Dedicated
to all who
never
gave up
and
never gave in.
Thank
you.
Mamm
of Perth
Introduction
The Long Dark of 487 AD has come on Dunnottar and it
is the storying time.
In the fall just past, two from Dunnottar were taken
in battle, Sidhelagh and Danann; they are sorely missed. Although all others
have survived, they have all been soul-wounded – some more deeply than others.
In the deep quiet of this long dark, healing begins.
Within these pages we walk with the survivors on
Dunnottar their collective and individual journeys.
We visit with them as they work at their daily
tasks.
We meet new characters.
One,
TavishUllin, Druid and Bard, comes to stay for a while. He brings with him the
Queen Harp.
The Younglings of Dunnottar begin to assert
themselves and make their presence known in no uncertain terms. We already know
the eldest of them, Merri. She is joined by her little brother Dothann and
their first cousin Brann; there are also Diann, Corrbed, and little red-headed
Rua, kin cousins who as fosterlings from afar have come to be educated and
protected on Dunnottar.
'Sass’ soldier’ is the sole survivor of the attackers
in the battle which took Danann and Sidhelagh from Dunnottar. First speared
then saved by Sass, he remains silent always, even as he regains his strength.
We listen in as Mamm begins the story of her
heirloom under-bed chest and we go further back in time to meet the ones
with
whom this story begins.
We meet Danann and Mamm of Perth, the
great-grandparents of Mamm of Dunnottar, who tells their story. We meet their
daughters Alianora, MammTwo, and the twins Sass and Saille. We join them in the
lives they lead, the history they create, and the legacy they live and die to
preserve for those who will follow. More important than the under-bed chest
heirloom is the Song of the Holy Trinity.
NOTE: For those with the early edition of this book, Sass of Dunnottar and Dianann are the same Character; Kalann is Alann; Caileen is Ostara. Of course, if you've already read the book you'll know this; if you're just now getting that edition, you'll quickly figure it out ... :)
AND SO LET US BEGIN.
November 487 AD
AS
THE NIGHTS begin to lengthen and the days to chill, out from under the beds
come the chests of warm woolens to exchange places with the warm weather
clothes on the wall pegs. Sandals are put aside to be replaced with warm
leather shoes and fur-lined boots. Even the white linen ceremonial cloaks are carefully
folded into the seasonal chests and the white woolens are brought out to air
and straighten.
Merri is helping Mamm
fold the freshly washed summer linens, carefully stacking them into Mamm’s
ancient under-bed chest.
‘Hey Mamm, how long
have you had this chest?’
‘Well now, I’ve had
this since before I was a bride. I got it from my mother who got it from her
mother who got it from her mother. It’s
very old.’
Merri laughs.
‘Mamm, YOU are very
old! I can’t even imagine back as far as your mother’s mother’s mother!’
Mamm grins and agrees.
‘I know! I can’t
imagine it, either! If it weren’t for the stories my mother and her mother told
me, it would seem as though this chest had existed for always!’
‘What stories? You know
I love stories, Mamm. Will you tell me those stories?’
‘Indeed I will, but not
right this very minute. Maybe tonight after we’ve gotten all this stuff put
away and the cold weather things settled where they belong I’ll search my
memory and see what’s in there for you.’
Throughout the day
Merri spreads the word among the younglings that Mamm is going to Story tonight
IF they all pitch in so the switchover gets done fast AND well.
And so the day goes by and
the changing-out job gets done, as well as all of the other daily chores that
the younglings have.
Everyone gathers in the
roundhouse at sunset.
Kalann has been cooking
again so the meal is a feast that everyone does full justice to and Kalann grins
as the hungry faces become relaxed and content.
The younglings jump to
volunteer with clean-up and hustle their way through it as the big ones watch
with laughter in their eyes.
They know what’s
motivating the younglings and are pleased.
Finally Mamm settles
herself in front of the south fireplace with Caileen and Aine close by wrapped
in their winter plaids.
This storying time is
as important to them as to the younglings; the two of them are carrying young
until the spring birthing time. They want their infants to begin learning right
away and what better way to begin their educations than by hearing the stories
as early as possible?
Besides, Caileen and
Aine are tired from the busy day. They’re stitching baby blankets from some of
Alianora's finest woven cloth and resting while Mamm settles in for the evening
with the younglings scrambling for places at her feet.
Mamm looks into the
fire and her face grows kind of solemn and still as everyone quiets down,
waiting for her to begin.
Only she doesn’t begin.
As she stares at the
fire tears begin to trickle down her cheeks but she doesn’t wipe them away,
just keeps staring at the fire.
