Thorne and Miranda: A Tale of Roman Brittania

A Handfasting

Miranda awoke on her wedding day alone in a strange bed. It took a few minutes to remember where she was. She was in Thorne's home, her new home, wearing his old slave tunic as a nightgown. Mara poked her head through the wall-curtains. "Oh good, you're awake. Tavie is washing our dresses and the men went hunting, Miranda. Hurry up so we can bathe!"

"Are you sure no one will see us?" Miranda asked when Mara stripped herself down in order to wash from a pail of water.

"Not if we hurry," promised Mara. "Thorne promised to be no earlier than noon." She helped Miranda out of her tunic and offered her a rag. "We can do each other's hair next," Mara offered. "And later, Tavie will bring in flowers to put in your hair." Swiftly, the two women washed themselves and then their hair.

By noon, they were dressed back in the tunics they'd slept in while their respective dresses dried by the fire. While they waited for their dresses to dry, Miranda and Mara took turns with the quern, grinding grain which Tavie baked into bannock for the wedding-feast. Still more grain was added to a large kettle of stew by Tavie. By the time Tavie pronounced the clothing dry, they'd managed to finish the food preparations.

Tavie had found some tiny flowers still persisting in the woods though most of them had already died back from the frost. These, Mara pinned into Miranda's hair with her hair charms, using only one small braid to crown Miranda's head while the remainder of her hair hung loose as befitting a bride. Once Tavie was satisfied with Miranda's appearance, she led the girl outside into the waning, afternoon sunlight, outside of the village to a grassy knoll.

A large crowd of people were gathered there, where it seemed that every broom in the village had been used to make a giant circle. In the center of the broom-circle, Thorne stood with another man. Tavie led Miranda by hand to the circle but she didn't enter it. Instead, she smiled at the men and handed Miranda off to her son.

Thorne was wearing a different suit of clothes than the ones Miranda had mended for him, though similar in style. A small sheath-knife, called a dirk, was strapped to one leg and a broadsword, a claymore,  hung from his waist. Green leaves had been entwined to form a crown for his head, in contrast to the tiny flowers adorning Miranda's.

Thorne smiled at his bride. "My Beloved Lady, come and meet my soul friend, my Anam Cara. This is Kaelan MacEnroe. Kaelan, this is my bride; Miranda Laurenis, late of Britannia." Miranda nodded to the man politely, not sure what to say. He was an older man, dressed similarly to Thorne with similar weapons on his person.

Kaelan spoke up. "Sure and 'tis no wonder, Ewyn, why you would have chosen to take this Roman woman to wife over one of yer own people. I've yet to see a more beautiful bride." He glanced at an older woman in the crowd who wore a dress made of the same fabric as he wore. "Aside from me own Brigid, of course," Kaelan added, making the crowd snicker.

Miranda blushed looked down at her feet and wondered how long it would take before people saw her as Thorne's wife and not a Roman intruder. Miranda's parents had been born in Rome and moved to Britannia as children. She'd always been proud of her father's Roman citizenship but here, Rome was the enemy, the interloper seeking to make slaves of a fiercely proud, free people.

Kaelan began speaking again so Miranda forced herself to pay attention. "We three in the center of this circle represent many things: The Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the ties of family, village and clan; the separation of these two people from their parents to become a family of their own. Thorne MacEwyn, what do you bring to this union?"

Kaelan MacEnroe looked at Thorne expectantly. Thorne smiled at Miranda. "I bring my home and barns, eight head of cattle, three horses and the position of leadership among the clan."