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• Anthracyda
  • The hillside spirit is an outside context problem (some risk that is beyond imagination) to the Vicar Walter Sincler and schoolteacher Mathilda Potter because it threatens their biblical world view which is core to their identities. For the Vicar, it also threatens his religious and secular power position. For the rest of the villagers, Anthracyda is merely an “other”. Unlike many “others” in our own world, you can’t threaten, abuse, marginalize or subjugate Anthracyda. It is too powerful in its own territory. At the same time, since it is restricted to the hills, Anthracyda can be ignored in the villages’ daily life.
• Beckworth
  • Alice Beckworth
    • Seamstress, wife of the tailor Isaac Beckworth, mother of Sussana and Nathaniel.
  • Isaac Beckworth
    • Tailor, husband of seamstress Alice Beckworth, father of Sussana and Nathaniel.
  • Nathaniel Beckworth
    • Son of Isaac and Alice Beckworth, older brother of Sussana Beckworth.
  • Sussana Beckworth
    • Daughter of Isaac and Alice Beckworth, sister of Nathaniel Beckworth, 18 years old in 1643. Sussana was apprenticed to the village Wise Women to learn medicine, but her mentor died a year before the book starts. Sussana tends the family kitchen garden and her herb garden. She is more interested in boys than Clarice Malison or Fiona Rede, has less confidence in herself than Clarice or Fiona and a greater need to be conventional. Sussana is falsely accused of witchcraft by another young woman early in the book (they apparently like the same young man). The accusation is taken up by the village vicar but is quickly proven false by the baker Cait Rede. It is, however, the pebble that starts the series of events forcing the entire village to acknowledge that there actually is a spirit in the hills.
• Blexham
  • Gilbert Blexham
    • Innkeeper, husband of Marion Blexham, father of Jenefer. Gilbert has his sphere of authority - the inn - where he can be a commanding presence with the courage of a lion. However, outside the inn he is just pushed and pulled by the currents around him.
  • Jenefer Blexham
    • Eldest daughter of Innkeeper Gilbert and Marion Blexham and probably in her early twenties. Jenefer is usually found working in the inn.
  • Marion Blexham
    • Wife of Innkeeper Gilbert Blexham, mother of Jenefer and two other unnamed children. Marion, along with Sarah Gaynesford, in some ways like Rachel Dericote, see Anthracyda as a possible tool for their own ends. Unlike Rachel, Marion and Sarah’s ends are not personal wealth but a reduction in domestic violence in the village and helping to ensure compatible (and hopefully happy) marriages. Also unlike Rachel, they don’t treat Anthracyda as a lesser or as a servant.
• Carniss
  • Catherine Carniss
    • Innkeeper in 1990s.
• Cary
  • Jonathan Cary
    • Vicar visiting the Andras Hill from Manchester in 1996.
• Cullane
  • Alastair Cullane
    • Cooper. Age 27 in 1642. Alastair courts Fiona Rede (age 15 in 1642), daughter of the baker Brice Rede and his wife Cait Rede in May 1642. He thinks he is the most handsome man in the village, considers Fiona as the most beautiful girl in the village and therefore they should get married. Fiona thinks Alastair is an idiot, twice her age and is not interested. I would note that considering that the village has a population around 120, everything is relative. He leaves village shortly thereafter.
  • Cicilia Cullane
    • wife of Husbandman Donnan Cullane, mother of Alastair Cullane.
  • Donnan Cullane
    • Husband of Cicilia, father of Alastair Cullane, Husbandman.
• Dericote
  • Andrew Dericote
    • Yeoman, husband of Rachel Dericote, father of Henry Dericote. The largest landowning farmers, the Dericotes are solely focused on wealth. From that respect, Anthracyda doesn’t represent a threat and is, therefore, almost irrelevant. The only reason they care at all is that people talking about it might bring visibility to the village, endangering their hoped for tithe and rent evasion scheme.
  • Henry Dericote
    • Eldest son of Yeoman Andrew and Rachel Dericote, 17 or 18 in 1643.