Merri finally creeps up
to Mamm and gently puts her arm around her shoulders and Mamm turns her face
into Merri’s shoulder and weeps.
Uncertain about this
unexpected turn of events, Merri looks to Alianora with questions and concern
in her eyes. Alianora comes quickly to her side and holds Mamm and Merri
together in the circle of her arms.
The whole roundhouse is
silent while Mamm weeps.
At long last she raises
her face and gives a sad little smile.
‘Not all stories are
happy ones,’ she says quietly. ‘Do you want to hear the story of my under-bed
chest?’
Everyone nods.
‘Are you sure? Because part
of it is pretty sad and is very hard for me to tell, so I want to be sure you
really want to hear it.’
Alianora looks around
at everyone and then tells Mamm, ‘Yes.
We’re sure. But you don’t have to tell it if it makes you sad.’
‘It DOES make me sad,’
says Mamm, ‘but it’s worth telling, so yes I will tell it.’
And so Mamm begins the
story of her under-bed chest, the one she got from her mother who got it from
her mother who got it from her mother.
A very long time ago there lived an oak tree of
great age. It was part of the very Grove within which we celebrate here on
Dunnottar. Even then the Grove was
ancient.
Our family did not live here back then but
further inland where lie the big cropping fields, great herding pastures, and
forests of immensity. My people came
twice a year to this place, for the Spring and Fall Blessings, just as some
still do, although not as many as then, and they don’t come as far as people
did in those days.
And so my mother’s mother’s mother came to
this very Grove one year for the Fall Blessing and there was a great
storm.
Some of the ancient trees lost limbs and
Mamm, who was my mother’s mother’s mother, chose a piece of one of the limbs of
the most ancient of oaks in the Grove to make herself an under-bed chest to use
when she became a bride.
Even though she had yet to meet anyone she
wanted to wed, Mamm knew that one day that time would come and she wanted THIS
piece of wood to become her under-bed chest.
The younglings stir
restlessly at this bit of news.
‘But … but … YOU’RE
Mamm!’
‘Indeed I am, but I am
not the FIRST Mamm ever in the world, you know, any more than any of you are
the first Merri, or the first Dothann, or the first Brann, or the first Diann,
or the first Corrbed, or the first Rua, or the first of ANY name. My mother’s
name was Mamm, and so was her mother’s and so was HER mother’s – and since it
is with that one with which we begin our story, we shall call her Mamm of
Perth, as that was her home. That way we can tell them apart.’
The younglings nod in
understanding and settle back down, crowding a little closer to Mamm’s feet as
they do.
Now, Mamm of Perth took her time designing and
building this under-bed chest, and prayed to the Trinity as she worked on it so
it would turn out just exactly right.
She built it strong and true, as she wanted to
be strong and true when she became a bride.
She carved the designs with loving attention
into beautiful patterns, as she wanted to be loving and attentive and beautiful
when she became a bride.
She organized the inside carefully and
thoughtfully into the most efficient use of the space that she could devise, as
she wanted to be organized and careful and thoughtful and efficient when she
became a bride.
She made the top to fit just exactly right, as
she wanted to be sure that she would be just exactly right for the man whom she
would wed, and he for her.
And so the piece of wood, from this very Grove
here on Dunnottar, made its way inland and became a very beautiful under-bed
chest for Mamm of Perth.
Little red-headed Rua
pipes up, ‘Oh Mamm, that’s WONDERFUL! It’s not sad at all! I thought this was gonna
be a sad story.’
And Mamm smiles at the
rambunctious youngling who is by this time almost wrapped around her leg.
‘Well, you know, not ALL
of the parts of a sad story have to be sad!’
‘Oh. Well, I’m glad it’s not sad yet.’
And Mamm gives Rua’s
curly red head a pat as she continues.
It wasn’t
long after she finished the under-bed chest that Mamm met the man she was to
wed. Both of them knew at once that it was together they would be, the two of
them, and so it happened.
His name was Danann.
At this, everyone in
the roundhouse is startled and there are gasps.
Mamm doesn’t blink an
eye at the reactions of them all and simply watches the fire again for a
moment.
‘Where do you think our
names come from? From things around us like plants or animals or places, and
from those who came before us. We use old names all the time in new ways. Among
our family are names older than anyone here can tell of. Mamm of Perth was not
the first, nor was this Danann the first. They are only the first we know of that
have stories in our family. In this story you will hear more than one familiar
name.’
And she goes back to
her story.
