The Swan-Bone Flute : Rachel M O'Leary : 9781916073838 : 1916073832 : 14 Aug 2023 : 'You can choose tales that keep your nose in the dirt - or look around for talk that lifts you. Then it's up to you...' In 598 CE/AD, Anglo-Saxon invaders have colonised the edge of the fens in uneasy peace with their neighbours, the Britons. The settlers enslaved some of these Celtic people. When Ursel jumps down from an oak to save a mother deer from the hunt, her uncle beats her but cannot silence her. Hilda the storyteller strides into their settlement, her pack full of myths of the peaceful queens and shamans of Peony Valley. She fills her listeners with dreams of honey and blood - and longing for justice. Slave-girl Meg yearns to be a storyteller like Hilda - but dare she? What do headmen do to women who stand tall? Her mother, Seren the Healer, longs to use her spells - but has to sweep and gut fish for her owner. Oswynne, headman's wife, is torn between loyalty to him and the