The Lament of Sidhelagh

 The Lament of Sidhelagh

Was it so long ago
We danced in the early dew
Loving the dawning
With everything new

Was it so far from here
We danced in the dawning
now ‘tis the gloaming
and darkness is near

where now the singing
or melodies ringing
horses are screaming
eagles on the wing

to battle to battle
so sound the Horns
bells add their crying
darkness draws nigh

where now hearth-home
where our sweet bairns
where our true mates
ah – we mourn

grieving and fighting
no new daylighting
side by side fighting
holding the day

holding and holding
holding lest faith should fall
where now the future
for which we risk all

we fall and we fall
who now to stand
tomorrow tomorrow
now in your hand

I fall oh I fall
Hear now my voice
Hard in your ear
Stand you must stand

Kiss now my daughters
Hold close my own
Tell them their mother
Has gone down

Give them big boots
tell them they must grow the feet
to stand in those boots proud and tall
and to hold
to hold
to hold 

These words came to me when I could not manage to get this message to come out right. 

I finally gave up, closed my eyes, and just blind-wrote whatever came, having no idea what words I would find when I opened my eyes.

The back story here is that (in the very first book of the series) Sidhelagh dies in battle, fighting for the safety of her family. Her husband Danann has just died in her arms. Fury and grief vie for dominance as she takes out after the ones who have come to kill those she loves. She knows she's going to die; knows also that her daughters are NOT going to die - the torch passes into their keeping, to keep safe for the next generations.

Perhaps I shouldn't be too shocked to find that these words can be sung to the melody of *The Flo'ers o' the Forest*. Reference to the ancient lament shows up fairly regularly in the books of *They Are My Song*, as our fictional family seems to always be fighting for elusive peace. It is a haunting melody, filled with grief but also, inexplicably, carrying hope - and love immeasurable. Because without deep love there would be no deep mourning.

The battle that takes Danann and Sidhelagh is the first one I had to write. It doesn't get any easier to write those scenes.

Stephen Hawking - Black Holes - Science Comes In Handy For Fiction Writing

Stephen Hawking gives us something to think about, indeed he does. Click on his name to take you to one of the articles.

For our purposes, which is essentially a search for possible 'explanations' of some of the stuff presented in the fictional format of the Mamm Books and the rest of the books and stories associated with the SONG series, cold hard facts aren't required. Hypothesis will more than suffice.

There are scores of articles all over the place about this, so why did I pick this one?

I like the photo.

And really, it doesn't matter which of the articles you reference - they're all telling us the same thing.

Hawking's ideas might come in handy for us (which is entirely selfish but oh well) in terms of 'understanding' how certain elements of our books might be possible.

Like what?

Well, like ... what if black holes are 'memory banks' of what has been? All those deposits of energy-borne substance safely tucked away might be available for a withdrawal. What if someone comes up with the access code? Could that someone use the deposit slips (receipts) to replicate whatever the original deposit was, exactly and precisely identical to the original?

I'm thinking at the moment about Danann and Sidhelagh to represent the vague concept that's trying to form itself in my mind. Or when the Mother touches Dunnottar's Grove and Roundhouse, giving the far future exact replicas (or perhaps the originals?) of the far past's actual substance. The miracle is no less miraculous; it's just got a logical, mathematical, scientific basis for being able to occur.

For future reference in stories yet to be written, suppose some of our Characters are roaming around on the Spiral, doing what they do, and the Younglings happen on one of these banks (black holes), get curious, and want to reconstruct something that was once real but has been lost in the mists of mythology? 

It would be kind of like what they do from their Play Pretend Clearing, except those little jaunts into imagination are based on having a knowledge of the dimensions/realms of the times/places/persons/events involved in their adventures via the Clearing. In other words, they can only go to where and when they already know something about. 

Their educations would have included plenty from the past of their time, and their present, and included myths and legends we today have no idea about except for very ancient references and the findings of our archaeologists. That the dimensions of said myths and legends, fictionally speaking, were/are contemporary (embedded, so to speak) to our own realm on the 'timeline' of the Spiral makes them readily accessible to the Younglings.

