Today, I am delighted to welcome Nancy Jardine back to Yarde Book Promotions to talk about After Whorl: Donning Double Cloaks, another instalment in her Celtic Fervour series.
Set in AD 79, the novel takes readers further north into Caledonia, where the Roman legions under General Agricola are continuing their advance into territories determined to resist imperial rule. For Bran, once known as Brennus of the Garrigill Clan, the struggle against Rome has become increasingly complicated. Far from his former home, he must work with unfamiliar tribes, gather intelligence and find new ways to challenge an enemy whose military strength and organisation seem almost impossible to overcome.
Meanwhile, Ineda remains enslaved to the Roman tribune Valerius, travelling north with the advancing army while secretly gathering information for those resisting Roman occupation. With her own safety and that of her child at stake, every decision carries considerable danger.
Nancy joins me today to talk about the historical research behind Agricola's campaigns in Caledonia, the challenges of following Bran and Ineda's separate journeys, and the difficult choices facing the northern tribes as Roman expansion threatens their independence and way of life.
After Whorl: Donning Double Cloaks moves the story forward to AD 79 and the campaigns associated with General Agricola. What made this new phase of Rome's advance into northern Britannia particularly exciting for you to explore?
From the very concept of the series, I was desperate to have ‘Romans against Local Caledon’ action right on my doorstep in Aberdeenshire. After Whorl: Donning Double Cloaks covers some of the known Roman activity in southern and central Scotland, and then as far northwards to the area known as the Garioch, north-west of current Aberdeen. When I wrote the scenes towards the end of the novel, where there is direct confrontation in battle nine miles from where I live, it was tremendously exciting.
Bran has progressed from resisting Roman occupation within his own territory to monitoring legionary movements and seeking a Caledonian leader capable of uniting the northern tribes. How has his understanding of resistance changed since we first encountered him as Brennus?
After Brennus (as Bran) makes the move northwards into Caledonia, he realises that large swathes of territory harbour fewer people than would have been found in parts of Brigantia. This means that journeying to the smaller Caledonian settlements is a slower process. Caledonia is much more mountainous, with difficult terrain for the Roman legions to patrol and subdue, but that also means communications amongst resisting iron-age warriors also takes time. For Bran that means accepting that guerilla-type warfare is much more successful, and that any intelligence gathering has to be more rigidly organised and controlled by Caledon allies. Strategies of resistance have to be revised. I also saw Bran as taking on board that he could contribute to the resistance forces as a highly effective cog in a very large wheel, covering an extensive territory.
The title Donning Double Cloaks immediately suggests hidden identities and divided loyalties. What does the idea of wearing a 'double cloak' represent within Bran and Ineda's world?
The ‘hidden cloak’ for Brennus is being known as Bran of the resistance and not his former self as Brennus of the Garrigill hillfort. To be successful as Bran, he has to suppress any temptations of going back to his old life as a Garrigill warrior. As Bran, he makes a new life with Lleia believing that Ineda is lost to him, though he never forgets the courageous and stimulating Ineda. However, suppressing his former identity doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to know about the fate of his family, because he definitely does.
After Ineda is enslaved by Tribune Valerius, she pretends she is inured to her new role in life and accepting of it. However, her fierce loyalty to her tribal identity means she dons the cloak of subterfuge at great risk to herself, to spy and send back useful information about Roman movements in northern Britannia, and then in Caledonia. The double life she is living takes a toll on her determination to continue, and the torment is compounded by her need to protect her half-Roman offspring. Had Tribune Valerius not been the honourable man that he actually is, her decisions to play her small part in Roman resistance might well have come more easily to her. For Ineda, there’s a tiny little bit of the Stockholm Syndrome in play but not quite enough for her to be completely enthralled by Valerius.
Bran's journey takes him into the territories of peoples the Romans regarded as barbarians. How did you approach imagining the different northern tribes and the political difficulties involved in persuading them to unite against a common enemy?
The Romans called any unconquered tribes barbarians – as in beyond their control. The greatest difficulty for me, at that point in the writing of the whole series, was what to call the tribes that General Agricola’s forces confront in Caledonia, during the period of roughly AD 77-84. Since I didn’t want to invent tribal names, and thus produce more of a fantasy novel, I used Claudius Ptolemaeus’ names for the tribes of Caledonia – even though it was many decades later before ‘Ptolemy’ (c AD 100 -170) made a record of those names. (It’s unknown if Ptolemy got his names from Agricolan sources.)
The landscape of Caledonia plays greatly into how ancient tribes would have controlled their own territory. However, by AD 77, roughly when General Agricola first marched his troops into Caledonia, Roman legions had been occupying parts of southern Britannia for more than three decades. By AD 77, the tribes of Caledonia would have had plenty of knowledge of the Roman Legions and what they were capable of – even if the tribes of the north lacked the actual experience of confronting the Roman fighting machine. Though immediate communication was lacking at that time equestrian warriors were capable of carrying information over large distances fairly quickly. Some recent archaeologists believe that it may have been earlier Governors of Britannia who initially sent Roman forces into Caledonia e.g. Cerialis c. AD 69-71. If that was the case, then the Caledonian tribes would have known what was at stake.
In Donning Double Cloaks I saw the Caledonian tribes as fully realising that Agricola was intent on dominating all of them and they, therefore, needed to become stronger allies to survive in some way, or another.
Ineda remains enslaved to Tribune Valerius and travels north as part of Agricola's campaign before finally seeing an opportunity to escape. How has her experience of enslavement changed her since the events of the previous book?
Her natural desire to escape continues but that is tempered by the persistent caution she needs to employ to make it happen. To be caught in the act of spying would be a death sentence and, as a mother, she now has more than herself to consider. Over the years of her captivity, she has seen how the Roman legions operate from inside of their encampments, forts and fortresses. She has learned how rigidly the Romans control everything around them, including their own personnel inside a fort. It takes a dire calamity for her to realise that escape might actually be possible.
