Tangentially related, I’ve started reading The Winter King, about Arthurian England. I really enjoyed the second scene which centres around a royal birth, and gives reimagined colour to the witchcraft and religious practices that would have accompanied such events in the distant and ancient past (spoiler!): roaring fires on the snow-covered parapets; local children banging pots, women howling and guards hitting their spears on their shields to keep demons and witches away in the night; pagan magic/midwifery.
The book outlines a lot of human suffering that makes me damn grateful to be alive now, the author’s poetic license aside.
Tangentially related, I’ve started reading The Winter King, about Arthurian England. I really enjoyed the second scene which centres around a royal birth, and gives reimagined colour to the witchcraft and religious practices that would have accompanied such events in the distant and ancient past (spoiler!): roaring fires on the snow-covered parapets; local children banging pots, women howling and guards hitting their spears on their shields to keep demons and witches away in the night; pagan magic/midwifery.
The book outlines a lot of human suffering that makes me damn grateful to be alive now, the author’s poetic license aside.