Although she was forced into
slavery as a child, Madoca never felt like a slave. At the annual
Gathering of her people, inside a circle of ancient standing stones,
she is chosen to become the next dragon seer and overnight, her
life changes. Now, she must train to become a leader of her
people, and one who will care for the dragons and master their ancient
magic.
Dragon Seer is a fantasy set in
8th century Orkney. Orkney is a group of over 70 islands, large
and small, off the northern coast of Scotland. When we visited there in
2005, I was looking for dragons. What I found was a landscape that fired my imagination.
To find out more about the places in my book and how they match up to the real map of present day Orkney, go to my Places in Dragon Seer
page. This page links to a number of related pages in my website and to
many external links, including some 360 degree panorama of actual
settings used in my story.
The people who lived in Orkney at the
time Dragon Seer
is set are now known as the Picts. To find out more, go to my Pictish Nation page.
The Picts drew elaborate and unique symbols on their symbol stones, art work and jewelry which
hint at a rich culture, now completely lost. One of the most
mysterious is called the "Pictish beast" or sometimes
even the "swimming elephant." I asked my friend Jennifer Morgan to
draw this
symbol for me. Here's her excellent representation. I based the border
on this page on her artwork.
Most of the Pictish symbols
represent real animals. What if the Pictish beast was a creature
they actually lived with, one that was important to the culture? This was the starting point for Dragon Seer. If you'd like to have fun with this image, here's a page of Pictish Beast Designs to print out or copy.
Return to Janet McNaughton's home page.
Unless otherwise noted, the photos on these pages were taken by me
during a trip to Orkney in 2005 with generous support from the
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Newfoundland and
Labrador Arts Council.
