My novel, The Three Witches, tells the story of the sisters in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Isobel, Merraid and Ysenda were ordinary ‘cunning women,’ healers, in Alba, (Scotland) in 1050. Young women, never the ‘midnight hags’ in the play, their lives were affected by prejudice and lies.
Merraid is the eldest of the Druimeinach sisters, and the most sensible. She has a calm wisdom inherited from her mother Sidheag, and her dark looks are from her father Gamelin Druimeinach.
Ysenda is the pretty one, the foolish one whose heart rules her head. She dreams of falling in love. She desires nothing more than to marry a warrior just like her father was.
Isobel is the youngest, red haired like her mother, and a natural healer of the sick, a seer of visions. She is the strong one, the glue that holds the family together. But hidden love and cruel prejudice combine to turn the people of the village against her.
The other characters you will meet:
Mac Bethad mac Findláich. Macbeth is found in Shakespeare’s tragedy, but in truth he was a good king, wise and generous. He never murdered Duncan although they did fight in battle.
Gruoch ingen Boite, Gruoch was the queen, mother of Lulach, wife of Macbeth, although she was never called Lady Macbeth and she didn’t persuade him to kill King Duncan. A superstitious woman of royal blood, Gruoch is ambitious for her only son.
Lulach mac Gille Comgáin. Lulach is Macbeth’s stepson, Gruoch’s son by her first husband, and he becomes Mac Bethad’s heir to the throne. History tells us little of him except that he was king for a short while, he died young and that he was foolish. But he was also handsome and in need of a wife.
As a strange spirit haunts the woods and the heath in Forres, Scotland, actor Ruthie realises that Macbeth’s witches have a story that needs to be told, and the truth can no longer remain hidden…
I’m sure the true story about Mac Bethad, his wife Gruoch and her son Lulach will surprise many of you. I can’t wait for you to read The Three Witches.
The commemorative stone