Witchvox Article

Author: Erika Mailman
Posted: February 8th. 2009
Times Viewed: 1,203

Earlier this year, I attended an authors’ event that included a gourmet dinner. Attendees sat at round tables, and at every course, a new writer would sit down with them and discuss their book.

I was one of those authors doing that difficult thing of hopping from table to table, competing with waiters (and a strangely long-winded MC) for the attention of the diners. I knew probably few, if any, people had read my book, The Witch’s Trinity, and this was my chance to get the word out while helping raise funds for a Northern California city’s library system.

At the final table, waitstaff served attendees raspberry-drizzled cheesecake. As I sat down, the woman on my left immediately leaned over and said, “Are you a Witch?”

I have to confess it was with a bit of chagrin that I answered, “No.”

My previous book was about a Gold Rush “soiled dove, ” and yet no one had asked me if I was a prostitute. I simply hadn’t been expecting the question. The Witch’s Trinity is set in 1507 Germany, and it didn’t occur to me that anyone might consider me to be exploring my own path, while setting “my” story in medieval Europe. The novel is considered historical fiction… so why was I chagrined to answer no?

Because I knew that only a Witch would ask me if I was a Witch.

And I felt “caught out” in my pretense of knowing anything of Paganism or Witchcraft. Sure, I did research until medieval inquisitors fell out of my ears, still menacingly demanding confessions, and I joined a German folk dance troupe that allowed me to perform the dances my ancestors did hundreds of years ago, but my descriptions of cabals and sabbats were half research and half invention. Not, as one might hope, one hundred percent experience.

I knew the woman there at the table was disappointed in my answer. She was a Witch, and she wanted to talk about the Malleus Maleficarum, the infamous witch hunters’ bible of late-1400s Germany. We did spend some time discussing that most evil of treatises, but as we spoke my mind wandered to the pages of my own book. How authentic-seeming were the scenes in the woods, where my character Gude believes she sees Witches convening?

One of the most important parts of Gude’s character was her embracing of the natural world. Even as she led into trial, walking from the witch’s tower to the town hall, she takes time to thank the elements of her simple world: the snow, the trees, the flowers resting in the cold winter soil. She even thanks fire itself, although in the hands of the inquisitor, it can spell her demise at the stake.

One of my inventions was the sign of the meat, which characters make in thankfulness before they eat flesh. Although the sign is pure fabrication, I felt it was in keeping with the mindset of an old woman clinging to Pagan beliefs while her village clumsily shifts to Christianity. I knew the gesture would be plain, and symbolic—just as pictograms attempt to represent the idea they are substituting for. So I used the four fingers of one hand to represent the four legs of the animal killed for its meat.

Here is a brief passage from the novel about the sign: “I made the ancient sign of the meat blessing, four fingers downcast to mirror the legs of the still-living beast, and then upturned them to show its felling, and finally pressed them to my lips to prove I honored the eating.”

Speaking of pictograms, I used runes in my novel, as the village’s rune reader tries to ascertain why famine has descended upon them. Although today’s runes are typically round, on stone or wood, I read that the earliest runes were actually carved on small sticks. I describe the rune reader as carrying around a bag of sticks tied at his waist.

At my readings, I gave out sealed envelopes with a single rune inside. I ordered runes from a Pagan woodshop that made them from twigs. Instead of the old way portrayed in my book, the runes had been cut as cross-sections, so that one could count the rings. The person who supplied the runes told me that the heart of the wood creates a natural pentagram and that the rune set had all been cut from the same branch to “assure continuity with the tree spirit.”

I knew that supplying a single rune was not the correct way to use this divination method. But I wanted readers to be able to hold a rune and see if there was some jolt of expressiveness when they saw what their rune foretold. This was the best I could do, given the funding I had: shouldn’t every literary event have wine, cheese and runes?

The outside of the envelope said, “Inside is an Elder Futhark rune. Before opening the envelope, please briefly meditate on a question in your life. Once you’ve done that, open it and see. The explanation of the rune’s meaning is very open to interpretation, so if you need help, try talking to your neighbor. Or I’m happy to try during Q and A. Please note that this is a very silly and unofficial use of the runes.” I included a printout of the rune lore, so they could identify and read about their particular rune.

Sure enough, one reader who had been experiencing fertility issues (which The Witch’s Trinity is ALL about) received the Perthro rune, which pertains to femininity and fertility. She read the description and jokingly said, “Hey, I got the vagina rune!”

I worked hard to cast my mind back to an imaginary village, in a time period and country I’ve never lived in. I believed in the people who appeared on my pages. I actually don’t remember writing much of the novel; it was more like I sat at the computer and then hours later, looked at the clock.

Writers fight to make their fiction believable. And that day, sitting next to the curious Witch, I was uneasy. Who’s to say these things didn’t happen this way, with people saying “grace” with their fingers at a different table to a different sort of god, with a rune reader reverently handling his rough collection of twigs? And yet, here talking to me, was someone who might know that they didn’t!

None of us have access to the past… an historical novelist needs a time machine more than anything. But I did wonder if this woman’s continuous interaction with other Witches and with ancient wisdom gave her a knowing that I could not approach.

Luckily, she had read the novel and enjoyed it; she even asked seriously about voicing the audio version of the book. (Unfortunately, new authors have no say in this kind of thing.) I appreciated sitting with her and listening to her gentle, intelligent conversation.

I hope that neo-Pagans and modern-day Witches find my novel to be sympathetic. Like Gude, I am awed by everyday miracles like the ability to draw breath into my lungs, to watch a bud emerge from frozen ground. Gude’s gratitude to the forces of nature very closely echoes mine.

One final thing: the Witch at my table told me about Witchvox. I am grateful and happy to make all of your acquaintance.

ABOUT...

Erika Mailman

Location: Oakland, California

Website: www.erikamailman.com

Author's Profile: To learn more about Erika Mailman - Click HERE

Bio: A writer living in Northern California, Erika Mailman is the author of The Witch's Trinity (Random House, 2007) . She is also the descendant of Mary Bliss Parsons, accused of witchcraft in 1600s Massachusetts—twice brought to trial, and twice acquitted.

Other Listings: To view ALL of my listings: Click HERE

Email Erika Mailman... (No, I have NOT opted to receive Pagan Invites! Please do NOT send me anonymous invites to groups, sales and events.)

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