Twilight Child - Author's Notes
Finland 1787 - 1793
Scotland 1793 - 1794
Laundry Practices 1793
How I came to write Twilight Child
In 1787, Finland was under the control of Sweden, which at that time, with Russia, was a great power in Northern Europe. In 1788, the Swedish Army–with the Finnish Army, which Sweden of course dominated–was at war with Russia, in the attempt to conquer Russian land just to the east of Finland.
A mutiny by a group of Finnish military officers (the “Anjala League”) disrupted this military thrust, however. And while the rebellion ultimately failed, it can be said to have accomplished three things: it slowed Swedish aggression, it demonstrated Finland’s reluctance to serve further as a battleground for Sweden and Russia, and it inspired the birth of a sense of Finnish nationalism.
In real life, the members of the Anjala League were tried for treason in Stockholm, though only one man was executed.
Sweden and Russia continued to struggle for the control of Finland,
and in the war of 1808–1809, Russia annexed Finland. That
was when a strong grassroots sense of nation began to grow in Finland,
with Finns saying, “We aren’t Swedish; we can never
be Russian; let us therefore be Finns.”
In 1835, the scholar Elias Lönnrot put the Finnish national epic Kalevala into publication for the first time. Before that, it had been passed on orally, though it was widely known. There are several references to stories included in the Kalevala in Twilight Child.
All references to Finnish sauna trolls, fairies, and other woodland spirits are accurate to the time.
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“The Minch”:
The passage between the inner and outer Hebrides has served as a shortcut through those islands for centuries, though the passage is still not without its perils. One of those dangers is the section known as “the Minch,” also known as “the current of destruction.”
There are several different explanations for the long-standing belief in the tribe of supernatural sea creatures known as “the blue men of the Minch.” While considered by some in the past to have been fallen angels, or the northern descendants of Glaukos, a godlike creature from Greek mythology who was half fish, more recent speculations include the possibility that the original blue men–if they existed–might have been abandoned Viking captives, either African or heavily tattooed.
This part of Scotland was long controlled by the Vikings, and in fact was still dominated by Norway until the 15th century.
Culloden and its aftermath:
Scotland and England quarreled for many centuries, but things came to a head in the early 1700s when the Scots tried to establish Prince Charles, “Bonnie Prince Charlie,” as king of both Scotland and England. His supporters were called “the Jacobites,” because his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all named James, and Jacob was a nickname for James in those days.
Prince Charles had a right to claim the throne, and he had many supporters, even in England. But he was Catholic, and there was a huge objection in England to the idea of going back to having a Catholic king.
George II–the king of England at that time–didn’t like the idea much, either!
Still, the move toward establishing Prince Charles as king grew in Scotland, and Charles and his Highland army headed south into England. In fact, they were only 120 miles from London when they ran out of supplies and had to head back to Scotland. But they were being closely followed by the Duke of Cumberland and the king’s army.
Cumberland caught up with the Scots in April, 1746, at Culloden, in Scotland. The infamous battle quickly became a slaughter of Scottish warriors, and in its aftermath, many innocent Scots were wantonly killed, including women and children, though Prince Charles escaped. He died in Italy in 1788.
After conquering the Scots at Culloden, the English did everything they could both to punish surviving Scots and to establish their own rule over Scotland for all time. One way the English tried to do this was by eliminating the clan system, taking away much of the power the clans’ lairds had enjoyed for many centuries. Speaking Gaelic became a hanging offence. From 1747–1782, it was even against the law–punishable by six months in jail!–for Scotsmen to wear their clans’ kilts.
But worse than these efforts, which ultimately failed, were “the Highland Clearances.” The Clearances went on for several generations after Culloden and are still talked about bitterly in “the Highlands and islands.” The English decided they could make more money raising sheep than by farming in Scotland, and so the lands were cleared of the people and small farms–“crofts”–that had been operating for centuries. Crofters were driven from their homes, often by extremely brutal means. Some homeless, starving Scots were even sold into slavery, it is said. Many Scottish families fled to North America during this period.
