TheAmberRoom

by

H D Evans

Published by Pipeline

© Hugh Evans 01 November 2011& 20 August 2012

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Chapter 3 Beltane Feast

Hansard had been brought up in the ways of the forest and to respect nature; his knowledge gleaned from members of his family, the druids before him and others in the Alemanni (Treveri) tribe, west of the Upper Rhine. He knew what plants to collect: this plant did this and that plant did that. It took longer to collect the herbs and roots than in years before, not because of weather, abundance or ability, but simply because he was older, frailer, his eyesight was poorer with cataracts and he could carry less. He was very grateful, though not expressly so, to his apprentice Freillung, who bore the weightier burdens of their chores. He wasn't grateful to Mea, she caused him a lot of worry.“Ach!” he grunted, thinking of the meddlesome forest woman

.,,, later in Chapter 3,,,

It was getting dark and the air was humid; it had been hot today and the heat of the day had yet to subside. People began arriving in great numbers and lined the last few hundred meters through the village up to the great hall, drinking mead and grog. Inside the great hall, a long fire waited to be lit in the centre, under the chimney hole. Not as large as the winter fires, the Beltane fire was for roasting game flesh and for the druids’ work. It would raise the temperature inside to sweltering, clothes- loosening degree. There were a few ornate, bronze lanterns hanging on the great carved columns that added to the yellow light.

Having spent the day building the festival's tall Neid fire out of dead wood from the heart of the sacred forest, the tribal youths had enjoyed the sunset, stripping and painting themselves and drinking, much of which had been provided by Hansard. The bonfire had been decorated with grass garlands and animal effigies and had been laced with spitting spruce and mineral salts. Around the fire on twelve tall, fat, carved wooden poles, were the glowering fire Gods, one for each month, painted and decorated with flags. Immediately after sunset, Hansard had purified the bonfire with his incantations and holy oils, then blessed the first flame with blossom and lit the sacred Neid fire. An adolescent red sprite ran a torch from the Neid into the village and lit the main

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hall fire, then sharing it with others, who ceremoniously lit their spring torches and lanterns. Fire burnt along an oil path and up each of the twelve poles until the Gods glowed from inside. Mea and the white maidens danced around the Neid fire in circles, weaving rhythmically towards and away from the flickering fire and around the totem poles. Hansard had substituted the raddige into the May Queen's bouquet with something similarly leafy, and the fire sprites had not noticed the replacement of raddige in their pre-procession potions with something hotter and more dangerous. He had bribed them with a lot of mead and spirit beforehand. The Neid fire burnt with multiple colours as the seeded logs that had been nailed with different metals and the salt bombs, gave up their ions. Hansard had also given instruction to bind the torches with salts and fresh spruce so they lit up colourfully and spat sparks into the dusk: he took pleasure in these pyrotechnics hoping for some diversion.

The May Queen stood barefoot in a long white dress, adorned with her crown and garlands of fresh spring flowers and her amber necklace, waiting to be lead to the village to the Green Man. After a while, Hansard got used to being painted blue, helped along by more of his hallucinogens. Freillung positively loved being blue, as did the two children that joined him as druids' assistants. They danced around Freillung and he chased them around the fire. The red sprites wore loin cloths and were covered from head to toe in red mud. Their hair was red, thickly slicked back, and deep black rings were painted around their eyes: a rune-name was painted in black on their front and back. Each red sprite carried a lit red torch and had a red sprite drummer to follow. They were getting restless and living up to their roles as chaos spirits, running around, shouting, waving their torches, jumping, singing and dancing. Sunset, Hansard didn't wait any longer and blew his sacred horn of Thrainkin, signalling the May Queen's birth. The drums started an insistent throb. The procession moved off, Hansard leading the May Queen, then Mea escorted by her white hand maidens and the rest of the blue druids. Red drummers followed and red sprites jumped all about them.

