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Hild QUOTES

Hild QUOTES

1 " Always know what they want to hear - not just what everyone knew they wanted to hear but what they didn't even dare name to themselves. Show them the pattern. Give them permission to do what they wanted all along. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

2 " She knew them by their thick woven cloaks, their hanging hair and beards, and their Anglisc voices: words drumming like apples spilt over wooden boards, round, rich, stirring. Like her father’s words, and her mother’s, and her sister’s. Utterly unlike Onnen’s otter-swift British or the dark liquid gleam of Irish. Hild spoke each to each. Apples to apples, otter to otter, gleam to gleam, though only when her mother wasn’t there. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

3 " Dogs own space and cats own time. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

4 " She liked time at the edges of things -- the edge of the crowd, the edge of the pool, the edge of the wood -- where all must pass but none quite belonged. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

5 " You're like a sharp bright piece broken from a star. Too sharp, too bright, sometimes, for your own good. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

6 " No one but her uncle knew that under Fursey’s tutelage she could make her letters or that she understood Latin if it was spoken slowly—and even he seemed content to let her learn privately. Until she knew how these newcomers thought and what they wanted, she would keep it that way, keep her dice rattling in her cup. It was foolish to throw before all bets were on the table. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

7 " Hild fetched a lump of grey salt for Mildburh and mortar and pestle to crush it in. She loved the gritty crunch and thump under her hand. It sounded like a cat eating a bird. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

8 " An Anglisc oath is like water. It pours into every part of you, every crevice. You can’t hold any piece apart from it. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

9 " there was no power like a sharp and subtle mind weaving others’ hopes and fears and hungers into a dream they wanted to hear. Always know what they want to hear—not just what everyone knew they wanted to hear but what they didn’t even dare name to themselves. Show them the pattern. Give them permission to do what they wanted all along "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

10 " The fact they could check becomes the prophecy they must believe. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

11 " She walked the spiral corridor, running her hand along the painted horizon - sea, beach, dunes, woods, moors - the journey of her people from over the sea. The story of the Anglisc, woven with Woden back to the dawn of their songs. Ships. Fire. Bright swords. Kin and kine. Woods and wold. Hearth and home. Where was Christ in this? Christ didn't fight. Christ didn't farm. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

12 " Behind her smile, her thoughts whirred like a pole lathe, back and forth, shaving the layers. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

13 " She wanted to ask what he meant but in the game they played she lost points if she had to ask. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

14 " She said nothing, hoping her silence would goad him into explaining. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

15 " Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

16 " For everyone knew Fiachnae would rise again, it’s what the Irish did, and mac Báetáin was cannier than most. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

17 " A battle, shield wall to shield wall. Linden wood to linden wood. She imagined meeting a man the size of Forthere, huge with battle rage, stinking with it; dogs dripping and snarling at her legs, her arms. Sharp swords cleaving down, splintering shields, crushing skulls, slicing off faces. Men sworn to follow their lord or die. Victory or death, no middle ground. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

18 " Fursey was now eating—and drinking, always drinking—at Mulstan’s expense, not her uncle’s. The gift of kings, her mother said: to make others pay. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

19 " Beeches were rare north of the Humber, and she loved the way they whispered in the wind, like women before they fell asleep. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild

20 " Hwl’s thumping began to slow as her cream turned to butter. "

― Nicola Griffith , Hild