Medicinal Remedies and Wound Treatment

Hello! It's now the 20th April and only 9 days till the eBook launch of Before Beltane. 

Today's post is about the medical treatment meted out by the healer in Lorcan's story, and the things that Nara does as a priestess healer. 

I’ve read various articles about medical matters in the early Celtic world which seemed too fanciful, or too gruesome to include in Before Beltane, but I've made mention of practices that seem to me to be reasonable and sensible for 2000 years ago. 

Ancient Roman surgical tools

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sommer,_Giorgio_(1834-1914)_-_n._11141_-_Museo_di_Napoli_-_Strumenti_di_chirurgia.jpg

Fear of the supernatural and the power of the druids was likely to have been highly prevalent in the world that Lorcan and Nara inhabit. However, since I’ve been trying very hard to create a believable world for my characters, I’ve avoided including more fantastical details, because adding spells and invoking supernatural powers goes beyond a degree of normal credibility. I’ve tried to convey to the reader that it’s natural for my characters to believe that pleas to their gods will hopefully bring positive results, though the gods do not always show favour to everyone.

Lorcan makes plenty of invocations to his goddesses, though it's possible that some Iron Age people would have made even more. I’ve pared down the details of Lorcan’s responses to the medical treatment he gets for his wounds. I think that the harsh life people led would have made injuries more common and the attitude to having them fixed would have meant less wimping, and perhaps even none at all.  I’ve named the woman who sews bits of him back together as a healer, a catch-all word, but she’s a young woman rather than an old crone. 

Nara's training to be a healer has been part of her general induction process into the priestesshood. I have no written proof of such a situation happening, but if there was a druid priestess who lived near a community, had some medical training, and was able to be summoned for help quickly, then she would have been an ideal healer. She would have had the skills and training to invoke the goddess spirits to assist (or otherwise) through incantations, spells or via the issuing of charms. In addition, practical skills would have been used to administer treatment or to heal, as much as was known or thought to be useful. Those basic medical skills would have been passed down to the next healer via priestess teachers. 

In the absence of a nearby priestess healer, it would have been practical for a tribe to have a herb-woman, a wise-woman who was well-versed in the use of herbal remedies and other practical issues to deal with injuries or sickness. There are many customs that have passed down though the ages which reference women with these skills though, sadly, some would have been branded as witches - even if they were only conducting benign and helpful treatments. 

I’ve highlighted that Nara and other healers rely on herbal remedies, and on what I’d term basic first aid. I've named only a few herbs in the story and described a few other plants. It was a big decision for me, since I've no idea what the Celtic woman of 2000 years ago would have called the red poppy seeds, but I'm sure their soporific, sleep-inducing powers would have been known.

I deliberated over whether to have Lorcan’s wounds only cleaned and bound, the cleaning supported by classical references (J. Caesar) and by Roman military surgical practice. There were also the references that ‘Celts’ were noted for some degree of personal cleanliness, so even if the person doing the wound cleaning had no idea of infection control some blood clean-up would have been acceptable.

Iron Age tribes had skilled weavers. Using a bone needle to put a garment together could have been little different from stitching a gaping wound together before binding the area. There is historical evidence in the Greek and Roman world of wounds being stitched (Galen) thousands of years ago so, wrongly or correctly, I decided that my healers could mange to do some basic sutures (stitches) using a fine bone needle. There's also evidence of a wide array of medical instruments used by Roman Army surgeons, so I'm sure the Celts had more to hand than just the type of sacrificial druid needle that can be bought via the internet these days. 

Druid ritual needle as seen on Etsy

In 1996, a number of graves were found near Colchester, England, one of which contained the cremated remains of a person of some status. The grave goods were substantial and included the little pots and containers that Nara has in her drawstring bag that she slings across her chest, her medical tool kit that she rarely leaves home without. The grave also had some tools that were similar to the Roman medical kit above. The instruments included scalpels, sharp and blunt retractors, needles, a probe, forceps and a surgical saw. The grave is known as that of 'The Druid of Colchester'. The sex of the person is unknown but a couple of metal rods are thought to possibly have been diving tools, hence the naming as 'The Druid'. 

Happy Reading.

Slàinte!