I’m working on a new medieval murder mystery and am 30,000 words in. All my novels have a totem - an object that I see in a museum, which plays a significant part in my plot.
A key artefact in the novel I’m writing now is a portable altar. My characters are travelling in the Pyrenees and the Iberian kingdoms of Aragon and Leon-Castile at the end of the 11th century. An abbot is part of their party and he is carrying an altar so that the group of travellers can celebrate Mass on the road. The one pictured below is in the British Museum, dates to around 1200 and is from Germany. The central stone is a red shelly limestone. The relics of forty saints (must be very small body parts!) are held in the cavity beneath the stone. The stone is placed within an engraved copper-gilt surround, which is attached to a wooden core with silver pins. The two carvings at top and bottom are made from walrus ivory and the two reliefs to left and right are painted vellum beneath convex crystal covers.
How portable is it, I wonder? How much might such a thing weigh? I am thinking about the mule lugging it along mountain paths, and the servant unpacking and packing it, carrying it in and out, or perhaps sleeping with the luggage in the stable, at each stopping place.
The pilgrim path to Santiago de Compostela, superstition and prejudice are central themes in the story.
See my earlier post on other artefacts I have used for previous novels:
Inciting Writing
‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ a reader asked me during a recent conversation on books. I published a new novel last month, Love’s Knife, a medieval murder mystery set in Toulouse and Book 1 in the Trobairitz Sleuth series. This month, I’m starting Book 2 in the series, which has the working title of
Loved this Tracey and it made me think of the totems and influences in my writing. For my novel Time Enough, a story of a Manx family in the 1900's, I have my grandfather's baptismal certificate, a doll I bought resembling one in the Douglas Museum, and the image of a woman from a fashion plate in the early 1900's. Inspired me constantly throughout the ten years of writing the book!