The Owl Killers

  “Do we burn the chapel too?” they asked Father Ulfrid. Even they would not presume as much without the voice of God to give authority.

  “Burn the vipers’ nest out. Burn every stinking stick of it. There will be not a stone left standing to remind anyone that this foul abomination ever existed.”

  It burned and was burning still. But there was something that escaped the burning. It lay outside the gate, half hidden in a patch of weeds, its wrappings crumpled nearby. A villager had snatched up the bundle, not troubling to find out what it was, and then discarded it as soon as he’d unwrapped it. It was a battered thing, bound in calf’s leather, a book, just an old book. Tomorrow it would be picked up by a peddler, a camelot with a badly scarred face, on his way to a fair in a distant town. It might not fetch much, but the camelot was learning that anything was a profit on nothing and someone, somewhere would buy even an old book, if he spun them a good enough tale.

  High up on the hill above the burning beguinage, a woman squatted on the bank of the river by old Gwenith’s tumbledown cottage. She could smell the smoke and if she had looked, she would have seen the distant lick of flames climbing into the darkening sky. But she did not raise her head.

  The woman’s clothes were sodden and so caked with mud, you could scarcely see the grey of her kirtle beneath the dirt. Mud streaked her face and hands, but she wasn’t aware of that, nor of the way her hair tumbled loose down her back. She had discarded her grey cloak even though the air had grown icy. She no longer felt the cold. Her hands were too busy. She was too joyful.

  First she had fashioned a mound of mud and dirt, long and narrow like a heap of soil over a new grave. Then she’d begun to shape it, dimpled legs and a fat little body, a softly curved belly, chubby arms and a beautiful smooth head. She put bright shining river stones on the tiny face for eyes and gave it waterweed for hair and a smooth silky pebble for a sleeping mouth. She bent to kiss the cold lips and smiled.

  Then she began to make another mound. One by one she raised the graves from the earth; again and again she pulled from them her own mud babies. They lay all around her cradled in the moss, three, four, five of them, and still she worked making more graves and more babies. Light was fading so fast that she couldn’t see their faces anymore, but it didn’t matter, for she could feel their skins, soft and moist and slippery as newborns. She gently squeezed their chubby limbs and stroked their damp hair. They were sleeping. They didn’t cry because they were glad to have her as their mother.

  A great black bird fluttered onto the ragged roof of the cottage. It stared down at the woman, its head cocked. The harsh caw made the woman look up. Someone was standing in the doorway of the cottage. In the darkness she could just make out the faintest shimmer of pale bare limbs and flame red hair. The woman smiled.

  “There you are at last, my little Gudrun; where have you been? I’ve been searching for you everywhere.”

  She’d known all along that the body they pulled out of the pond wasn’t her Gudrun dead. She knew her daughter would come home to her. Beatrice knelt on the ground and swept out her arms over the graves and the babies. They had all come back to her. And they would never leave her again.

  The sun was almost gone now. Only a sliver of red rind showed above the hills and darkness crowded hard upon its heels. A gangling lad with straw-coloured hair and a dark-haired little girl stumbled homeward from the forest, dragging bundles of dead wood behind them by ropes looped across their shoulders. The girl trailed behind, wailing to her brother to wait for her. He pretended not to hear, but every now and then he slowed down, not enough for her to fully catch up with him, for he didn’t like to be seen walking with her, but just enough to close the distance between them.

  Their hooks were tied to the bundles of the dry kindling twigs they carried on their backs. The boy’s sling was ready in his hand just in case a complacent bird or hare should amble across his path. The children’s grubby cheeks were flushed with exertion.

