Authors: Roberta Gellis
Rhiannon (44 page)
“I see. But then you agreed. What changed your mind after
that?”
“I never really agreed. I was pretending to myself that if
we did not marry, I would feel less. It is stupid to lie to oneself, but fear
makes one stupid. As for what frightened me away altogether—I met your family.”
“But they loved you, Rhiannon.”
“I know it. I felt it. That was what frightened me so much.
You see, they were all real people, not like my mother and father, whom I still
saw with my child’s eye and therefore never thought of as growing old or
susceptible to any danger. I heard your father’s harsh breathing—” She stopped
because Simon winced, and she kissed him softly.
“Now I see better what you mean,” he said grimly. “I prefer
to think of Papa as invulnerable, too.”
“Yes, but I could not. And I saw how Gilliane fears for
Adam—”
“Which is about as sensible as fearing Roselynde will be
washed away in the rain. Adam is a bull.”
“Yes, I saw that, too, but her fear hurt me. And I worried
about Sybelle and Walter… Everything hurt me. When I began to love you, my
shell was forced open, and I was all soft inside. All I could think of was to
run away.”
“Poor love,” Simon crooned, stroking her and laughing
softly. “And then you found you could not run away from love.”
“Yes, but how did you know?”
“I have tried it too, of course, but I always go back to
Roselynde—and run away again.”
“I made a song. When we go home to Dinas Emrys, I will sing
it to you.”
Those were beautiful words,
home to Dinas Emrys
. They
would visit the other keeps, but Dinas Emrys above the Vale of Waters with the
voice-laden winds was the right home for the witch-woman and her lover.
I wish to apologize to my readers for the use of feudal
terminology in discussing political and social relationships in
thirteenth-century Wales. I am well aware that feudal relationships were only
beginning to appear among the Welsh at that time (except, of course, in the
English- or rather, Norman-dominated areas). However, I felt that a
satisfactory explanation of the political operation of clan and blood ties
could not be given without impeding the story; after all, this is a historical
novel, not a textbook. Thus, I chose deliberately to use a terminology with
which my readers have become familiar, and I hope I will be pardoned for the
anachronism.
Again, as usual, Simon and Rhiannon and their families
(except for Prince Llewelyn ap Iowerth) and servants are fictional, as are the
individual adventures in which the fictional characters are involved. However,
any major event in which the historical characters, such as Prince Llewelyn,
Hubert de Burgh, or Richard Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, take part is a real
historical event. These I have described as accurately as possible, even if the
description is given through the eyes of a fictional character.
To the best of my ability I have also presented living
conditions in the period realistically. However, this necessitates a peculiar
balancing act. In actuality thirteenth-century living conditions were unclean
and uncomfortable. For example, all people, including the nobility, who bathed
when convenient, were afflicted with fleas and lice. Sanitary conditions were
appalling. It was not unusual to throw unwanted bits of food such as bone or
gristle into the rushes that covered the floor where cats, dogs, rats, and
mice, along with an incredible variety of insects, scavenged the remains. Much
woolen clothing was worn, and this might be washed only once or twice in a
year, although the linen might be done more frequently or special circumstances
might produce an extra scouring.
Yet, to the people who lived in these conditions, there was
nothing extraordinary about them. They did not consider themselves dirty or uncomfortable,
except in unusual circumstances. Therefore, to make a point of the discomfort
of medieval life in comparison with our own is to falsify the conditions more
surely than to ignore them or mention them lightly and in passing.
Thus, I do not dwell on the dreadful fact that sixty percent
of all children born died before they were two years of age, mostly of typhus
or typhoid, and nearly thirty percent of all women died in childbirth. Nor do I
emphasize the minor dismaying differences, such as the chilblains everyone,
high and low, suffered in winter, or that human as well as animal excrement was
carefully collected to be used as fertilizer, or the myriad other habits that
would horrify a modern person.
If man survives into the future without any of the
catastrophes that now threaten us actually overtaking us, our descendants may
well feel the same horror when they look back on the primitive conditions in
which we live. As we are not aware of what we lack, neither were medieval
people. They were happy or sad as extraordinary circumstances affected
them—good and bad masters, love and hate, war and peace—and I have tried to
show them as nearly as possible as they were.
Roberta Gellis
Lafayette, IN
BALLISTA: a gigantic crossbow that hurled huge arrows.
BARON: a man who held land in exchange for doing military
service to the king or another superior noble; in medieval times the term was
general and applied to the greatest as well as to minor noblemen.
BETROTHAL: the engagement of a man or woman in a contract of
marriage; a legal condition far more binding than a modern “engagement”.
