The Genesis of The Witch's Brat

[hedgebird]

In a reprint edition of Rosemary Sutcliff's medieval novel The Witch's Brat there's a little piece explaining how the book came to be written:

"Rosemary Sutcliff says she first met Rahere, King Henry I's jester, in Rudyard Kipling's Rewards and Fairies. 'I was about six years old at the time, and have loved him dearly ever since.' She always knew that she would write about him herself one day, and this feeling increased after a visit to his tomb in the church of St Bartholomew the Great in London's Smithfield, close beside the hospital he founded. For years the project remained unfulfilled, until the Church of England Children's Society asked her to write a serial for their magazine. Wondering what she would write about, 'I suddenly realized the time had come to tell the story of the King's Jester who turned to God and founded the great hospital of St Bartholomew. Lovel, the boy who follows at Rahere's heels, came into my head, and of course the book is really his story; but it is Rahere's story too.'

"The Witch's Brat was originally written as a serial, and later re-written to make a novel, since 'it had peaks at the end of each instalment and was all the wrong shape for a book.' It was first published as a book in 1970."

It would be interesting to read this magazine serial version and see the differences from the book. Letter 51 of the Toronto Public Library's Rosemary Sutcliff fonds mentions the serial story on 24 April 1968. But I haven't been able to find out much about this Children's Society magazine (it may have been called Gateway ?)

Any fans of The Witch's Brat about?

Comments

[anna_wing]

I read it, but have almost no memory of it, though I liked the poem, too. How does one pronounce 'Rahere'? From the alternate spellings, the 'h' does not seem to have been emphasised, though the way the poem scans seems to indicate otherwise. I'd love to know.

[hedgebird]

Good question – I tried a few YouTube results for "rahere" and most pronounce it "ra here" but there was one "ray here".

[anna_wing]

The origin of the name is obscure too, though the UK Dictionary of National Biography claims that it is "probably of Frankish origin" and an individual of that Rahere was mentioned in court records in Brittany. Ancestry.com., in relation to the name 'Rayer', suggests that it comes from "the Norman personal name Raher probably from an ancient Germanic name composed of rād ‘counsel’ + hari ‘army’." The name 'Rayner' has that meaning, so perhaps it was an obscure variant of 'Rayner'.

It's very rare, he appears to be the only one historically known.

[hedgebird]

Huh, interesting. It's a cool name at any rate – stick it on the baby name sites and maybe some modern parent will revive it.

[bunn]

I think I remember seeing a connection between Sutcliff's Rahere and Kipling's - I think there might be shades of Rahere in her Bedwyr in Sword at Sunset too? Something about the lopsided smile.

[hedgebird]

I think Rahere's next closest cousin in Sutcliff is Herluin the minstrel in Knight's Fee, but I can see Bedwyr in that same type of character, yeah.