Historical Setting: The Great Skellig, 924 C.E.
Nearly Matins, and Brother Lugh is still wide awake, and just talking on and on.
I said Goodnight. He knows by my tone. He answers.
“Of course. Goodnight, Brother Lazarus.”
He’s talking more quietly now, so I suppose he isn’t expecting me to respond.
He whispers, “Now, in Christian times and ways the God who is God is the only god we acknowledge. All the traditional gods, like Lugh and Brigid are like storybook characters now. But of course. Brigid is also a Christian Saint. Have you ever heard of Saint Brigid?”
He wants to talk about Brigid.
“Goodnight, Brother Lugh.”
“To Christians, the Pagan gods aren’t really sacred. How we Christians would like to forget our old ways. Did you ever notice that the abbot just calls me Brother Luke, but hardly speaks the “uke” part aloud, so when he says “Brother Luke?” it could sound like “Brother Loo — like Lugh” so I never bother to correct him. My father said they named me Lugh, because my mother was Pagan, and she kept those old stories as though they were gods. My father said she would tell me the Pagan stories when I was very young. I wish I remembered everything of her, but here I am, keeping her old stories in my name.
“My father said, when they were preparing for another baby, they argued. She didn’t want children with Christian names because she feared the Church would own them. My father thought it would be good to have the church baptize the new baby. But I guess it didn’t matter anyway, because of the sorrow of it.
“The baby was early, so I hadn’t been sent to stay with my Pagan Grandmother, but I never saw that baby, and when my grandmother came she said my mother had died and there was no baby. I never got to say good-bye to her. My grandmother said they gave my dead brother a Christian name and that was the whole cause of the Pagan curse.
“Are you still awake, Laz?”
“Uh.”
“Good, because I wanted to tell you the most wonderful thing I learned about these ancient gods. You see, Lugh had a magical spear. But maybe the magical spear is really a quill for inks, for writing, but before Christians, writing was never done on parchment with a quill. The Druids were against keeping things in writing, so everything learned was by memory. But maybe the Pagan god Lugh was really literate after all.”
Surely, I would disagree, were I awake.
(Continues Tuesday, November 17)
