Foreword and Glossary

This is the story of Pelle the Collier; how he saved Birkenhain lands and avenged his father and his liege lord. It is also the story of Ingeburg, the late Baron’s beautiful bastard daughter, who was banned from the castle as a small girl. The story takes place in the thirteenth century in the lands to the east of the River Rhine, in a small feudal domain ruled by the local baron. The names of the characters as listed below will seem strange to you, yet those were the names of men and womenfolk in German lands in that period. The events of the time, the crusades and the frightening appearance of the bubonic plague in Europe play important roles as do the tensions between Gentiles and Jews. Please mind that I dreamt up a story in a historic context, but as I am woefully aware, my knowledge of those times is far from complete. Please be kind if I err on some fact of which you, the reader, may be an expert!