Kildonan Times issue 34 January 2003

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MEDIEVAL FOODS

When I was growing up, we often finished up the gravy on bread after the main course had been eaten. This is your meat, bread, and gravy all together.

ROAST METE WITH PEPPER AND VINEGAR SAUCE OVER SOPPES
(FOWL OR BEEFE)

Roast the beef or chicken by your favorite method.

While it is roasting, make the sauce:

1. Mix two parts vinegar with one part wine. Add pepper and grated fresh ginger to taste. Simmer. Thicken with bread crumbs (traditional). You may want to use flour or cornstarch. Correct the seasoning before serving.

The Soppes:

2. Toast some heavy bread (rough wheat or pumpernickle). Cut into triangles and arrange the bread on the serving plate.

To serve:

Place the meat on top of the soppes. Pour some of the sauce over the meat. Put the rest in a dish for people to use as they wish.

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PORTRAITS

This is a new feature in Kildonan Times. In it, I will draw a word portrait of one of the characters from the Kildonan Chronicles. I will not only describe the character, but tell how I created the character, and what influences helped shape it.

ARROCHAR

To begin, Arrochar gets his name from a little town on Loch Long in Scotland, just a short country walk from Loch Lomond. We had a lovely stay in Arrochar one time, even though it rained several of the days we were there. But, that's Britain. It rains.

Arrochar is the "male lead," so to speak, in the Clovenstone Chronicles. He enters the tale soon after Fiona begins her journeys. Arrochar is a few years older than Fiona, a warrior in the sense that he can use hand weapons well enough to hire out as an armsbearer, though he is not professionally trained to them. He, like Fiona, bears a carved granite stone on a leather lanyard around his neck. Like Fiona, he has had the stone since birth, and knows very little about it except that he can't remove it.

Arrochar was a foundling. He was left on the doorstep of the home of a miller, who took the baby in and raised him. He might have grown up as a sturdy yeoman who knew the ways of grains and the mill, hunted and fished, and was content to live his life in the village of his founding. But when Arrochar was just a toddler a wizard, Vidar, moved into a hut just down the streamside from the miller.

Vidar took a great interest in the boy, and gave him a white bear as a companion. Vidar was not always at his hut. In fact, he would be gone for months at a time. But when he was at his cote near the mill, the wizard spent all of his time with Arrochar, teaching him to read and write, to fight with sword and dagger, and the ways of the world. So when Arrochar reached a man's status, instead of working in the mill, he left the village and followed Vidar into a world of battle and intrigue. We meet him first as a spy for Vidar in the castle of King Urad.

Arrochar is strong and brave, all the things a hero should be, but he also has a boyish way about him that is appealing. I've had a couple of women readers tell me they were in love with Arrochar. The white bear, Brude, stays with him always as a comrade and protector as they follow the predestined search for the seven stones.

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NOTES

My friend Delores gave me a CD recently to play when I'm writing things Celtic. The CD is Celtic Solstice by Paul Winter and Friends. It is lovely, haunting music. It wasn't until I had looked at the album a number of times that I realized the significance of the artwork on the front. It was a Musical Branch! The legendary musical branches and the Aes Dana are quite obscure, hidden deep in Celtic history and mythology.

The very early Celts were tribal, each tribe led by a Chief. The tribes were sometimes united into kingdoms with a king. There was a lot of competition and warring among the tribes, and kings survived only as long as they could control their subjects. However, a group of people, the Aes Dana, lived outside this social system. They were highly respected and could move freely among the tribes. They received generous hospitality everywhere, to the point where they would even live with families or a king for periods of time.

The Aes Dana were the learned and skilled. They were poets, musicians, magicians, historians, druids, metalworkers and other skilled artisans. Some of the Aes Dana carried branches with bells on them. The oolamh, or very learned, carried golden branches, and their deputies carried silver branches. The branches represented the Otherworld Tree. The Otherworld was the world of gods and spirits, a parallel world to the real world of the Celts. Spirits and faeries could pass freely from the Otherworld into the real world, and sometimes humans were carried or stumbled into the Otherworld.
Most of the learned and skilled people carried plain tree branches, still symbols of the Otherworld Tree, with bells on them as symbols of their status and to get the attention of their audiences.

In art and legend, the people of the Otherworld are shown with musical branches being used as musical instruments. When these otherworldly beings came to earth, they used branches to alter the consciousness of human beings. In the tale of Bran mac Febal, he is approached by a faery woman who shakes her silver branch at him, and he falls into a deep sleep.

Musical branches are still used a symbols of office or achievement in some Celtic based clubs and schools, and they are associated with the skill of music, as in this CD. I went on the web and found a hundred websites with the name Aes Dana. Some were historical or literary about the Aes Dana, in some Aes Dana was the name of an organization or band, and some were sites of modern-day witches and spiritual musicians that identified with the Aes Dana. However, almost none of the historical, literary, or musical sites mentioned the use of musical branches. When I searched on the web with the words musical branch, I got nothing. So they are an interesting, but rather obscure, bit of Celtic culture.

<<Artwork is from the front of the CD album, Celtic Solstice, and copyrighted 1999 by Earth Music Productions, LLC.

