Sharon Kay Penman's Blog, page 31
June 14, 2017
More medieval mayhem
The news is horrible again, with shootings in VA and San Francisco. And the tragedy in London is heartbreaking. So far 12 confirmed dead, but they say dozens are missing. The image of desperate mothers throwing their children out of windows is beyond horrific. There seems to have been at least one miracle; according to an eye-witness, a woman threw her baby from the 9th floor and a man managed to catch it. I hope that is true. Below is the post I wrote earlier in the day when I was thinking only of fictional suffering and sorrows.
I am happy to report that the second siege of Kerak is finally over. I then went on to ravage Samaria and ended the chapter by killing off a major character. Luckily, I am not squeamish about bloodshed, at least on the printed page.
Last week I mentioned in a post that Saladin’s brother, al-Adil, and his family had a pet giraffe. That was the sort of fascinating tidbit that I love to work into my novels, which is one reason why I so enjoyed writing Lionheart. I had my best contemporary sources by far for that book, including two chronicles written by men who’d accompanied Richard on crusade and two written by men who personally knew Saladin. Oh, the rich details they scattered through their histories! I learned about the French king’s white falcon that he lost over Acre; he offered a large reward for its return and was enraged when it was captured and given to Saladin. There was Richard’s more infamous encounter with a hawk in Sicily, a scene so much fun to write that I had to struggle not to laugh aloud. Then there was the celebrated Fauvel, the chestnut stallion that Richard came to cherish. Or Richard wading ashore at Jaffa, a sword in one hand, a crossbow in the other, a description that came from a man who was an actual eye-witness to the events at Jaffa. Richard’s near=death encounter with the mystery malady, Arnaldia, and another close call with malaria. Saladin’s bouts with colic. Remarkable details about how a medieval army was organized and an account of Richard’s attack on a huge Saracen ship, where his sailors dived into the sea and tied up the enemy ship’s rudders, causing it to wallow helplessly. Chroniclers rarely make life that easy for historical novelists.
I mention all this because I found another intriguing side-story, and like the giraffe, I couldn’t resist weaving it into the narrative of my current book. Al-Sania was a member of al-Adil’s inner circle, running his chancellory after al-Adil took command in Aleppo. He’d been born and raised a Christian, but he converted to Islam after falling in love with a Muslim girl. What a back-story he must have had! He was controversial in Aleppo because he hired so many Syrian Christians to help run the chancellory, causing the local residents (called Aleppans) to make sardonic jokes about it. It is so rare to be given glimpses of the lives of people lower down on the social pyramid and I am delighted to be able to share it with my readers.
I am happy to report that the second siege of Kerak is finally over. I then went on to ravage Samaria and ended the chapter by killing off a major character. Luckily, I am not squeamish about bloodshed, at least on the printed page.
Last week I mentioned in a post that Saladin’s brother, al-Adil, and his family had a pet giraffe. That was the sort of fascinating tidbit that I love to work into my novels, which is one reason why I so enjoyed writing Lionheart. I had my best contemporary sources by far for that book, including two chronicles written by men who’d accompanied Richard on crusade and two written by men who personally knew Saladin. Oh, the rich details they scattered through their histories! I learned about the French king’s white falcon that he lost over Acre; he offered a large reward for its return and was enraged when it was captured and given to Saladin. There was Richard’s more infamous encounter with a hawk in Sicily, a scene so much fun to write that I had to struggle not to laugh aloud. Then there was the celebrated Fauvel, the chestnut stallion that Richard came to cherish. Or Richard wading ashore at Jaffa, a sword in one hand, a crossbow in the other, a description that came from a man who was an actual eye-witness to the events at Jaffa. Richard’s near=death encounter with the mystery malady, Arnaldia, and another close call with malaria. Saladin’s bouts with colic. Remarkable details about how a medieval army was organized and an account of Richard’s attack on a huge Saracen ship, where his sailors dived into the sea and tied up the enemy ship’s rudders, causing it to wallow helplessly. Chroniclers rarely make life that easy for historical novelists.
