by Laura Powell
Once, all I ever wanted was to be Chosen. But it’s far better, in the end, to choose.
Author’s Note
Up until the sixteenth century, the story of King Brutus that Opis relates in Chapter One of this book was widely believed to be historical fact. The source for this was Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, written circa 1136. Geoffrey claimed to have uncovered the true story of the founding of Britain in an ancient manuscript given to him by Walter Mapes, Archdeacon of Oxford. It is unknown what became of the manuscript, if it ever existed.
The London Stone, sometimes called the Stone of Brutus, is a block of limestone set within an iron grille on Cannon Street, in the City of London. Although its origins are obscure, legend has it that it was brought by Brutus from Troy to be the altar in the Temple of Diana (Artemis) in his new capital. According to superstition, as long as the stone is safe the city is too.
The Cult of Artemis is inspired by Greek mythology and the practices of the Vestal Virgins in Rome. The punishment for a Vestal Virgin who broke her vows was to be buried alive in the Campus Sceleratus or ‘Evil Field’.
You can see Titian’s painting The Death of Actaeon in the National Gallery in London.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Ellen Holgate for her heroically patient and perceptive editing, Natalie Hamilton for some very clever suggestions, and Isabel Ford and Clare Balham for their eagle-eyes.
Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney
First published in Great Britain in April 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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This electronic edition published in April 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Copyright © Laura Powell 2014
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eISBN 978 1 4088 2972 1
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