Corrag

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In fact only about forty died in the slaughter, though many more died in the escape over the hills. Enough survived for the tale to be told, as it is still told. This is the blood memory of Glencoe. This act of treachery. The murderous return for hospitality. What was six days to a Highlander? Consider the distance, consider the weather. What mattered a mere six days?

It isn't necessary, but neither does it detract from the telling, and of course there is a final purpose to it. Susan Fletcher’s novel “Witch Light” is set in 1692, a handful of years after my Huguenot ancestors fled France and landed in England – hopeful of a warm welcome, since the Glorious Revolution of 1688 had ousted James II (a king too prone to Catholicism) and installed Protestant William III on the throne.The next morning, the 1stJuly 1916, was the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Casualties were enormous, and included seven men from the village of Glencoe, the first to die from fighting since the Massacre in 1692. In Glencoe there was a local witch called Corrag. She warned everyone when the Redcoats arrived in the frozen evening of 13th February 1692, but no one listened. She spent the night up in the mountains, wrapped in a plaid to keep off the cold. The next morning she ventured down to the village to discover the massacre left behind by the Government troops. Bodies everywhere, people fled into the countryside to try and escape (given the time of year, many subsequently died from exposure), houses burnt. Through the smoke she went into the house of Maclaid, the Chief of the Macdonalds of Glencoe, who had been shot by the Redcoats, and took his broadsword. She carried it to the water and there threw it in, saying:

She sits through the snow of the winter, knowing that the sound she hears outside is the dragging of the logs for her pyre. In 1691 William sought peace with the Highlanders and offered a pardon to all who had fought against him if they would now sign the oath of allegiance by 1st January 1692. The alternative was the death warrant.For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial.

The plight of an accused witch in late 17th-century Britain inspires confusion, then pity, in her only visitor in Fletcher's engrossing historical (after Oystercatchers). The only witness to the massacre of the MacDonald clan, Corrag sits in a village jail under a death sentence for her supposed supernatural involvement in the killings. Her interrogator is Charles Leslie, a Catholic loyalist traveling in disguise who is seeking information that may implicate the Protestant king William in the murders. Corrag leads Charles through her lonely childhood: her mother hanged for witchcraft, Corrag fled her hometown and lived hand to mouth before gaining the protection of the MacDonald clan. Corrag spins colorful if sometimes meandering tales of the unfriendly English countryside and the fleeting joy of having found, in the clan, a place where she can be accepted; Charles is harder to pin down, and he often functions as a placeholder until his abrupt shift into a pivotal role late in the book. Fletcher gives readers a strong plot, enough vivid passages to compensate for the occasional dull spot, and a triumphant heroine in Corrag, whose travails are truly epic. (Nov.) For more murderous tales from 17th century Scotland try The Redemption of Alexander Seaton by Shona Maclean. Susan Fletcher won the Whitbread First Novel Award in 2004 for “Eve Green” set in the remote Welsh mountains and shares with “Witch Light” themes of emerging womanhood and the cost of fitting in. I’d recommend reading both books. It isn't a book to be read for message though. If you don't know the story of Glencoe it is one to be read for history (though do heed the author's warning that it is a fiction, a novel, that should be read as such). Mostly it is one to be read for beautiful writing about beautiful places.The book plants the Highlands in the reader’s soul and its imagery is unforgettable. It combines many current trends: the fictionalisation of real lives and historical events; evocation of nature, environment and place; foraging, herbal medicine and living off the land. From these mists of time ownership of the glen passed down into the MacDougall clan who ruled the area until the early 1300s when allying with Balliol against Robert the Bruce caught them on the losing side. Bruce gifted the glen to Angus Og, clan chief of the MacDonalds. From him it passed to Iain Fraoch founder of MacIain Abrach of Glencoe. Witch Light” is about early Catholic resistance to William III in the Highlands of Scotland, and the Glencoe Massacre. The story has a dual narrative – it’s told mainly by Corrag, a kind of child-woman falsely tagged as a witch, but guilty of having tipped off the MacDonald clan about their imminent betrayal and slaughter by Protestant forces. Imprisoned and condemned to burn, Corrag tells her life story to Charles Leslie, an undercover Catholic supporter of the Stuart cause.

This is also the starting point – and the end point – for Susan Fletcher's third novel: the massacre at Glencoe.

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You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. Fletcher gives this to us in Corrag's own words – rich with the voice of one born to tell tales at the fire. Garrulous in the way of a confident one, with someone finally willing to listen. It is beautifully told. Laden with the knowledge of the places and the people – not just of the Highlands, but those encountered en route there from near Hexham where she was born. Sparse in the harshness of the life lived. Utterly captivating. Summary: A retelling of the Glencoe massacre and so much more... a sociological study of the time, a geographical study of the area, a reflection of our current pre-occupations, but mostly just a beautifully written tale. Of those times tales are told. Many are true and, no doubt, many are not. The dissonance and distrust is known, recorded, undisputed. It continued through the centuries and into the written history of the Sassenachs with the removal of James VII & II and the arrival of William of Orange to the throne of Scotland and England. Many were the causes of the Jacobite rebellion, too many to speak of here, but the allegiances were clear. The Campbells were for Orange and Protestantism; the MacDonalds (and with them the MacIains) stayed true to the Stuarts and Catholicism.