That's a whole different scenario from them playing around on the Spiral, let alone traipsing along on the PHI Line that runs through the whole thing. They can't get 'lost' but boy can they run into unfamiliar territory. The Spiral covers a LOT more territory than even their extensive educations could possibly prepare them for.

See, this is what happens when somebody out there somewhere comes up with a concept we hadn't really thought about before.

Fictionally, our Characters can have fabulous adventures all over the multiverse as a consequence of one of the ideas coming from the mind of one of the smart people of our world.

The Characters don't have to understand the math or science behind the concept in order to put it to use in their fictional lives. The Younglings can get themselves into predicaments that they have to get themselves out of one way or another - and the same goes for the adult Characters.

Traveling the Spiral can take our Characters all over our planet, our solar system, our galaxy, our universe, and beyond. They have all infinity and eternity to roam around in - past, present, and future. 

Running into one of those black holes with their deposits of energy - which are observable to the Younglings (or others) - would most certainly spark their curiosity. Because these deposits of energy are different. They're not the living, moving, active dimensions and realms the Younglings use to navigate their way along the Spiral. Looking at them does not animate them. They are inert, in a sort of suspended animation, hibernating maybe, while the energy that once made them 'real' is out there in the rest of the Spiral contributing to the larger energy pool.

Something like that.

At any rate, these perfectly preserved but inanimate things would fascinate the Younglings to no end. What/who are they? Where did they come from? When did they come from? How did they get stuck there and why can't they get un-stuck?

The Younglings being the Younglings, they're bound to try to figure it out, and are bound to succeed. And of course they don't go to the adults (who would tell them in no uncertain terms to stay the heck away from those black holes) because they don't want to hear the warnings. They want to find out for themselves what these things are all about.

Yes they know it's dangerous.

They don't, however, know it's lethal.

Reconstructing one of the inanimate ghosts means re-energizing it - and the energy has to come from somewhere ... the nearest energy source would be the Younglings themselves.

This is a different scene from Danann and Sidhelagh resuming their physical forms after three thousand years. The two of them have been 'themselves' for all that time, their energy remaining intact within the Sidhe of the Ages and needing only to make the swap back into the form of energy that is their physical selves. Said energy can't be in both forms at once, you know. 

And so it is for all of the Sidhe. Their physical 'selves' are preserved around the perimeters of the black hole energy banks as de-energized forms while their life energy continues through and out again into the whole of the Spiral. Theirs, however, is not dispersed like most of the rest of the life-force energy but retains its individual identity. The Sidhe are exceptions to a lot of stuff.

Anyway, the de-energized forms the Younglings are looking at and curious about are not Sidhe. The energy required to reactivate them is not the energy of a Sidhe simply switching from one form to another. 

Now, the Younglings are not stupid. They know basically how all this stuff works. They choose one form from among the many they see, something really little and innocuous-looking, to try their experiment on. They figure it won't take much of their combined energy to 'bring it back'.

Luckily for them Brann the Honest tattles on them ahead of time so the Sidhe of the Ages are standing by, Danann and Sidhelagh among them. They let the Younglings proceed but stop them before they can get themselves into big trouble with the Holy Trinity.

Danann and Sidhelagh are there to tell them, remind them, about the consequences of meddling with stuff they aren't supposed to meddle with.

Since this happens to the original lot of Younglings, Danann and Sidhelagh are but Voices in the ears of the Younglings. 

When the Younglings want to argue the point Danann of Perth himself (Danann the Red as opposed to Danann the Gold of Dunnottar) threatens to transform back into his original mortal self and thrash the lot of them. And so he does. He doesn't thrash them but he scares them pretty good; fierce Warrior that he is, he's convincingly intimidating when he wants to be.

So they cease and desist.

Aduan and Loki, however ... ach, those trouble-makers! I have a feeling a lot of those de-energized things have been de-energized for good reason by the Will of the Trinity.

How it is that Aduan and Loki manage to not get themselves de-energized is something I haven't figured out yet but assume it has to do with the Keeping of the Balance.

*laughing*

Aduan and Loki  :  the Keepers of the Balance

Lord help us.

They'll want crowns.

How Can I Laugh When I Feel Like ... Well ... Not Like LAUGHING ...

Being sick is no laughing matter ... but since I had to get myself out of bed anyhow for a bit, I thought to give the beginnings of my rough ROUGH draft of Danann a look-through.

