森林的女儿 (1999)

Daughter of the Forest is an historical fantasy novel by Juliet Marillier first published in 1999. It is loosely based on the legend of the Children of Lir and "The Six Swans" (a story that has many versions, including one by the Brothers Grimm). A girl (Sorcha) must sew six shirts from a painful nettle plant in order to save her brothers from a witch's enchantment, remaining completely mute until the task is finished. Falling in love complicates her mission.

Plot summary

Sorcha, the youngest child of Irish Lord Colum of Sevenwaters, loses her mother at childbirth, and is raised almost entirely by her six older brothers. She is more or less ignored by her father. When her father's new wife, the Lady Oonagh, attacks Sorcha and her brothers, Sorcha alone is able to escape. Sorcha's brothers, however, are turned into swans.

What follows is a twist on the classic tale of "The Six Swans". Sorcha learns that if she can spin six shirts from the painful starwort, remaining absolutely silent until the last one is completed, she can free her brothers from Oonagh's spell. Sorcha agrees to this and spends several years in the forest, hiding from Oonagh as she works on the shirts.

At first she survives in the Forest, relying on the help of the Fair Folk and her only companion—her brother Cormack's dog, Linn. Her brothers are able to visit her twice a year as humans as she labors on her task to make shirts out of starwort, a needle-like plant whose touch is poison and disfigures the hands.

One day, she is raped by two brutal men, who are led to her by the village idiot, who thought her a faery. They also kill Linn, and her brothers find her hurt and bleeding. Padriac heals her while three of her other brothers, (including formerly peaceful Finbar), go out and kill her rapists with the help of the Fair Folk.

After years of solitary struggle, Sorcha is saved from drowning by a British lord, Hugh of Harrowfield (a.k.a. "Red"). When Red returns to Britain, Sorcha unwillingly accompanies him. Red correctly believes that Sorcha has information concerning his brother, Simon, whom Sorcha had nursed back to health after Simon's capture by Lord Colum. Sorcha remains with Red as she continues to work on the shirts.

Though under Red's protection, Sorcha encounters a new danger in the form of Lord Richard, Red's uncle and the one behind the attacks on Sevenwaters. Sorcha must fend off the gross advances of Richard even as she continues silently working to save her brothers. Though she earns true friends in John, Ben, and John's wife Margery, the majority of Red's household believe her to be a witch, and they play cruel tricks on her.

As the days go by, Red and Sorcha gradually fall in love, though they are separated by his need to find Simon and her fear of men after her rape—as well as her belief that he only loves her because the Fair Folk bound him to her as her protector. While his marriage to Elaine, who is Lord Richard's daughter, draws nearer (engaged since they were children) and while Elaine is kind to Sorcha, Lord Richard constantly threatens her.

Red takes Sorcha to a hidden shore, where only he and Simon ever went, and proposes, telling her that he has ended his betrothal to Elaine. She is fearful that he will try to claim his rights as a husband, but he assures her that, if she wants, the marriage will be only in name and will protect her. He gives her a ring and then leaves to search for Simon and find out the truth about Lord Richard's involvement in his brother's capture.

One summer, in Harrowfield while Red is gone, Sorcha is caught with Conor, one of her brothers, and is accused of adultery. Lord Richard turns everyone against Sorcha and decides to burn her at stake. On the day the shirts are finished, all six of her brothers come flying to her. Red returns home, outraged when he sees Sorcha tied at the stake. Unable to speak, Sorcha quickly throws the finished shirts on her brothers, but because she did not have time to finish one of the sleeves Finbar is cursed with one wing.

Her brothers are extremely protective of her, and declare her marriage invalid. They refuse to allow her to be alone with him until Sorcha insists on it, and she is the one to tell Red good-bye, believing he will forget her once she is gone and still under the delusion that he only loves her because of the Fair Folk's intervention.

He lets her go, and Sorcha and her brothers return to Sevenwaters, only to find it a mess. Some peasants recognize them and inform them that their father is not well, and they hasten to the palace, where Donal, Lord Colum's former general, informs them that their step-mother has recently disappeared.

The family slowly rebuilds Sevenwaters, and Sorcha finds out from the Lady of the Forest that Red was under no spell, but truly loved her. This causes her much pain until one day, he shows up and declares that he has abdicated his rule and wants to stay with her, and Sorcha kisses him so passionately that she makes Liam, her eldest brother, blush.

Almost all of the mysteries are solved, except for their half brother (the son of Lord Colum and Lady Oonagh). Two of the brothers set out to find him, while Conor travels away with the Druids. The seven children of Sevenwaters thus separate to lead their individual lives. Liam stays with Sorcha in Sevenwaters, and Finbar disappears in the waters, leaving only a feather behind.

Characters

Sorcha

Sister to Liam, Diarmid, twins Cormack and Conor, Finbar and Padriac and daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. Sorcha has black hair and wide green eyes and bears a strong resemblance to their mother, who died birthing her. She is a healer, and skilled in herb lore. She can also play the harp and flute very well, and though she can hem and sew shirts well enough, she has no skill for embroidery or even fine needlework. She is sometimes said to be the "thread that weaves her brothers together".