The procession atop the tumulus could be seen from the village, the torch lights and Neid bonfire got brighter as dusk fell. The townsfolk could hear the singing and shouting, then the horn and the drums. They watched the procession walk through the mossed menhir circles, past the great, rune engraved, standing-stone obelisk and into town. They greeted the spring tribute with flowers thrown onto the floor and requests for 'a good year.' Behind them, the Moon was full and the stars twinkled. The procession walked up to the front of the hall to be greeted by Chieftain Peran. He handed the Green Man and the White Spring Queen to Hansard who joined them, hand in hand, with some spells and a garland of flowers. The townsfolk cheered loudly in unison and they turned to make their way into the hall. They stopped just inside the entrance, with Mea and the white maidens just behind them and

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everyone else filtered into the hall in order of importance, lastly followed in by the drummers down each side.

The atmosphere was already thick with smoke and vapours from the roasting. The wild boars and deer had been slowly sizzling for some time and had been brought into the hall on spits, the foul added last, before the crowd had gathered. The food was turned by apprenticed hands to keep it warm and evenly cooked. The big, bald cook was now inside and in charge, chopping flesh and waving his cleaver at Freillung. Somewhat to his annoyance, like a bluebottle, blue Freillung ran in between the basted boars and the burning bonfire, casting powders and lotions onto the embers. As he did this many colours and sparks were lifted up into the eaves. The smoke and vapours swirled around with his incantations, summoning the Gods for the spring ceremony. The student druid was learning his craft well, and as the ravenous eating started and the hall heaved, his Master, Hansard, had increased the content of hallucinogens in the hope that none would notice that the raddige was missing, especially Mea who would probably be calling for its use. Mea and the dancing girls in their white dresses were singing gently of folklore but would later be wailing wildly. Freillung was uncomfortable, it was hot, and he knew that it was going to get hotter.

Everyone was in their places, the White May Queen and the Green Man walked up the centre of the Hall to before the Lord's table. Holding hands, they turned to face each other. The white girls danced around them waving white kerchiefs, harmoniously chanting their high-pitched song. In the opposite direction the red sprites danced chaotically, shaking their torches; blue druid children ran between them. The ceremony culminated in the Green Man joining with the May Queen, being ritualistically killed by the white maidens and then being brought back to life by the May Queen. As the Green Man came back to life he shed his old green cloak of winter and underneath, revealed the bright green new growth of spring and summer. All the time Hansard and Freillung were orchestrating the changing scenes with horns, pipes and incantations, with the drummers increasing in intensity at each segment, culminating in the rebirth of the Green Man joining with the May Queen, and holding hands aloft to the Lord's table. The drums stopped, the tribute to the nature Gods completed, a roar of approval from the audience, followed by more food, drink and much merriment.

The feast had been in full flow for some time, Chieftain Peran looked all around him, there was much talk of the Romans. They had been before, demanded tribute over the tribes’ lands, and they had been beaten back and slaughtered in the forest between the tribal settlements and the great rivers. Their grandfathers had fought the Romans in 9AD alongside tribes such as the Chatti at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest and destroyed Legions XVII,

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XVIII and XIX. Thirty thousand legionnaires had been slain, none returned. Three Imperial Eagles were lost and General Varus killed himself on the battlefield rather than be captured. Five years later, Germanicus Caesar returned with a much greater force, routed the tribes one by one, burnt their towns, enslaved those that were not killed and wreaked a terrible revenge. The barbarians despaired at their mechanisations and relentlessness. The experience had left a feeling of insecurity over the tribe and a greater reliance on the druids’ abilities to summon the ancestors for advice. The talk at the feast was about the increased activity of the Roman Army on the other side of the great rivers. The babble of excited and anxious voices increased to a high pitch. The elders were being sought for their counsel and talked over each other, arms waving. Some members of the tribe demanded leadership, others suggested submission. All this fuelled by more ale, mead and grog. Most wanted to feast and indulge in spite of their concerns about the possibilities of invasion, some weren't concerned at all and soon some wouldn't be conscious. The elders argued that there was nothing that the Romans wanted of the tribes – their way of life would not support tribute and so they would be left alone. They did not farm the land as intensively as the southern peoples, and when pressed, vanished into the forests. The Romans had as much hope of controlling the tribes folk as a swarm of bees – all they would get for their trouble was a stinging. But why did they come again?