Now Danann and Sidhelagh have always seemed to me such serious Characters ... granted we haven't gotten to know them well, and they DO show up with a lot of laughing and quacking and such ... but overall, my impression of them has been SERIOUS.

No doubt they'll become serious as all get-out as things progress, but where we're at right now they're not back yet and are plaguing Brann and Dothann on a public street in Stonehaven.

And so I laugh.

Maybe I'm sicker than I thought.

Who Are Alaric and Mamm Without One Another?

And who are Mamm and Dannan of Perth?
Who Alianora and Forr?
Who MammTwo and Ethan?
Who the Warrior Twins?
Who LittleMamm and David?
Who Mamm and Alaric?
Who Joan and Davidson?
Who the Cousin Twins?
Who Julia and LittleEthan?
Who Galla Placidia and Ataulf?
Who Honoria and Gowan?
Who Sidhelagh and Danann?
Who Alianora and Drustann?
Who Sass and Thann?
Who Caileen and Talorc?
Who Aine and Kalann?
Who Tinne and Nion?
Who Saille and Coll?
Who Ullin and the Queen Harp?

These are the Warriors of Mamm of Dunnottar.

Having spent a great deal of time with them just lately, I know them pretty well.

They are individual Characters, make no mistake about that.

Yet you will never find one without their partner nearby, in spirit if not in life.

Now I may be slow, but I do catch on.

These couples are inseparable.

Each and all of them are living love stories.

You can't take any of them away from their partner; each would be incomplete without the other. 

They need each other.

And their love for each other changes history, creating a new future.

At the hearth of Dunnottar Mamm tells her own Story, hers and Alaric’s. It twines in and out, over and under, the Stories of them all.

The family is busy by day, but of an evening it is the Story they want. It connects them with their heritage, reminds them of the Legacy that is theirs to Protect and Preserve, and teaches them that they do indeed have within themselves all that they need to do what they have to do when they have to do it.

The Legacy?

Faith

Family

Friends

Freedom

Future

I have no fear of using the ‘F’ words.

Can't Stop Smiling

Remember the post about the Stonehaven Fireballs, how I loved the whole thing and was so lacking in the c-c-c-courage to just tell them? Here's the link to that post:

http://shielabranson.blogspot.com/2015/01/stonehaven-fireballs-links-and-saying.html

I did send it on. And found in my email inbox a reply that is responsible for the grin on my face today.

*smug smiles from Danann and Sidhelagh*

Oh MY. Danann's Book - I have to quote Mamm: 'WHAT!?!?!'

It is the year 3487. 

Danann, Sidhelagh, and Ullin have the current family gathered beneath the boughs of the Mother Tree, the ancient Yew of Perth.

They are only just coming to fully realize the extent of the damage and loss to their family over the course of three thousand years.

As the situation calls for a bit of a celebration, Sidhelagh thinks to treat them with a Story.

Dothann suggests she begin at the beginning.

So she starts with Genesis. 'In the beginning ... '

Oh my.

While Danann respects and reveres the Scriptures, he's been looking forward to a different sort of Story for three thousand years.

And he gets Genesis?

As an introduction to the Storying Tradition, it just seems to lack a little something.

Luckily for all concerned, Boudicca's Story is up next on the agenda.

I'm working on drafting non-sequential scenes, putting together details, and fitting the Characters into their proper places (and times).

Danann and Sidhelagh Are BACK!

At least they will be ... come the year 3487 ... and things are a little different.

Danann's Book has only just begun and already I'm having trouble keeping up with them.

Stonehaven Fireballs - Links and Saying Thank You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCif9XkL34Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXlSYeNTTBk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm5cqvnZ2eE

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSou3h2A3xmL1U_o3agfCRWlUOZMjxp0F0l-jDLcKdT3CUcdiFtNA

This image goes with the photo URL above.

SPECTACULAR

I watched it from a live feed and here are my comments:

2014  12  31  1630  (US Central time)

Holy buckets! I have to get myself to Stonehaven or they’ll be doing the fire walk thing without me!

SOOO excited! People, people, people … so many people.