Now in due
time Danann and Mamm of Perth had younglings who grew proud and strong and
brave. When the eldest of them, Alianora, was ten years old, Mamm was once
again carrying life.
And there came at that time a messenger
from the South …
Dothann wriggles his
wiry little self and Mamm of Dunnottar looks at him. Finally he asks his question.
‘South? You mean OUR
South, the one right down on the coast that has boats and fish and all that?’
‘No. This story
happened inland, remember, so the messenger was simply from south of that
inland place, and they called it South, just as we do the place that is south
of us here. Places get old names too, and not all places are called the same by
all.’
Satisfied, Dothann
wriggles back into his place snugged up against Diann’s side and settles
himself, fiddling with the ends of the braids of her long blonde hair.
The
messenger was bringing bad news. He went straight to the leaders and then the
whole area was called to hear what was said.
When all were together the word was given.
In the south country were soldiers building
camps. They were not like the big posts; they were smaller but they were being
built quickly – and there were a LOT of them going up, each about a day’s march
from each other and spreading across the countryside like a blanket being
unfolded.
From these camps the soldiers went on to
build more and more and more, and other soldiers came to man them as they got
done.
From these camps the soldiers went out into
the countryside and took from the people all of their harvested crops.
From these camps the soldiers went out into
the countryside and took from the people all of their cattle, all of their
sheep, all of their pigs, all of their horses.
From these camps the soldiers went out into
the countryside and burned the homes of the people.
From these camps the soldiers went out into
the countryside and burned all of the fields of the people that might have
still had crops in them, and all of the gardens that might have still had
anything in them.
From these camps the soldiers went out into
the countryside and burned the forests.
From these camps the soldiers were making
their way north toward this area, one camp at a time, but very quickly.
When the message had been given, the people
were silent.
When they began to speak they were still
quiet about it.
Danann hugged Mamm to his side; Alianora,
MammTwo, and their little brother Corrbed gathered themselves to their parents
and clung there.
‘We can’t stay here. We have to go to the
hills and we have to go RIGHT NOW,’ Danann of Perth told his family.
All of the families gathered everything
they could, loaded their carts, packed bundles onto their horses, and herded
their livestock as quickly as possible toward the hills to the west of them.
Storerooms were emptied.
Homes were stripped.
Work places were cleared of tools and
materials.
Even though there were a lot of carts, and
horses and cattle to pull them, not everything could fit. Hard choices had to be made and there was no
time to think about the decisions.
Mamm of Perth did not have to think about
whether or not to take her under-bed chest. It was going, if she had to carry
it herself every step of the way. She fashioned a carry-sling for it and onto
her back it went.
The dogs all carried packs and so did all
of the people; only the very old and the very young rode, either horseback or
crowded onto a cart.
And so they fled, the people of our family
and their friends and relations, from their homes and into the hills.
Now, you know, word travels faster than
people can.
The people of the hills to the south of our
family’s area had sent word that they were already receiving those fleeing
their homes down there.
And those people had no fore-warning; they
ran with whatever they had with them at the time, or with whatever they could
quickly pick up and carry with them.
Some fought the soldiers.
There were many many soldiers and the ones
who fought them to give their families time to escape to the hills – well, they
died, each and all.
The building of the camps spread quickly.
Word of them spread even more quickly and everyone fled into the hills.
And the whole thing didn’t take very long.
It doesn’t take soldiers long to march out from one camp to set up another one
at the next site, and the next, and the next.
Like a spider weaving a web of death the
soldiers soon covered the croplands, the grazing lands, the forests with the
desolation of fire and smoke.
The soldiers kept and guarded what they could
use, and burned the rest.
As the people ran for the hills they looked
back over their shoulders and watched their homes, their forests, their
villages, their fields - their very lives –
burning
-
burning -
burning –
behind them.
Mamm pauses and again
turns her eyes to the fireplace. Nobody says a word or makes a sound. All eyes
turn to the fireplace and not all of those eyes are dry.
That long
dark in the hills is terrible.
The hill people help everyone else as best
they can, but they have not been prepared for this.
Families re-form into temporary villages in
the hills and pool their resources.
Those resources are stretched already, and
they get stretched tighter yet as word comes from the southern hills that help
is desperately needed there by those who escaped with nothing more than their
lives.
Our family, and everyone else who can,
sends carts of supplies via the hill routes through the high passes to those
most in need.
Nobody has enough of anything.
That long dark is especially long and dark
for the people of our land and not all survive.
At the burning of the forests, the game
animals have also fled to the hills, the ones who were fast enough and strong enough
to escape the inferno.
