#amwriting Celtic Fervour Saga

It's been a while...but here's an update!

Agricola's Bane, Book 4 of my Celtic Fervour Series, is going on a Blog Tour very soon ( begins 20th January 2020) with Rachel's Random Resources. The tours for the first 3 books were wonderful and I've met so many new bloggers. It's been amazing to find new reader/ bloggers who love the series. 

In addition to doing more WIP writing for Book 5 of the series, I've also signed up for a Duolingo Scottish Gaelic course. It's definitely a fun way to learn a language! More about that later as I progress, but I can already envisage some changes might be necessary to the Gaelic phrases I used on Books 1-4 (which I got from friends ;-) ). I've also decided to change my end salutation on these blog posts. When I originally started them, a friend advised me to find something slightly original  - so my spelling of  Cheers was Slainthe, a spelling I had seen  on the internet. I can no longer use that form as I'll get my Gaelic questions ALL WRONG in my duolingo course. (p.s. I can also now add the accent which I couldn't before)

Book 5 is slowly progressing but I'm still constantly amazed at how many times I'm researching something specific that I've either read about (re: Roman Empire) and forgotten, or aspects that are new for me. The passage below is a little reminder about my Celtic Fervour Saga series. 

With one main text to study for a historical episode lasting the best part of 20 years (over 5 books) – and given that short text is often regarded with some suspicion – I might have felt justified to declare that there’s almost nothing in written prime sources to go on.  Does that mean that my writing is into the fantastic realm?

Not for me! But it has made creating credible settings and characters a wonderful challenge.

Since my chosen time period is late first-century northern Roman Britain, I’ve always accepted that research would be difficult, though I thought I’d stop at some point. Ahem…I’ve not nearly reached that stage yet! I love investigating sources – written and otherwise.

Roman Forum -Wikimedia Commons/ Flickr

The ‘Agricola’, by Ancient Roman writer Cornelius Tacitus, is a brief account of the Britannic campaigns of his father-in-law General Gnaeus Iulius Agricola. As Governor of Britannia in command of the resident Roman legions, Agricola’s aims were to subdue the barbarians of northern Britannia and absorb their territories into the Roman Empire – North Yorkshire, Cumbria, and Northumberland first, then Scotland. Tacitus’ aim was to inform his listeners in the Roman Forum of the achievements of Agricola, flowery oratorical language being typical in c. A.D. 97. Some scholars of the ‘Agricola’ are sceptical of its accuracy as recorded by Tacitus, though others believe Tacitus recorded the campaigns of other generals reliably. I’ve used the ‘Agricola’ very loosely to create my own interpretation of the Roman invasion of northern Britannia in my historical series, in conjunction with suitable ground evidence.

I’ve depended heavily on archaeological findings for the locations used. The Romans marched almost all the way to the Moray Firth yet left no attested evidence in stone, or wooden fort building, as in southern parts of Scotland. I’ve, therefore, relied on aerial photography, backed up by ground excavation of temporary marching camps created as the Romans tramped north-eastwards.

Envisaging what the landscape was like has meant finding out about the flora and fauna that clothed the countryside. Where were the natural Caledonian forest areas? That’s important because vast tracks of current Aberdeenshire (Scotland) have been relatively recently forested by the Forestry Commission, established in the early 1920s. Archaeological soil samples; ancient farming techniques; changes in river courses; natural erosion of the coastline forming sea-stacks; retreating  shorelines on the Moray Firth – are only some of the many issues I’ve researched over the course of writing the novel. What I see today is not necessarily how it was 2000 years ago.

Agricola’s Bane, Book 4 of my series, opens in the aftermath of a large battle between the Roman Legions and the Caledonian Allies (battle in Book 3). In the ‘Agricola’ Tacitus wrote that a large confrontation took place somewhere in northern Britannia, generally known to historians as the battle of ‘Mons Graupius’. Unfortunately, the battle site for Mons Graupius has never been identified, a number of possible sites mooted from Fife all the way to Inverness. And some enthusiasts don’t believe a battle happened at all, they think Tacitus exaggerated Agricola’s campaigning success in north-east Scotland.

Agricola -  Bath

Agricola’s Bane is my interpretation of: why Agricola dominated Northern Britannia for a while; what he sought to find there; and the natives he intended to completely subdue c.A.D.84. It gives a hint of why Agricola left the supposedly conquered northern areas soon after to return to Rome.

Book 5 is due in 2020, continuing the story of Agricola’s withdrawal from the area of conflict and the situations my Celtic Garrigill Clan find themselves in. However, Book 5 (current title: Beathan the Brigante) is mainly the story of Beathan, the son born to Lorcan and Nara in Book 1 of the series.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rome_-_View_of_Forum_Romanum._(2825256435).jpg

Slàinte!