I mention all this because I found another intriguing side-story, and like the giraffe, I couldn’t resist weaving it into the narrative of my current book. Al-Sania was a member of al-Adil’s inner circle, running his chancellory after al-Adil took command in Aleppo. He’d been born and raised a Christian, but he converted to Islam after falling in love with a Muslim girl. What a back-story he must have had! He was controversial in Aleppo because he hired so many Syrian Christians to help run the chancellory, causing the local residents (called Aleppans) to make sardonic jokes about it. It is so rare to be given glimpses of the lives of people lower down on the social pyramid and I am delighted to be able to share it with my readers.
June 10, 2017
Kerak again and the Young King
The siege of Kerak continues; at the rate I’m going, mine is going to last longer than the real one. At least al-Adil’s family’s tame giraffe is safely on the way to her new home in Aleppo. So before I get back to operating mangonels and smashing towers and making life miserable for the castle residents, here is an important medieval date for the Angevins.
The young king was dying in a manor house at Martel in the Limousin, stricken with what they called the bloody flux and we call dysentery. He’d sent word to his father, but Henry did not believe him, for he’d lied again and again and twice Henry had been shot at when trusting to a flag of truce.
P. 527 of Devil’s Brood. The Count of Perche and the Bishop of Agen have arrived with a message from Henry.
* * *
“King Henry bade me tell you that he freely and gladly grants you full forgiveness for your sins, and that he has never ceased to love you.”
Hal’s lashes swept down, shadowing his cheeks like fans as tears seeped from the corners of his eyes. “Thank you,” he whispered, although the bishop was not sure if it was meant for him, for Henry, or for the Almighty.
“I bring more than words,” he said and, taking a small leather pouch from around his neck, he shook out a sapphire ring set in beaten gold. He started to tell Hal that this was Henry’s ring, but saw there was no need, for Hal could not have shown more reverence if he’d produced a holy relic.
“He does forgive me, then!” he cried and gave the bishop such a dazzling smile that for a moment the ravages of his illness were forgotten and they could almost believe this was the young king of cherished memory, the golden boy more beautiful than a fallen angel, able to ensnare hearts with such dangerous ease. Then the illusion passed and they were looking at a man gaunt, hollow-eyed, suffering, and all too mortal. Too weak to do it himself, Hal looked entreatingly at the bishop, saying, “Please….” When the bishop slid the ring onto his finger, he smiled again and closed his eyes.
* * *
Hal lingered for a while longer, drawing his last breath at twilight on Saturday, the eleventh day of June, 1183, the festival of the blessed St Barnabas the Apostle. Despite having lived his last weeks as little better than a bandit, he was genuinely mourned.
The young king was dying in a manor house at Martel in the Limousin, stricken with what they called the bloody flux and we call dysentery. He’d sent word to his father, but Henry did not believe him, for he’d lied again and again and twice Henry had been shot at when trusting to a flag of truce.
P. 527 of Devil’s Brood. The Count of Perche and the Bishop of Agen have arrived with a message from Henry.
* * *
“King Henry bade me tell you that he freely and gladly grants you full forgiveness for your sins, and that he has never ceased to love you.”
Hal’s lashes swept down, shadowing his cheeks like fans as tears seeped from the corners of his eyes. “Thank you,” he whispered, although the bishop was not sure if it was meant for him, for Henry, or for the Almighty.
“I bring more than words,” he said and, taking a small leather pouch from around his neck, he shook out a sapphire ring set in beaten gold. He started to tell Hal that this was Henry’s ring, but saw there was no need, for Hal could not have shown more reverence if he’d produced a holy relic.
“He does forgive me, then!” he cried and gave the bishop such a dazzling smile that for a moment the ravages of his illness were forgotten and they could almost believe this was the young king of cherished memory, the golden boy more beautiful than a fallen angel, able to ensnare hearts with such dangerous ease. Then the illusion passed and they were looking at a man gaunt, hollow-eyed, suffering, and all too mortal. Too weak to do it himself, Hal looked entreatingly at the bishop, saying, “Please….” When the bishop slid the ring onto his finger, he smiled again and closed his eyes.
* * *
Hal lingered for a while longer, drawing his last breath at twilight on Saturday, the eleventh day of June, 1183, the festival of the blessed St Barnabas the Apostle. Despite having lived his last weeks as little better than a bandit, he was genuinely mourned.
