Morgana smiles as Dora leads the public into the village as a warrior would have done. Behind her is a gaggle of young children holding tiny bags of salt and bottles of panda. The children are the main reason she still does this even after 8 years. Scanning the faces, she recognises some of the children who started coming back in 1984, now teenagers and young adults.
When she spots Marie off to one side, one of the originals, and someone that used to come to the re-enactment scene until she moved away for university a few years ago. Her gaze lingers for a moment as she tries to work out why Marie stands out, long enough for Marie to meet her gaze. Putting a smile on her face, she beckons her over.
"Marie, I haven't seen you for a while. How are you doing?" When Marie starts to close down, Morgana quickly moves on, "You know this ritual well, how do you feel about taking part?
Marie's eyes light up, "You'd let me take part?"
Morgana nods, "There should be some clothes in the roundhouse, my weapons are also there. You can choose if you want to be a warrior like Dora there, or a woman of the village, just pick the right clothes and weapons. Meet in the Long House when you're dressed."
As Marie runs off to the round house, Morgana opens a discrete portal to her home over the doorway. Almost immediately she remembers her romance novels, too late now. Shaking her head she puts the smile back on her face and walks towards the crowd.
"Good morning everyone and welcome to 'A Celtic Day'. I am known as Dr Morgana Danann, and I will be your host. As it is December, today I will be talking about a Celtic winter, what festivals they celebrated, and the sort of things they would be doing. Today I am joined by my assistant Dora, who you can see is dressed as a sworn warrior. The markings on her face signify that she is a battle crow, one of the chosen of The Morrigan. Inside the longhouse we will be joined by Marie, who many of you already know. Before we can go in, we need to observe Celtic Proprietaries.
"Today, you were met by a warrior of the village and many of you would have shared ritualistic words with her. For the people who have never been to one of these days before, this is the ritual of guest rights. It was common throughout the ancient world and it can still be seen in the tradition of bring a gift when you visit. In the ancient world, you would be expected to bring an offering of salt and an alcoholic drink. Nothing like whiskey or other strong spirits, as they were reserved for celebrations, rather something alcoholic enough to be safe to drink.
"You would have also heard everyone speak some variation of 'I would like to share salt and mead with the elders of this village', Dora would have responded with, 'Who requests guest rights.' Or 'Who requests entry'. They would have then responded with their public name. This is important, as in Celtic culture everyone had a public and private name. Only your family and closest of friends would ever know your private name, and it was considered the height of rudeness to ask that."
Out of the corner of her eye, Morgana sees Marie heading into the long house.
"One last thing before we go in. By custom there is to be no serious talk while we are sharing salt and drink. Please respect this tradition. Now you know about this part of the ritual we can move on.
"Welcome friends, old and new. I have a roast boar we can share to season the salt with. Come and join me in the warmth of the Longhouse."
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Inside the longhouse Marie is dressed in women's garb, with a sword over her shoulder and leaning on a short spear. Along one wall is a long trestle table, made with split and planed logs, loaded with bread and preserved vegetables. Hanging over the firepit is an iron spit with two cauldrons of vegetable stew and a roasting pig.
Morgana and Dora walk around the firepit, with it's modern metal grating to prevent children falling in, to a slightly raised pile of cushions and furs. Turning back to the public, they wait for them to find seats. Once everyone is seated, Morgana steps forward once more.
"Everyone, I would like to introduce Marie who used to be a regular. Marie, would you explain your choice in clothing and weaponry. Once you've done that, you should discuss dining etiquette in the ancient world."
"Good morning, I am dressed as a woman of the clan. The main difference between what I'm wearing and what Dora is wearing is in the patterning on our clothes. Additionally, there is more cloth in my clothing than there is in hers. In part, this is a status symbol?" Marie looks questioningly at Morgana who nods, "As the women of the clan are the life givers. Morgana is wearing clothing befitting an elder of the clan, and man or woman it would have been similar. However, a woman of the clan wouldn't be able to hunt for a mantle. The fact that Dora isn't wearing one would normally be a sign she is a younger, less experienced warrior. However, the facial markings show her to be a chosen of The Morrigan. For those who don't know, in ancient times The Morrigan was a goddess of battle and fate. Her name means 'The Great Queen' and she was often called on by both sides in a battle. It is said that her mere appearance on the battlefield could cause entire armies to rout. However, if you want to learn more about her come back in October when Dr Danann talks about how the Celtic people celebrated Halloween.
"The sword on my back shows that I have taken warriors vows, while not forsaking the womens responsibilities. I carry a spear because I am not expected to go to war. If you look around, you'll see shields on the walls. These ones are screwed in place, but originally they would have just been hung, ready for those who need them."
Marie looks back at Morgana, "I don't think I've missed anything."
Morgana smiles, "You did well, just table manners now."
"Oh, right. Sorry folks. Erm, those that have been here before will know that we always eat with our right hand and carve with our left. While a custom, it has it's source in hygiene. If you have a knife of your own, then feel free to carve your own meat from the pig. I recommend that those with penknives refrain from this, as the blades can close suddenly if you knock them. It is an hours drive to the nearest hospital from here. If you don't have a knife, or you don't wish to use your own knife, then one of the three of us will be wandering around and can carve you off some meat. If you're vegetarian the cauldrons of stew contain no meat. If you are going to have bread. Either cut it with your blade, or take the whole loaf and tear it in two. Personally, I recommend cutting half a loaf and scooping out the middle. You can then use one of the wooden ladles to spoon some stew into the crust and dip your meat and remaining bread in the stew. When you've finished, the crust will be nicely softened and flavourful and can then be eaten with minimal mess. Unlike cultures in the Mediterranean region, washing hands when you enter the house isn't a tradition. That's because water is plentiful enough here all year round that you would have been expected to do that as a matter of course. However, a bucket of cold water and a vinegar sponge is provided for after the meal so that you can clean the fat off your hands. Normally, it would be expected that one of us would go to the well when the water is visibly dirty. However, we have a tap just outside."
