While you are reading this (if you read it on March 16th,) Rachel Griffin is fighting a river.
It starts out as a night flight across Dartmoor to show Sigfried the countryside, but then Rachel hears the Cry of the Dart, the noise the River Dart makes before she kills.
Every Spring Equinox, a sacrifice of a straw mannequin is made to the nymph of the river by Rachel’s father, the duke. From that point forward, she is not allowed to kill anyone if it can be avoided. But before that, anyone—including a little boy—is fair game!
Rachel and Siggy dive down to face the river to rescue the child.
This scene is based on the real legends of the real River Dart, from which Dartmoor gets its name (the moor of the Dart River. Dartmouth is, of course, the mouth of the Dart.)
The Dart is a wild and occasionally dangerous river. It is believed that no year goes by without her claiming a life. (In Rachel’s world, this is sometimes true and sometimes a trick played by the Wise to keep the river from actually killing people. )
The wall of water that occasionally accompanies the spring melts is a real phenomenon. As is the Cry of the Dart, a strange noise the river occasionally makes of which no one has been able to discover the cause.
The line Rachel quotes is a traditional rhyme from the local area.
“’Dart, Dart, cruel Dart,
every year thou claim'st a heart,’”
A poem by Mortimer Collins written in the late 1800s that Rachel also quotes takes it a step further:
“For the Cry of the Dart is the voice of doom.”
Is there any historical basis for the ceremony the Wise perform to placate the river?
Thanks for sharing them background! I just read this section.