Rowena's Tale

 

"Don't tell the priest about our art for he would call it sin. For we've been in the fields all night a-conjuring summer in. And we bring you news by word of mouth, for women, cattle and corn. The sun is come up from the south, with oak, and ash, and thorn"

 

Medieval dyeing and herbs

Hrolf Arnisson

In the year 911, in a small village deep within the Wyre forest, the quiet of the night was pierced by the cries of a woman in labour. Brought to her time early by news of her man's death at the hands of raiders from the North, heads were shaken sadly, and a runner was sent to nearby Bewdlay for the local priest. By the time he arrived the woman had died, the last of her strength spent in giving birth to her girl-child. Having done what he could for the poor woman, he turned his attention to the wailing infant. The midwife murmured a word in reply to his question, and the orphan became Rowena, named for her mother that winter's night in the land of Mercia.

Agatha the midwife was a well respected figure in the farms and hamlets which lay along the banks of the Severn, and many an injured man or quickened woman had cause to be thankful for her knowledge of herb-craft, though she herself was barren. Kinswoman to the dead woman, she took the orphaned child as her own, and Rowena grew and thrived, becoming a familiar figure as she followed her foster-mother about her errands.

In addition to the commonplace tasks that any young girl of her times was expected to perform - looking after the geese, preparing food, and above all, spinning yarn and weaving cloth - the young Rowena learned to prepare the simples that her foster-mother employed, and by the time she reached young womanhood, the quick-witted girl's way with plants had brought her some small renown in the district, both as hedge-doctor, and for the bright colours she achieved when dyeing cloth. By her fourteenth Summer, Agatha had received offers for Rowena's hand from the parents of several young men, but was reluctant to lose her fosterling. In the winter of 930 CE, Agatha's death of the flux removed this obstacle, and Rowena was wedded to Uffa, a young man who made his living by fishing the waters of the river Severn. 

Although the couple were happy enough, the couple never had a child survive infancy, and Uffa was lost to a pestilence which swept the land during the autumn of 937CE. Rowena, resigned to widowhood, continued to support herself by her knowledge of plants, and tried to avoid the frowns of the priest, who believed that no woman of child-bearing age should remain unwed.

It was another five years before Rowena was finally to find happiness, with a mercenary seaman that she had been called upon to heal of an ugly wound. Hrolf and Rowena settled together in the community of Dahrg de Belne, and Rowena finally brought a smile to the face of the dour priest by agreeing to marry. She now tends the sick and wounded of Dahrg, and helps to produce the fine cloth which has brought fame to the settlement.

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