Susa Morgan Black

The Blacksmith Susa Morgan Black

The Blacksmith is the story of love between the village blacksmith and the local midwife in a Medieval Highland Scottish village. The characters are craftspeople-smiths, carpenters, dyers, spinners, weavers, millers, brewers-who go about their daily work as their fathers and mothers did for centuries before them. They live a peaceful life full of the rituals of their ancient traditions. They are our ancestors. Change is inevitable, and comes to them in the form of a powerful and fanatical Monk who bears the fiery brand of the Inquisition, vowing to stamp out all remains of the ancient religions and folk practices of the land. Morvena, a young apothecary, and her grandmother, the village midwife, refuse to abandon the villagers and continue to practice their healing arts, defying the Monk's accusation of witchcraft. But Father Julian, his monks, and the local soldiers press on with the Holy Inquisition, the villagers are overwhelmed and Morvena and her grandmother are condemned. Dubhlainn, the village blacksmith, a powerful, intense young man, must take on the mantel of hero to save the villagers and the woman he loves. He must delve deep into the mystery of the ancient traditions of his family, to a time when blacksmiths were Druids, to unlock the riddle that will save the village. And to do that, he must become an outlaw, in open defiance of Church and State. Love and tradition unite the villagers together as they follow Dubhlainn's lead and confront the harbingers of corruption and destruction in the guise of a new and alien religion.