One of the ships that left Tobermory for the new world was, in fact, The Rambler of Leith, which sailed for Nova Scotia in the summer of 1794, as it did in Twilight Child.
Mull, Tobermory, and Iona:
Mull is a large island off the west coast of Scotland (it looks a little like a backwards E, if you’re trying to find it on the map!), and Tobermory is the largest town on Mull, situated at the northern part of the island. Iona is a very small island off the southwest coast of Mull.
Mull has been settled for ages; there are numerous prehistorical remains such as standing stones on the island, as well as other signs of Celtic and Norse habitation. These cultures flourished thousands of years before the clans were established. There is evidence of settlements existing in Scotland as long ago as 6000 B.C..
Much of the population of Mull was erased during the Clearances, and Mull was less populated as recently as the late 1900s than it was in the 1700s.
The Macleans have been Mull’s leading clan for hundreds of years, though they lost their castle and lands to Scotland’s Duke of Argyll in 1691, but all references to them in this book are completely fictional.
In real life, Tobermory was not founded as a village until 1788, by the British Fisheries Society, but there was a settlement there much, much earlier than that. “Tobermory” means “the well of Mary,” and it was called that as early as 1540. The actual well was thought to have been named for a Celtic pagan deity, although later, it was claimed to be named for the Virgin Mary.
Bloody Bay was named for a Scottish clan battle that occurred in 1480, but in 1588, Highlanders did in fact sink a Spanish galleon called Florida in Tobermory Bay, and its treasure–£300,000 in gold bullion–was indeed said to have been lost at that time.
Many of the Gaelic place names on the island–including the real “Little Lake of the Green-Clad Women,” though I changed its location–reflect the islanders’ former pervasive beliefs in such supernatural beings as fairies, brounies, and enchanted selkies, among other creatures.
The tiny isle of Iona has its own special place in Western history, being said to be the home of St. Columba–who Christianized Scotland–from the year 565 on, and the birthplace of the beautiful Book of Kells. The ruins of St. Columba’s abbey still stand, and the abbey has recently been restored.
*****
Eighteenth century laundry practices were very complicated, time-consuming, and expensive, due to the cost of fuel, and while the depiction in this novel of such practices is essentially accurate, it is also sketchy and light-hearted. Doing laundry was extremely strenuous work, taking days out of every week in most prosperous households.
It is estimated that a family in the 1700s earning £70 a year, for instance, might spend as much as £10 yearly keeping its clothes and linens clean. That is the equivalent of a present-day family earning $40,000 yearly having to spend over $5700 of that money just doing the laundry. This would come to more than $100 a week!
Women were eager to have outside help with this onerous chore, of course, but there was a fear of mingling one’s family clothes and linens with those of unknown strangers. This fear gradually was overcome, and more laundries–such as the one romantically described in Twilight Child–came quickly into being.
*****
How I came to write Twilight Child:
I’ll admit it! I’m an eccentric traveler. I’ve never been to Hawaii, but I’ve visited Finland three times, and Scotland’s isle of Mull once, alone--and almost by chance.
Also, I’ve spent my life as an artist, teacher, and writer, but if I’d been able to find a parking place at UCLA in 1968, I might instead have pursued my then-fervent interest in folklore and mythology in a more scholarly way.
These random pieces of my life came together a few years ago when I read a single word--“lavendyre”--in Jeffrey Kacirk’s wonderful book FORGOTTEN ENGLISH, which someone gave me on a whim, and TWILIGHT CHILD was born.
Taking place in Finland and Scotland in the 1790s, TWILIGHT CHILD is a story of friendship, fantasy, and young love. It is also a tale of survival and adaptation specific to that turbulent time.
But the story is, I hope, both timeless and universal. Eleni, the book’s young Finnish heroine, gradually discovers that she takes her gifts with her wherever she goes, no matter what else is happening in her life. Ideally, it is this same inner resourcefulness that each young person discovers, even--especially--in our own turbulent times.
(From Junior Library Guild Bulletin)