Venetia Green and The Flagellants

This week's guest has brought with her a little sting in the tail (pun intended!).  Last time I spoke to Venetia Green we discussed Vikings (Click HERE to see that post). For her latest book, MY LADY OF THE WHIP, Venetia has moved a few centuries forward in time to 1348 and the time of the Black Death - a period in history ripe with superstition and fear and one or two really interesting little facts.

In more modern times when I think of flagellants, I think of the "mad monk" of  Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, but of course the origin is much, much older. 

THE FLAGELLANTS

Not everybody has heard of the Flagellants. A uni tutorial I once attended is a case in point. During our analysis of some medieval historical text or other, I stuck up my hand and piped up nice and loud: “What about the Flagellants?”

There was a stunned silence. Twenty faces peered at me in disbelief. “Did you say flatulence?” someone asked.

I was a giggling wreck for the next ten minutes.

Apparently the Brotherhood of the Flagellants – the phenomenon which inspired My Lady of the Whip – requires explanation.

Flagellum is the Latin word for whip. Thus to ‘flagellate’ oneself is to whip oneself – which is precisely what the medieval Flagellants were notorious for.

Whipping one’s own (preferably bare) back began as a form of private penance in the Catholic Church. It was the sort of thing a rather devout monk might do in the privacy of his own cell. The Brotherhood’s innovation was to take the whipping out of the monasteries and onto the streets, turning self-flagellation into a public spectacle of bloody atonement for sin. 

Although originating in Italy c.1260, Flagellant processions peaked in popularity in Germany, 1348-50. This was the period in which the Black Death, absent from Europe for a millennium, returned with a vengeance. God was expressing His Wrath through the gruesome death of an estimated third of the population. The logical response was to punish oneself before God saw fit to do so.

 Chanting, all-male processions would appear in town and city centres, each man naked from the waist up:

Each had in his right hand a scourge with three tails. Each tail had a knot and through the middle of it there were sometimes sharp nails fixed. They marched in single file … and whipped themselves with these scourges on their naked and bleeding bodies.

(Robert of Avesbury)

Unfortunately, the processions had no noticeable effect on the Plague – beyond assisting it to spread.

MY LADY OF THE WHIP

Be careful when you pick up a whip. Your fingers curl about that seductive handle, your wrist flexes its subtle weight and then… Yes, you wonder what would happen if you plied those innocent leather strips against another’s flesh.

1348. The Black Death is sweeping medieval London, social order is collapsing, and the virtuous Lady Elizabeth seizes a whip to defend her honor. But when death seems inevitable, Bess throws caution to the plague-ridden vapors …

… to save the man she can never have – William de Montagu, the handsome, persuasive and soon-to-be-married Earl of Salisbury.

A little bit about VENETIA GREEN

Venetia was spirited from misty England to the wild west of Australia as a child and is still unsure which world she belongs in. Perhaps that is why she escaped into the past...

When she grew up, Venetia spent 10 years studying literature and history before the need to write her own overwhelmed her – at which point she abandoned her PhD and dived headlong into historical fiction. Now she writes dark and sensuous romances set amongst the fjords of Viking Age Scandinavia and back-alleys of medieval London.

Connect with Venetia through her website: Click HERE

BUY MY LADY OF THE WHIP

Taking Tea with - Venetia Green (and 'Name that Viking!")

My guest this week is Venetia Green, who may be a "new to you" author. Venetia caught my eye with her first book, A HAWK ENSLAVED, set in the Viking era. I know nothing about Vikings (except what I have learned from Horrible Histories). I now know they never had horns on their helmets and were quite disposed to have the occasional bath.  I am currently reading THE HAWK ENSLAVED and just love being transported into such a foreign (to me) world. It makes a fabulous change from the more conventional "historical romances"!

Ms. Green, if you would care to set your battle axe and shield on that table, I will pour tea or would you prefer coffee?

Tea? Pah! Vikings don’t drink tea! Gimme a good strong draught of ale.

...Please.

Always a pleasure to welcome another “cross genre” writer to my tea table. I would describe your writing as historicals with romance and your period of passion is the Vikings.  “Vikings” hit the TV screens recently, what is your professional opinion of the portrayal of Viking life in the show?

