A Gathering of Ghosts

by Karen Maitland

  Larks-claw – Delphinium consolida, also known as larkspur, larks-toe and larks-heel. It was used to pack wounds and treat the stings of scorpions. Oil from the seeds was extracted to kill lice. If tossed in front of any venomous beast, it was widely believed the creature would not be able to move until the herb was removed.

  Livier – the living space for people. Dartmoor long houses often consisted of just two rooms built sideways on a slope. The livier, at the higher end of the slope, was where the family ate, slept and worked, and the room on the lower end was known as the shippon and that was where the livestock were housed, especially during winter. The livier would have a central peat fire, but no chimney or windows. An open drain ran down through the middle of the shippon and out through the wall at the lowest end of the building to carry away animal waste. Both beasts and humans used the same door, and the partition between livier and shippon was often only a half-wall, so that the heat from the animals helped to keep the humans warm and the beasts, especially young or ailing ones, benefited from the warmth of the hearth fire in the livier.

  Long-cripples – Devon dialect word for snakes, usually adders, but it can also mean dragonflies or lizards. Some leech or healing wells were given the name long-cripple, either because they cured snakebites or because they cured the same ailments as adder skins were thought to do, such as headaches and rheumatism. The groves of dwarf oaks on Dartmoor, especially Wistman’s Wood, are home to hundreds of adders, which take shelter among the rocks and are said to be the most venomous adders in the British Isles.

  Lungwort – Pulmonaria officinalis. Folk names include Bloody Butcher, perhaps because the flowers change from pink to blue like a butchered meat. It was also known as Adam and Eve, Mary and Joseph, Mary’s Tears, Spotted Dog, Beggar’s Basket and Our Lady’s Milk-sile, because the white spots on the leaves were said to be the stains or ‘sile’ made by the drops of milk that fell from the Virgin Mary’s breasts when she was feeding the infant Jesus on their flight to Egypt. The leaves resemble the shape of a lung therefore it was believed they cured lung conditions in both humans and livestock. Ointment made from the leaves was used to treat ulcers on the sexual organs. The plant was also said to banish sorrow and depression, and to ‘comfort the heart’.

  But to confuse matters, the green lichen, Lobaria pulmonaria, which grows on tree trunks and rocks, is also known as lungwort because it, too, is said to resemble lungs and was also used to treat ailments of the lungs, especially asthma.

  Manuterge – from the Latin manus, meaning hand, and tergēre, to wipe. A small white linen towel used by the priest during mass for drying the hands after washing them in the lavabo (ewer and basin). Today it is often called the lavabo towel.

  Mazy – local dialect word meaning stupid or mad. Mazy-jack was often used to refer to someone who was considered to be the village simpleton.

  Pigseys – old dialect name for pixies. See also Historical Notes – Pigseys.

  Pinfold – an enclosure, often circular, in which animals were penned for the night. Most medieval drovers’ roads had pinfolds built along them at intervals where animals being driven to and from market could be kept overnight to prevent them straying and keep them safe from predators and thieves while the drovers slept. In Devon, the enclosure usually consisted of broad banks surmounted by a thick hedge, or wide dry-stone walls that had tunnel-like ‘kennels’ built into the hollow between the stones, so that dogs could stay dry and warm while keeping watch. On Dartmoor, there were also many Bronze Age stone circles and the remains of large Bronze Age circular stone-huts; farmers and drovers often turned them into pinfolds to save building one from scratch.

  Responsions – each priory of the Knights or Sisters of St John was required to send a third of all their income from produce, rents and financial dealings to the central or mother house in their country. In England, this was Clerkenwell, north of London. Knights or paid agents then took the money to the procurator-general in Avignon from where it was sent to the treasurer at Rhodes. However, records show that during the fourteenth century the responsions from the English Tongue were not always dispatched to Rhodes, because the English Hospitallers were heavily in debt. In times of war between France and England, the King refused to allow them to be delivered, since this was giving money to England’s enemies, not least because French-speaking knights were in the majority on Rhodes. At such times, money from the English order of the Hospitallers was given to the King to help in the defence of England.

  Rouncy – (also spelt rouncey or rounsey) – an all-purpose horse, used for riding and battle. The huge destrier, capable of carrying a man in full armour with weapons was the most highly prized war- and jousting-horse of the Middle Ages, but the least common, and the destrier was not a good riding horse over long distances. The agile coursers were often preferred for hard battles fought at close quarters, but only wealthy knights could afford either of these. A poorer knight or man-at-arms would use a rouncy for fighting and distance riding. Often in the Middle Ages the nature of the expected battle would dictate the type of horse required, so if a swift pursuit was anticipated, the knights would be advised to bring rouncies rather than destriers. None of these horses were specific breeds; rather, the size, build and training of the individual horse determined what it was called.

