The Copper Sign (72 page)

Will nodded. “Then can I still call you ‘Father’?” he asked meekly.

Isaac tousled his hair lovingly. “I would be very sad if you did not.”

Ellen sighed contentedly. Isaac was the best husband she could ever have wished for, and he would be a good father not only to his own son, but to Will as well.

“Look, little Henry fell asleep!” Ellen was dreamily rocking the three-week-old boy in her arms, when suddenly her old energy started coming back. “Do you know what? I’ll take him to Rose and come over to the smithy. I’ve been sitting around for too long doing nothing.” She turned her back on Isaac and hurried off.

“The smiths will be very happy. Especially Jean can hardly wait to work with you again,” he called out to her and added softly: “But I missed you more than anyone!”

“Well, it’s high time you came back to us in the smithy,” Jean greeted her with a feigned reproach when she appeared in the shop shortly afterward. “Ever since you left, people have been asking about you more than ever! Everyone is talking about the copper sign, and the most important barons in England hope to have a sword from you.”

Ellen gave him an embarrassed smile.

“It feels good to be here again,” she mumbled, taking a deep breath and enjoying the familiar odors of iron and the smoke from the forge. Only now did she realize how much she had missed working with Jean and Isaac.

“As you know, I always dreamed of making a sword for the king,” she began, running her right hand over the anvil, as she was accustomed to doing. “After Runedur I was happy. But the Young King is dead and his father continues to rule the land.” Ellen’s cheeks were glowing now. After taking a deep breath, as if to gather up her courage, she continued: “I do not have an order yet to make a sword for King Henry II, but it should be our goal to remedy that situation, don’t you think?”

“That’s Ellen, through and through!” Jean cheered excitedly, rubbing his hands together.

“I’m convinced that someday the king will come to us,” she continued earnestly. “I have more ideas than ever and want to be prepared for that day.” Her gaze wandered from one person to another. “But to do that I need your help!”

“I think you would do fine even without me, but nothing would make me happier,” Jean replied somewhat dramatically.

Then Isaac nodded his agreement, saying, “I couldn’t have put it better myself! By the way, I recently discovered a dealer in Brabant who has new, very fine polishing stones for sale. They are terribly expensive,” he said enthusiastically, “but the quality of the polishing you can get with them is superb.”

“That sounds fantastic, Isaac!” Ellen laughed with relief and was more confident than ever. “So, then, what are we waiting for? Come, you two! I’m a little out of practice: let’s begin the work.”

With my present novel I wish to direct the reader’s attention to a very exciting and important period in the Middle Ages—the twelfth century. Considered ahead of its time with its many progressive developments, it is frequently viewed as the flowering of the High Middle Ages and the cradle of modern civilization.

During this period, people were more God-fearing and resigned to their fate than we are today, but they were not prudish nor did they have a poor relationship with sexuality and nudity. They liked to wash and bathe, they were passionate in their love and hatred, traveled much, and in brief, with their hopes and fears they were much more like us than we often imagine. Much feared in the early and High Middle Ages was leprosy, a skin disease that was not very contagious. The Plague, still unknown at that time, did not appear until the middle of the fourteenth century in Europe and devastated all aspects of daily life.

The mild climate of the twelfth century and the newly introduced three-field system of crop rotation greatly increased agricultural yields. The resulting surpluses of food stimulated the growth of cities. Progress in many areas, including technical areas, brought general prosperity, and legal and administrative innovations provided for political stability.

As for the role of women in this predominantly young and dynamic society, I am in agreement with the historian Robert Fossier. He shows in detail that women were influential and even occupied predominant positions in many areas and social structures, and probably had even more rights than women in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Research on the Middle Ages is based on legends and epics as well as historical reports and documents. Forgeries were common, however, so it is often not possible to come to definitive conclusions. Frequently, historians (and archaeologists) don’t agree in their findings because the same sources can be interpreted differently. Even if the interpretations are based on logical inferences, they are rarely unambiguous.

Thus, despite careful research and numerous historical and sociocultural details, I had a certain leeway in using my own imagination.