  The little girl glanced fearfully over her shoulder. Imagine if the Owlman chased you while you were so weighted down, the wood dragging you back so you couldn’t run. Imagine feeling the breath of his wings at your back, hearing the snap of his beak. The darkness gathered about her and every bush along the path took on an animate form—a cutthroat with a murderous knife, Black Anu with her long talons, the faerie birch with white fingers long enough to strangle the throat of such a very small girl. In the forest a vixen screamed and both children started like rabbits. They should not have waited so long. The boy knew it was his fault, but he cuffed his little sister to make her hurry and to hide his own fear.

  A hollow tapping, like fingers on a coffin lid, echoed through the gloom. The children stopped dead. It was coming towards them. In the witch-light you could just make out a shape, like a man, but not a man, wings dragging on the ground, hopping like some great bird. The little girl struggled to free herself from the tangle of wood and rope that was pinning her down between the forest and the nameless thing. Her brother clapped a sweaty hand across her squealing mouth and dragged her off the path.

  The melancholy knell of the leper’s clapper drew nearer. Now they could just make out a figure limping on crutches towards them. One knee was bent under him, resting on a stick to keep the weight from his foot. A leper’s cloak was pulled down over his face and flapped behind him. He passed the children crouched in the bushes, but gave no sign that he had seen them.

  The leper saw much, but registered nothing anymore. His mind was as numb as the stumps of his feet. He didn’t even turn his head as the boy fired stones from his sling at his sticks, jeering and boasting to his sister that he could knock the old crow off his perch. It was the boy’s revenge on the leper for making the boy hide as if he was scared, which of course he wasn’t, not for a moment.

  The stones struck Ralph’s back, leaving small dark bruises, but he was almost grateful for the sting. He could at least feel that. He didn’t know where he was going, but he would hobble through the night and the next day and the next until he dropped from exhaustion, and even that would not be far enough away from this accursed village. For he knew the smell of the burning would cling to him like a drunken whore until they tumbled into the grave together. Ralph was not afraid of the dark, or the wolves or the Owlman. What could any of them do to him now that would not be a blessing?

  Behind him, the little village of Ulewic hunkered down for the night, wrapping itself in the ragged smoke of a hundred hearth fires. The ditches and middens farted their noxious odours into the twilight air, but the village was comforted by the smell. It was the smell of its own fart after all. It shuffled down into the damp earth and its wooden bones creaked. Under the cover of darkness, bedbugs crawled out to feed on its frowsty flesh and the rats fought for its shit. Ulewic moaned a little in its sleep, that’s all; scratched, but otherwise it did not stir. It was complacent, senile, old, tired enough to sleep for a thousand years, and why not? Those troublesome women had gone and would not come again.

  With outstretched wings the barn owl, silent and pale as a dead child, flapped slowly across Ralph’s path and the leper lifted his head. The winged cat from the threshing barn was seeking a new home. He turned his face away. Better not to think, not to feel, not to remember. He slammed his crutch against his foot as if to reassure himself his body at least was dead. Fiercely he dragged himself on, then turned, suddenly desperate for one last look at her, but the owl had vanished.

  finis

  historical notes

  In the first half of the fourteenth century, Europe was experiencing a period of change and unrest remarkably similar to the present day. There were significant and rapid climatic changes resulting in widespread droughts, flooding, and crop failure. The changes were so noticeable and drastic that the Pope ordered special prayers to be said in every church five times a day.

  The fertility of both animals and humans had fallen markedly and people and livestock were becoming prey to new diseases swee
ping the countryside, which created a climate of fear and suspicion. Lay people began to ignore ecclesiastical authorities, even on some occasions throwing priests out of their own churches and engaging in bizarre cults. Despite the terrible punishments meted out for crimes, general lawlessness, especially among young male gangs, was widespread.

  Against this background a remarkable movement emerged in Europe that became known as the Beguinage Communities. Thousands of women who did not want to marry or take the veil began to set themselves up in female collectives. The women farmed and supported themselves through the practise of different crafts, particularly weaving. They traded, established hospitals, educated girls, and wrote many books. They preached openly on the streets; they translated the Bible into the local vernacular, long before this was officially done by the Church; and when they were excommunicated, these Catholic women took on the priestly role of administering the sacraments to one another and to others who were barred by the Church. They took no vows except that of celibacy for as long as they chose to stay within the beguinage, and they were free to leave whenever they wished. A number of the hospitals and schools which were founded by beguines in the Middle Ages still flourish today in the cities of Northern Europe.

