This week, we finally managed to install our new (not new ) item of furniture - a mid-18th Century grandfather clock. It's not bright and shiny like more modern ones, but a dark oak with a warm patina which the beeswax polish is drawing out. In order to set it up, we had to do a certain amount of research - how to hang the pendulum, where the weight went on the endless chain - and it got me thinking... where and when did certain divisions of time come from? The time periods which I have written either had household clocks or didn't, I have not written novels from the time of their invention. Clocks have been around for a long time, and the obsession with measuring time in an ordered fashion dates back to at least the ancient Sumerians. It was they who established a circular reading of time and, I imagine, the sixty seconds/minutes came about as much because it was an easy way to divide a circle as anything else. But it wasn't until much later that the precision of seconds ...
There is an unwritten rule in archaeology that, if there is an exciting find which you have no idea what it is, you speculate that it had a ritual purpose. As a non-archaeologist I don't know how true this is, but both my siblings who are archaeologist have told me this is the case. I think this is always at the back of my mind when I look through my research as a historian.
So, when I was flicking through unsolved mysterious deaths and came across the circumstances surrounding the Bocksten Man, I had in my head the idea that the unsolved details were due to ritualistic behaviour. And, to be honest, he did meet a rather unusually brutal death.
Allow me to introduce him...
The Bocksten Man was unearthed in 1936, still with the oak stave which had been used to impale him into the bottom of the lake. He was fully clothed, supposedly wearing wool from head to toe which denoted a certain amount of wealth. Unlike most of the bog bodies from the area, the Bocksten Man had not been killed that long ago, only in the 14th Century.
All in, the facts point to an impromptu execution, with a substantial argument that the Bocksten Man was involved in witchcraft or some form of criminal activity. But if he had been innocent, what would have led to him ending his life pinned face-down in the boggy lake? Why was he hidden with such great care that he should never resurface? It was time someone wrote the possibility of him as the victim (which he certainly was, one way or another). The Ignoble Defence was the result of my take on this possible scenario.
It is a story of a fear-induced crime and a knee-jerk punishment.
If you'd like to know more about the Bocksten Man, check out Hallands Kulturhistoriska Museum's page about him here.
The Ignoble Defence is included in the Historical Writers Forum's anthology To Wear a Heart So White...
A cost for every action, and a price for every deed.
The Historical Writers’ Forum proudly presents seven stories of Crime and Punishment, from across the ages. From an anchoress to a war hero; from Italy to Missouri; this anthology has a story for everyone.
Included stories are:
The Ignoble Defence - Virginia Crow
Agatha’s Eyes - Rachel Aanstad
A Pact Fulfilled - Eleanor Swift-Hook
Carte de Viste - Ronan Beckman
A Dish Served Cold - Brenda W. Clough
Shadows of the Adriatic - Tessa Floreano
A Dangerous Road - D. Apple
To Wear a Heart So White is available here on #KindleUnlimited
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