  Sarcenes – the full name of the dish was bruet sarcenes. A bruet was stew containing meat. A strongly flavoured meat, such as venison or goat, was boiled and drained, and the water it had been cooked in mixed with ground nuts to produce almond milk. A sauce for the meat was made from the almond milk, flour, cloves and powdered spices. It was boiled until thickened, then wine, sugar and salt were added, with a deep red dye made from alkanet root.

  ‘Almond milk’ was made from any kind of ground nuts that were available. The powder was kept dry, then mixed with a liquid, such as wine or stock, just before cooking to create a ‘milk’. It was used in many sauces and puddings where today we would use dairy milk: animal milk soured quickly and wasn’t available all year round, so it was mainly reserved to make butter and cheese that could be stored.

  Scroggling – an old word for a tiny, shrivelled apple, which no one bothers to harvest because it is worthless; by extension, a person who is useless, good for nothing.

  Shaggy mane – the edible fungus, Coprinus comatus, also known as Shaggy Ink Cap, because it makes good black ink. It often grows where animals have dropped dung, probably generated from spores the beast had ingested. If it is cooked after it has started to open it can dye all other ingredients black. Not to be confused with Common Ink Cap, Coprinopsis atramentaria, which is poisonous if alcohol is drunk with it or after eating it.

  Simples – any herbs with a medicinal property.

  Sledges – on Dartmoor, wooden sledges were not principally intended for use in snow, but were used to drag fodder, kindling or other supplies across the open moorland all year round. With their broad metal runners, they could be pulled over heather, rough grass, stones and mud much more easily than a wheeled cart. Old horseshoes were hammered into rough circles and nailed to the sides of the sledge, through which ropes or poles could be attached, allowing the sledge to be dragged by horses or people.

  Strappado – a method of torture favoured by the Inquisition in which a victim’s hands would be bound behind their back. Their wrists would be tied to a rope slung over a high beam and they would be hauled upwards, thereby dislocating their shoulders. Victims were often also repeatedly and violently dropped several feet in the air, but jerked to a stop by the rope before they hit the floor. This generally broke their arm and shoulder bones and caused serious damage to the spine. Weights might be attached to other parts of the body, such as feet and genitals, to inflict even greater agony and damage.

  Todde – Old English, meaning fox. By the twelfth century it had become a nickname for someone who resembled a fox in some way, perhaps in hair colour, or was foxy, cunning or crafty. As with many early nicknames, it was eventually adopted b
y some families as their surname, usually spelt Todd.

  Trapes – old dialect word meaning a slattern, slut, or slovenly woman.

  Veckes and gammers – derogatory medieval terms meaning old women and old men.

  Viaticum – the eucharist (bread and wine) given by a priest to the dying. It could be offered with or without extreme unction, which is the anointing of the sick with chrism (holy oil). Receiving viaticum formed part of the last rites in the medieval Church. Viaticum means ‘provision for a journey’, via meaning way. The journey is the one the dying person will make from this world to the life after death.

  Whortleberry – Vaccinium myrtillus, commonly called a bilberry. It grows on low, wiry bushes. The fruit is blue with a strong sweet scent and flavour. The flesh and juice are red. They were known as whimberries in Wales and whortleberries in Devon. But many villagers on Dartmoor called them hurts or urts.

  Will worth – cunning women believed a charm or curse would only work if the charmer firmly declared exactly what they wanted, really meant it and imagined it happening. In that sense, the physical charm or curse, whether it was a bunch of herbs or a curse written on lead, had no power in itself but became the focus of the cunning woman’s willpower or wishes. Will worth meant to state your intention or your will aloud as you directed the charm or curse towards whatever you wanted it to affect.

  Wisht Hounds – mythical beasts, otherwise known as hellhounds. Wisht originally meant to bewitch or invoke evil. Wisht hounds are a pack of huge black dogs with savage fangs and red eyes that hunt across Dartmoor at night, preying on lost souls and unwary travellers. After the coming of Christianity, they were also thought to snatch unbaptised babies and children from their beds and devour them, or drop their bloody corpses at the feet of their neglectful parents. To protect the baby from such a terrible fate until the infant could be brought for christening, which in winter or in remote areas might be some months, a piece of consecrated bread (the Host) was placed beneath the child’s pillow.