Valerius serves as a supplies officer, giving readers a perspective on Roman campaigning that goes beyond soldiers and battles. How important were logistics and supply networks to Agricola's ability to push Roman forces ever farther north?
The logistics and supply networks were unsurpassed, and were super-critical to the success of Roman armies in whichever territory they were claiming for the Empire. During Agricola’s campaigning in Caledonia it was just the same. An invading Roman legion never depended on what they might find in a territory. They always had to ensure that they could supply themselves with everything they needed before an advance, and until local supplies could be deemed to be reliable and plentiful. Entering hostile territory with thousands of Roman soldiers at a time meant feeding and watering a huge amount more than the locals they were attempting to dominate.
Pinnata Castra Fortress becomes a pivotal location in Ineda's story. What historical and archaeological evidence did you draw upon when recreating Roman forts and military activity during this period?
Some of the forts and fortresses in Caledonia are attributed to being part of the Caledonian Agricolan campaigns of roughly AD 77-84. I used what seemed to be the most conclusive evidence I could unearth, though actual excavations during the 20th Century were scant and were underfunded compared to modern ‘digs’. Since I wrote my Celtic Fervour Series, more excavations have been undertaken, though I’m pleased to say my choices still seem very reasonable. The name Pinnata Castra appears on one of Ptolemy’s Caledonian ‘maps’ though that is a misleading term since Ptolemy set down the co-ordinates of places rather than creating what we’d now call a map. I decided to use the name Pinnata Castra for my fortress, and set it in the same location as the archaeologically-identified huge supply fortress of Inchtuthil near Dunkeld, on the upper River Tay.
Bran is trying to remain ahead of Agricola while Ineda is travelling within the Roman campaign itself, placing them on very different sides of the advancing army. How did you manage these parallel storylines while maintaining the connection between two characters who are physically separated?
Getting the different timelines to intermingle correctly wasn’t easy. I pored over home-made maps all the time with screeds and screeds of dates on them which seemed to be the most appropriate to me for Agricolan troop movements. A spanner in the works is that actually dating Agricola’s Caledonian campaigns is very tricky. At that time in 1st Century AD, the Romans didn’t name a year as in 77, followed by 78, i.e. the way we do using the Gregorian Calendar system after the bells ring in the new year. 1st Century Roman dating systems relied heavily on using the consulships of a particular time and some ‘years’ had more than the usual amounts of consulships awarded. (Very confusing!)
The confrontation between the Roman legions and the Caledonian allies brings the competing cultures and military strategies into direct conflict. When the surviving evidence for events in northern Britannia is incomplete, how do you decide where historical probability ends and the novelist's imagination can begin?
I made a judgement to have my Agricola at the battlegrounds of Beinn na Ciche in AD 84. I can’t call my battle Mons Graupius, a name Tacitus named as a victorious battle for Agricola in northern Caledonia, since no huge battle ground has ever been identified. The current range of hills named Bennachie in Aberdeenshire tick many of the possible boxes for a place of battle, so I wrote in my battle as at Beinn na Ciche. One of the peaks currently named Mither Tap at Bennachie is easily seen across miles and miles of relatively low lying undulating land in all directions. For me, that was a reasonable beacon to draw the Caledon allies to the place of battle.
It’s also highly important to me that the identified temporary Roman camp at Durno, across the shallow valley from Mither Tap, is the largest identified temporary camp in Aberdeenshire. It’s possibly bigger than Agricola might have needed but since the true composition of his army is unknown, but if Agricola had more equestrian auxiliary units at his disposal for his Caledonian campaigns, then he would have needed more camp ground for a larger quota of horses. The actual facts are unknown, but it’s so exciting to try to work it all out!
As to novelist imagination, when I was researching some etymology relevant to the Bennachie Mither Tap area, I discovered that the language/ dialect the natives might have spoken 2000 years ago was a form of ancient Welsh (not the same basis as current Welsh). In one 1905 published tome, I discovered that the word Durno/ Duro had many meanings, including one which meant ‘many fists’. That was a light-bulb moment for me knowing that some farm field-names across Aberdeenshire have remained the same for centuries! The ‘many fists’ of that Durno field, opposite Mither Tap of Bennachie, found its way into my writing with no bother at all!
By this point in the Celtic Fervour series, readers have witnessed Roman expansion develop from an approaching threat into a sustained campaign deep into northern territory. What does Donning Double Cloaks reveal about the consequences of conquest for the Garrigill Clan that you hadn't been able to explore in the earlier novels?
The main decisions the members of the Garrigill clan have to make, over a period of years, years are – Do they keep confronting the Roman enemy directly in their home surroundings, with a greater possibly of dying? Or, do they accept that becoming refugees means moving further and further northwards to find a place of safety where they can continue their religious and cultural lifestyles, and have the local support needed to continue with an aggressive resistance?
It’s documented that Agricola probably took seven summer-campaign seasons before his troops reached almost to the Moray Firth. The usual strategy for a campaigning legion was for the bulk of the soldiers to over-winter in places (forts) deemed to be safer and more easily guarded. This also meant leaving skeleton forces to guard already built defences: forts; fortlets and guard towers. Fewer Roman soldiers in situ over a winter season meant I could have Bran, and my Garrigill Clan, involved in some very strategic guerilla activity during the colder months and have them plan for future situations with local leaders. Bringing weather and seasonal conditions into the strategies wasn’t so necessary in the earlier novels.
A huge thank you to Nancy Jardine for joining me once again and sharing more about After Whorl: Donning Double Cloaks.
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See you on your next coffee break!
Take Care,
Mary Anne xxx