  Beguines often broke the power of local male guilds by deliberately undercutting them through their ability to trade via the network of beguinages. Some beguinages were protected by powerful and wealthy patrons, but many beguines encountered violent opposition from Church and Society. Beguinages were attacked; their books were burned. The beguines were arrested on charges of heresy and gross immorality.

  Some beguines were charged with “Heresy of the Free Spirit,” because they believed in a doctrine similar to that held by Quakers today, which declared that the physical sacraments were not necessary to Christian practice or salvation, and that Christians did not need the mediation of priests. A number of beguines were burned at the stake for this belief, including Marguerite Porete, author of The Mirror of Simple Souls, who, in 1310, was executed for heresy in Paris.

  The Beguinage in Bruges, known as the Vineyard, was founded in 1245 by the Countess of Flanders, Margareta of Constantinople. Despite attempts by both Church and Reformation to destroy it, it remained a beguinage until 1927, when it was taken over by Benedictine nuns. Though many of the houses and the gateway have been rebuilt over the years, it is still one of the most peaceful and enchanting corners of Bruges. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and visitors who pass over the bridge and under the word Sauvegarde may freely wander around its beautiful and timeless cobbled lanes.

  Beguinages flourished for several centuries in Europe, especially in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Germany, but for years historians claimed that there were never any beguinages in Britain, although many women from England went to join beguinages in France and Belgium. But recent research has revealed a number of tantalising hints that attempts were made to set them up in England during the Middle Ages, but they quickly disappeared within a few years, for reasons which so far have not come to light. This novel is, of course, a fictional portrayal of an attempt to found one such beguinage on English soil.

  · · ·

  FLANDERS WAS AT THIS PERIOD RULED by the Counts of Flanders. By 1256 Bruges had already secured the English cloth monopoly, growing prosperous on the cloth it made from English wool, so much so that the city had gained an almost unique autonomy to govern its own affairs. Mathew of Westminster wrote, “All the nations of the world are kept warm by the wool of England made into cloth by the men of Flanders.”

  The Counts of Flanders were pledged to the French king, but the powerful Flemish Guilds supported the English throne in order to maintain their supplies of wool, and at the end of the thirteenth century they invited Edward I of England to send an army to help them repel the French. Ties between Flanders and England were further strengthened by Edward III who lived in Ghent, where his fourth son, John of Gaunt, was born in 1340. John of Gaunt’s son became Henry IV of England. Throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries trade between the east coast of England and Flanders was so strong that it would appear that more goods and people travelled to and from Norfolk and Flanders than between Norfolk and London.

  THERE WERE A NUMBER OF FAMINES which affected England from 1290 onwards, due to the changing weather conditions. The year 1321–22 was particularly bad in the east of England where extreme suffering was caused by failed grain harvests during which yields fell as much as sixty percent. This was compounded by flooding as well as an outbreak of liver fluke in sheep and cattle murrain.

  The 1321 outbreak of cattle murrain was believed to have been anthrax, of which there are three methods of infection. The most common is cutaneous anthrax, which enters through cuts or abrasions on the skin, resulting in painless ulcers with a black necrotic centre. This spoils hides, but is rarely lethal. Inhalation anthrax, where the spores enter the lungs, results in a flulike illness with severe breathing difficulties and was, in those days, often fatal. The third method of infection is intestinal anthrax, which the child Oliver dies from in the novel. It was contracted by eating infected meat, causing severe inflammation of the intestinal tract with bleeding, and usually resulted in rapid death.