The pagan Roman calendar year began with the first of January, and this remained so until the early Middle Ages, when the Church demanded a change to December 25, in honor of Christ’s birth. In twelfth-century England, the date for the New Year was changed to March 25, the date of the Annunciation, because this was assumed to be the real beginning of Christ’s life. This change was not universally accepted, however, and the date did not become generally established until the thirteenth century. The first of January became the official date of the New Year again in France in 1563 and in England not until 1753. Among the common folk, however, January 1 had long been considered the beginning of the year. In order not to confuse the reader, I have always placed the start of the year in this novel at January 1, as is today’s custom.

Smiths have been the subject of legend since the Iron Age (800 BC). Someone who was able to take crumbling, black bits of material and turn them into gleaming metal had to have special abilities. And indeed, even in early times and in spite of little knowledge of chemistry, smiths were able to produce hard yet flexible steel. The concept of steel did not exist at that time, however, and for that reason I haven’t used the word in this book. Recent findings by the archaeologist Dr. Stefan Mäder have shown that swords produced in the High Middle Ages were in every way equal to the Japanese samurai swords of the time. With a length of around three feet and a weight of two to nearly three pounds, a double-edged knight’s sword was not a primitive weapon forged from raw iron but a lightweight, easily manipulated, and very effective weapon made of steel.

Fire guilding as described in the novel was introduced in the twelfth century. The quality of this technique is unsurpassed to this day but was replaced for the most part by the galvanic procedure due to the health risk imposed by the use of quicksilver (mercury). Tooth pullers, surgeons, barber-surgeons, and oculists traveled from one marketplace to the next and along with herb women, nuns, and monks provided medical care to the people. Oculists never stayed long at one place because most of their patients went blind again in less than three months due to infections. The operating technique hardly changed from its beginnings in ancient times up to the eighteenth century.

All the places named in this book exist, though St. Edmundsbury is better known today as Bury St. Edmunds. The castle tower at Orford is very well preserved and worth a visit!

Most details about the life of William Marshal, except for his meeting with Ellen and the son resulting from that, are consistent with the historical record. William was immortalized after his death in a heroic epic and is considered perhaps the greatest knight of his time. He was a skillful soldier, both very lucky and blessed with considerable political intuition. The high point of his career was his being named Regent of England after the death of King John.

I would like to express my special thanks to Arno Eckhardt, who still works today as a swordsmith, for introducing me to the blacksmith’s craft and answering my many questions. He forged the sword Athanor according to the descriptions in my book so that it could be viewed and admired at my readings.

Very important for me also were my conversations with the smith Petra Schmalz, who also grew up in a smithy and was thus able to give me some special insights into Ellen’s childhood. My thanks also to the goldsmith Fritz Rottler.

Encouragement and tips from Tanja Reindel, Eva Baronsky, and especially Rebecca Gablé have also helped me to keep going in difficult moments.

I am indebted to my agent, Bastian Schlück, for his constructive criticism, and to my translator, Lee Chadeayne, for his wonderful translation and the faith in my book he has shown from the very first time he read it.

Very special thanks to my friend Françoise Chateau-Dégat, who has been of enormous help in my daily activities, taking care of my three children and lending me a sympathetic ear day and night.

This project would not have been possible without assistance from my parents, who overcame their initial doubts and were extremely generous in their support of my work.

Katia Fox was born in 1964 in the merry month of May. She grew up in Germany and southern France, and she started her career as an interpreter and translator. After the birth of her third child, she turned her attention to the English Middle Ages and started to research blacksmithing. That research directly inspired the first installment in her captivating trilogy set in medieval England,
The Copper Sign
, published here in English for the first time. Look out for
The Silver Falcon
and
The Golden Throne
, forthcoming from AmazonCrossing. Katia Fox lives in a small town near Frankfurt with her children and visits Provence and England often to continue her research.

Translator Lee Chadeayne is a former classical musician, college professor, and owner of a language translation company in Massachusetts. He was one of the charter members of the American Literary Translators Association and has been an active member of the American Translators Association since 1970. His translated works to date are primarily in the areas of music, art, language, history, and general literature. Most recently this includes the best-selling
The Hangman’s Daughter
by Oliver Pötzsch, as well as numerous short stories.