The Humming of Numbers (19 page)

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Authors: Joni Sensel

BOOK: The Humming of Numbers
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Although Aidan's story and the abbey of Saint Nevin are fictional, their backdrop is authentic. The witchcraft is based on ancient herbal lore, and life in the monastic society is compatible with the wide range of Irish practices at the time. Laymen first became involved in illumination around this era, too. Similarly, Aidan could not think of zero when he pondered the humming of None because the concept of a numeral zero would not appear in western cultures for several hundred years, and it wouldn't catch on until much later than that.
I have taken just a few conscious liberties with word choice or depictions, usually to remain within familiar paradigms and thus create more accurate pictures in readers' minds. Some cultural aspects of pre-Norman Christian Ireland, such as the frequent fostering of children, differed surprisingly from other western societies of the same era. To avoid tedious explanations, I did not address such customs when they seemed tangential to this story.
For readers troubled by such liberties or any unintentional errors, my apologies—with the caveat that fiction creates its own truth.
Henry Holt
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is a registered trademark of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Copyright © 2008 by Joni Sensel
All rights reserved.
 
 
Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Publishers since
1866
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New York, New York 10010
www.HenryHoltKids.com
 
 
Book designed by Laurent Linn
 
 
eISBN 9781429940672
First eBook Edition : June 2011
 
 
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sensel, Joni.
The humming of numbers / Joni Sensel.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Aiden, a novice about to take monastic vows in tenth-century
Ireland, meets Lana, a girl who understands his ability to hear the sounds of
numbers humming from all living things, and just as he is beginning to
question his religious calling, the two of them are thrown together in a mission
to save their village from invading Vikings.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8050-8327-9 / ISBN-10: 0-8050-8327-8
[1. Monastic and religious life—Fiction. 2. Witches—Fiction. 3. Vikings—
Fiction. 4. Ireland—History—To 1172—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.S4784Hu 2008 [Fic]—dc22 2007027569
First Edition—2008

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