There's a slight laugh from the public.
Morgana stands with a smile, "Then let us season our salt with freshly roasted pig and enjoy the drinks you have brought to share. Everyone please enjoy, and leave the serious talk until afterward."
As people start to tuck in, Marie leans the spear against the back wall where it won't fall over.
Once the food has been consumed, and Morgana is talking about the sorts of things that Celtic people would have been doing at this time of year, Marie finds herself leaning against a wall next to Dora.
"You know, before I went to uni I wanted to be a battle crow."
Dora looks over, "Oh?"
"Yeah, what most people don't know about the Morrigan is that she wasn't like Ares or Mars, who only lived for battle. She was also a mother and picked sides based on who seemed to have the most valid claim. She wasn't about senseless war, she was about defending, avenging, and protecting too. It was rare that she would side with the aggressor unless they said they had good cause. From what Dr Danann has said, on the few occasions people lied to get The Morrigan's support, her wrath was both personal and epic."
"What about now?"
"I would jump at the chance. Especially since that bastard wouldn't take no for an answer, and then kicked me off the dig and the course because I said no."
Dora winces, "Listen, I think that's a bit heavy for right now. Why don't you wait in the round house when this is over, and we can chat about it then."
"Sure, I could do with venting."
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Later after Marie has changed back into her normal clothes and put the weapons away, she's looking around the roundhouse in interest.
"Marie, you hung around. Let me get changed."
Marie looks over at the fabric partition, "Hey Dora. Yeah, I haven't really had a chance to talk about this shit, as all my friends and family are more upset about me being kicked off the course. As if it's my fault it happened. Hey, do you know when they updated the interior of the roundhouse as it's far closer to historical records of Celtic dwellings than the nod they had before."
Morgana's voice comes from the entrance, "That's because this is my house. I thought you were just getting changed."
Dora calls back, "That's my fault, I didn't know you'd sent her here until I came in. It sounded like she had guy trouble earlier, so I asked her to stick around so that we could just chat about it."
"Why would you think that?"
"Well you do have that shrine to murdered and abused women over there."
"What shrine, where?"
"Once you go past the battlefield there's a wood with a path, and it leads to a small grotto where there's statues of women with candles burning in front of them."
"Show me!"
"Sure just let me…"
"Don't worry about your clothes, just show me."
"Zeus! Keep your hair on, I'm coming. It's this way."
Marie looks confused, "Dr Danann?" She walks out the door and stops in surprise as instead of Scotland in winter, she's somewhere completely different, with two heavily armed, squat humanoids standing to either side of her. Off to one side she can see two figures slowly disappearing into the mist that's hanging over a field.
Taking one look at the guards, she runs after the two figures shouting "Wait for me!"
Panting she catches up with them before they've gone too far and Morgana looks over at her with a disapproving frown, "You're out of shape."
"Yeah. Tell me, about it."
"Well, as you're here, what happened to bring you home from Uni early?"
"Where is here exactly?"
"This is my domain, and this is the field of the fallen."
"But that's supposed to be in The Morrigan's domain."
"I see my lessons didn't go to waste."
"But that would make you… and it would make Dora a…"
"Indeed. But what about you?"
"Oh, nothing too unusual. Moderately attractive Archeology professor sees attractive young student. Invites them on a dig for extra credit. Halfway through the dig asks to have sex, and doesn't take no for an answer. Then fails student because they said no. Anyway, if you're really The Morrigan, can I become a Badb Catha?"
Morgana looks at her sharply, "It's not that simple."
From ahead of them, Dora says, "Why? It was for me."
"You already have magic, the process for my mundane followers was far more taxing."
Marie glances down at her wrist, "It can't be harder than not dying."
Morgana grabs her wrist and looks at the unmarred flesh, "Foolish girl, living is always harder than dying. For a mortal, becoming one of my crows was a test of will and endurance. We would start on a full moon, and every night under the light of the moon you would drink my blood. For 13 nights my blood would try to kill you and you would have to fight with everything you have to live. For 13 nights you would be born again and you would have to fight not to kill yourself to get away from the pain. On the 14th night you would be able to rest, and on the 28th you would drink once more and become one of my crows."
"I'll still do it."
"Then it's a good thing it's not a full moon, otherwise you'd already be drinking my blood. I've lost too many friends as they try to take this route."
Dora calls back "The wood is just over there. Also, what about Marianne?"
Morgana sighs, "Marianne is a child of my heart. I had to bargain for that, and I doubt I would get a favourable bargain for one of my crows."
Silently, the three walk down the pathway into a grotto where there are three statues of women in distress. Marie immediately walks over to the one that's supine, with puffy lips and a lost and dazed expression on her face. There she collapses to her knees and cries while the other two take in the scene.
In a low voice, Morgana grumbles, "Why these images, and why didn't I notice?"
Dora puts a hand on her shoulder, "Probably for the same reason why you have a field of the fallen. You fight and battle to protect, not to conquer, destroy, or for gain. Witches certainly believe that you are a goddess of women as well as being everything you used to be."
Dora then walks over behind Marie and kneels down to pull her into a hug.
