PROLOGUE (92 page)

For Rosvita's
History
I have drawn on Widukind of Cor-vey's
History of the Saxons,
made accessible to me via a translation by Raymund F. Wood (UCLA dissertation, ).

The life of the real St. Radegund, a Merovingian queen, is translated in
Sainted Women of the Dark Ages,
edited and translated by Jo Ann McNamara and John E. Halborg with E. Gordon Whatley (Duke University Press, ).

I have also been inspired by the writings of Macrobius,
Commentary on the Dream of Scipio,
translated by William Harris Stahl (Columbia University Press, ); Virgil,
The Aeneid,
translation by W. F. Jackson Knight (Penguin Books, ); Polybius,
The Rise of the Roman Empire,
translation by Ian Scott-Kilvert (Penguin Books, ); and the unknown author, possibly Einhard, of
Karolus Magnus et Leo Papa,
translated by Peter Godman in
Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance
(University of Oklahoma Press, ).
Medieval Handbooks of Penance,
by John T. McNeill and Helena M. Gamer (Columbia University Press, ) and Salvatore Paterno's
The Liturgical Context of Early European Drama
(Scripta Humanistica, ) provided me with further glimpses of source material from the early medieval church and society.

I must also mention Valerie J. J. Flint's
The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe
(Princeton University Press, ) and Karen Louise Jolly's
Popular Religion in Late Saxon England
(The University of North Carolina Press, ), from which I derived a great deal of information on magic and its uses, and Alison Goddard Elliott's
Roads to Paradise: Reading the Lives of the Early Saints
(University Press of New England, ), with its fascinating analysis of late antique and early medieval saints' lives. C. Stephen Jaeger's
The Origins of Courtliness
(University of Pennsylvania Press, ) and
The Envy of Angels
(University of Pennsylvania Press, ) gave me, I hope, some insight into the court and clerical culture of the Ottonian period, which I of course adapted to my own lurid purposes.

Last, I must mention the work of Karl Leyser, in particular his wonderful
Rule and Conflict in an Early Medieval Society
(Basil Blackwell, ), itself a treasure-house of inspiration for a fantasist.

APPENDIX
The Months of the Year:
Yanu Avril Sormas Quadrii Cintre Aogoste Setentre Octumbre Novarian Decial Askulavre Fevrua
The Days of the Week:
Mansday Secunday Ladysday Sonsday Jedday Lordsday Hefensday
The Canonical Hours:
Vigils (circa : a.m.) Lauds (first light) Prime (sunrise)

Terce ( rd hour, circa : a.m.) Sext ( th hour, circa noon) Nones ( th hour, circa : p.m.) Vespers (evening song) Compline (sunset)

The Houses of Night (the zodiac):
the Falcon the Child the Sisters the Hound the Lion the Dragon the Scales the Serpent the Archer the Unicorn the Healer the Penitent THE GREAT PRINCES OF THE REALM OF WENDAR AND VARRE:

Duchies in Wendar:

Saony Fesse Avaria
Duchies in Varre:

Arconia Varingia Wayland
Margraviates of the Eastern Territories:

the March of the Villams Olsatia and Austra Westfall Eastfall OTHER KINGDOMS KNOWN TO THE WENDISH:

Salia Aosta Karrone Alba Arethousan Empire Andalla (heathen)

Jinna Empire (heathen)

Polenie (pagan)

Ungria (pagan)

IMPORTANT CHURCH COUNCILS
Council of Darre:
The biscop of Dariya (later called Darre) is named presiding biscop, or skopos, of the Daisanite Church.

Council of Nisibia:
Outlaws adoption for inheritance purposes.

Second Council of Nisibia:
Against determined opposition, presbyters are named as equal in honor'to the biscops. Skopos Johanna II denies that her insistence on this matter has anything to do with a young presbyter, rumored to be her illegitimate son, whose career in the church she has championed.

Council of Kellai:
Under the direction of the Skopos Mary Jehanna, the gathered biscops and presbyters proclaim that the Lord and Lady do not prohibit what is needful, and that therefore sorcery can lie within the provenance of the church, as long as it is supervised by the church. Only sorcery pertaining to fate, and knowledge of the future, is condemned and outlawed.

Great Council of Addai:
The belief in the Redemptio
— the martyrdom of the blessed Daisan in expiation for the sins of humankind followed by his ascension to heaven—is declared a heresy together with the revelation that he is the true Son, both Divine and Human, of the Lady. In strong language, the Skopos Gregoria (called "The Great") declares that the only right belief is that of the Penitire, that the blessed Daisan fasted for six days and that on the seventh, having reached the Ekstasis—the state of complete communion with God—he was lifted bodily up to the Chamber of Light (the Translatus), and that the blessed Daisan himself claimed no greater maternity than that of any other human: a divine soul made up of pure light trapped in a mortal body admixed with darkness.

Council of Arethousa:
The Emperor of Arethousa refuses to accept the primacy of the Skopos Leah I in Darre. A nephew of the emperor is installed as Patriarch. They adhere to the greater of the Addaian heresies, that accepting the semi-Divinity of Daisan, although they do not acknowledge his martyrdom.

Council of Narvone:
Presided over by the Skopos Leah III, whose predecesor Leah II had in the year crowned the Salian king Taillefer as emperor of the reconstituted Holy Dariyan Empire, the Narvone synod confirms the ruling of the Council of Kellai but, in a deliberate repudiation of Taillefer's powerful daughters, specifically condemns the arts of the mathematici, tempestari, augures, haroli, sortel-egi, and the malefici, as well as any sorcery performed outside the auspices of the church.