BLIAUT: a low-necked gown, usually laced on the sides to fit
the body, and worn over a tunic; in summer it would be sleeveless and in winter
it would have wide sleeves that showed the tight-fitting sleeves of the tunic.
CASTELLAN: the governor or constable of a castle, assigned
at the will of the “holder” of the castle and liable to removal at the holder’s
will. There were some cases of hereditary castellanships.
CHAUSSES: a garment much like modern pantyhose, except that
chausses were sewn, not knitted, and therefore were not form-fitting; they were
tied at the waist with a drawstring and fitted to the legs with cross garters.
COMPLINE: approximately 9:00 to 10:00 p.m.
CRENAL: an indentation in an embattled parapet; the opening,
about knee height, in a battlement through which archers could shoot.
CROSS GARTERS: long, thin strips of cloth or leather that
were wrapped crosswise around the leg and tied below the knee to prevent the
chausses from bagging excessively.
CYFLYM: “swift” in Welsh; the name of Rhiannon’s mare.
CYMRY: the Welsh people; this is what the Welsh called
themselves in their own language.
DESTRIER: a war horse, a highly bred and highly trained
animal.
DINNER: the main meal of the day, served usually from about
11 a.m. or a little later and lasting sometimes as long as several hours.
DISSEISE: to put out of possession; to dispossess a person
from his estates in such a way that his legal heirs were also disqualified from
inheriting; the term was usually used when the dispossession was wrongful.
FEBRIFUGE: a medication to reduce fever.
FOREBUILDING: an addition to a keep that sheltered the
stairs which went up to the entrance. For reasons of defense, no keep had an
entrance on the ground floor.
GEAS: a fate, combined with an unbreakable compulsion to
seek that fate.
HAUBERK: armor; the mail shirt made up of linked rings or
chains of metal; it had a hood that went over the head and could be laced at
the neck and extended a little below the knee, being split in the middle, front
and back, almost to the crotch so that a man could mount and ride a horse.
HOSEN: dialectic plural of hose. In this book specifically,
the mail leggings worn to protect the legs in battle.
KEEP: technically the innermost, strongest structure or
central tower of a medieval castle, the place that served as a last defense; in
general used to mean the whole castle.
MANGONEL: an engine of war; a military machine for casting
large stones.
MEINIE: a household guard; the group of men-at-arms employed
by a nobleman.
MERLON: the part of an embattled parapet between two
embrasures (crenels); a higher portion of wall behind which archers or
men-at-arms could be protected.
NATURAL SON, DAUGHTER: a child born out of wedlock; an
illegitimate child.
THE NORMANS: technically, descendants of the men who had
come to England with William the Bastard (the Conqueror) but expanded to
include later arrivals from all parts of France.
PROVENDER: food, especially dried or preserved food, like
wheat or salt meat and fish.
ROWEL: to use a spur, a moderately sharp metal spike
attached to the heels, to prick or stab a horse so that it would run faster.
SAESON: an English person; the word in medieval times was
used by the Welsh in a derogatory sense.
SEE: the abode of a bishop or the diocese he controls.
SOLAR: a withdrawing room, usually better lit than the great
hall, reserved for the use of the lord and lady and their invited guests.
TERCE: approximately 9:00 a.m.
WAIN: a large open vehicle, usually four-wheeled, drawn by
horses or oxen and used for heavy loads.
WIMPLE: a veil of linen or silk worn by women and so folded
as to envelop the head, hair, chin, sides of the face, and neck.
WITCH’S FAMILIAR: the animal through which magic—usually
evil—was performed; most often the familiar was a cat, but it might be anything
at all.
Roberta Gellis was driven to start writing her own books
some forty years ago by the infuriating inaccuracies of the historical fiction
she read. Since then she has worked in varied genres—romance, mystery and
fantasy—but always, even in the fantasies, keeping the historical events as
near to what actually happened as possible. The dedication to historical time
settings is not only a matter of intellectual interest, it is also because she
is so out-of-date herself that accuracy in a contemporary novel would be
impossible.
In the forty-some years she has been writing, Gellis has
produced more than twenty-five straight historical romances. These have been
the recipients of many awards, including the Silver and Gold Medal Porgy for
historical novels from the West Coast Review of Books, the Golden Certificate
from Affaire de Coeur, the Romantic Times Award for Best Novel in the Medieval
Period (several times) and a Lifetime Achievement Award for Historical Fantasy.
Last but not least, Gellis was honored with the Romance Writers of America’s
Lifetime Achievement Award.
Roberta welcomes comments from readers. You can find her
website and email address on her
author bio page
at
www.ellorascave.com
.
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Roberta
Gellis
Roselynde
Chronicles 1: Roselynde
Roselynde
Chronicles 4: Gilliane
Royal
Dynasty 4: A Silver Mirror
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