The
By DK
Marley
I must admit when I
first thought about the research behind this topic for my novel “The Fire of
Winter, I was not very keen on the subject. After all, my husband has always
told me I do not have a green thumb, so for good reason I dreaded this topic
and I thought this was just another avenue of looking up plants for the various
atmospheric scenery I needed for the novel.
I did not expect to
become so utterly fascinated with each little flower and herb, and what each
might do to your body and mind, but I did!
I did hear (and after
reading her books) that Diana Gabaldon did quite a bit of research as well when
writing Outlander since Claire is a nurse and with her modern knowledge of
plant-life and lore, she was able to use this in her trip to the past. I read
her books as part of my research just to see how she wove that knowledge into
the story-line. After that, I was hooked with the research and had to remind
myself I had a story to write myself.
There is a certain
mystique to herbology of 11th-century Scotland. The secrets of dwale. The
dangerous flying ointment made from mandrake and belladonna. The various
flowers and berries used to flavour mead and wine. Here is just a little of
what I learned:
Dwale – From a early medieval manuscript: “How to make a drink
that men call dwale to make a man sleep whilst men cut him: take three
spoonfuls of the gall [bile] of a barrow swine [boar] for a man, and for a
woman of a gilt [sow], three spoonfuls of hemlock juice, three spoonfuls of
wild neep [bryony], three spoonfuls of lettuce, three spoonfuls of pape
[opium], three spoonfuls of henbane, and three spoonfuls of eysyl [vinegar],
and mix them all together and boil them a little and put them in a glass vessel
well stopped and put thereof three spoonfuls into a potel of good wine and mix
it well together. When it is needed, let him that shall be cut sit against a
good fire and make him drink thereof until he fall asleep and then you may
safely cut him, and when you have done your cure and will have him awake, take
vinegar and salt and wash well his temples and his cheekbones and he shall
awake immediately.”
Flying
Ointment – a hallucinogenic ointment used by men and women in the Medieval
period in the practice of witchcraft, known as witches’ flying ointment, green
ointment, magic salve, or lycanthropic ointment. Typical ingredients include:
belladonna, henbane bell, jimson weed, black henbane, mandrake, hemlock, and
wolfsbane; most of which contain atropine, hyoscyamine, and/or scopolamine.
Scopolamine can cause psychotropic effects when absorbed transdermally. (Can
you even imagine thinking it was all right to ingest any of those listed
above?)
The
hallucinations are frequently dominated by the erotic moment...in those days,
in order to experience these sensations, young and old women would rub their
bodies with the 'witches' salve'. The witches confess that...they anoint a
staff and ride on it to the appointed place or anoint themselves under the arms
and in other places.... “In rifling the closet of the lady [Alice Kyteler],
they found a pipe of oyntement, wherewith she greased a staffe, upon which she
ambled and galloped through thick and thin, when and in what manner she
listed.” (The passage from the trial for witchcraft in Ireland of Hiberno-Norman
noblewoman Alice Kyteler in 1324 quoted above is, while not explicit, certainly
open to interpretations both drug-related and sexual.)
(Honestly,
I never knew this was where the origin of witches riding on broom sticks
originated!! Yikes!!)
Spicing
Mead and Wine (Yum!!) - so many variations, but here are just a few: elderberry
(elderflower), yarrow, mint, meadowsweet, dandelion, blaeberry, - and even some
of the dangerous herbs mentioned above were used as additives.
Needless to say, the
medieval culture of Scotland and England had their share of using herbs in good
and bad ways, thus I wanted my characters in my novel “The Fire of Winter” to
have the same struggles as we do in modern day.
I wanted very much to
portray the witches in Shakespeare’s play as real women with their own secrets
and past seeking to get by in a very trying time for women. The transition from
pagan beliefs of old into the Celtic Church was not an easy one, some of the
primitive traditions lingered, such as the use of herbs to cure various
sicknesses, as well as spells, love potions, and more. Once I learned more
about the uses of various plants and herbs, it was an easy choice to make the
witches into women skilled in the herb lore, rather than the supernatural
crones of the play. Everything about this fit well into their characterization,
however, what I did not expect is what this effect would have on my main
character.
For me, this was a
case of not knowing that my character was about to traverse this path as I
began to write. I mean, Gruah (Lady Macbeth) has a bit of knowledge of herbs
from her mother, a Pictish Princess, as well as the knowledge she acquired
during her stay with the weird sisters and their mother early on in the story,
but when she started delving into her daily doses of dwale and belladonna,
well, I was taken by surprise. I even sat for a few days and contemplated if I
wanted her to go that route. After my musing, I realized that she must go down
that terrible path to show how much she desired to escape from her past, even
at the cost of drug abuse.
People do this all
time, unfortunately, and I feel this is part of what makes Gruah so relatable
to modern-day. She is ambitious, passionate, with terrible secrets in her past
that she wants to escape from but falls prey to her own need for power. This is
no excuse at all for her actions, the same as a person today who travels that
path must suffer the consequences of their choice. Gruah paid the price in the
end, again in a way I did not see coming until the words flowed out from my
tapping fingers on my keyboard.
To find out more about Medieval Herbology, click HERE!
To find out more about Medieval Herbology, click HERE!
The Fire of Winter
By DK Marley
“...a woman's story at a winter's fire...”
(Macbeth, Act III, Scene IV)
She is known as Lady Macbeth. What leads her
down the path of murder? What secrets fire her destiny?
Gruah, the granddaughter of King Cìnéad III of the Royal Clan Alpin, marries two men in less than six months, one she loves and one she hates; one in secret, the other arranged by the High King of Scotland. At the age of eighteen, she lays her palm upon the ancient stone of Scone and sees her destiny as Queen of Scotland, and she vows to do whatever necessary to see her true love, Macbeth macFindlaech, beside her on the throne. Amid the fiery times and heated onslaughts from Denmark and England, as the rule of Scotland hangs in the balance, Gruah seeks to win the throne and bring revenge upon the monsters of her childhood, no matter the cost or amount of blood tainting her own hands; yet, an unexpected meeting with the King called the Confessor causes her to question her bloody path and doubt her once blazing pagan faith. Will she find redemption or has the blood of her past fire-branded her soul?
“Brilliantly conceived and beautifully written, The Fire of Winter is a tale not to be missed by lovers of Shakespeare, lovers of history, or lovers of the written word.”
Riana
Everly, Author of Teaching Eliza and Through a Different Lens
Pick up your copy of
The Fire of Winter
DK Marley
D.
K. Marley is a historical fiction writer specializing in Shakespearean themes.
Her grandmother, an English Literature teacher, gave her a volume of
Shakespeare’s plays when she was eleven, inspiring DK to delve further into the
rich Elizabethan language. Eleven years ago she began the research leading to
the publication of her first novel “Blood and Ink,” an epic tale of lost
dreams, spurned love, jealousy and deception in Tudor England as the two men,
William Shakespeare and Kit Marlowe, fight for one name and the famous works
now known as the Shakespeare Folio. She is an avid Shakespearean / Marlowan, a
member of the Marlowe Society, the Shakespeare Fellowship and a signer of the
Declaration of Intent for the Shakespeare Authorship Debate. She has traveled
to England three times for intensive research and debate workshops and is a
graduate of the intense training workshop “The Writer’s Retreat Workshop”
founded by Gary Provost and hosted by Jason Sitzes. She lives in Georgia with
her husband and a Scottish Terriers named Maggie and Buster.
For more information, please visit D.K. Marley’s website.
You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
and Goodreads.
Really enjoyed reading the blog. I too am interested in the use of herbs during this period and earlier I have numerous books on the subject.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Teresa