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HERBS

In my discussions of herbs in all the issues of Kildonan Times, I present only general information. It is not intended to be a guide for the use of the herbs. If you wish to use any of the herbs described in Kildonan Times, consult an herbalist or a definitive guide book to using herbs.

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uert

apple: I've discussed the apple before (October, 2001). In the Ogham Tree Alphabet (September, 2001) the letter q or cw stands for quert, or apple. There are two major Celtic languages, one has a q in its alphabet, the other replaces the q with a p. So they are called, logically, q Celtic and p Celtic.

The apple was important to the Celts not only as a food, but also as a medicinal herb. It had religious and magical connotations, and was considered blessed in the Celtic culture. Apple seeds have been found in primitive cave diggings, and very early British writings mention even peasants having apples.

Cooked apples can be used as a poultice for sore throat and eye inflammations. In some places in England, there are villages that still use rotten apples for sore eyes, a medieval practice.

Eating an apple every day truly does improve health, right down to keeping your teeth in better shape. Improved health is greater longevity. In the ancient Scandinavian saga, the De, a goddess named Iduna kept a box of apples. She gave these apples to the gods to eat in order to renew their youth.

Apple juice or cider is the base for the famous English Wassail, now popular in this country as a holiday drink. An earlier Irish version was called "Lamb's Wool," a mixture of hot spiced ale, wine or cider, with apples and bits of toast floating in it. The name was derived from the Irish 'la mas nbhal,' "the feast of the apple-gathering" (All Hallow Eve), which being pronounced somewhat like 'Lammas-ool,' was corrupted into "Lamb's Wool." It was the custom for each person who drank the punch to take an apple out of the bowl and eat it, wishing good luck to the company.

In the digestive line, apples are one of the easiest vegetable foods to digest. The acids in them help digest other foods. People found out long ago that eating apples with pork or duck or other rich meats aided the digestion. There is an old English custom of eating cheese with apple pie for the same reason. My source botanical.com - A Modern Herbal | Apple - Herb Profile and Information (http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/a/apple044.html) says that the practice is now obsolete. I don't know where. In my world, a lot of people eat cheese with apple pie, especially cheddar cheese. Don't you?

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My basic herb reference books for the herbs I use either for food or medicine in Clovenstone and Stones Seven are: The Herb Book by John Lust (Bantam Books), Brother Cadfael's Herb Garden by Robin Whitman (Bullfinch Press) and Herbs by Lesley Bremness (DK Publishing).

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A FEW THOUGHTS FROM THE EDITOR (me, Ruth)

Yesterday I walked in the rain. At 6:15 in the morning darkness and dripping rain, when my walking companions drove to exercise class, I walked. It's an act of defiance. I'm saying to Mother Nature, "You're not going to intimidate me. I am part of nature. I can live in your outdoor world." I like walking in the rain, anyway. I tried to come up with some adjectives to say why I like it, but I couldn't. I just like it. A lot of people like to walk in the rain. It's some sort of primordial urge.

I like pushing my way down beaches against the wind as waves crash on the shore under gray lowering skies. The wind goes through me and I'm one with the elements. I like the blackness of a wild cave, sleeping out of doors on the ground, and following unknown trails. That's why Fiona and the Nonesuch Players live out of doors most of the time. They are following my fantasies.

Now that all this bravado has been aired, I'll admit the rest. I wear a good raincoat when walking in the rain, and if there's lightning, I don't walk at all. I bundle up in layers and a windbreaker to hike down the beach. I want to be as comfortable as possible when challenging the elements. Nor do I go in caves after a rain or sleep outdoors in a storm. Mother Nature isn't that nice. She'll certainly get you if you don't watch out.

But there is something to be said for getting out of doors whenever possible. Turn off the TV and go for a walk. If it's winter where you are, just bundle up and get out there. Weather permitting, walk during your work noon hour for 15 minutes every day. People who spend time out of doors are healthier and stronger. They feel better and are less likely to be sick. A quiet walk in the snow can clear your mind and rest your soul.

If you can't walk easily, then winter does trap you indoors. But as soon as that spring sun warms up the world, you have your chance. Just sitting outside, breathing in the air and being bathed by the sun is rejuvenating. If you eat an apple at the same time, you'll be so healthy and feel so good that your family and friends will be amazed.

I used to participate in some nature awareness activities that included hugging trees. I'm not suggesting you go that far, but try to spend as much time out of doors as you can. Be part of the natural world. Breathe deep and feel the breezes. And if you really want to hug a tree, go right ahead!

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WEBSITES TO EXPLORE

Speaking of apples, and we were, here is a website devoted to apples. There are descriptions of varieties, recipes, kids stuff, and nutrition information.

Washington State Apple Commission

http://www.bestapples.com

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If you're in to scholarly research, here's a definitive page on the Druids that paints a somewhat different picture from the popularly held ideas about this cult.

Who Were the Druids?

http://www.accessnewage.com/ARTICLES/MYSTIC/DRUIDS.HTM

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And, as always, tell your aunts, uncles, cousins and friends about the novels of Clovenstone Chronicles. Give them an adventure!

Good Fate Be Yours —
Ruth

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