Dragon's Gift - The Druid Complete series Box Set

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by Linsey Hall


  I’m sure it would annoy some ancient Celts if they found out that I used this term, but it illustrates an interesting point—much of what we know about the Celts comes from the writings of the Romans, one of their greatest enemies. As a result, it can be hard to say what is true in Roman writing. They could have fudged the facts in order to help their own cause (they likely did). For example, the wild Celts could have been used as propaganda, or as a means to increase the size of the Roman army.

  The first challenge that Ana faces is at the Iron Age forge, where she must solve the riddle to create a bridge. I’d like to confess to taking some liberties with the nature and construction of this forge. Normally, they were built a little differently, but it didn’t work as well for the story. But I wanted to bring in iron production since it was so vital to the Celts, and this seemed like a fun way to do so. Piles of Iron Age slag, the black glass waste that is a byproduct of iron production, can be found all over Europe. Evidence of their iron working is everywhere.

  The Cŵn Annwn, the spectral hounds of the Welsh Otherworld, are one of my favorite parts of Celtic myth. You may remember them from one of Del’s books. I love them so much that I included them here as well. They are often associated with the Wild Hunt, where they chase wrongdoers until they can no longer run. In some stories, they escort souls on their journey to the Otherworld.

  The Otherworld is an interesting concept in Celtic religion, primarily because there was no singular type of Otherworld. As I’ve mentioned before, the Celts were a loose group of people with a similar culture, but they didn’t have one religion with the same pantheon of gods. The Irish Celts worshipped different gods than the ancient Celts in Hallstatt, Austria. For the purposes of this story, I created one big Otherworld contains many elements of Celtic culture from all over Europe. Ana has only been to part of the Celtic Otherworld, and while she is there, she encounters a mishmash of Celtic figures. That’s one of the most fun things about writing fiction—I get to take the most interesting bits and leave all the rest.

  One of those interesting bits is the Kelpie, a horse/man figure who inhabits the lakes of Scotland. Nearly every sizable body of water in Scotland has an associated Kelpie, and they are such an important part of the folklore that there are two modern enormous statues of them along one of the major highway.

  It was my invention to make the Kelpie the sworn enemy of the Dullahan, who is an Irish mythological creature similar to the headless horseman. Traditionally, the Dullahn chases those who are about to die. When he (or she) stops their horse and calls out the victim’s name, they immediately perish. Obviously, I changed this a bit. The Bean Nighe is a figure from Scotland who is essentially as I represented her, though she cannot turn into a goddess. She is a messenger from the Otherworld, washing the clothes of those about to die.

  Sulis is a Romano-Celtic god from Bath, England, where the famous Roman baths are located. She is an example of how Roman and Celtic religion meshed during the Roman occupation of Celtic Britain. She presided over the spring that fed the baths, receiving sacrifices and also requests for vengeance. The archaeological record suggests that people viewed her as both a mother-goddess figure and also one who would exact revenge if you inscribed your request on a clay tablet and left it for her to find. These are known as the curse tablets, and about 130 were found at Bath. They are primarily related to theft and some of them are quite extreme. A famous example is one that reads, "Docimedis has lost two gloves and asks that the thief responsible should lose their minds [sic] and eyes in the goddess' temple."

  It seems the Docimedis was really pissed about those gloves.

  One of my favorite parts of the book was the riddle at the lake where Ana had to find the correct objects and put them on the flat stone platform. This is meant to represent one of the most famous Celtic sites in the world—La Tène at Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland. This site is so important that a whole subset of Celtic culture was named after it. The discovery of the site is really cool too.

  In 1857, the level of the lake dropped substantially due to drought. Over the course of several decades, historians discovered thousands of weapons, along with the remains of dwellings built on pilings (wooden posts) out in the water. There are several interpretations of the site that try to answer why thousands of weapons were found underwater. I chose the interpretation that they were sacrificial objects.

  As Ana was entering the sacred grove, she noticed some pillars inset with skulls. This is a nod to the famous site of Roquepertuse in southern France. The site likely dates from the 5th and 6th centuries BC and contained many amazing Celtic artifacts, including columns that were inset with human skulls. Though this was a bit of a random inclusion in the book, I chose to add it because I wanted to reflect how far and wide Celtic culture spread.

  Lastly—Boudica, the warrior who gave Ana her torc. Boudica is my favorite historical figure and an important cultural icon in Britain. She was the brave Celtic warrior queen who rallied her people, the Iceni tribe, to fight against the Roman occupation of Britain in AD 60 and 61. Prior to this, her people had a truce with Rome. After the death of her husband, Rome violated that truce. In one account, they flogged Boudica and raped her daughters.