  • Rachel Dericote
    • Wife of Yeoman Andrew Dericote, mother of Henry Dericote. For Rachel, Anthracyda is a useful tool to aid in the tax evasion scheme. Her treatment of Anthracyda as a servant leads to the little attempts by both of them to use the crows in their little contest of wills in setting boundaries.
• Forgell
  • Laetitia Forgell
    • Teenager accusing Sussana Beckworth of witchcraft while arguing over a boy. She leaves the village in August 1643.
• Gaynesford
  • Geoffrey Gaynesford
    • Yeoman, husband of Sarah Gaynesford. The second largest landowning farmer, Geoffrey starts in the Dericote camp, but then expands his horizon to include learning from Anthracyda about potential new crop rotation methods. Geoffrey is still focused on wealth, but open minded enough to learn from something else.
  • Sarah Gaynesford
    • Wife of Yeoman Geoffrey Gaynesford.
• Lyfelde
  • Duncane Lyfelde
    • Shepherd, fiance of Hannah Malison.
• Malison
  • Clarice Malison
    • Sister of Hannah Malison, youngest daughter of the fisherman Dauy and his wife Elspet Malison. She is 14 years old in 1643. Clarice is a homebody, but with enough backbone to agree with Fiona on not wanting pretty boy, empty head and snickering at the idea that a wife must be beautiful, silent and obedient. She argues with Mathilda about whether animals have souls and she was the one to suggest to Sussana that she step up and take on the responsibility of being the village healer. She is also, like Fiona, somewhat playful. Possibly of more future importance, Clarice was the teenager identifying that Anthracyda wanted them to raise the village to be kinder.
  • Dauy Malison
    • Fisherman, husband of Elspet Malison, father to Oswyn, Hannah and Clarice. Dauy and Elspet had “met” Anthracyda, the hillside spirit, when they were younger and more adventurous, but they are very cautious and never told their children until after each child had met Anthracyda on their own. They are one of only two sets of parents who met Anthracyda before the book begins, the other set of parents being Brice and Cait Rede (see below). That meeting did impact how Dauy and Elspet brought up Clarice, Hannah and their brother Oswyn. In Hannah’s words “I didn’t think till later to wonder why the stories we read at home from the Bible never seemed to be the stories we heard in the Vicar’s sermons. Or why, unlike some of our neighbours, our parents never beat us. We dutifully went to church on Sundays, but apparently whatever fire and brimstone the Vicar shouted went in one ear and out the other of both of my parents. Were they listening or just going through the motions?”
  • Elspet Malison
    • Mother to Hannah, Clarice and Oswyn, husband to Dauy, maiden name Mar. Open minded, utterly practical and quite happy to support Clarice in her religious argument with Mathilda. She clearly loves Dauy and worries about him when he is at sea in storms. Elspet is slightly playful as can be seen in her use of the pail to distinguish between made things and living things. Elspet would have been like Alexander the Great and just cut the Gordian knot. See the entry for Dauy regarding their knowledge of Anthracyda and approach to child rearing.
  • Hannah Malison
    • Fiance of Duncane Lyfelde in 1642, daughter of Dauy and Elspet Malison, handfasts sometime in late 1642 - early 1643. 23 years old in 1641.
  • Oswyn Malison
    • Younger brother of Hannah Malison, Son of Dauy and Elspet Malison.
• Potter
  • Mathilda Potter
    • Village petty school mistress, a curate’s daughter not originally from the village. She is 26 years old in 1643. School teacher and daughter of a curate, Mathilda is the only other character whose religious world view is sufficiently core to her being that Anthracyda’s simple existence is a problem. Unlike the Vicar, the challenge is not to her external authority (she has none), but to her sense of self as defined by her literal view of the book of Genesis in the Bible. She can bend far enough to accept that Anthracyda is more than an animal, but that leads her to want to save Anthracyda’s soul, if indeed it has a soul. Anthracyda’s different religious beliefs, and Mathilda’s arguments with Clarice Rede on animal souls and Sussana Beckworth on the actions of God threaten the foundations of Mathilda’s internal world even as she tries to be a good person.