I was afraid I’d missed it, not thinking of the time difference, right? But those people aren’t leaving the area, and there are more and more of them coming … so maybe I haven’t missed it after all …

The Stonehaven Fireballs have a camera posted with a live feed. I’m watching with more intensity than I could have possibly thought likely for an event that’s taking place clear on the other side of the world.

1710 – it’s 2310 over there …

More and more people are crowding the sides of the street and people in what looks like black pants and white vests are the only ones who are really in the open area, keeping it clear I reckon …

Oh I hope to high heaven this connection doesn’t fail!

SUCH a crowd!

1720

Ach buffering … ! It stops the video feed …

Who are the ones in the white sleeves I wonder …

I could go watch last year’s, or the year before … but I want to see NOW, to almost kind of be there … sigh.

1725 is 2325 and it’s buffering again … even so, I can’t WAIT! I can feel the excitement from clear over here!

1728

Ah, there’s an ordered group in black … wish there was audio or a commentator or something … oh but this is FUN!

There’s a truck, coming this way … oh it’s stopped … nope moving on now …

How excited I get over this  … who would think?!?!?

1736

OH! Were those pipers? It’s so hard to tell and I’m so ignorant (not by choice, mind you, just circumstances beyond my control).

1740

Here’s where I’m watching from:

http://stonehavenfireballs.co.uk/firecam

‘The web cam is mounted in the clock tower and gives a view up the High Street towards the Cannon. Web camera kindly provided by SoilEssentials, Brechin, and the broadband connection by Craig-ma-Cair B&B, Stonehaven.’

1743

A little group with a lady …

Buffering … the only good thing about buffering is that I get a chance to feed my fire here. The kitchen wood stove is keeping me toasty on this cold Dakota Long Dark night!

1745

There’s a group, are they drummers? WISH I could hear!

And yes I know I can wait and watch it later, but that wouldn’t be the same at all, would it? Dang the connections while blessing them in the same breath … I get so impatient …

I wish I had a Stonehaven friend, someone who could take me places and to events and stuff – like Tess takes me shopping with her in Minneapolis … electronically, since I can’t be there really, either. Sigh.

1755 buffering again

Do I wait it out or refresh the page and hope for the best?

Refresh the page.

Blue – I’m seeing blue at the top of the screen …

I  AM going to have to watch this later, but I’m not giving up, buffering or not.

This time I’ll wait it out, see what happens.

Maybe.

I am impatient, you remember …

1800 here

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO STONEHAVEN!

Cameras flashing all over the place!

It’s a white glare in the street.

AAAUUUGH! ‘We are unable to connect … blah blah blah.’

A flash of movement and light then ‘We are having problems with playback …’ … sigh …

By the time I get connected it will be over and I’ll have to sit here and weep.

OH there they ARE!

What a thing to watch, even from across the world and fighting buffering and etc.

At least this time it stopped with a darned impressive picture on the screen, moving lights halted in place, filling the street.

1812

Ah it’s magical, beautiful … sentimental me, my eyes are blurring the view.

It’s all moving lights and once in a while you see the people who are swinging the fires.

How I wish I could be there for real … even though this is very special for me, how oh how I wish I could be there for real.

What must it feel like to be a part of something this magical and powerfully moving … I am so very glad that there’s someplace in this world of ours that holds fast to such things.

Kudos to Stonehaven’s Fireballs.

Totally impressed and moved to tears and almost beyond words.

1822

Holy buckets look at the crowds filling the street!

And I thought I was impressed before.

Well yeah, I AM impressed – but the sight of THIS takes it to the next step.

Wow.

This time I really am going to wait out the buffering. Gives me time to dry my eyes and such.

What an awesome thing for Stonehaven to not only protect and preserve but to share with me (others too of course, but I don’t know about them – I know about me) from clear the other side of the world.

Call me a sentimental fool, but Holy Mother of Christ I love this. And don’t fret yourself that I might be using profanity – I’m not and the Mother is not offended, trust me on that one.

1830

Okay, eyes dry and all that. Let’s see what happens with a reload this time.

Oh my. A very full street with everyone going the same direction, very few going against the flow. Where have all these people come from I wonder. Stonehaven can’t have THAT many people, can it? Ha. What a question. I would be there my own self if I weren’t poorer than the proverbial churchmouse.