  As a result, Boudica rallied her tribe and several other neighboring Celtic tribes. The Celts were a loose conglomeration of tribal kingdoms at this point and there was no single central leader. They agreed to follow Boudica, however, and what resulted was a campaign across Britain in which Boudica’s army successfully destroyed several Roman cities. They were so successful that Rome nearly withdrew from Britain entirely. Boudica might have won the whole war and forced Rome to retreat, but she lost the Battle of Watling Street in AD 61. After this, she either killed herself to avoid capture or died of illness.

  It’s an amazing story with a crappy ending, if you ask me. The first book that I ever wrote, a paranormal romance, told the story of Boudica reincarnated in modern day. She got a second chance to beat the Romans once and for all, and it was very satisfying.

  I think that’s it for the history and mythology in Celtic Magic—at least the big things. I hope you enjoyed the book and will come back for more of Ana, Lachlan, Rowan, and Bree!

  Celtic Magic Acknowledgments

  Thank you, Ben, for everything. There would be no books without you.

  Thank you to Jena O’Connor and Lindsey Loucks for your excellent editing. The book is immensely better because of you! Thank you to Kelly H., Nadine M., Gisela S., Skye M., Lita A., Julie S., Alisa S., and Marina S. for your help with the German.

  Thank you to Orina Kafe for the beautiful cover art. Thank you to Collette Markwardt for allowing me to borrow the Pugs of Destruction, who are real dogs named Chaos, Havoc, and Ruckus. They were all adopted from rescue agencies.

  Captured by Magic Author’s Note

  Thank you for reading Captured by Magic! If you’ve made it this far, you’ve probably read some of my previous books and know that I like to include historical places and mythological elements in my stories. Sometimes the history of these things is so interesting that I want to share more, and I like to do it in the Author’s Note instead of the story itself.

  Captured by Magic is full of myth and history. It starts in Death Valley, where I borrowed from some Native American myth. Because of the forcible dispersement of Native American people during American colonialism (not our finest hour), it can be difficult to find the myth and folklore for a specific region or group. Taking people from their homes and suppressing their culture has the unfortunate consequence of also causing the loss of cultural stories and histories. As such, some of the myth that I have used does not come directly from Death Valley, but from nearby instead.

  One example of that is the Nimerigar, a mythological group of tiny people who shot poisoned arrows from their bows. Their name means “people eaters” in the Shoshone and Paiute languages, and they were said to live in Wyoming. Another myth is that of the Princess of the Timbisha Shoshone people who li
ved in the half-built castle. It is a piece of folklore from the Timbisha Shoshone tribe in Death Valley and it describes the land before it became dry and desert like. I stayed as faithful to their story as I could.

  Petroglyphs like the ones carved in the sand at Death Valley in my story are found all over the world. In Death Valley, they are most often found inscribed on vertical rocks, but for the purpose of this book, I liked the idea of them being carved into the ground.

  The myth and history in Captured by Magic continues in Italy. The city of Orvieto is a real place in central Italy that is roughly as I described it, minus the river leading to the Well of San Patrizio. The well really is there, however, and I highly recommend that you google it for photos. It is truly amazing and I knew that I had to use it for the book. The well was built in the 16th century to provide water for the city in the event of a siege, and the architecture is really impressive.

  The city itself sits atop hundreds of caves, most of which were dug out of the earth to provide building materials for the city below. Some of them are older than the Romans. Many homes and business have their own private caves that they now use primarily for storage. There are several very cool wineries that have their storage underground. The one that I used for reference in the book is actually in the town of Montepulciano, which shares a similar construction to Orvieto.

  One of the most interesting places in the Orvieto underground is the area where the pigeons live. For centuries, pigeons were an important food source for Orvieto. The caves at the edge of the city have natural openings to the cliffs outside. Within the caves, there are hundreds of little nooks carved into the walls for the pigeons, who live free until the day that someone decides to eat them (that’s the sadder part of the story). But it’s a very interesting place, and I recommend googling that as well.

  St. Bacchus was one of the Roman gods who was made into a minor saint to help ease the transition to Christianity. The Opimian vintage that he mentions is an actual famous vintage from 121 BC. It’s amazing what you can learn on the internet.