Our people will let them be until all else
is gone; they too will be needed when this long dark is over; some must survive
if there are to be any left at all.
Even so, the time comes that the game must
be hunted if the people are to survive.
It is not enough.
It
is not enough.
The elders begin to go out to gather wood
for the fires, and they do not return.
By their own will they do not return.
On their authority as elders they order
their families to let them go and, grieving, the families respect that
authority, and the elders are gone.
Infants born during that long dark do not
survive. The hills are filled with the anguish of the hearts of our people during
that long dark. The infants are gone.
Littles cry out for food but their cries
soon quiet to moans and then the moans stop and the littles are gone.
When little Corrbed goes, Alianora and
MammTwo become predators, along with most of the other younglings.
Their eyes are dry and they prey upon the
predator.
Relentless, ruthless, and vicious, they hunt
the hunters.
Their prey is the wolf.
Their prey is the wildcat.
Their prey is anything and everything which
bears fur or feather that might help keep the cold at bay for their families.
Their prey is anything and everything which
has meat that might stave off starvation for their families.
The younglings leave before dawn every day
and return after dark every night, sometimes with meat or hide, too often
empty-handed.
Many are
lost during that long dark.
The survivors wear the mark of loss.
The survivors bear the pain of loss.
The survivors swear to avenge the
loss.
They will remember this long dark.
The vengeance of the survivors will be to
return to their homes, to rebuild their villages, to carry with them from the
hills the young spring sprouts and saplings with which to replant their
forests, to use their tools to forge a weapon for every fist large and small,
and to create from what is left to them trade items with which to buy seed for
their fields and gardens.
The vengeance of the survivors is to not
only survive but to thrive, and to remember this long dark so as to never have
another like it.
And so, come the spring, the survivors
gather together for the Spring Blessing.
As Mamm pauses, Merri
speaks up.
‘Is it like our own
Spring Blessing, Mamm? Do they have the Song?’
Mamm grins at Merri and
says, ‘Yes indeed – it is EXACTLY the same as our own. The Song is the same now
as it was then and as it has been for always, because the same Spirit presides
now as then as always.’
Merri smiles with
satisfaction and subsides into silence.
During the
Spring Blessing, right during the SONG, Mamm’s time comes on her to bring forth
the new life that our then family has worked so hard to protect over the course
of that long dark. Mamm has a Voice in the Song and makes it through until the
end, but as the Song fades Mamm sinks to the ground with a low moan.
Danann carefully but quickly scoops her up and
carries her to their shelter where she gives birth to not one new life but TWO.
When the roundhouse
erupts in spontaneous applause Mamm stops, looks around, and laughs out loud
before continuing with her story.
Yes indeed,
twins are delivered at that Spring Blessing, and both of them are healthy and
hearty despite the hardship of that long dark on Mamm of Perth as she carried
them.
Alianora and MammTwo have been sufficiently
good predators to have made the difference in making sure of the survival of
these infants.
What nobody knows is that the two sisters
have not only spent the long dark hunting, but they themselves have come near
to death as they give most of their own portions to Mamm. They have told
nobody, but their only sustenance has been when Mamm insisted on watching them
eat. Otherwise, they have said that they
already had their share and aren’t hungry.
And so, when the infants are born strong,
the sisters hug one another in congratulations and victory.
The long dark may have taken their little
brother Corrbed from them but it will NOT have THESE.
Since Mamm’s under-bed chest has been long
empty, it is used as a cradle for the twins. With the top off, of course!
Mamm of Dunnottar stops,
as though finished with the story, and Sass raises her voice from over near the
other fireplace.
‘Mamm!’
‘Yes?’
‘Ma-amm!’
‘Yes?’
‘Well?’
‘Well what?’
‘Well for the Mother’s
sake! Aren’t you going to at least tell us if the infants were male or female?’
‘Oh. They were girl
infants.’
‘And?’
‘And what?’
‘Well, what happened
when they got back home, and what were the names of those girl infants, for
starters!’
‘Oh. They were named Sass
and Saille, since you ask so politely.’
‘And?’
‘Yes? And what?’
‘The rest of the story,
Mamm. We want the rest of it.’
‘Well now, I’m kind of
tired at the moment so you’ll just have to wait, won’t you?’
And Mamm gives an
enormous yawn, holds her hands out to the younglings around her, and with their
help gets to her feet.
‘It’s bedtime now, so
sweet dreams everyone.’
Mamm of Dunnottar wraps
her plaid around her and heads out the door of the roundhouse to go to her rest
in her own snug little house.
