Hild: A Novel (82 page)
Authors: Nicola Griffith
We don’t know exactly where Hild was born and when her father died—or her mother. We have no idea what she looked like, what she was good at, whether she married or had children. But clearly she was extraordinary. In a time of warlords and kings, when might was right, she began as the second daughter of a homeless widow, probably without much in the way of material resources and certainly in an illiterate culture, and ended up a powerful adviser to statesmen-kings and teacher of five bishops. Today she is revered as Saint Hilda.
So how did Hild ride this cultural transformation of petty kingdoms into sophisticated, literate states? We don’t know. I wrote this book to find out. I learnt what I could of the late sixth and early seventh centuries: ethnography, archaeology, poetry, numismatics, jewellery, textiles, languages, food production, weapons, and more. And then I re-created that world and its known historical incidents, put Hild inside the world, and watched, fascinated, as she grew up, influenced and influencing. (The deeper I go, the more certain I become that I’ve caught a tiger by the tail. I’m writing the next part of her story now.)
While people in Hild’s time may have understood their world a little differently from how we understand ours, they were still people—as human as we are. Their dreams, fears, political machinations, fights, loves, and hesitations were shaped by circumstance and temperament, as are ours. Hild, though singular, was singular within the constraints of her time. Her time was occasionally brutal.
I don’t pretend to be an historian. Although I did my utmost not to contravene what is known about the early seventh-century material culture, languages, natural world, power politics, and individuals of the British Isles, this is a novel. I made it up.
A NOTE ON PRONUNCIATION
Hild would have encountered at least four languages on a regular basis: Old Irish (Irish), Ancient British (Brythonic), Latin, and Old English (Anglisc).
I won’t attempt to codify the pronunciation of Old Irish; it’s defeated better than me.
Ancient British is easier. If you think of it in the same terms as modern Welsh, you’ll get a sense of how to proceed. Every letter is sounded,
c
is pronounced
k
,
dd
as
th
,
ff
as
v
,
rh
as
hr
, and
u
,
g,
and
w
can be … mercurial. So:
Cian: KEE-an
Gwladus: OO-la-doose
Arddun: AR-thun
Rhroedd: HRO-eth
Urien: IRRI-yen
Uinniau: oo-IN-NI-eye
(the short form sounds very like
Winny
)
Latin sounds much as it looks with the exception of
v
, which sounds like
w
. Consonants are hard (
g
as in
go
, and
c
as
k
).
Old English is a particular and deliberate tongue, with every consonant and vowel sounded,
r
’s trilled, and dipthongs accented on the first element. Some simplified rules include pronouncing:
æ:
like the
a
in
cat
sc: sh,
as in
ship
g:
sometimes
y,
as in
yes
ī
c:
usually as
itch
f:
sometimes as
v,
as in
very
ð: th,
as in
then
So:
Gipsw
ī
c: Yips-witch
gesith: yeh-SEETH
gemæcce: yeh-MATCH-eh
thegn: thayn
ætheling: ATH-ell-ing
scop: SHOW-p
Anglisc: ANG-glish
Eanflæd: AY-on-vlad
seax: sax
Yffi: IFF-y
Hereric: herr-EHR-itch
Wilnoð: oo-ILL-noth
*
Read a translation, by Professor Roy M. Liuzza (Joseph Black et al., eds.,
Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Volume 1: The Medieval Period
. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press, 2006; hosted and linked to with permission of the translator), of the relevant passages here:
http://nicolagriffith.com/Bede_on_Hild.pdf
.
Glossary
æfen:
six to nine in the evening
ætheling:
male youth in the line of succession, prince
Anglisc:
pertaining to Angles (the people, the language)
Arawn:
British (wealh) underworld
baldric:
wide belt for weapons worn crosswise over the shoulder
basilica:
main hall of old Roman administration building
Belenos:
British god
Beli Mawr:
legendary British figure
Blodmonath:
November
Cait Sith:
black cat of British legends
ceorl:
freeman
chape:
tip of a scabbard, usually metal, often highly decorated
Coel Hen:
fifth-century British king
cyrtel:
loose, long-sleeved dress; informal
dryhten:
absolute lord
ealdorman:
high lord (similar to viceroy)
ell:
about thirty inches
Elmetsætne:
the people of Elmet
Eorðe:
Anglisc goddess
etin:
giant
freemartin:
female calf masculinised in the womb by male twin
gemæcce:
formal female friendship or partnership; one of a pair
gesith:
member of a king’s personal war band; elite warrior
Gewisse:
people of Upper Thames area; West Saxons
hægtes:
supernatural figure; witch
Hel:
Anglisc for hell, a cold place
Hrethmonath:
March
Hwicce:
people of the area around Worcester; Saxons
hythe:
landing place or harbour
Idings:
royal dynasty of Bernicia
league:
about three miles
Loides:
ruling tribe of British Elmet
Lyr:
legendary British god
mene:
valley
middæg:
middle of the day, noon to three o’clock
morgen:
six to nine in the morning
nithing:
oath-breaker; one who is shunned
Northumbria:
Bernicia and Deira
Œstremonath:
April
Oiscingas:
royal dynasty of Kent
pace:
two strides, about five feet
principia:
old Roman administrative building
redcrest:
Roman
rhyne:
ditch, canal
scop:
Anglisc bard
seax:
knife with a large, single-edged blade
selkie:
mythical creature who lives as a seal in the sea but becomes human on land
sidsa:
magic
Sigel:
Anglisc god
Sirona:
Romano-British goddess
snakesteel:
pattern-welded steel
snakestone:
ammonite (fossil)
Solmonath:
February
thegn:
lord
thung:
poisonous flowers (e.g., wolfsbane)
Thunor:
Anglisc god
tree hay:
chopped-up brush, used as winter fodder
tufa:
king’s standard
undern:
nine in the morning to noon
vill:
royal estate
wariangle:
butcher-bird, or strike
wealh:
Anglisc for “stranger” and root word of current “Welsh”
Weodmonath:
August
w
ī
c:
king’s trading settlement, usually a port
wight:
supernatural figure, ghost
Winterfylleth:
October
Witganmot:
assembly of notables, usually annual
Woden:
Anglisc god
Wuffings:
East Anglian royal dynasty
wyrd:
fate
Yffings:
Deiran royal dynasty
Yr Hen Ogledd:
the Old North; kingdoms of northern England and southern Scotland
Acknowledgements
I’ve been thinking about this book for a long time. The list of people to whom I’d like to offer acknowledgement and thanks is correspondingly long:
To my editor, Sean McDonald, and everyone at Farrar, Straus and Giroux: Jonathan Galassi, Andrew Mandel, Jeff Seroy, Kathy Daneman, Spenser Lee, Devon Mazzone, Emily Bell, Taylor Sperry, Nick Courage, Charlotte Strick, Abby Kagan, and all those who have worked hard and intelligently on behalf of this book. I also want to thank Karla Eoff, my copy editor.
To my agent, Stephanie Cabot, and Anna Worrall and all at the Gernert Company. It’s a privilege working with such a team.
To the Society of Authors, in the United Kingdom, who gave me a grant for travel and research at a critical juncture.
To the medieval bloggers, academic and otherwise—Michelle of Heavenfield, Jonathan Jarret, Magistra et Mater, Tim Clarkson, Sally Wilde, Guy Halsall, Carla Naylund, Reverend Brenda Warren—who have helped me, some unwittingly but most with deliberate effort and patience. Thanks also to Lisa Spangenberg and Wendy Pearson for input on various things, and to Dennis King, and David Burke and John Clay, for fixing my Old Irish. All mistakes are, of course, my own.
To all composers, compilers, translators and enthusiasts of Old English poetry. Rædwald’s elegy
here
is how I imagined part of the first draft of
Beowulf
might have looked if it were written just before the Age of Conversion rather than a little later (as most scholars agree is most likely the case). I used a variety of translations as the basis of my linguistic retro-engineering project and then much poetic license. Again all errors are my own.
To my friends, for practical assistance, patience, encouragement, wine, and more: Angélique Corthals, Liliana Dávalos, Maria Dahvana Headley, Liz Butcher, Guillermo Castro, Ginny Gilder, Lynn Slaughter, Dorothy Allison, Val McDermid, Robert Schenkkan, Karen Joy Fowler, Matt Ruff, Karina Meléndez, Jennifer Durham, and Vicki Platts-Brown.
To my family, in the United Kingdom and the United States. Thank you.
To Steve Swartz, who appears here as Stephanus the Black because he contributed enough money to the African Well Fund to bring potable water to hundreds if not thousands of people.
To Roger Deakin, Robert Macfarlane, and Richard Mabey, for their wonderful books about Britain and its wild and wooded ways. And to Thomas H. Nelson, author of
The Birds of Yorkshire
, published in 1907 and long out of print, for writing about the miracle of doves and starlings in the same nest.
To my community of readers, everywhere, for following me to strange places (sometimes literally).
To the U.K. rugby fans of my youth who introduced me to several scabrous ditties. The song
here
is based on one of them. Some of you will know the tune …
To the experts who (mostly) have never heard of me but who nevertheless helped in ways that one day I hope to pay forward: Sarah Foot, Nicholas Higham, Robin Fleming, Chris Wickham, Barbara Yorke, Richard Underwood, Alex Woolf, D. P. Kirby, Edward James, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Alaric Hall, Rosamond McKitterick, Sally Crawford, Clare Lees and Gillian Overing, Penelope Walton Rogers, John Blair, Peter Hunter Blair, every contributor to
The Heroic Age
, and, naturally, the two who got me started, Trevelyan and Stenton.
To Hild herself, of course, for changing the world, which is what it takes, sometimes, for me to pay attention.
And finally, above all, to Kelley, always Kelley, for not, ever, letting me do less than my best. After all these years, I still want to impress her.
Also by Nicola Griffith
FICTION
Ammonite
Slow River
The Blue Place
Stay
Always
NONFICTION
And Now We Are Going to Have a Party: Liner Notes to a Writer’s Early Life
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2013 by Nicola Griffith
Map copyright © 2013 by Jeffrey L. Ward
All rights reserved
First edition, 2013
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Griffith, Nicola.
Hild: a noval / Nicola Griffith. — First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-374-28087-1 (hardback)
1. Hilda, of whitby, Saint, 614–680—Fiction. 2. Christian women saints—England—Whitby—Fiction. 3. Christian saints—England—Northumbria (Region)—Fiction. 4. Women—History—Middle Ages, 500–1500—Fiction. I. Title
PS3557.R48935 H55 2013
813'.54—dc23
2013022510