Peran called for the druid, eating and drinking was stayed, and the clamour subsided. Freillung was right in front of him by the fire as he had been for most of the feast. Hansard was sitting just below the Lord's table. Freillung had been trying to look small, so he would not be noticed, but their shadows were the largest and moved with the Gods around the bright murals of the great hall in a bizarre animated dance.

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. more to the end of the chapter

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The Amber Room Synopsis

30 chapters in five periods.1 Present day, 2-6 Roman, 7 Europe 1750, 8-14 WW2, 15-30 Present Day.

Roman: [SPRING] Roman officer, ordered by Nero, goes in search of Amber, meets mysterious forest woman. Modern Roman civilisation and the barbarian German tribes, their different beliefs, their mutual conflicts and the ancient routes of the amber trade. Feasting, fighting, fornicating, murder, mystery, mayhem, ends with a major battle whilst crossing the Rhine.Europe 1750: [WINTER] The inception and construction of The Amber Room set against the rise of the Prussian Empire and the battles in Europe over the Holy Roman Empire.WW2: [SUMMER] German Wehrmacht intelligence officer, ordered by Goebbels, goes off to Operation Barbarossa. Female Russian Museum Curator visits the Amber Room, Leningrad, surviving an air attack. The Officer captures the Amber Room and the Curator, and they return to Konigsberg, where they make a family. The tide of war turns, Lancasters bomb Konigsberg, the Russians advance, the family is scattered tragically, the Amber Room is lost.Present Day: [AUTUMN] US researcher meets female publisher in New York with new evidence about the location of the Amber Room. Under threat, they travel to Berlin and visit the old Nazi buildings to find the Amber Room. Now monitored by British Intelligence, they go to east finding a trail of clues left for them. They are split by a battle involving the German Police, British Agents and mysterious dark forces who abduct the female publisher and the Amber Room clues. The US researcher goes in search of the her, another battle occurs in Dresden with US special forces support and the lead characters are reunited but on the run from various groups and chasing the Amber Room in Germany. They visit locations, castles and the chase intensifies at each stage. They are attacked, survive, develop their relationship and find the location of The Amber Room. They go to the location which is the centre of a global meeting where powerful people are deciding the fate of the modern world. The Amber Room is being demonstrated as the main feature of the meeting but a small group try to use it to control the world and all the sovereign debts of nation states. It does not go to plan and the Amber Room opens the way for the evil ethereal forces to once again overtake the forces of good. The heroes are able to stop this happening and the world is saved. Prehistory (Epilogue): The eternal battle between good and evil, order and chaos, light and dark, procreation and destruction.

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Reviews

""The Amber Room" is an extraordinary achievement for a first-time author. From its primordial, primeval beginning, the novel races through time and space to a dramatic and almost apocalyptic conclusion. Heroes Mark and Ema battle against giant forces of Man and of Nature herself to reveal the truth about The Amber Room and its properties. But do they? May this reviewer beg the reader not to skip pages, but to wait for the last line which "explains" it all. An exciting, difficult and dangerous book that will keep you turning the pages."

Hugh Evans, the author of this well-researched story, takes us through a fascinating kaleidoscope of historical events surrounding the construction and subsequent disappearance of the Amber Room, cleverly intermingling fact and fiction from the beginnings of time to the present day. The pace of his tale is fast moving and it is with some regret that one has to leave the atmospheric intrigues of the various time periods and move on to the next. However the thread of the powerful connections with the main male and female characters echoing through the ages, compels and intrigues and pulls the reader along urgently, eager to see where this epic tale leads.

Evans picks up the fictional trail of the Amber Room mystery in the present time, crafting tension and intrigue with surprising twists and turns in his story, culminating in an explosive clash of good versus evil, driven by the mysterious and powerful energy of the Amber Room. How it ‘ends’ is up to the reader to decide, but this is an allegorical tale containing all the elements of a ‘good read’ that will appeal to both men and women. A superb debut novel designed to entertain but also to challenge emotional and intellectual inertia - if you let it.

Patricia Abercromby PGCEFreelance journalist and Co-Author of: Seated Acupressure Therapy