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Step into the world of the 6th century Britannia and Gaul! Where Romano Britons lived with Celts and Gauls and incoming Saxons and Anglos in the crumbling, derelict city of Londinium. Where the Romans withdrew and retreated from the capital city of Londinium in 410 AD. Leaving it destitute and in partial ruins without coin currency except gold and silver. A handful of shops and monasteries and market stalls and a library and a few schools still thrived in the protected walled city. Where the elusive tribe of the Picts in Caledonia (Scotland) and the Votadini tribe of Bernicia (Northumberland) lived among the banks of the Tweed river and points north. The Celtic ancestors of the Bernician tribe of the Votadini had successfully integrated into Roman society over the past 5 hundred years. A few Norsemen arrived from the North Sea via Scandinavia seeking land for farming and had not yet begun their plundering raids of the later centuries. When Christianity was coexisting alongside the paganism of the Romans and the native Celts and Saxon newcomers. When Gaul was being attacked by the Franks who would one day dominate the region under the power king Charlemagne in later centuries. When Saxony (Belgium and Germany) was an uncertain place that brought both raiders and refugees pouring into the island of Britannia. Saxons were fleeing raids and plagues coming from the Mediterranean and into their homeland. The Roman market town of Eboracum (York) still served as a coastal outpost for travelers venturing north and south along the coastal trade route carved out by the Romans centuries earlier. This is a world where local women often dominated as healthcare providers and were herbalists and midwives/nurses and surgeons caring for the sick and wounded. Where local militia struggled to keep peace from their military compounds outside the walled city. This is the world of Danae, Ian, Kestra, Laurus, Mare, Stephan, Marcus, Augustus, Petronis, Julia, Vivian, Cedric, Aldous, Daphne and little Ian. | "Atmospheric"..."A panoramic and immersive novel of life in an England long past." - Kirkus Reviews Cover illustrated by Elizabeth Berry MacKenney |
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Maps from the book, created by my husband Abraham Brody. Click to zoom.
Danae is a young pagan girl from coastal Gaul in the village of Lexovii. Her Auntie Mare and Auntie Vivian raised her and her twin brother Ian there and later in Londinium where she attended her Auntie Vivian's School for Midwifery. She was trained as an herbalist and later midwife and surgeon at an early age. Their parents died of a plague, leaving the twins orphaned as babies. Years later, Danae takes a position as a medic surgeon in Marcus's stoic military compound. Lexovii was the name of a real village named after the tribal people living there..According to the records of Roman emperor and dictator Julius Caesar.
Eleven year old twins Ian and Danae sparring together with wooden swords on the beach outside their village of Lexovii in coastal Gaul.
Danae with her sling.
Danae shopping for herbs and seeds at the Londinium market
Danae with her sword on her beloved mare Gelphy.
Grainne teaching Danae how to use the sword, woman warrior style..Tweed River Beach, Pict Settlement, Bernicia.
Danae working as a medic surgeon attending to one of her male soldier patients in Marcus's military compound.