  FROM THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY, even in official documents, people did not use numbers for dates. Instead they referred to the nearest Saint’s Day or festival to date documents or events.

  Throughout the Middle Ages the old Julian calendar was in use in Britain and Europe. In 1582 Europe adopted the Gregorian calendar, but Britain, hostile to Rome, refused to follow suit until 1752. As had happened in Europe two centuries before, when Britain switched to the Gregorian calendar there were riots in the streets because the calendar suddenly jumped eleven days forward and people thought their lives had been shortened by eleven days. We now run approximately thirteen days ahead of the old Medieval Calendar, which means that fixed events such as the equinoxes and the longest and shortest days fall on different dates to those they would have done in the Middle Ages.

  Although in Roman times Julius Caesar had officially moved the New Year to the first of January, many places on the fringes of the Roman Empire still kept to the old practise of celebrating the New Year from the twenty-fifth of March to the first of April. In England during the Middle Ages, the years continued to be numbered from March 25 (the Incarnation of Jesus) and not from January 1.

  ULEWIC—WHICH IN OLD ENGLISH MEANS the place of the owl—is a fictional village, but is based on villages found on the coast of west Norfolk. Many of these villages became depopulated and eventually abandoned over the centuries from the time of the Black Death onwards.

  Churches and chapels dedicated to the Archangel Saint Michael were often erected on former sacred Celtic sites where the gods of air and earth met. Such sites were also said to be the entrance to the underworld, which is perhaps why old churches with the name of St. Michael have frequently been associated with both black magic and the disappearance of bodies from graves.

  The old woman with the gaping vulva carved above the church door is typical of what in recent years have come to be known as a Sheela Na Gig. These are found on medieval churches all over Britain, although most villages have their own local names for the carving. In style, the Sheelas are unlike any of the other medieval grotesques carved on these churches.

  Some people argue the origin of these carvings is pagan and that the figure represents a much older Celtic goddess which was later incorporated into the Christian building. Others claim they date from between the eleventh and twelfth centuries and are purely Christian in origin, put there as a warning against lust. The problem with this theory is that many of the figures are hidden on church roofs or places where the ordinary populace would be unable to see the warning. And although some of these carvings may have been moved in later centuries, when the church was altered or repaired, it doesn’t account for all of these hidden carvings.

  Black Anu or Black Annis stories are to be found
all over England and Ireland. Anu was originally the “mother” form of the triple Celtic goddess, but like Lilith, as Christianity spread, she was transformed into a monster who was said to snatch and eat children. Black Annis is still remembered in the Dane Hills near Leicester where she was said to inhabit a cave called Black Anna’s Bower, which is supposed to be connected by a series of tunnels to Leicester Castle. Black Annis would scuttle back to her lair through these tunnels after prowling the town at night. Black Anna’s Bower has since been destroyed in building work, but the tale lives on. Her name also survives in many landmarks across Britain such as Black Anne Pool in the River Erne in Devon.

  Right across Europe the owl was in ancient times sacred to the goddesses symbolising wisdom, and many of the Celtic and tribal goddesses had the power to change themselves into owls; for this reason the owl was never harmed. But when the goddesses themselves were demonised by Christianity, so was their symbol the owl, which became hunted and persecuted as an evil omen, a harbinger of death.

  The Owlman was a familiar monster of the Middle Ages, part of the pantheon of strange and dangerous beasts such as the griffin, which had the wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. Like the Basilisk, the Owlman was believed to inhabit old church towers.

  But unlike the other medieval monsters which have been consigned to ancient myth, the Owlman lives on in the human psyche. In 1995, an American student of marine biology wrote to a newspaper saying that she had witnessed a “vision from hell” near the church in Mawnan, Cornwall, England. “It was the size of a man, with a ghastly face, a wide mouth, glowing eyes, and pointed ears. It had huge clawed wings and was covered in feathers of silver-grey. The thing had long bird legs which terminated in black claws.”