom Builder](/g/image-resizer?width=670&link=https://static.oprah.com/images/201008/omag/201008-omag-pillars-105-600x411.jpg)
Tom Builder (Rufus Sewell)
Handsome, penniless architect and stonecutter. Promises wife on her deathbed that he'll build a cathedral that's "God's anteroom, halfway to heaven." Cheekbones that could carve a gargoyle.
![Prior Philip Prior Philip](/g/image-resizer?width=670&link=https://static.oprah.com/images/201008/omag/201008-omag-pillars-106-600x411.jpg)
Prior Philip (Matthew Macfadyen)
Noble monk who prays in a silky baritone. Despite living in filthy, pestilent 12th-century England, has glowing skin and perfect piano-key teeth—a sure sign of divine grace.
![Ellen Ellen](/g/image-resizer?width=670&link=https://static.oprah.com/images/201008/omag/201008-omag-pillars-107-600x411.jpg)
Ellen (Natalia Worner)
Tom's horny, survivalist, woods-dwelling lover. Solves problems by putting curses on people (but they usually deserve it!). Widely mistaken for a witch; is actually a proto-hippie.
![Jack Jackson Jack Jackson](/g/image-resizer?width=670&link=https://static.oprah.com/images/201008/omag/201008-omag-pillars-108-600x411.jpg)
Jack Jackson (Eddie Redmayne)
Flame-haired son of Ellen and stepson of Tom, gifted mason, well-meaning arsonist (he torches a cathedral to create work for Tom). Flirts with joining the monkhood; invents the flying buttress instead.
From the August 2010 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine