Midsummer

Well, that's half of the summer gone, we are at the mid point, so now we can look forward to the nights closing in, the days getting shorter.

Remember the Words of House Stark ...

You have to admire George R Martin for coming up with such a catchy and easily parodied hook for his books. Every time someone Tweets or puts on Facebook, some comment about it soon being cardigan weather, they are advertising the Song of Ice and Fire series, even if they are thinking more of the Game of Thrones TV series. Either way, it's good money coming in to the author.

I'm sure he didn't imagine that these Words would have the impact they have, I would see it as being more of a reflection of the position of House Stark, that in a world where the seasons are unpredictable, it is the ones in the north who will need to remember winter the most through the long summers, for it will hit them hardest when it returns, with or without the White Walkers.

Living in Newcastle upon Tyne, I have often wondered on the use by the TV series of the Yorkshire dialect for the Starks and their allies. I approve, by the way, but it does then rather beg the question ... does that mean that Geordies are the Night's Watch? After all we are far to the north of the "Northerners" and we have a wall running through our fair city. By extension, north of the Wall there are the wildlings of Northumberland  and the Borders, and of course the White Walkers must have Scottish accents.

Trolls

I really felt that my trolls had to be something both like and unlike humans. They have an earthy, stony quality, but they are not made of stone. They look quite human in their body proportions and many of them are either much taller or much smaller the human average. I use the name Orcneas for them, using a word used once to describe Grendel in Beowulf. English did not have a word cognate with troll, it seems to have come into mainstream English usage in the 19th century, although it is recorded in the 17th century in a witch trial from the Shetlands.

I hint that trolls eventually leave Britain in order to find lands less densely inhabited by men; that they now live in Iceland and Scandinavia.During the 7th century they live in areas which are sparsely populated, but the human population is already on the increase and new lands are being cleared for human settlement and agriculture. In Northumberland, the spine of hills that we now call the Pennines meets the Cheviot Hills and the Southern Uplands of Scotland. This area is perfect for the trolls, and this is the area referred to as Trolldom in the book. There are other trolls living outside of Trolldom; one lived near Yeavering under a bridge over the River Glen. Communications with trolls living south of Hadrian's Wall have been lost, so there is no news of any who may have been alive further south.

Trolls and humans can have children together, although it is clear from what Alfreda says that trolls consider humans to be ugly - and most humans similarly consider the trolls to be ugly. Fortunately this is not always the case! Half-trolls may exist, and over time their descendants merge fully into the human population.

A Short Break

Just got back from a well earned break on the Isle of Skye. It was wet, it was windy, it was cold ... and I loved every minute of it! We walked rather than climbed, which was a shame but we did get out quite a bit. The children chilled out away from the internet - although not exactly away from computer games or the other distractions of modern life.  As a bonus the dogs got a break from fireworks for a whole week.

I got a little bit of writing in too - not vast amounts but I worked through some difficult bits which may or may not get into a final story but helped resolve some character issues. I am finding that it sometimes helps to develop characters by bashing out a thousand words or so of dialogue between them so that I can understand how relationships are developing and perhaps how they feel about the pivotal moments in their lives that may not be known to the other characters. It can be mundane stuff or it can be intense but it may well be that it does not advance the story enough to get more than an oblique mention. Alternatively it may be so illuminating that it opens out a new passage within a chapter.

My only problem was that looking out at Skye's rugged treeless landscape was not helping scenes set in a Welsh woodland and after a while I found it easier to work on a side project, before coming back to my current project. It makes me wonder how I manage when I'm sitting on the number 39 bus!