Chapter Text
1 - THE TITLE, FIC DESCRIPTION & THE GENEVA BIBLE TRANSLATION
When I initially started the process of posting Go Down to the Netherworld, Plant Grapes to Ao3, I told myself the story was niche enough I needed to really lure people in with a fairly standard, enticing fic description.
I, because of who I am as a person, proceeded to not do that.
The style of the description is very much modeled after the long, rambling secondary “titles” common on books and pamphlets during the Early Modern period (including the 17 th century), which would often take up whole pages. If you’re not familiar with them, they tended to look something like this:
(The text here is Reginald’s Scott’s "The Discoverie of Witchcraft," which was first published in the 16th century and thus predates the fic by a number of decades, but which still demonstrates the sort of thing I’m talking about – as they were in style for a while – and which I also riffed off a bit for the end of the description)
To go with the 17 th century-inspiration, I also made an effort to adhere to some Early Modern spelling rules – although note that I use “rules” pretty loosely, considering English spelling wasn’t properly standardized until the 18 th century, long after the Wittebanes were born (….I can’t say “lived” because, well. Philip). You see this with Shakespeare – nowadays, there’s a standard spelling of his name, and other ones are generally considered “incorrect,” as evidenced by the red lines my word processing program is throwing up as I type this all out. But documents from when he was alive (unless he’s also hanging out in the Demon Realm right now and having a way better time of it, which would be a conspiracy to rival the Oxfordians…) list his name variably as “Shaksper,” “Shakespere,” and “Shakspeare,” among others.
That said, there are still ways of spelling words that were common back then that modern English has since evolved away from – things like “shalle” instead of “shall,” “y” where you might expect “i” (and conversely “ie” where you might expect “y”). I didn’t 100% adhere to the conventions of the era in part to aid parsability to Ao3 readers who haven’t read a lot of Early Modern English, but I tried to use it where it felt right, to give the description that era-appropriate feel.
This is also where the funky letter “ſ” used in the description hails from – it’s called “long s” and was standard back in the day, even though English spelling doesn’t use it anymore. Think of it as an archaic form of the letter s that was used in places where our standard short s was (ironically) considered incorrect spelling at the time.
The fic title itself is not actually a Biblical quotation and so my logic behind choosing it doesn’t entirely belong here, but as I alluded to in the author’s note, it is from a Mountain Goats song entitled “1 Samuel 15:23,” which is a part of a larger passage in which the prophet Samuel tells King Saul that God has rejected him as King for failing to follow his instructions and rebelling against him.
(The same King Saul officially gets got the night after consulting a witch – the Witch of Endor, the only actual witch to properly appear in the Bible, although there are other mentions of witchcraft – which I thought added to the allusion being fitting.)
I dug into this a bit in the author’s note of the actual fic, but to touch on it again/further – another reason I liked the reference to 1 Samuel 15:23 is because while a lot of modern translations have the verse beginning with "For rebellion is like the sin of divination...." (or something similar) the translation historically favored by the Puritans (the Geneva Bible) has it as:
"For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and transgression is wickedness and idolatry. Because thou hast cast away the word of the Lord, therefore he hath cast away thee from being king."
I’ve seen a lot of people make the assumption that the Wittebane brothers would’ve been most familiar with the King James Version of the Bible, which is… pretty fair, given it was first published in 1611 and is at least correct in being a contemporary pick. The language between it and the Geneva Bible is also relatively similar in many parts. Compare the above to the same verse in the KJV:
"For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king"
The reason the Geneva Bible is more accurate to use for a fic for two characters from colonial New England comes down to theology, though, not chronology. Without doing a total deep-dive into a bunch of dense theological concepts, Puritanism had its basis in particular branch of Protestant thought known as Calvinism (named for John Calvin), or Reformed Protestantism. This differed from most other members of the Church of England, who followed a set of beliefs we now call Anglicanism. Most Puritans who emigrated to the United States were Church of England members who thought the Church wasn’t reformed enough and retained too much of a connection to Catholicism (although others, like the Pilgrims, were explicitly Separatist groups who wanted to pull away from the Church of England entirely). I’ve decided for the purposes of this fic that the Wittebane family, who I’ve placed as coming to America in the 1630s as a part of the Great Migration and not the earlier Pilgrim one, were probably among these non-separating Puritans.
