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GEORGE
MACKAY BROWN
Hawkfall
and other stories
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was dead. The spirit of The Beloved One had gone on alone into the
hall of death. His body was left to them for seven days yet so
that they might give it a fitting farewell ... The priest washed
his old frail bluish body with water that had been drawn at
sunrise. They arrayed him in his ceremonial vestments: the
dyed woollen kirtle, the great gray cloak of wolfskin, the sealskin
slippers. Across his breast they laid his whalebone bow, and seven
arrows of larch. In his right hand they put the long oaken
spear. The old mouth began to smile in its scant silken beard,
perhaps because everything was being done well and according to the
first writings. Now it was time. All was ready. © GMB 1974 |
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| Reviews 'Incantatory but down-to-earth, profound and often funny.'' Sunday Telegraph 'GMB's sharply etched fables , dealing with death, legend, love and violence, create an Orcadian World spanning myth and reality - a world set firmly between the sea and sky - a collection of islands which are life-sustaining and soul-refreshing.' Robert Nye The Guardian |