June 5, 2017
More heartbreak
I have been trying since Sunday evening to write about the latest terrorist atrocity, but words have failed me. I feel overwhelmed by the human capacity for evil, as so many of you must feel, too. But I was able to take some comfort in this message from the family of Christine Archibald, a young Canadian woman who’d moved to London to be with her fiancé and who died in his arms.
What a memorable epitaph: Tell them Chrissy sent you.
The first London Bridge attack victim to be identified was Canadian national Christine Archibald, 30, who had moved to London to be with her fiance.
"Please honor her by making your community a better place," a spokesperson for her family said. "Volunteer your time and labor or donate to a homeless shelter. Tell them Chrissy sent you."
What a memorable epitaph: Tell them Chrissy sent you.
The first London Bridge attack victim to be identified was Canadian national Christine Archibald, 30, who had moved to London to be with her fiance.
"Please honor her by making your community a better place," a spokesperson for her family said. "Volunteer your time and labor or donate to a homeless shelter. Tell them Chrissy sent you."
June 2, 2017
No peace at Kerak Castle
I am sorry that I continue to be so scarce around here. I’ve been working hard at fending off the deadline dragon, while still dealing with more pain than I deserve. (My sins are just not that spectacular to warrant this!) Poor little Isabella can’t catch a break, either. She is twelve now, isolated at a dangerous desert fortresses with the In-Laws from Hell and Saladin has decided to take another crack at Kerak Castle, so she is facing her second siege in less than a year. I suspect she is also wondering just what sort of sins she could have committed to bring all this down on her head. Meanwhile, how is this for a wonderfully odd historical nugget? Saladin’s brother, al-Adil, is making ready to join him at the siege. He’d been ruling Egypt very effectively for the sultan for a number of years, but he has now been given command of Aleppo (yes, that very sad city had a troubled past even back in the MA.). He’d had to leave his family behind in Egypt and it took a while for him to be able to arrange safe transportation for them from Egypt to Syria. In the scene I am about to write, he will be reunited with his wives, concubines, children, household retainers, servants, and slaves. Naturally their caravan includes a large number of horses, mules, and camels. And according to one medieval chronicler, the family’s pet giraffe! No way I could resist writing about that.
May 26, 2017
Remembrance
It is painful to read this, a tribute to the twenty-two loving souls we lost at Manchester, but I think we owe it to them to remember, never to forget them. That seems very appropriate now, for Monday is Memorial Day in the US.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40012738
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40012738
May 23, 2017
Heartbreak and outrage
We are all in mourning today. I feel heartbroken by the latest terrorist atrocity in Manchester—and outraged that there are monsters among us capable of such cruelty. I will never understand how anyone could aim their evil at the innocent, and it is all the more shocking when children are deliberately targeted. Our sympathy and prayers are with our British brethren. Our former motherland remains very dear to Americans. There is some consolation in knowing that such tragedies always show people at their best, strangers helping strangers, sharing their grief and embracing their common humanity, as in the story below.
http://us.cnn.com/2017/05/23/europe/m...
http://us.cnn.com/2017/05/23/europe/m...
May 20, 2017
Kerak Castle and Huck the Roof Dog
The siege of Kerak in 1183 lasted about a month. Mine feels as if it lasted for a year or two, but that is an optical illusion. I am sorry I did not get to visit it during my trip to Israel (it is now in Jordan, of course), but there are numerous videos of the castle on YouTube, which can be a writer’s second-best friend, the best one being Google, which is a true blessing for quick research questions. The siege ended when Saladin withdrew his army at the approach of the leper king, Baldwin, and his army. Meanwhile, because Kerak only had one entrance, it was cut off from the world—and its rescuers—when the besieged destroyed the bridge across their deep moat to keep the Saracens from forcing their way into the castle with the retreating defenders. It was not a drawbridge, but an actual bridge, an unusual set-up that I’d not encountered before. The castles in Outremer were constructed to be as difficult to enter as possible, with single postern gates that usually were entered at an angle, and far more arrow slits than windows. So Kerak seemed like a very gloomy place to young Isabella. And Saladin would try again the next year to capture Kerak, so I get to do this all over again in the next chapter. Isabella and I can hardly wait. ☹
Meanwhile, here is a funny story about Huck the Roof Dog, who likes to survey the neighborhood from his family’s roof. So many passersby were knocking on their door to alert them that they put up a sign in their front yard, assuring people that “Yes, we know he’s up there.” Huck sounds like a cool dog, so of course he has become an Instagram star.
http://www.today.com/pets/meet-huck-r...
