TWO MORE FROM GERMANY

   

These continue the new series of German re-issues of the Frevisse novels.

- Margaret

THE SIMPLE LOGIC OF IT - KINDLE EDITION

"The Simple Logic" is my fourth short story to be released for the Kindle. As with the previous stories, that means it's also now available for the whole suite of Kindle Reading Apps: iPad, Android, Windows PC, Mac, or Blackberry.

Buy Now

Although he doesn't make the blurb, Bishop Pecock (who you may recognize from The Bastard's Tale among other places) features prominently in this story.

- Margaret Frazer

NEW GERMAN EDITIONS

These are the new covers for a fresh re-issuing of the German Editions of Die Novizin (The Novice's Tale) and Die Magd (The Sevant's Tale). These were translated by Anke Grube.

These images were scanned from the books that were actually delievered to me. Curiously, Amazon.de features this thumbnail for Die Magd:

Presenting yet another variant German cover for which I don't have any information.

- Margaret

THE WITCH'S TALE - KINDLE EDITION

The original Frevisse short story, "The Witch's Tale", is now the third story to be released for the Kindle, which means it's available for the whole suite of Kindle Reading Apps: iPad, Android, Windows PC, Mac, or Blackberry.

Buy Now

If Mike Ashley had not approached my then co-author and myself and asked for a short story which would appear in the Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits -- the short story which would become "The Witch's Tale" -- I doubt that any of my short stories would have been written.

Back cover blurbs aside, "The Witch's Tale" was born in part because I was intrigued to learn that under medieval English law, witchcraft -- the use of herbs and charms -- was not a crime in itself. Only when the charms invoked powers other than Christian ones did the church intervene, issuing reprimands and penance; and only when witchcraft was used to commit a civil crime -- causing damage or death -- did it become punishable under the civil law (not church law). The hysteria against witches as "servants of the devil" was a phenomenon of the Renaissance rather than the Middle Ages.

- Margaret

August is the beginning of the Harvest Months, when all the year’s work can go to good or ill. Harvest season begins at Lammastide on August 1st, with the weather usually continuing hot. The Dog Days that began in July last until August 11th, and the infamous Egyptian Days run from Lammas to the 16th, a time bad for letting blood, even by doctors. (Hence the king’s jest to two warring lords at the beginning of Shakespeare’s Richard II: “Our doctors say this is no month to bleed.”)

Early in the month, between haying’s end and the beginning of corn harvest, comes Rush Day when people everywhere go to the marshes and riversides to cut rushes for use through the coming year and carry some in procession with music, banners, and flowers to strew in the parish church’s floor, with perhaps dancing afterward before the rest of the rushes are stored or used on other floors and for basketry and roofing. Now, too, is bracken-cutting time, partly to give the stock more grazing land but mostly because bracken serves as under-packing for storing the coming harvest and as deep litter in animal sheds and for selling as packing for breakables for travel.

But those harvests are secondary to what begins after them: the Corn Harvest with its barley, rye, wheat, buckwheat for breads, vetches and corn and straw for fodder. A rich harvest now means a well-fed year ahead. A poor harvest means lean times and possibly starvation before summer comes again. This is the vital time of year, and although a wet August may be saved by a dry September, now is when the heavy work begins, and by now every corn owner has appointed a Harvest Lord to govern his harvest for him. This is no courtesy title. The Harvest Lord’s work is to oversee all the workers: That they start and stop on time, are arranged in the most efficient teams, have food and drink regularly and in sufficiency, and are equipped with what they need when they need it. On the Harvest Lord the efficiency of the harvest depends and the work begins as early as the fields are dry of dew in the mornings. After that the only pause is a brief rest for ale or “harvest mead,” until noon with its hour of rest for lunch and sleep. Drink is brought to the workers in the fields in leather bottles or wooden hoggins. Their food is bread, cheese, oatcake, barley beer, and onions. After midday their work goes on, with only one more brief pause before they end well toward evening. The days turn into the weeks that the harvest takes as the workers cut their way through the fields with sickles and scythes, tying and setting the grain to dry before it is carried to storage.

