Nyx in the House of Night

both ancient and modern, has its basis in the powerful obligation we feel to protect and serve that begins as a boy and then develops into the soul of a man. A woman is worldly stability and procreation of the race. She is recognized in spirit. Her intellect is given equal merit and standing in our society, as can be seen in the genealogy of the Scots in particular. They’re known as a small but ferocious race of men but in actuality serve a matriarchal belief system. Simply put, your father may be in question, but you would always know your mother.
    THE HANGING TREE
    The romantic subject of Scottish Clansmen respecting their women is a lovely lead-in to my very favorite research tidbit from the Isle of Skye: the hanging tree.
    On this cold, rainy day, Seoras and I were driving around Skye on our own, and we discovered an amazing grove, which I completely re-created for Nyx’s Otherworld and used as a temporary haven for Zoey, Heath, and Stark in Burned . But what drew our attention to the grove was the tree that stood like a beacon before it. Once again, in the House of Night world, fiction closely mirrors real life. When I describe the hanging tree in the House of Night I am describing this very tree on the Isle of Skye.
    Seoras stopped his vehicle and pointed at the tree, which was a hawthorn and a rowan wrapped together. He said, “Aye, that would make a fine hangin’ tree.”
    Okay, as an American I gave him a horrified look. A hanging tree? In front of a serene, mystical grove? How awful! He was quick to see that we’d had a cultural communication error, so he went on to explain:
Hanging trees are trees of special significance to Scottish Clan folks. A hanging tree is usually of hawthorn, elm, or oak but can be any long-lived tree where Clan folks of the auld religions would hang a piece of material or object, and sometimes even food for the sibh (fairy folk), and simply make a wish, with sincerity, in the hope that wish may come true, also knowing that the wish in its least effect is blessing someone with good health or fortune. A wish is never wasted. Generally it would be for the wellbeing of family or others. Sometimes folk would hang bandages to foster the help of the little people to remedy an injury or illness. Some would hang baby clothes, hoping for pregnancy.
The most famous hanging trees in Scotland are at the Black Isle across from Culloden Moor near Inverness. These are reckoned to be hundreds of years old. Many are near springs or running water to invoke the water spirits. Some are near burial grounds where the energies and juices of the burials were taken into the tree for nourishment. Hence the habit of touching wood for luck: if you touch a tree near where a friend or ancestor is buried, you touch the part of that person that is still there in spirit.
Another use for the hanging tree was to symbolize the union of “marriage” between two people. They both would take a strip of cloth and then tie a knot, binding the two of them together, safe in the knowledge that only they can untie the knot. The only known Clan to practice this ancient tradition today is the Clan Wallace. For the past twenty years we have inaugurated trees from Shehallion in the center of Scotland to those on the by-ways of all four corners of the land. So, in Scotland, you will always be close to a wishing or hanging tree, if you look for them.
    And I promise you, House of Night fans, if you go to the Isle of Skye and follow a one-lane road where, on your left, a grove stretches down a sloping ridge like the back of a sleeping dragon, you will see at its head a tree, hawthorn and rowan joined, that is decorated by strips of cream and gold cloth from an American author tied with the earthen-tone plaid of a Scottish Clan Chieftain, binding the two of us together. If you find it, friends, please stop and add your own wishes, dreams, and fondest desires to the tree. It will welcome you, just as I welcome you to the rich and varied history that has become the Cruithne tied lovingly with the House of Night.
    Merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again . . .
    [ 1 ] The Gaelic I use is mainly from the Dalriadic and Gallovidian languages from the west coast of Scotland and the northeast coast of Ireland. This dialect is commonly referred to as Gal-Gaelic or GalGael.
    [ 2 ] Alan Torrance isn’t only a Clan member and a historian, he is also an exceptionally talented artist. It is his work that illustrates this book!

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