Strong as Death (Catherine LeVendeur) (43 page)

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Authors: Sharan Newman

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It has been a constant source of delight and amazement to me how many fine scholars are willing to take time from their own work to help me with mine. Those listed here have been of invaluable assistance. I thank them from the bottom of my heart. I also want to assure the reader that any historical inaccuracies are solely due to my own muddled understanding of the data and not in any way the fault of my advisers.

Professor C. Julian Bishko, who sent me references and advice on the probable route of Peter the Venerable, even though it meant having Peter leave the story for a while.

Professor Fredric L. Cheyette, Amherst College, for sending me a draft of his work on the twelfth-century south of France and for being willing to do research in archives all over that inhospitable region.

Dr. Judith Cohen, Toronto, for sharing her knowledge of Spain and the jongloressas and for making their music live in her recordings. Maruxa’s voice is hers.

Jeff Davies, who sent me guides to the pilgrim trail and is mad enough to want to do the Compostela route by bicycle.

Dr. E. Roseanne Elder, Cistercian Press, Kalamazoo, Michigan. For graciously permitting me to quote from translations of twelfth-century authors published by the press. The work of Cistercian Press has made it possible for non-Latin readers to learn about medieval scholars from their own writings. As a slow reader of Latin, I appreciate it very much.

Professor Lynn Nelson, University of Kansas, for information on the French in Spain, good advice on where to drape a body in church and for not being too proud to hang out with writers.

Professor Jeffrey B. Russell, University of California at Santa Barbara, for moral support, Latin translations and corrections, editorial comments and champagne.

Professor Richard Unger, University of British Columbia, for boats, beer and sympathy at also having to write a book in summer.

Fr. Chrysogonus Waddell, Gethsemani Abbey, for boundless enthusiasm, liturgical corrections and informing me that Peter the Venerable always rode a white mule.

By Sharan Newman from Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.

Death Comes As Epiphany
The Devil’s Door
The Wandering Arm
Strong As Death

Praise for Sharan Newman and the Catherine LeVendeur series

STRONG AS DEATH

“Colorful characters and thoroughly researched culture add up to wonderful historical fiction. A necessary purchase.”

—
Library Journal

“Extremely intelligent, highly suspenseful, and richly textured historical fiction.”

—
Booklist

THE WANDERING ARM

“Sharan Newman has done it again.
The Wandering Arm
is a triumph—a sweeping historical of romance and dark mystery.”

—Faye Kellerman

“This well-researched, glittering historical evokes Paris in 1141 so clearly that you’ll taste the foods the characters eat, shiver against the cold of a Parisian winter, and pray for the souls of infidels in a time when religious apostasy was as serious as murder … .Newman has created a highly addictive series.”

—
The Drood Review of Mystery

THE DEVIL’S DOOR

“History, philosophy, religion, socioculture, murder, and mayhem combined with a sharply defined sense of time and place, original characters, and a magnificently medieval plot—there is little else one can ask for in a book.”

—Ellis Peters Appreciation Society Journal

DEATH COMES AS EPIPHANY

“A sweeping historical novel—meticulously researched, with humor, richness, and detail.”—

Anne Perry

“A tapestry with colorful period detail, an intriguing plot, and a golden thread of romance … .Fans of Ellis Peters will appreciate.”

—
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine

Afterword

Like Catherine and Edgar, I followed the pilgrimage route from Le Puy to Compostela. When I began, I viewed the journey as a research trip much like my earlier ones when I would visit archives and buildings and perhaps get a sense of the countryside that my characters would have passed through 850 years ago. What I didn’t expect was to become involved in a tradition that has endured for over a thousand years and is still very much alive today. Perhaps a higher percentage of modern pilgrims now follow the route from a sense of adventure, rather than piety, but even today, it is impossible not to feel a kinship with all those who have made the journey before one. The road to Compostela is still crowded with pilgrims.

Many of the places mentioned in the book are not terribly changed from the twelfth century. That made it much easier to envision my characters’ experiences. It was while climbing the volcanic cone to the chapel in Le Puy that I first realized Edgar was afraid of heights. In the village of Conques the tympanum is intact, although the paint has worn off. The torments of Hell are as fascinating today as they were then. All along the route, on both sides of the Pyrénées, there are still hostels for the pilgrims and churches that were old when Catherine and Edgar visited them. The scallop shell is still on signs pointing the way to St. James.

While I don’t think I’ll do the entire route on foot or even a bicycle, I would very much like to travel along it again, more slowly, in order to appreciate the magnitude of the journey that the pilgrims made. From the tenth century on, Compostela was the third most important pilgrimage site in Christendom, after
Rome and Jerusalem. Even though there were many people who took the trip more than once, it was considered dangerous. Before leaving, pilgrims made provisions for their families in case they did not survive. Often, a pilgrimage was made late in life, and the four knights in their sixties and seventies were not atypical.

Peter the Venerable did make the journey to Spain. He collected the back tithes from the emperor and commissioned the first Latin translation of the Koran. However, he returned to Cluny without ever visiting Compostela.

As always, I have done my best to make this book as accurate as possible, both as to historical data and the medieval worldview. But this is a work of fiction, designed to entertain. I hope that the reader enjoys the story. There will not be a quiz. As usual, most of my research never got into the book. So, for those of you who are curious about the period and especially the Pilgrim’s Way, I have a bibliography which I will be happy to send if you send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope, care of the publisher.

Valete! Sharan

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

STRONG AS DEATH

The Hebrew poems and translations on pp. 251 and 269 are from
The Gazelle
by Raymond P. Scheindlin, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1991, pp. 85 and 105. Reprinted by permission.

A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

Forge
^®is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.

Cover art by Harvey Parker

eISBN 9781466817227

First eBook Edition : April 2012

Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 96-1410

First edition: August 1996
First mass market edition: September 1997