Dave’s Anatomy: My History as a Writer #125: Goddess Needed: “The Spirit of the Forest Cold"

Sword and Sorcery is the mainstay of fantasy writers. Tolkien set the standard with the Lord of the Rings trilogy and everyone follows suit, me no less than anyone else. I’ve written a few in the genre that reaches back into the middle ages and utilizes elements from that time, enhancing, adding to them, transforming them imaginatively.

“The Spirit of the Forest Cold” found its inspiration in a poem by the late Irish writer Seamus Heaney. The poem, called “Punishment,” focuses on the body of a young woman that was found in a peat bog in Germany. She had been hanged (or strangled); her body, weighted down with stones, had been thrown into the bog. Chemicals in such places often preserve the human body; several such bodies from the early Iron Age have been recovered in this way. The manner in which the young woman died suggests she had committed a crime that was considered heinous and, thus, was executed and denied a proper burial (Heaney suggests adultery). He relates her fate to the abuse and mistreatment of women in his own nation, who were stripped naked, had their heads shaved, and then were then handcuffed to bridges for the “crime” of associating with British soldiers.

Artist's reconstruction of bog girl's face.

The poem got me thinking of the unnamed woman whose body was found. What did she do? The corpse was of a very young woman, slender, probably from lack of food. Did she exchange sex for food? Why was she killed? I began a story that centers around a family. The reader sees them talking about the upcoming execution. The girl is being starved, kept in a cage, and the children of the town take great delight in tormenting her. One of the things they do is bring bread, tease her with it, and eat it in front of her. One boy in the village, Rolf, feels sorry from her, gives her his morning portion, and speaks kindly to her. After she is killed, he mourns for her. She appears to him in a dream and thanks him for his kindness.

Later, during a long, snowy winter, when food runs out, people claim to see the girl walking in woods. The elders of the village consider finding her body in the bog, removing it, and giving her a decent burial. One day Rolf meets the girl, Mathilda. She tells him, “The faerie folk revived my soul. They can do that for those who have died unjustly.” Furthermore, she tells him the elves have made her into a goddess Rolf has heard of:  The Spirit of the Forest Cold. And, eventually, she sends him on a quest.

She sends him to find Bertina, the woman who revealed Mathilda’s adultery so she was killed; and

Steroa

also to rescue Steora, a young warrior woman from Rolf’s village with whom he has fallen in love (and become intimate). Both are with the Franks, the enemies of the Saxons. Bertina has deserted to their side and accepted their religion. Steora was taken captive but has escaped, is on the loose, and the Franks are searching for her. Rolf makes a journey into Frankish territory.

He finds both Bertina (who has become a Christian nun) and Steora and manages to return them to the village just before an attack by the Franks descends upon it. The battle goes in favor of the Saxons, the Franks are repulsed. Rolf is recognized as a hero.

But he has lost Steora to a leader of his people. They are already married. Matilda appears and confronts Bertina, who repents of what she has done. Matilda says there is no more reason for anger and gives Bertina permission to marry Derik, the man over whom they had fought. Rolf is heartbroken by the loss of Steora but is made to remember there is another woman who loves him. Mathilda takes him into her home with the design of marrying him. The gods, she tells him, can be a bit stingy with granting immortality, but they admire him for keeping to the old faith and extol his bravery in battle. She thinks the request will be approved.

A few days later, the villagers find the body of Matilda, the rope still around her neck, in a bog a short distance from the place where they threw her in. Rolf asks her (in her goddess form) about this and she tells him that part of her spirit had detached itself and was the ghost people saw roaming the woods. Now, she says, that part of her can at last rest. The villagers bury her body in the ancestral burial ground and make sacrifices to atone for their treatment of her.

“The Spirit of the Forest Cold” appeared in Silver Blade. Read it here.

My latest novella, The Court of the Sovereign King, is available. Get a copy here.

I would love to hear your comments.