Poul and Karen Anderson, The Dog And The Wolf, Chapter VIII, section 3, p. 158.
"'I should go now and let you sleep,' Gratillonius said in his powerlessness." (ibid.)
He feels powerless. He is not a doctor, nurse or midwife - although he did deliver his eldest daughter. However, merely to be present is to be powerfully supportive.
Nemeta refers to her pregnancy, from rape, as a leech.
"'Hush,' he said, appalled. He must not let her speak hatred for this thing. Not among Christians. It was innocent. He must make himself accept his grandchild when it came." (ibid.)
Grallon knows that the unborn child is innocent and, on this issue, the prevailing morality supports him - but it might not have. If Nemeta were willingly both unmarried and pregnant and if the prevailing morality condemned her, then he would have to oppose it.
In fact, Nemeta does do something that goes against the new beliefs because her Ysan magic becomes the basis of medieval witchcraft.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Any child conceived by any rape is always innocent of that crime. It would have been interesting to know what might have happened to that child if Nemeta had not murdered him.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I forgot to add to my previous note that I'm dissatisfied with the cover illustration for the paperback version of THE DOG AND THE WOLF. It gives the impression that Gratillonius was slain by Niall (with a distressed looking Dahut the Siren in the background). It would have been more accurate to show a Niall killed by an arrow fired by a fellow "Scot."
Sean
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