Interestingly, it seems that when only the short hand sickles were in use, men and women were paid the same daily wage for cutting the grain. Only after scythes were invented did men begin to be paid more than women, apparently because while the scythe is far more efficient for the work than the hand sickle, its greater size and weight made it a tool generally better used by men who were accordingly paid more for their expertise and greater productivity.

At harvest’s end, each place and people have their own special ceremony for cutting of the last handful of grain. It can be a casting of sickles at the grain, or braiding of corn dollies, or hunting of hares – whatever has become traditional in the area.

It’s said a fog in August foretells severe weather and plenty of snow to come, but this is the year's second warmest month.

Among lesser matters, this is the time for the selling and buying of lavender.

For hunters the time of grace from hunting continues from June.

On the 15th is the celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and about this time (since the late1300s), a special court is held at Tutbury for minstrels to gather, to be rewarded, licensed, punished if necessary, and to choose the next year’s King of the Minstrels, with feasting and processions.

On the 24th the famous St. Bartholomew’s Fair starts in London. Held since 1133, its specialty is cloth but much else is there as well. It is the first of the great autumn fairs for by now estimates of profits (or losses) to come from the harvest can be made and plans begun for what must (or may) be purchased and got ready for all the autumn-into-winter work still to come.

Summer 1450

- Margaret

STRANGE GODS, STRANGE MEN - KINDLE EDITION

"Strange Gods, Strange Men" has been released for the Kindle, which means its available for the whole suite of Kindle Reading Apps: iPad, Android, Windows PC, Mac, or Blackberry.

Buy Now

The story's own afterword explains something of the historic Godric I used for the detective. Having first come across him in a dictionary of saints I have since visited the site of his hermitage in northern England (and a lovely place it is, too). Born about the time of the Norman Conquest, he adventured from one end to the other of the world as Europe knew it, then turned to the adventure of exploring the soul, and lived to be more than a hundred years old. Surely there are many more stories to be made about him. If only there were more hours in the day....

- Margaret

LOCKED ROOMS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

This is the cover for the Czech edition of the Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes, which includes a translation of my short story "The Traveler's Tale". Or, as it appears in Czech, "Kocar do pekel", which Google Translate intriguingly renders as "Coach to Hell". I'm not sure what to think of that, but I rather like the sound of it.

- Margaret

NEITHER PITY, LOVE, NOR FEAR - KINDLE EDITION

A Kindle edition of "Neither Pity, Love, Nor Fear" -- my short story which won the Herodotus Award -- has been published. Even if you don't own a Kindle, that means that the story is now available for the whole suite of Kindle Reading Apps: iPad, Android, Windows PC, Mac, or Blackberry.

I have to admit I give a hoot of laughter to see a Victorian painting on the cover, but I really like the strong impact it has.

From the metaphorical dust jacket:

Buy Now

- Margaret

SEMPSTER'S TALE - AUDIO BOOK

Buy CD Audio Book - Buy Original Edition
Buy Audible Audio Book

It's come to my attention that the audio book for The Sempter's Tale is now available from Audible.com for $25. (And there's currently a promotional price of $19.) This is not only cheaper than the CD version of the same, but also makes the audio book easily available to U.S. purchasers for the first time.

Here's a sample:

- Margaret

PRIORESS' TALE - LARGE PRINT EDITION

Ulverscroft U.K. has released a hardcover, large print edition of the Edgar-nominated The Prioress' Tale with an absolutely breathtaking cover. It has been added to the Alternative Covers Gallery.

- Margaret

THE BOOK OF DAME FREVISSE

Some few years ago I was contacted by a young woman named Faria Sookdeo. She was working as a student for Dr. James Como, who wanted to talk with me and had set her the task of finding me. Since those first conversations, I have enjoyed Dr. Como's scholarly work immensely and become good friends with Faria.

