literature

Pertho. The Witch's Trial

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“I am about six years of age,” Aidan began in low voice. “I am in the market inside the castle walls. The dusty yard is so crowded with peasants and citizens of all sorts, merchants and jugglers, joyful children gathering rocks. My older brother Aedgar is with me. Everyone is bowing before us – we are the young lords, sent to watch the event in the name of our father, the Earldorman of Northumbria. The scaffold is set in the middle: it is an execution.”

Aidan was speaking half-consciously, and the words coming out of his lips were describing the images passing before his eyes. But his eyes were closed. He was lying on a bed in a dark room - nay, it was not a room, but a cave with painted mossy walls, animal skins and statues - and the air was heavy with smoke and the damp smell of fungi. Against the fire, a dark silhouette was shaped by his side, with long and thin fingers joined together, and skin adorned with blue drawings.

“Go on, Aidan,” the silhouette whispered. “What is happening now, what do you see?”

The young man took a deep breath. Drops of sweat glittered on his brow, but he went on:
“The crowd steps aside, leaving a path for the guards. They are dragging a woman after them to bring her to trial. She is old, with long, shaggy and dirty grey hair, clothed in rags, so torn that they show her wrinkled skin underneath and I feel embarrassed to watch. Father Abraham, my kind priest and teacher, is there by my side and he tells me to recite a prayer in my mind. People are throwing objects at the woman, swearing and cursing. She is shouting back profanities, pulling at the rope that binds her hands together like a rabid animal:

Y'all think you know what Evil is, but you have no idea!

I feel my heart pounding in rush – I have never felt so much disgust, terror and pity at the same time! The woman is close to me now, she stops right before me, pointing her finger at my chest and whispering:

Will you forsake Him when the time comes?

I... I feel a sudden pain, a stinging on my arm! I see a snake crawling out of her sleeve and falling at my feet - I am bitten by the snake!”

Aidan jerked on the bed, grasping his left arm, scratching his wrist with his fingernails violently. His voice trembled, but still he went on breathlessly:

“Father Abraham cries out alarmed and checks if I am badly bitten; my brother Aedgar catches the snake and steps on its head, crushing it under his boots. The people jump back and there is great scurry and noise; they begin to throw rocks at the woman and the guards are beating her for hurting the young lord. As they drag her up on the scaffold, I hear her yelling:

We walk among you! There! There! And there!

She is pointing in all corners, and I look around in terror to see the Evil Ones walking amid the crowd.

You see us, don't you?  the woman exclaims staring straight at me.

The executioners are reading her sentence and the priest is uttering prayers. When they put the noose around her neck, the woman bursts into laughter, tearing her clothes off:

Take me, Lord, I am yours! she is shouting.

I am shocked and terrified. Aedgar takes me up in his arms and we go away. I look back to the scaffold in awe. The woman's half-naked body is now hanging in the noose...”

Aidan stopped. His wrist was red where he had scratched it. He opened his eyes, golden-brown like the firelight but still tormented by the haunting memory. He sat up, and his hands were still shaking slightly as he gathered his long hair from his sweated neck and chest. The memory felt so vivid, although he was conscious more than a decade had passed over it.

The silhouette, that was standing by him against the firelight, now moved closer and Aidan could see an old woman with eyes thickly lined with black paint and symbols drawn on her arms. She was dressed in white robes adorned with strings of red beads, stones and feathers. In her lap, someone else was sleeping, unmoved. She spoke:

“The noose, the hangman, fear, death and darkness. This is when your illness began to show, is it not?”

Aidan startled.

“How do you know about my illness?”

The woman seemed to smile.

“We are the völvas, the Wise-Women, as the people call us. We know everything a mortal can know, and even more.”

The Wise-Women, he knew, those who healed the body and the spirit, those who spoke with the gods and with the ancestors on behalf of the ignorant and glassy-eyed mortals! Looking at the sleeping figure, Aidan observed:

“It's your sister... she is sleeping on your lap. Is she all right?”

“My sister sleeps long hours, and in her sleep she travels and speaks to the spirits. Not unlike yourself, Aidan,” she gestured towards him and her necklace of pebbles rattled. “Do you not have moments when you lose all consciousness, when you fall into a stone-heavy sleep while your body twitches and turns? In this sleep, do you not see your dead mother, your dead brother Aedgar? They try to touch you, embrace you, but you always run from them!”

Aidan covered his face in hands. “How can you know this? I never told anyone about these nightmares of mine!” he sighed. “This illness destroyed my life, pushing me away from everyone! My mother suffered with me until she died. My father, the Earldorman of Northumbria, thought I was possessed, he thought I had demons inside of me! He could not bear to keep me with him anymore so he locked me away in a monastery to have me cured. But the Christian priests could not cure me.” He stood up from bed and glanced at the Wise-Women. “... Can you? Can you cure my illness, Wise One?”

The woman answered: “It can be treated, if this is what you truly want.”

“Of course I do!” he exclaimed vehemently. “Why would I not want to be healed, to be normal? I..." he paused a moment, "yes... this is what I want...”

She turned her head away, refusing to speak any more.

“Go, then,” the Wise-Woman only uttered. “And come back when you feel ready.”
~ The Witch's Trial ~











Aidan talks about an episode from his childhood in which he witnesses the execution of a woman. He believes that his mysterious illness was triggered by this event. The two shamans called "The Wise-Women" interpret his memories.
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This is a fragment from my novel "Sons of Disobedience", taking place in 998 Norway. The book follows Aidan's journey (both physical and spiritual) in the time when Norway is shaken by the brutal politics of King Olaf Tryggvason who wants to convert it to Christianity by all means.

Pertho (lot cup) – the rune of Elder Futhark that symbolizes mystery and occult knowledge of one's destiny, the choice of one's path

More with Aidan:

  OC: Aidan by HelevornArt  Prayer by HelevornArt  Swimming in the sky by HelevornArt  I shall not Fear by HelevornArt

by charcoalfeather
Sons of Disobedience by charcoalfeather  Aidan by charcoalfeather

© 2015 - 2024 HelevornArt
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Ralen-Lykos's avatar
You drew me in instantly with this, I didn't even want to pause when it was time for supper! XD

There was such an atmosphere, Aidan's emotional turmoil throughout his recollection was perfectly tangible. Beautifully descriptive as well: the condemned witch's appearance as well as the wise woman's own. There were some lovely little details too, like the rattling of the beaded necklace when the wise woman raised her arm. Just the right amount of detail, with grey areas to give the mind freedom to visualize the more mysterious aspects of the story. 

One detail I wanted to ask you about was the snake: "I feel a sudden pain, a stinging on my arm! I see a snake crawling out of her sleeve and falling at my feet - I am bitten by the snake!” I interpreted it as a mixture of magic and reality - the witch's pointing a kind of spell inflicting a bite wound on Aidan and the snake's appearance after the fact showing where the power came from, but was it meant to be that he was physically bitten and just didn't see the snake until it slithered out from the witch's sleeve? Or was it supposed to have crawled out of Aidan's sleeve?

I must confess I'd forgotten just how well you write. It's been so long since I read one of your pieces, but I'm very glad I chose to read one tonight^^