Now I can search on line and see if anybody’s got stuff posted yet. I want to see it all in one piece …

I have to say I’m darned pleased that Dunnottar snagged me, truly happy about that I am.

1900

*big sigh*

Of content because I got to ‘see’ the Stonehaven Fireballs presenting that astounding display, and all the people who were lined up (and behaving themselves, which in many places wouldn’t happen, you know)?

Or do I sigh because I’m not quite all the way content with seeing it from across the world? Grateful for the chance, bet your bottom dollar on THAT, but still …

Well maybe one day I’ll find a way; in the meantime I’m quite very happy to pop in now and again to see how things are going. Thanks to the Mearns Leader, and hibernator that I am, I think I keep better track of Stonehaven than I do of my own little Small Town USA.

And why do I snoop on some place that’s clear across the world from me?

Because it pleases me to do so.

Even more pleasing is that I’m finding a community of which the SONG Characters (fictional though they are) would be all-fired proud. If they were real, and if they were NOW, the whole lot of them would be preening, I tell you. Preening. And I wish I could somehow let Stonehaven know how precious it has become to me.

I know that sounds downright weird. I don’t know a soul there and not a soul knows me nor probably would want to.

Even so.

Me and the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz … ‘If I only had the nerve …’

Sadly, I haven’t got the nerve.

But Danann and Sidhelagh now, that’s another Story. Those two have nerve and to spare.

No I haven’t lost all my marbles (got one on a chain around my neck to prove it). I know Danann and Sidhelagh don’t exist; they’re fictional Characters for heaven’s sake, made up out of my own head as a matter of fact.

But, as my sister said, ‘They can still have their Voices, can’t they? Even if they’re dead.’ Even if they never existed in the first place?  Maybe.

Hell, the two of them have been spouting off about this, that, and the other thing all along, dead or not, real or not.

And I have this internal debate, right?

The Celt in me says, ‘Go for it!’

Me:         They’d think me crazy.

Celt:        Well, and aren’t you?

Me:         Shhhh!

Celt:        *laughing*

Me:         I have no c-c-c-courage.

Celt:        Ah, but I do. Don’t you read your own books?

Me:         No.

Celt:        No?

Me:         No. I write them down is all.

Celt:        *laughing uproariously*

Me:         Quit laughing at me.

Celt:        Cluck.

Me:         What!?

Celt:        Well I don’t dare QUACK … you don’t read your own books and wouldn’t get it.

Me:         Quack you, Celt.

Celt:        *snicker* Cluck.

Me:         I just want to tell them thank you, that’s all.

Celt:        Well for pity’s sake, just do it then.

Me:         Cluck.

Celt:        Quack.

Me:         Exactly what they’ll think of me.

Celt:        Who cares?

Me:         I do. They might think I’ve taken liberties with their community.

Celt:        Newsflash. None of them were alive in AD 487.

Me:         Newsflash. Neither were you.

Celt:        You sure about that?

Me:         *frown*

Celt:        Quit dithering and just do it. You’re not insulting them, you’re telling them thank you. What’s to get upset about in that? If they don’t like it, what’s for you to worry about? They’re clear on the other side of the world.

Me:         *sad eyes turning away* I know.

Celt:        Aw, c’mon. What’s the newspaper there that you read sometimes?

Me:         Mearns Leader

Celt:        There you go then. Blame it on Danann and Sidhelagh; they don’t care – they’ve been dead for fifteen hundred years.

Me:         They’re fictional. They can’t be dead because they never existed in the first place.

Celt:        Sure about that, are you?

Me:         I’m beginning to wonder.

Celt:        You know the Celtic people always win in the end. One way or another.

Me:         Okay, you win. If they hate me forever it’s all on you.

Celt:        What the heck. They’ll probably be polite and say ‘You’re Welcome’.

Me:         That would be ‘You’re so very welcome’.

Celt:        Thought you didn’t read your own books.

Me:         I don’t. I just pay attention while I’m writing them down. And did I not just tell you that you win? I’m going to tell Stonehaven thank you now.

Celt:        Good.

Me:         Do you ALWAYS get the last word?

Celt:        Yes.

HOLY MACKERAL! Google the Characters by name.

I tell you true.

I almost fainted when I did a web search for Danann and Sidhelagh.

Try it.