(A note – the term “Puritan” was, even at the time, a pejorative used by those with non-Puritan beliefs to mock them for being extremists, sort of similar to how it gets used even today, or akin to calling someone a stickler. The Puritans themselves would not have called themselves Puritans.)
The Geneva Bible translation was a product of English Protestant religious scholars fleeing to Geneva, Switzerland during the reign of Queen Mary I (who was Catholic, and tried to reverse the effects of the Protestant Reformation in England). A number of them worked together to create the translation, which included a number of annotations along with the text – annotations that were distinctly Calvinist in nature (which tracks, considering Calvin was a religious leader in Geneva at the time). Their full translation was first published in 1560.
The King James Bible, on the other hand gets its name from King James I of England, who had problems both with certain translation choices (like “king” sometimes being translated as “tyrant”) and the theology of some of the annotations in the Geneva Bible. James was a Protestant, but still thought the Geneva translation undermined the authority of the Church of England (and the monarchy). As a result, he called for a new translation. Interestingly enough, there were actually Puritans involved in the creation of the KJV, but instructions were still given to limit their influence on it, and the annotations were for the most part cut.
(Another reason for this might be in part that “Puritanism” was, essentially, a bunch of different types of Protestant extremism in a trench coat and not a single, unified ideology or denomination, and some were more or less connected to the Church of England than others).
The KJV was published in 1611 and it wasn’t long after that new printings of the Geneva Bible were banned, in order to try to establish the KJV’s dominance. The Wittebane family being familiar with the King James Version wouldn’t be totally out of the question given this time frame, but considering many Puritans thought the KJV was heretical – and many of the Bibles we know were brought to the early American colonies, like the one belonging to John Winthrop, one of the governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, were Geneva Bibles – their congregation would probably have read from the Geneva Bible, and if they owned one of their own it would likely have been an older version printed before the ban or one of the later, illegally printed ones.
Some Further Reading:
An Oxford English Dictionary article on Early Modern spelling: https://public.oed.com/blog/early-modern-english-pronunciation-and-spelling/
The pdf of the Geneva Bible I have been referencing (which, relevantly, is somewhat modernized in its spelling from the “original,” but otherwise the same as the historical one): https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/GenevaBible.pdf
Betteridge, Maurice S. “The Bitter Notes: The Geneva Bible and Its Annotations.” Sixteenth Century Journal, vol. 14, no. 1, 1983, p. 41., https://doi.org/10.2307/2540166.
Danner, Dan G. “The Contribution of the Geneva Bible of 1560 to the English Protestant Tradition.” Sixteenth Century Journal, vol. 12, no. 3, 1981, p. 5., https://doi.org/10.2307/2539783.
2 - THE FIC TIMELINE & THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND
Oh boy. I mostly explained my logic for not going with the timeline suggested in Thanks to Them in my author’s notes in the fic itself (which I still feel like is best brushed away as a historical error on Masha’s part to save any headaches…), but for a quick refresher:
There weren’t any English colonies in New England until 1620, and the bulk of Puritan settlers to the area didn’t arrive until the 1630s, during the period often referred to as the Great Migration. When thinking about the dates for this particular story, I wanted to make much of the end of it line up with the actual Connecticut Witch Trials, which kicked off in 1647 – which given some things I was hoping to do with the brothers’ ages, meant that making the Wittebane family Great Migration colonists worked out well. I actually spent a bit of time poring over ship manifests from the era while pinning down an exact date and discovered several that sailed from Bristol (the port I thought it made the most sense for the family to have left from, given the relative proximity to Wales compared to some of the others) to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635.
For the curious and/or less math-inclined – the brothers’ ages in this chapter also mean they have birth years of 1627 and 1635 respectively (if that seems slightly off with them being 13 and 6 in this particular chapter, keep in mind that it is February and neither of them have had their birthdays yet). Their poor deceased middle sister would have been born in 1634 (more on her later).
The timeline is also in part why I have the Wittebanes having lived in Massachusetts first, instead of Connecticut. Obviously the brothers will make it there eventually, but at the time the family emigrated, the Connecticut Colony was not yet established. (It was officially founded in 1636.) The Massachusetts Bay Colony, on the other hand – which included parts of the modern-day state (though others were a part of the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony) but also parts of what is now Maine/New Hampshire/etc – was a common destination for Puritans coming to the New World in the mid-1630s.
Further Reading:
Exhaustive listing of Great Migration ship manifests: https://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/shiplist.htm
3 – PURITAN CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE
Further chapters are going to dip even more heavily into how children were viewed in Puritan society – and particularly, the situation of orphan children like the Wittebanes – but as this chapter touches on the beginnings of that, I figured it made sense to include some of my research on the topic here.
I put a lot of thought into the exact ages of the brothers in this fic, but one bit of logic behind my final decision is that at 6 and 13 (at the start of the story), both of them are hovering on the boundary of important transitional life stages in their society – which both motives some of their decision-making and introduces another element of crisis.
At age 6, Philip would have been beginning to be treated more as an individual with responsibilities and expectations placed on him. Childhood absolutely still existed in Puritan culture, but it was a period of intense molding and moral instruction. A 6-8 year-old might have begun to learn their father’s trade or been expected to help with housework (divisions that generally fell on very gendered lines). The exact age at which this point hit tended to vary from child to child, but seeing as I’m writing Philip as fairly precocious (since it seems in keeping with the Belos we all know and rotate around in our minds), my intent is to establish that he had hit that particular milestone before the deaths of most of the Wittebane family.
(This is also the reason there’s a reference to him being “barely out of children’s gowns” – Puritan children, like children in many cultures in the 17th century, were dressed identically in dresses/gowns until they reached the age at which society began to see them more as individuals, and they began to be dressed along more gendered lines. Implying that this is a recent development in the Wittebane household suggests Philip is probably still adjusting to being treated as a child by those around him instead of more of an infant/toddler. It’s also one reason Constance* is repeatedly hung up about the “propriety” of treating her brother more like a baby again despite the trauma of their predicament – sharing a bed with him and letting him cry when upset instead of scolding him for it are habits an older sibling would have been in the middle of breaking.)
*I would like it to be noted that for the purposes of this project, I will be following my own preferred convention for talking about historical trans individuals, which is to refer to them by the name/pronouns they were using at the time of the events discussed. I know this runs contrary to the etiquette for modern trans people (of which, for the record, I am one), but that’s because we can more meaningfully conceptualize what those names and pronouns mean to someone who is able to explain their wishes in the context of modern identity labels. Trans and gender non-conforming people have always existed, but not necessarily in ways that make sense to modern observers, or that slot neatly into the boxes we use to talk about identity today. Without being able to talk to the people in question – and just as significantly, to explain to them what certain labels means in a modern context – it’s difficult to know how someone “would” have identified, even if we can relatively confidently label them as gender non-conforming in ways that align with the modern trans experience. Thus, we only have the way they asked to be referred to during each stage of their life as reference when interpreting and respecting their wishes. For the purposes of this fic, I am obviously writing Caleb – a fictional character, whose identity is up to headcanon, not actual academic speculation – as someone whose experience aligns very much with modern trans men. But as a nod to the fact that not all cases are so clear-cut and that interpreting the lives of gender non-conforming people throughout history, particularly as far back as the 1600s, is a murky and imperfect endeavor, even when the ability to look back into the past and see people whose relationship with gender is relatable simply by way of being complicated is a comforting and often emotional experience, I have chosen to handle writing about him the same way I would talk about the life of an actual gender non-conforming individual from the 1600s.
