Richard writes...

Dear Michelle,
Thank you for answering my question about analysis. To me, Freud's idea of the unconscious is like a spoiled brat who causes trouble, whereas for Jung it's the source of wisdom. The forest in COAD is like that, the source of life -- but you can't control it. No need to reply, I just couldn't help wanting to share this. I've always loved the forest in these stories and this realisation helped me see why.
With best wishes,
Richard

Michelle Replies...

I know you said I didn't need to reply, Richard, but I wanted to, because I love what you say about the Forest in COAD! I also agree in general with your distinction between the way Freud and Jung saw the unconscious.  And to me, Freud's insistence on delving into an individual's past has always seemed to place a bit too much emphasis on it, whereas what I'm drawn to in Jung's writing is his view that we are all continually developing, right through our lives: something with which Fin-Kedinn would probably agree. Thanks for your messages, and for your insight into the Forest.  With best wishes, Michelle

Lucan writes...

Having just read your latest article I feel compelled to lambast your publisher, we want ghost stories the whole year round! The summer is when the ghosts don't just skulk in the shadows but they ride forth. I have just spent the night of the summer solstice in meditation on top of the Longman of Wilmington and the barrow that sits atop it. The ghosts are very active when the earth is heated by the sun and a cool wind turns a skin's caress into goosebumps. Your Dark Matter is one of my favourite books and the environment plays a big factor in it's sense of isolation, but I think a wildness can be summoned in a summer haunting.
I look forward to your next book immensely!

Michelle Replies...

Dear Lucan, I absolutely loved your message! What a fantastic idea to spend the summer solstice like that.  I do applaud your imagination in doing so - not to mention  your courage - and I'm envious of the experience.  And I totally agree about summer hauntings - as you will see, if you read the ghost story I've written for this October's anthology, The Witching Hour...  (And, now I come to think of it, my forthcoming full-length novel, Rainforest.)  Anyway, thanks again.  It's so encouraging to know that there are people like you who really love ghost stories!  With very best wishes, Michelle

Tim writes...

Dear Michelle,

We have met before (and I've asked you questions before), and this time I would like to ask you yet another very specific question about a scene in COAD. At the start of Spirit Walker, when the sickness is spreading through the Forest and the first members of the Raven Clan fall ill, Saeunn and Renn perform a ritual over Oslak's body to try to get rid of the disease (he's been dead for quite some years now so I feel I'm allowed to say Oslak's name out loud...). I've read the books in Dutch, so I'm not exactly sure how the spell goes in English, but it's something like this:
'Come, disease. Out of the marrow, into the bone. Out of the bone, into the flesh. Out of the flesh, into the skin. Out of the skin, into the arrow. Out of the arrow, into the fire.' After which Saeunn does indeed throw the arrow into the fire.

I have just read a book on the history of the Dutch language, which contains a chapter with - among other things - charms written around the 9th century that were later used by Jacob Grimm to formulate his theory on sound changes in the Germanic languages around that time. The charms are supposed to be remedies against worms, and one of them goes:
'Out, worm, with nine little worms, out of the marrow, into the bone...' and then it goes on exactly like the spell you put in Spirit Walker, right up until the end with the arrow. I'm assuming that can't be a coincidence.

I realise this was a very long time ago, but I wanted to ask if you remember how you came to this. Was it something on which you accidentally stumbled across and decided would fit into the story, or were you actively looking for ancient spells and such in books more often? Are there any other such charms that you took from old sources?

Best wishes,
Tim

Michelle Replies...

Hello again, Tim!  You're absolutely right, that spell is based on a real source (though I'd not heard of the Jacob Grimm connection till now).  It's an Old High German charm called Contra Vermes, probably dating to about the early 1oth century, but with pre-Christian roots that may go back to the Rig Veda, the ancient Sanskrit text.  I came across it years before I began Wolf Brother in a translation of an Icelandic grimoire or collection of spells (The Galdrabok, transl. Stephen Flowers, pub'd Samuel Weisner Inc, 1989) - but when researching Torak's world, I re-read my collection of such books and found it.  Have I used others like it? Definitely.  In creating Torak's world I drew on the folklore of many cultures such as the Ainu, Native Americans, Indigenous Australians, Inuit, and of course Norse and Germanic.  Mostly I can't recall the sources, but I do recall that Seshru's summoning charm in Outcast -"When reed quakes, etc, remember me.." derives from a Malaysian charm that I think I found in The Golden Bough.  (Incidentally, when Ian McKellen read that for the audiobook, it put him in mind of what the ghost says in Hamlet!)  Thanks for asking such a great question, which had me leafing through my old continuity notes... With very best wishes, Michelle

Rebecca writes...

Hi Michelle.
Would you consider writing any prequels or spinoffs in Torak's world?
Will there be any film or TV apaptations of the original 6 book series in the future? - I hope so!
What changes would you make? And what same ideas would you insist of using?
Do you have any actors in mind already that you'd like for the character's parts?
Thanks again.

Michelle Replies...

Dear Rebecca, thanks for all this!  At present there are no plans to adapt the Wolf Brother books, but if that changes, readers visiting my website will be the first to know. Concerning spinoffs or prequels, I've never felt the urge to write them.  I think that's because I'm so close to Torak, Renn and Wolf (not to mention Dark) that I just couldn't imagine that world without them.  You also asked whether - if there were an adaptation in the future - I'd want any changes made.  That prompted a hollow laugh, because it wouldn't be up to me.  Any studio which did a film or tv deal would want the right to change anything it liked about the stories, and I'd just have to put up with it.  I think I'd be happy, provided they kept to the spirit of the stories, and didn't try to make Torak into a cartoonish super-hero, and Wolf into a sort of Stone Age Lassie.  As for actors: personally, I'd prefer unknown actors to play most of the characters; and Wolf would of course have to be CGI'd.  That's because you can't train real wolves to do anything, not even fetch a stick.  They simply don't see the point.  Thanks for asking such interesting questions - and may the guardian run with you!  With best wishes, Michelle