Angela Koenig
asked
Nicola Griffith:
What drew you to Hild in the first place? I've recently become aware how much of my knowledge of post-Roman Europe is received xtian propaganda. I also like the Sister Fidelma series as a counterweight. Any other suggested reading would be appreciated. Thank you for a brilliant book. So glad there's another one coming.
Nicola Griffith
It was a visit to the ruins of Whitby Abbey in my early 20s.
I've always loved history--particularly the kind before Parliaments--always loved wandering round ruins and imagining what it was like back then. But Whitby (which appears as the Bay of the Beacon in the novel) changed my life. When I stepped over the threshold of that ruin I felt as though history fisted up through the turf and through me. It turned me inside out like a sock. My epiphany? That history was made by real people, people just like me (or you). People with their own dreams and disappointments and dailyness.
So then I was interested: who founded the abbey? Why? What happened there. And I discovered it was founded in the mid-7th century by a woman called Hild, and that the Synod of Whitby (a meeting that she hosted and, I'm guessing, facilitated) changed the course of English history.
So then I was wild to know about Hild. Only there wasn't anything but a few (mostly standard hagiographical) mentions in Bede's HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH AND PEOPLE. And he most definitely had an agenda. (He was, of course, a monk. Just about all the written material we have of the period--though we have nothing contemporary with Hild's early life, nothing at all--was, as you say, written by religious.)
I couldn't find anything of substance about Hild. There *isn't* anything. So instead I learnt about the time and the place. I devoted most of my attention to material culture: archaeological finds. Some of the interpretations of those seemed ridiculous to me, so I dug deeper, into research on flora and fauna and weather and language, and gradually built my own picture of the seventh century.
Basically I built a world then put Hild inside it as a child watched, fascinated, as she grew and acted up (and was acted up by) that world.
If you want to do that for yourself I can recommend reading as much Anglo-Saxon poetry (and riddles) as you can. But also read stuff like Y Gododdin. You'll definitely get a sense of the heroic mindset. But then read non-fiction such as Robin Fleming's BRITAIN AFTER ROME and Max Adams' THE KING IN THE NORTH.
As for fiction, well, honestly I'm drawing a blank. Sorry! Perhaps readers will have some suggestions...
I've always loved history--particularly the kind before Parliaments--always loved wandering round ruins and imagining what it was like back then. But Whitby (which appears as the Bay of the Beacon in the novel) changed my life. When I stepped over the threshold of that ruin I felt as though history fisted up through the turf and through me. It turned me inside out like a sock. My epiphany? That history was made by real people, people just like me (or you). People with their own dreams and disappointments and dailyness.
So then I was interested: who founded the abbey? Why? What happened there. And I discovered it was founded in the mid-7th century by a woman called Hild, and that the Synod of Whitby (a meeting that she hosted and, I'm guessing, facilitated) changed the course of English history.
So then I was wild to know about Hild. Only there wasn't anything but a few (mostly standard hagiographical) mentions in Bede's HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH AND PEOPLE. And he most definitely had an agenda. (He was, of course, a monk. Just about all the written material we have of the period--though we have nothing contemporary with Hild's early life, nothing at all--was, as you say, written by religious.)
I couldn't find anything of substance about Hild. There *isn't* anything. So instead I learnt about the time and the place. I devoted most of my attention to material culture: archaeological finds. Some of the interpretations of those seemed ridiculous to me, so I dug deeper, into research on flora and fauna and weather and language, and gradually built my own picture of the seventh century.
Basically I built a world then put Hild inside it as a child watched, fascinated, as she grew and acted up (and was acted up by) that world.
If you want to do that for yourself I can recommend reading as much Anglo-Saxon poetry (and riddles) as you can. But also read stuff like Y Gododdin. You'll definitely get a sense of the heroic mindset. But then read non-fiction such as Robin Fleming's BRITAIN AFTER ROME and Max Adams' THE KING IN THE NORTH.
As for fiction, well, honestly I'm drawing a blank. Sorry! Perhaps readers will have some suggestions...
More Answered Questions
Ami
asked
Nicola Griffith:
In Hild, the main character is considered by many to have supernatural powers of prediction, but you make it clear that she's using her acute observations of the world around her to make these predictions. (Sort of a medieval Sherlock??) Is this a writerly invention, or is it based on something you found in your research?
Kim Craig
asked
Nicola Griffith:
I'm about halfway through HILD, and am loving it. Thank you for writing this book! I noticed that HILA was shelved in adult fiction in my local library, which seems right to me. I wonder, though, did anyone (publisher, agent, etc.) want to promote this book as YA, due to the age of the protagonist?
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