Greenwitch/ Beltane/ Thanksgiving (placeholder name)
Author's remarks:
The author envisages this to be a piece of prose *heavily* influenced by the fictional "Greenwitch" ritual tradition of the eponymous novel by Susan Cooper from her "Dark is Rising" Sequence. The trick will be to see if one can take select quotations from this text and find a way to convey the same imagery and intensity in one's own words. This is a huge challenge; one quite possibly beyond the author's abilities within the time constraints. Ultimately, the prose should convey the same feelings as the quotations without any hint of plagiarism.
One has been careful to ensure that there are more than 300 words of my own (at the bottom), by using Microsoft Word to count them.
Greenwitch by Susan Cooper, Chapter 3
"Under the sunset sky the sea was glass-smooth. Long slow rollers... rippling like muscles beneath the skin, made the only sign of the great invisible strength of the ocean in all the tranquil evening. Quietly the fishing boats moved out, a broad fishtail wake spreading behind each one... Jane stood at the end of Kemare Head, on the crest of a granite outfall that tumbled its rocks two hundred feet to the sea, and she watched them go. Toy boats, they seemed: the scatter of a fishing fleet that ... for endless years had been going out... before dusk, and staying at the chase until dawn."
Starved for resources and threatened in their traditional lands by the Magistaerium Protectorate, the navies of the Republic have begun an aggressive campaign of colonisation overseas. Chief among these regions is the Archipelago, a collection of small islands having vertiginous slopes and steep narrow inlets where the primary industries are fishing and herding, with some crops and mining.
Beltane/ Thanksgiving is a festival particularly celebrated in the Archipelago, midway between the summer solstice and spring equinox to bless the forthcoming harvest and pray for protection of fisherfolk, farmers and miners. In the week preceding the festival, uniquely special dishes are cooked for this celebration that are only consumed during this festival. These include pies, stuffed baked fish, fish stew and steamed fish, each prepared using a distinct type of fish. Colourful edible seaweed harvested from rockpools at low tide compliments the meat, with further greens plucked from the sand dunes, all seasoned with aromatic herbs from the cliff heights.
Throughout the night immediately preceding the festival, twin bonfires blaze on the headlands that bracket the village's narrow inlet. While their husbands are out fishing the womenfolk gather by the standing stones of the higher outcrop. Working by bonfire-light in well-practiced groups, they take branches from specific trees, strip them of leaves and twigs, and weave them into a framework effigy. Branches with blossoms- white and golden according to type- are then twined amongst them to highlight physical details. Those that blosssom crimson or have red berries are reserved for a crown.
Malachite and other stones from local mines further augment the statue, making it more lifelike. Sheaves of grain from local harvests further fill out the body.
Other branches construct a wheeled platform, and stones fill the base to provide ballast.
The work finishes as the embers grow low and the Dawnstar rises. Returning from the sea the men gather by the stones, sharing a communal meal with their families. As the sun rises, the fishermen grasp ropes affixed to the platform, pulling it faster and faster toward the cliff edge before releasing the front ropes while bracing the rear. This hurls the effigy from the granite heights into the deep ocean abutting the cliff-edge.
Most treat this ritual as an eccentric tradition, or just another way to mark the turning of the year. But for those with eyes to see and sensitive minds, there is a darkly wild power in this creature they give form. Made by human hands yet representing all the bounteous and wild forces of Nature, this effigy embodies a dialogue between man and wild that stretches back to the dawn of civilisation.
The author envisages this to be a piece of prose *heavily* influenced by the fictional "Greenwitch" ritual tradition of the eponymous novel by Susan Cooper from her "Dark is Rising" Sequence. The trick will be to see if one can take select quotations from this text and find a way to convey the same imagery and intensity in one's own words. This is a huge challenge; one quite possibly beyond the author's abilities within the time constraints. Ultimately, the prose should convey the same feelings as the quotations without any hint of plagiarism.
One has been careful to ensure that there are more than 300 words of my own (at the bottom), by using Microsoft Word to count them.
Greenwitch by Susan Cooper, Chapter 3
"Under the sunset sky the sea was glass-smooth. Long slow rollers... rippling like muscles beneath the skin, made the only sign of the great invisible strength of the ocean in all the tranquil evening. Quietly the fishing boats moved out, a broad fishtail wake spreading behind each one... Jane stood at the end of Kemare Head, on the crest of a granite outfall that tumbled its rocks two hundred feet to the sea, and she watched them go. Toy boats, they seemed: the scatter of a fishing fleet that ... for endless years had been going out... before dusk, and staying at the chase until dawn."
Starved for resources and threatened in their traditional lands by the Magistaerium Protectorate, the navies of the Republic have begun an aggressive campaign of colonisation overseas. Chief among these regions is the Archipelago, a collection of small islands having vertiginous slopes and steep narrow inlets where the primary industries are fishing and herding, with some crops and mining.
Beltane/ Thanksgiving is a festival particularly celebrated in the Archipelago, midway between the summer solstice and spring equinox to bless the forthcoming harvest and pray for protection of fisherfolk, farmers and miners. In the week preceding the festival, uniquely special dishes are cooked for this celebration that are only consumed during this festival. These include pies, stuffed baked fish, fish stew and steamed fish, each prepared using a distinct type of fish. Colourful edible seaweed harvested from rockpools at low tide compliments the meat, with further greens plucked from the sand dunes, all seasoned with aromatic herbs from the cliff heights.
Throughout the night immediately preceding the festival, twin bonfires blaze on the headlands that bracket the village's narrow inlet. While their husbands are out fishing the womenfolk gather by the standing stones of the higher outcrop. Working by bonfire-light in well-practiced groups, they take branches from specific trees, strip them of leaves and twigs, and weave them into a framework effigy. Branches with blossoms- white and golden according to type- are then twined amongst them to highlight physical details. Those that blosssom crimson or have red berries are reserved for a crown.
Malachite and other stones from local mines further augment the statue, making it more lifelike. Sheaves of grain from local harvests further fill out the body.
Other branches construct a wheeled platform, and stones fill the base to provide ballast.
The work finishes as the embers grow low and the Dawnstar rises. Returning from the sea the men gather by the stones, sharing a communal meal with their families. As the sun rises, the fishermen grasp ropes affixed to the platform, pulling it faster and faster toward the cliff edge before releasing the front ropes while bracing the rear. This hurls the effigy from the granite heights into the deep ocean abutting the cliff-edge.
Most treat this ritual as an eccentric tradition, or just another way to mark the turning of the year. But for those with eyes to see and sensitive minds, there is a darkly wild power in this creature they give form. Made by human hands yet representing all the bounteous and wild forces of Nature, this effigy embodies a dialogue between man and wild that stretches back to the dawn of civilisation.
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