ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SOURCES
AS ALWAYS, MANY WRITERS, scholars, and thinkers accompanied Maeve and me on this journey through the early first century. Bruce Chilton’s book Rabbi Paul was always close at hand, as was Rabbi Jesus when I was writing The Passion of Mary Magdalen. The Reverend Chilton’s insight into Paul’s brilliant, quirky and sometimes troubled character encouraged me to create a complex fictional portrait. I am particularly indebted to Bruce Chilton for his speculation on what might have happened to Paul during his first sojourn among the Galatians. A.N. Wilson’s Paul: the Mind of the Apostle also provided a wealth of information on the world of the first century church. For an understanding of the Galatians as Paul might have found them, I turned to Stephen Mitchell’s Anatolia: Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor; Volume I: The Celts and the Impact of Roman Rule.
To anyone who has studied Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of Saint Paul, it will come as no surprise that The New Testament itself was a primary source of information and inspiration. In fact, I did not have to write much dialogue for Paul. For the most part, I let him speak for himself. Some of Peter’s words and deeds come straight from Acts. Other Biblical quotations come from The Song of Songs; 1 Kings and 2 Kings; and Psalms 6 and 110. I almost always use The New Jerusalem Bible as I find it very clear and informative.
More than any of the other Maeve Chronicles, Bright Dark Madonna is full of songs and poetry—from the pirates’ defiant chant in their prison cell to Ma, in her anachronistic wisdom, singing the Magnificat and Ave, Maris Stella. Many songs, like the pirates’ ditty, I wrote myself, including all the songs and poems that begin each section as well as Ma’s other chants and laments. The hymns to Isis come from The Goddess Companion by Patricia Monaghan (see copyright page); hymns to Bride (Brigid) and to the New Moon from Carmina Gadelica by Alexander Carmichael.
Although many people have written about Mary Magdalen in the South of France, my primary source for that section of the novel was my own pilgrimage there, the impressions I received in the crypt of the church dedicated to Sainte Sara at Saintes Marie de la Mer and in the magnificent cave, La Grotte de Marie Madeleine, in the mountains of La Sainte Baume. I also visited Ephesus, Turkey, a place strongly associated with The Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalen as well as with the goddess Artemis. I hope that some of the beauty and mystery of these numinous places comes through in Bright Dark Madonna.
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