Hmmm. Firstly, I resent the fact that the (Australian) lead role of “Vikings” has stolen the name of my own novel’s hero! (i.e. ‘Ragnar’)  So the series and I did not get off to a good start, but I opened my heart and was willing to fall in love.

It didn’t happen.  I simply found it too ludicrous that said Vikings were not aware of the British Isles just across the North Sea. We are not talking about the New World here, although if you believed the series you’d think it just as momentous an undertaking. All they had to do was sail along the coast of Denmark, Belgium and France and scud across the English Channel.  Come on – the Vikings weren’t stupid. They knew full well England lurked over the western horizon.

I could whinge on, believe me, but I’ll stuff a sock in it now and set my Tardis forward a few centuries …

You also write stories set in Medieval London? Where did the passion for these two disparate periods of history come from?

14^th century England is SO much easier to research than 10^th century Norway. Those pesky Vikings didn’t write anything down until centuries afterwards (unless you count the odd runic inscription) and archaeological digs only provide artifacts, not stories!

When you get to High Medieval England, however, there are reams of written stuff.  One of the wonderful things about historical fiction is real characters, places and events all jostle into your story from the primary sources and make the experience so much richer. You can dive into the historical sources and find stories just begging to be told.

London itself offers a rare glimpse of urban medievaldom. Most people hung out in the country in those days, so a slink down some slimy back alley is a welcome respite from glacier-capped fjords or rolling green hills!

You come from an academic background and famously abandoned your PhD to concentrate on writing fiction? What was your thesis and why did you feel the call to write fiction was stronger?

I did my history honours project on environmental change in medieval Iceland and simply adored it. But I was never able to hit upon a topic quite so enthralling for my PhD. I tried to get cross-disciplinary with an English-History thesis on popular culture interpretations of Vikings but just couldn’t make myself do it. You see, there was no end-goal to make the slog worthwhile. I didn’t want an academic job – I just wanted to write historical novels!

Why? Because a good novel is so much more vivid and visceral an experience than a history text. There is nothing like historical fiction to breathe life into the past.

Your first book A HAWK ENSLAVED, set in the Viking era, has had some glowing reviews. What’s next for Venetia Green?

I’m contracted for a novella set in medieval London at the time of the Black Death, and I’ve written a naughty Viking romp of a novel entitled The Good Viking. I had loads of fun playing with the stereotypes in that one. I even put horns on my hero.

But right now I’m absorbed in rewriting Chaucer. No hubris there, eh? More precisely, I’m reimagining the wicked Wife of Bath, she of 5 husbands and a fine bele chose.  My novel takes her all the way to Jerusalem in the company of some very dodgy characters.

 A HawkEnslaved

Venetia Green

 

A beautiful hawk-tamer enslaved by Vikings.

Ragnar Ulfsson must find his king a concubine. His solution is Isolde, captured whilst climbing the sea-cliffs for falcons. Enslaved in his own way, Ragnar has few qualms about binding another to his lord for the greater good. After all, it is an honor to share the bed of a king.

Isolde does not view slavery so complacently. Like a hawk caged, she is frantic to escape. But the king’s hall is a bubbling stew of political intrigue and Isolde is an essential ingredient in the mix. Her only hope out is Ragnar, who captured her but also promises to free her—eventually. But there is something strange about this dark Viking, oddly withdrawn and controlled, and their growing bond will lead her into greater danger still.

For Ragnar doesn’t touch women. For good reason.

(A Blush® Historical romance from Ellora’s Cave)

Buy Links for the Book:

Amazon, Kobo, Ellora’s Cave

About Venetia

Venetia was spirited from misty England to the wild west of Australia as a child and is still unsure which world she belongs in. Perhaps that is why she escaped into the past ...

When she grew up, Venetia spent 10 years studying literature and history before the need to write her own overwhelmed her – at which point she abandoned her PhD and dived headlong into historical fiction. Now she writes dark and sensuous romances set amongst the fjords of Viking Age Scandinavia and back-alleys of medieval London.

Visit Venetia's Website

Venetia Green (left) and Sasha Cottman (right) hamming it up as vikings at the 2013 Romance Writers of Australia Conference (with historically incorrect helmets)

GIVEAWAY:  A copy of A HAWK ENSLAVED to the best names for this duo of fearsome vikings!