Our Lady of the Dark Country

by Sylvia Linsteadt, Rima Staines (illustrator)

In this collection of short stories, poems, and a novella, Sylvia V. Linsteadt explores the roots of patriarchal conquest in ancient Europe, and the possibility of something wholly different in both the deep past and the deep future. These are tales of women's power, of a strength rooted in the dark of the moon and the nourishing soil. Within these pages, three girls call down dragons at the end of the world; Rhea Silvia, mother of Rome, tells the story of her life and her love for the river Tiber; a priestess of Delphi defies Apollo the day he comes to conquer the Python; a woman named Magdalena is accused of witchcraft in a small German town; a mountain lion leaps between ages; a group of women spin nettle fiber beyond the end of the world; and a maiden, mother and crone call forth the snakes that live in the Earth to try to overthrow a colonial empire.

Genres: Poetry, Short Stories, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mythology, Folklore

264 pages, Paperback

Published December 21, 2017

About the author

Sylvia Victor Linsteadt is a writer, artist, and certified animal tracker. Her work—both fiction and non-fiction—is rooted in myth, ecology, feminism & bioregionalism, and is devoted to broadening our human stories to include the voices of the living land.

Her published fiction includes the middle grade children’s duology The Stargold Chronicles—The Wild Folk (Usborne, June 2018) and The Wild Folk Rising (Usborne, May 2019)— Our Lady of the Dark Country, a collection of short stories (January 2018) and Tatterdemalion (Unbound, Spring 2017); her works of nonfiction include The Wonderments of the East Bay (Heyday 2014), and Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Area (Heyday, Spring 2017). Her short fiction has been published in New California Writing 2013, Dark Mountain, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, The Golden Key and Deathless Press. She has a regular column with Earthlines Magazine, and her creative nonfiction can also be found in Poecology, Dark Mountain, and News from Native California. For three years (from 2013 to 2016) Sylvia ran a stories-in-the-mail business called Wild Talewort, in which she sent out rewilded tellings of fairytales and myths to the physical-post boxes of hundreds of subscribers around the world.

Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Area won the Northern California Book Award in General Nonfiction in 2018.

The short story “The Midwife of Temescal” won the James D. Phelan Literary Award from the San Francisco Foundation in Fall 2014. She has an Honors B.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University.

She is represented by Jessica Woollard at David Higham Associates, 7th Floor, Waverley House, 7-12 Noel Street, London W1F 8GQ

Reviews

[Matt Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this right on the heels of Tatterdemalion. Sylvia Linsteadt's books throw into me into a state of despair, introspection, wonder, and hope (not for me, I guess, but for humans) that no other books do.

Find yourself a little space for gardening before you start. You'll need it by the time you're done.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Introduction by Sylvia Lindstead

⚘ The Red String ⭐⭐⭐
⚘ When Dragons Came ⭐⭐⭐
⚘ The Pythia ⭐⭐⭐⭐
⚘ Net ⭐⭐⭐
⚘ Our Lady of Nettles ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
⚘ Six Meditations of Torreya Ith ⭐⭐⭐
⚘ Burning Quail Woman ⭐⭐⭐
⚘ Rhea Silvia ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
⚘ The Dark Country ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
⚘ Epilogue: The Garden ⭐⭐⭐

[Susana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I kept stumbling online on an excerpt of this book’s introduction by the author, so I I’ve decided to buy the book. It did not disappoint.

Throughout stories and poems, the author spins and weaves tales of women’s power, suffocated by the rising of a patriarchal society, feed on violence, greed, and an absolute disdain for life and nature.
I was reading what felt ancient myths, but at the same time, those stories and women resonated with me so much, because their struggles are also mine, since we all live in this wreck of a world spat out by men and their idiocy. (Cue Mrs. Banks and "Sister Suffragette”)



There are rape and violence scenes, and there really was no way of conveying the violent nature of patriarchal conquest and power hungry men without that. But beware, you might need to skip some paragraphs, or take a few minutes to breathe deeply after reading those passages.

I can only hope and pray for the return of the snakes.

[Kendall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have found a new inspiration. This author speaks to my nature loving soul. She writes in a way that feels ancient and true. Her prose takes you to the upper fields of Crete, to the river bottoms of the bag area, and deep into the magical damp caves in ancient ways of women and nature. I loved her style of writing and how it dropped with poetry. I cannot wait to dive into her other works.

[Hannah Persyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy wow. She did it again. This is the collection that has cemented the fact that I will always and forever read anything that comes from this woman. Genuine. Soulful. At once grounded and otherworldly. She is a genius whose work will stir you deep into the depths of your womb.

[Anna Adami]

Reads like a folksong from a time long past. Poetic language + powerful stories of women with connections to myth, earth, and matrilineal tradition. I will probably never forget the story in which a mountain lion is the main character.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunningly good!

[Erica Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. (5 stars reserved for books which alter my worldview)

[Taylor Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book permanently changed me. It broke my heart and mended it all at once.

[Laura Keeth-Rowledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another magical book from Sylvia Linsteadt. I especially loved the story of Nettle.