Meanwhile, here is a funny story about Huck the Roof Dog, who likes to survey the neighborhood from his family’s roof. So many passersby were knocking on their door to alert them that they put up a sign in their front yard, assuring people that “Yes, we know he’s up there.” Huck sounds like a cool dog, so of course he has become an Instagram star.
http://www.today.com/pets/meet-huck-r...
May 14, 2017
A wedding under siege
“On the day of her wedding, Isabella awoke to the sound of screaming.”
That is the opening sentence of the chapter that is keeping me stranded at Kerak Castle and off Facebook. Readers of Lionheart may remember Isabella, who would become Queen of Jerusalem. She definitely has my sympathies. Imagine being compelled to make a marriage that neither she nor her mother and stepfather want, a marriage that will shackle her to political enemies of her parents, and indeed, they soon will refuse to allow her to visit her mother. She finds herself in a desolate, desert fortress midst a landscape as barren as the moon (not that she’d know that, of course.), not far from the Salt Sea, now called the Dead Sea. Now she also finds herself under siege by Saladin and a large Saracen army. Oh, and she is only eleven years old.
The siege of Kerak also is the source for one of the more famous anecdotes regarding Saladin. The mother of the young groom (he was 17) was not a shrinking violet and undaunted by the arrival of a sieging army in the middle of the wedding festivities. She had a dish from the feast sent out to Saladin under a flag of truce, saying she’d not have anyone go hungry at her son’s wedding. Saladin thanked her, then asked in which tower the bridal couple were lodged. When told that, he promised that he’d not have any of his siege engines aim at that particular tower.
Now back to the siege. Happy Mother’s Day to my American readers.
That is the opening sentence of the chapter that is keeping me stranded at Kerak Castle and off Facebook. Readers of Lionheart may remember Isabella, who would become Queen of Jerusalem. She definitely has my sympathies. Imagine being compelled to make a marriage that neither she nor her mother and stepfather want, a marriage that will shackle her to political enemies of her parents, and indeed, they soon will refuse to allow her to visit her mother. She finds herself in a desolate, desert fortress midst a landscape as barren as the moon (not that she’d know that, of course.), not far from the Salt Sea, now called the Dead Sea. Now she also finds herself under siege by Saladin and a large Saracen army. Oh, and she is only eleven years old.
The siege of Kerak also is the source for one of the more famous anecdotes regarding Saladin. The mother of the young groom (he was 17) was not a shrinking violet and undaunted by the arrival of a sieging army in the middle of the wedding festivities. She had a dish from the feast sent out to Saladin under a flag of truce, saying she’d not have anyone go hungry at her son’s wedding. Saladin thanked her, then asked in which tower the bridal couple were lodged. When told that, he promised that he’d not have any of his siege engines aim at that particular tower.
Now back to the siege. Happy Mother’s Day to my American readers.
May 7, 2017
Living during a revolution
Writers and publishers and readers are living during a revolution: I believe the advent of the Internet and e-books has been the most transformational development involving books since the invention of the Gutenberg Press. I think it terrifies publishers, but for the most part, writers and readers have learned to embrace it. Just speaking for myself, I could not imagine writing one of my historical sagas on an electric typewriter the way I did for Sunne back in the Dark Ages, and research is far easier now than it was in those bleak Pre-Internet days. But this is only one example of the way technology has changed the way we do things. Here is an interesting list of twenty things made obsolete by these changes.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/c...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/c...
May 4, 2017
Game of Thrones news
Mark July 16th on your calendars, my fellow Game of Throners, for that is when it finally, finally comes back. Also, HBO is giving serious consideration to spinoffs of the series. Now…has anyone heard news—or even rumors—about when we can expect the 6th book from Master Martin?
http://ew.com/tv/2017/05/04/game-of-t...
http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/04/media...
http://ew.com/tv/2017/05/04/game-of-t...
http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/04/media...
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