  And last, the Parco dei Mostri, which I call the forest of monsters in the book, is based on the Parco dei Mostri at Bomarzo in central Italy. It is very similar to how I described it—a wild forest filled with huge, fantastic stone sculptures. It was commissioned in 1552 by Prince Pier Francesco Orsini in honor of his late wife. This is another one that I recommend you google. The pictures are really fantastic.

  I think that’s it for the history and mythology in Captured by Magic—at least the big things. I hope you enjoyed the book and will come back for more of Ana, Lachlan, Rowan, and Bree!

  Captured by Magic Acknowledgments

  Thank you, Ben, for everything. There would be no books without you.

  Thank you to Jena O’Connor and Lindsey Loucks for your excellent editing. The book is immensely better because of you! Thank you to Janice Phelps for sharing information about the American South West. Thank you to Ash P Reads and Queen Amanda for your eagle eye in spotting errors.

  Thank you to Orina Kafe for the beautiful cover art. Thank you to Collette Markwardt for allowing me to borrow the Pugs of Destruction, who are real dogs named Chaos, Havoc, and Ruckus. They were all adopted from rescue agencies.

  Doomsday Magic Author’s Note

  Thanks for reading Doomsday Magic! If you’ve read any of my previous books, you may have noticed that I have a fondness for including historical places and mythological elements. I did the same with Doomsday Magic. Sometimes the history of these things is so interesting that I want to share more, so I like to do it in the Author’s Note instead of the story itself.

  The story of the seal woman is one of my favorite parts of the book. It is based upon a folktale called the Legend of Kópakonan from the Faroe Islands, which are located far north of Scotland.

  The Corryvreckan whirlpool is one of the largest natural whirlpools in the world. In real life, it’s located off the west coast of Scotland. For the purposes of the story, I moved it to the north. The whirlpool is formed when the strong current that passes between the islands of Jura and Scarba meets the underwater topography of that area. A deep hole and a rising pinnacle create enough obstruction under the water that the whirlpool is formed.

  The faces that Ana sees on the boats at the Demonville harbor are based on the eyes that can be found on the bows of ancient Greek ships. Many of the ships featured eyes, and they could be represented by paint or stone. One of the most famous shipwrecks, the Tektaş Burnu shipwreck from around 430 BCE, features stone eyes that were found at the shipwreck site. No one knows for sure what the eyes were for, though some scholars theorize they were the eyes of gods and meant to protect the ship.

  You probably guessed that I used Dante’s Inferno for inspiration in the hell scene. I tried to represent the levels of his hell accurately, but I did take some liberties. The caravan that crosses the sandstorm in level two is an example, as was the nice cave where they spent the night. And while I wrote Dante to be a crazy guy who sides with evil, I doubt that he actually was.

  In part of the book, the words terrible and great resonate with Ana. I don’t address it directly in the text, but the Morrigan’s name can mean either of those things. The greatness part is obvious—she’s a goddess, after all. But she could also preside over victories in battle. If she chose the side opposite yours, she was most definitely considered terrible.

  I think that’s it for the history and mythology in Doomsday Magic—at least the big things. I hope you enjoyed the book and will come back for Rowan’s story!

  Doomsday Magic Acknowledgements

  Thank you, Ben, for everything. There would be no books without you.

  Thank you to Jena O’Connor and Lindsey Loucks for your excellent editing. The book is immensely better because of you! Thank you to Jon McGough for recommending the Corryvreckan whirlpool as a cool element for a book.

  Thank you to Orina Kafe for the beautiful cover art. Thank you to Collette Markwardt for allowing me to borrow the Pugs of Destruction, who are real dogs named Chaos, Havoc, and Ruckus. They were all adopted from rescue agencies.

  About Linsey

  Before becoming a writer, Linsey was an archaeologist who studied shipwrecks in all kinds of water, from the tropics to muddy rivers (and she has a distinct preference for one over the other). After a decade of tromping around in search of old bits of stuff, she settled down to started penning her own adventure novels and is freaking delighted that people seem to like them. Since life is better with a little (or a lot of) magic, she writes urban fantasy and paranormal romance.

  This is a work of fiction. All reference to events, persons, and locale are used fictitiously, except where documented in historical record. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright 2018 by Linsey Hall

  Published by Bonnie Doon Press LLC

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form, except in instances of quotation used in critical articles or book review. Where such permission is sufficient, the author grants the right to strip any DRM which may be applied to this work.

  ISBN - 978-1-942085-93-5

  [email protected]

  www.LinseyHall.com

  https://twitter.com/HiLinseyHall

  https://www.facebook.com/LinseyHallAuthor

 

 

 


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