Later, when Ms. Sookdeo decided to do her master's thesis on the idea that the Dame Frevisse novels form a multi-volumed novel with a single, over-arching story, I was happy to give her all the help I could. She has now received her M.A. in English, and I'm happy to present her thesis here for everyone to read.

I confess that I am SO proud.

- Margaret

That short verse sums up the greatest need of the month – good weather for the haying. To the Saxons this was Hey-monath or Maed-monath, named for the meadows being at their fullest flowering.

For the haying, workers began each morning as soon as the dew was dried and went on until the evening dew fell. They stayed in the fields all day, even to eat, but by custom usually took an hour of rest and sleep at mid-day. The hay not only had to be cut but turned over in its swathes for better drying, then raked and lifted up and built into haycocks to shed rain and dew until finally fully dry. Only then could it be collected and carted for piling into haystacks. The amount of hay that could be cut and stored during the summer was of major importance because it determined how many animals could be kept over the winter for the next year’s flocks and herds. A poor haying meant most of the livestock might have to be killed come the autumn. The fewer animals which could be kept, the poorer the next year would be. So good weather with little rain was a necessity all through July until haying ended near Lammastide at the beginning of August.

At the same time the work days owed to the lord of the manor were at their heaviest, his hay harvest also needing to be mowed, tossed, cocked, stacked as well as all the other work tended to as well. And with the good weather building work went on, with repairs to mills and the setting up of folds, pens, and fishing weirs. Barley, oats, peas and beans needed weeding. Blacksmiths were kept busy making and repairing scythes, sickles, and hay forks. On the moors there was danger of bracken-poisoning of sheep and cows, with extra care needed there, although as soon as the haying was done, the fields would be opened to the cows for grazing and the sake of having their dung dropped there.

Closer to home, beekeeping was particularly vital, since honey and wax were used in every household. Honey was the main sweetener (sugar being an expensive import from abroad) and also used in medicines and in mead and its by-products in dyes. So most people kept their own bees, maintaining the hives and processing and storing the honey and wax.

Among other things happening, the flax and hemp crops were ripening. Flax was grown by most households for their cloth needs, with the extensive labor needed to change the flax from plant to linen thread mainly the housewife’s task. So was preparing the hemp needed for making ropes stronger than the common ones made of twisted straw.

Along with all of that, this was the hottest time of year. On July 3 the proverbially hot Dog Days officially began (and went on until August 11), named from the Roman idea that the heat and attending diseases of these days were connected to the rising and setting of the Little Dog Star, Canicula.

For those with leisure to hunt, the roebuck was still officially in season but the summer months were commonly treated as a time of grace, with no hunting until Holy Rood Day in September.

With so much pressing work on the land, there were no major Church holidays to distract folk, but according to folklore, rain on St. Swithin of Winchester’s day, July 15, meant the saint had “christened the little apples” and there would be rain more or less for the next forty days. In southern England, at least, folk gave the priest farthings in church on St. Swithin’s day.

It was a mixed blessing either way, because too much rain would spoil the haying but some rain was needed for all the crops waiting to be harvested come August and the autumn. The hardest work of the year was only partly done by the time July ended.

Summer 1448

- Margaret

The Novice's Tale

The Servant's Tale

The Outlaw's Tale

The Bishop's Tale

The Boy's Tale

The Murderer's Tale

The Prioress' Tale

The Maiden's Tale

The Reeve's Tale

The Squire's Tale

The Clerk's Tale

The Bastard's Tale

The Hunter's Tale

The Widow's Tale

The Sempster's Tale

The Traitor's Tale

The Apostate's Tale

A Play of Isaac

A Play of Dux Moraud

A Play of Knaves

A Play of Lords

A Play of Treachery

A Play of Piety (December 2010)