At 13 (and in particular, nearing 14), Constance would have been at a similar transition point – less due to changing duties (young men might be starting apprenticeships or even beginning college at the same age, but as someone assumed to be a young woman, her own position would have changed less), and more due to an imminent shift in her legal status. In the Massachussetts Bay Colony, 14 was considered the “age of discretion,” aka the point at which individuals could be prosecuted for certain crimes, like slander and sodomy. That’s not to say that at 13 she would have been considered an adult. While modern teenagerhood is a somewhat distinct social phenomenon, Puritan youths who were no longer considered children still had very different lived experiences than proper adults. But given her reputation as a rebellious and difficult child disliked by a number of people in the community, the approaching milestone would likely have been a somewhat stressful one to consider even before the deaths of her parents.
Further Reading:
Beales, Ross W. “In Search of the Historical Child: Miniature Adulthood and Youth in Colonial New England.” American Quarterly, vol 27, no. 4, 1975, p. 379., https://doi.org/10.2307/2712328.
Stannard, David E. “Death and the Puritan Child.” American Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 5, 1974, p. 456., https://doi.org/10.2307/2711885.
4 - DEATH & DISEASE IN COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND
If you’ve read my author’s note, you know the ailment I had in mind writing the sickness that struck the Wittebane family (and much of the rest of the town they lived in) was pneumonia. Realistically, for so many people in town to have died of it, there was probably some other contagious respiratory illness going around, like the flu, but pneumonia was a more common complication of that kind of disease back in the 1600s (especially for a community suffering from malnutrition as well), and fit what I had in mind when writing. “Winter fever” is just an older term for pneumonia that seemed to me more likely to have been used by laymen at the time.
It goes without saying that sickness was a massive killer in the 1600s, although I think sometimes it can be hard for those of us lucky enough to live with modern medicine around to grasp just how much so. The high deaths rates of children, in particular, are a trauma that was pervasive during so much of history that I find hard to wrap my mind around today – particularly as an oldest sibling, like Caleb, who would very possibly have had to see a younger sibling die as a child had I lived 400 years ago. (I love both my younger sisters very much, so imagining this is really upsetting!) This was one of the reasons I decided to give the Wittebanes a middle sister who died along with their parents, the other being that it would have been extremely unusual for a Puritan family to have only two children. Even three would have been uncommon – I’ve been trawling my own family tree, which includes some Puritan colonists who came to America during the 1600s, to help with naming the large number of OCs required for this story, and it seems like four children is the more common minimum – but is at least a shade less of an anomaly. Of course, any family could have run into other complications. The large age gap between the eldest and the younger two Wittebane children does seem like it might suggest their small family size was far from intentional (an idea I may dip into more as the fic goes on).
A last interesting thing to note, before I close this off (and get back to work on the second chapter of the fic itself!). While I imagine it was the sort of grey area in which human nature and grief not uncommonly overrode strict doctrinal adherence, Constance promising her brother that they would see their family again someday (and internally willing Verity a “good resurrection” in Welsh) is a mildly heretical sentiment by Puritan standards. The Puritans obviously believed in Heaven/Paradise as written about in the Bible, but one piece of Calvinist theology that was important to their particular practicing of Christianity was the idea of “double predestination” – essentially, that God chooses who is destined to be saved and who is destined to be damned, and that people didn’t necessarily know which fate was chosen for them. Piety and adherence to the Bible weren’t considered, like, irrelevant, but since God’s thinking was not something humans were supposed to presume to understand, confidently asserting knowledge of one’s fate (or someone else’s) was, uh, somewhat in contradiction to that.
But hey, she’s an optimist, even if it means a little impudence in the face of God. I’m sure that won’t cause any problems for her at all.
Further Reading:
A LibGuide (library research guide) on disease in colonial New England by the Connecticut State Library (LOTS of sources here): https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/archives/uncoveringnewhaven/blog/Disease-in-Colonial-New-England
Tully, NY Area Historical Society guide on Disease & Death in Early America: https://tullyhistoricalsociety.org/tahs/medical.php