  The hounds’ kennels are said to be in an ancient grove of twisted oaks, which still stands today, and is known as Wistman’s Wood. Many of the stones in the wood are balanced such that they resemble dog kennels, and foxes, badgers and rabbits make homes in them.

  As they run across the moor, the ferocious wisht hounds are followed by a lone huntsman swathed in black and riding a huge black or skeleton horse. He carries the hounds’ ‘kill’ in a sack. Some say the huntsman is the devil himself, others that he is Old Crockern, an ancient god or guardian spirit of Dartmoor, whose face can be seen in profile on the rocks of Crockern Tor. It is he who releases the hounds from their kennels in Wistman’s Wood whenever someone threatens the moor. See also Historical Notes – Black Hounds.

  Reading Group Guide

  • ‘You can stamp and frown as much as you please, Mistress, but this is a battle I am going to win.’ Prioress Johanne rules the priory with a firm hand, but her authority is challenged with the arrival of Knight Brother Nicholas. To what extent is this book about power?

  • The well sits at the heart of life in the priory – and is central to the mystery of the story. What did you make of the plagues? Were you surprised by the identity of the blind boy? Can we find an earthly explanation for the strange happenings?

  • Great grey clouds rose up, one behind another, like walls of stone, but a beam of dazzling sunlight, thin and straight as a golden arrow, slipped between them. What did you make of the wild and remote Dartmoor setting? How does the myth-laden landscape frame the story?

  • Compare the three first-person narratives – Sorrel, Johanne and Morwen – with the chapters that take place at the priory. Does this affect how we perceive the three different women? And what impression do we get of Nicholas?

  • Discuss the theme of survival in the novel, and how it shapes the actions of the characters.

  • I saw black Ankow galloping across the moors on that skeleton of a horse, with his hounds baying at his heels. I knew he was hunting souls. How can we understand the tensions between the different models of faith and tradition in the book – the conflict between pagan and Christian beliefs, magic, wisdom and ancient lore?

  • How is the role of family presented in the novel? Think about Kendra and her daughters, the home Sorrel leaves, and the bond between Johanne and Sebastian. Is family something we’re born into, or something we choose?

  • Why do you think Todde wants to help Sorrel? How does fear influence the way people relate to each other?

  • Not all of our noble sisters enter the order entirely by their own choice, though they must swear that they do. Discuss the sisters’ different reasons for ‘choosing’ a life of servitude.

  • A Gathering of Ghosts is set against the backdrop of a terrible famine which caused widespread poverty, desperation and displacement of thousands of ordinary people as they were forced to travel across Europe in search of food or better conditions elsewhere. What parallels can we draw with our world today?

  Have you read Karen Maitland’s other dark tales?

  Lincoln, 1380. A raven-haired widow is newly arrived in John of Gaunt’s city, with her two unnaturally beautiful children in tow.

  The widow Catlin seems kind, helping wool merchant Robert of Bassingham care for his ill wife. Surely it makes sense for Catlin and her family to move into Robert’s home?

  But when first Robert’s wife – and then others – start dying unnatural deaths, the whispers turn to witchcraft. The reign of Richard II brings bloody revolution, but does it also give shelter to the black arts?

  And which is more deadly for the innocents of Lincoln?

  Available from Headline Review

  in both paperback and ebook

  1224. Langley Manor, Norfolk. Lord Sylvain has been practicing alchemy in hiding for years and now only the Apothecary’s niece can help him with final preparations to forge the Philosopher’s Stone.

  Alchemy calls for symbols – and victims – and when a man in possession of an intricately carved raven’s head arrives at the Manor in a clumsy attempt at blackmail, Sylvain has both symbol and victim within easy reach.

  But the White Canons in nearby Langley Abbey are concealing a crucial, missing ingredient . . . Regulus, a small boy with a large destiny.

  Available from Headline Review

  in both paperback and ebook

  1361. An unlucky thirteen years after the Black Death, plague returns to England.

  When the sickness spreads from city to village, who stands to lose the most? And who will seize this moment for their own dark ends?

  The dwarf who talks in riddles?

  The mother who fears for her children?

  The wild woman from the sea?

  Or two lost boys, far away from home?

  Pestilence is in the air. But something much darker lurks in the depths.

  Available from Headline Review

  in both paperback and ebook

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