• Rawson
  • Luke Rawson
    • Husband of Sybil Rawson, father of Thomas Rawson, Blacksmith and fiddle player. Luke Rawson, the blacksmith, initially has the inclination to attack because of a fear that Anthracyda is Fae and a threat to the village. Luke is easily distracted by Anthracyda’s little show of strength combined with the offer to learn better ways of making iron.
  • Thomas Rawson
    • Son of Luke and Sybil Rawson; blacksmith apprentice to his father.
  • Sybil Rawson
    • Wife of Luke Rawson, the Blacksmith, mother of Thomas Rawson.
• Rede
  • Brice Rede
    • Baker, husband of Cait Rede, father of Fiona Rede. Brice Rede, his wife Cait (nee Valcar), Lucy Valcar (nee Ruderfurd), Lucy’s brother Philip Ruderfurd and Cait’s brother Hume Valcar, have met Anthracyda together in their adventurous youth, before the book starts, but have not shared that fact with anyone.
  • Cait Rede (nee Valcar)
    • Baker, wife of Brice Rede, mother of Fiona Rede, sister of the hunter Hume Valcar. Brice Rede, his wife Cait (nee Valcar), Lucy Valcar (nee Ruderfurd), Lucy’s brother Philip Ruderfurd and Cait’s brother Hume Valcar, have met Anthracyda together in their adventurous youth, before the book starts, but have not shared that fact with anyone. As an adult, Cait is cautious about discussing Anthracyda (understandable given this is a period of witch hunts in England), but are more willing to publicly stand up in defence of the falsely accused (Sussana Beckworth specifically). Cait has two concerns right now. (1) The adult women’s thinking on approvals of marriage partners and (2) Anthracyda’s doctrine of kindness v. dealing with the problems of hierarchy in the real world.
  • Fiona Rede
    • Daughter of Brice and Cait Rede, age 16 in 1643. Courted by Alastair Cullane (age 27) in 1642. Fiona is an only child and generally works in the bakery during the time of the book. She was brought up in a safe family environment and allowed to develop a strong personality. Having a strong personality as a woman, given the context of the times, is not necessarily safe and she hasn’t learned that yet. She is enjoying watching the conflicts between the aspects of her culture that are rigid and the obvious reality that is Anthracyda. Fiona does not know that her parents had wandered the hills as teenagers and had met the hill spirit Anthracyda.
• Ruderfurd
  • Philip Ruderfurd
    • Hunter, brother of Lucy Valcar. Brice Rede, his wife Cait (nee Valcar), Lucy Valcar (nee Ruderfurd), Lucy’s brother Philip Ruderfurd and Cait’s brother Hume Valcar, have met Anthracyda together in their adventurous youth, before the book starts, but have not shared that fact with anyone.
  • See also Lucy Valcar
• Sencler
  • Walter Sencler
    • Vicar during 1640 - 1643. Anthracyda is a threat to his authority, both religious and effectively secular power and must be destroyed. That singular focus arguably results in costing his own life. No one uses his actual name, Walter Sencler, just his title.

• Valcar

  • Hume Valcar
    • Husband of Lucy Valcar, brother of Cait Rede, hunter. Brice Rede, his wife Cait (nee Valcar), Lucy Valcar (nee Ruderfurd), Lucy’s brother Philip Ruderfurd and Cait’s brother Hume Valcar, have met Anthracyda together in their adventurous youth, before the book starts, but have not shared that fact with anyone.
  • Lucy Valcar (nee Ruderfurd)
    • Wife of Hume Valcar, part time hunter and butcher for game. Sister of Philip Ruderfurd. Brice Rede, his wife Cait (nee Valcar), Lucy Valcar (nee Ruderfurd), Lucy’s brother Philip Ruderfurd and Cait’s brother Hume Valcar, have met Anthracyda together in their adventurous youth, before the book starts, but have not shared that fact with anyone.
  • See also Cait Rede
  • Vicar (See Walter Sencler)

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