If you're interested in this story, but don't have the anthology, The Green Book was published online: The Green Book
The story itself is straightforward—Dominic copies what he sees in The Green Book and begs for help with his mad tutor, Leuwin. But, there are questions: Where did The Green Book come from? How did Cynthia end up stuck in the book? There are definitely small clues that point to sinister events.
The first passage gives important context for the rest of the story:
"MS. Orre.1013A Miscellany of materials copied from within Master Leuwin Orrerel’s (d. Lady Year 673, Bright Be the Edges) library by Dominic Merrowin (d. Lady Year 673, Bright Be the Edges). Contains Acts I and II of Aster’s The Golden Boy’s Last Ship, Act III scene I of The Rose Petal, and the entirety of The Blasted Oak. Incomplete copy of item titled only THE GREEN BOOK, authorship multiple and uncertain. Notable for extensive personal note by Merrowin, intended as correspondence with unknown recipient, detailing evidence of personal connection between Orrerel and the Sisterhood of Knives."
The story is told from the perspective of Dominic, who is an apprentice to Leuwin. Dominic is referencing things from Leuwin's personal library. I think the above paragraph is giving a catalogue number to a notebook where Dominic copied sections of two plays, one story, and THE GREEN BOOK. The "d." denotes documents, and they're given a year of 673, so we're observing this sometime after 673.
Dominic conveys urgency in his first paragraph, saying he is "...copying this out while I can", so Leuwin would not be happy about his reading of The Green Book.
Then he recounts Leuwin's behaviour:
His mind is disturbed. Twelve years of teaching me, and he never once denied me the reading of any book, but this—this thing has hold of him, I am certain plays with him. I thought it was his journal, at first; he used to write in it so often, closet himself with it for hours, and it seemed to bring him joy. Now I feel there is something fell and chanty about it, and beg your opinion of the whole, that we may work together to Leuwin’s salvation.
So The Green Book is the only book in the entire library that has ever been denied him, and he calls it a "thing", there's something "fell and chanty" about it. Also, the Sisterhood of Knives are somehow implicated in this in a nefarious way, because Leuwin seems to run more errands for them the more insane he becomes.
Very important to analyzing the story are the six different sets of handwriting:
One - An invocation; archaic. "I place it during Journey Year 200-250, Long Did it Wind...green paste...Sometimes the green of them is obscured by rust-brown stains I supposed to be blood, given the circumstances that produced the second hand."
Two - Modern, fluent, practiced. Written in heavy charcoal. Context is grim.
Three - "Child's uncertain wobbling, where the letters are large and uneven; it is written with fine ink with a heavy implement. I find myself wondering if it were a knife."
Four - "...agony of right-slanted whorls and loops, a gallows-cursive that nooses my throat with the thought of who must have written it."
Five - "The fifth hand is similar to the second...there is no question that it was produced by the same individual, who claims to be named Cynthia. It is written in ink, rather than charcoal...There is no trace of nib or quill in the letters. It is as if they welled up from within the page."
Six - Leuwin's.
The book is extremely old. I have no idea when the year system changed, but the first paragraph mentions “Lady’s Year 673” and the first hand Dominic states is “Journey’s Year 200-250”. So, at least 420 years old, or perhaps double that if there were an event that changed the year system.
The invocation sets up everything for The Green Book. I’m going to steal from The Poetry Foundation, the definition of an invocation:
An address to a deity or muse that often takes the form of a request for help in composing the poem at hand. Invocations can occur at the beginning of the poem or start of a new canto; they are considered conventions of the epic form and are a type of apostrophe. See the opening of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Alexander Pope mocked the convention in the first canto of “The Rape of the Lock.” A contemporary example is Denise Levertov’s poem “Invocation.”
The invocation from The Green Book:
[First Hand: invocation]
Hail!
To the Mistress of Crossroads, [blood stain to far right]
The Fetch in the Forest
The Witch of the Glen
The Hue and Cry of mortal men
Winsome and lissom and Fey!
Hail to the [blood stain obscuring] Mother of Changelings
of doubled paths and trebled means
of troubled dreams and salt and ash
Hail!
Mistress of Crossroads - perhaps a reference to Hecate/Hekate with the associations of witchcraft, guiding souls, guarding doors to other worlds. I see it as invoking a space in between worlds for a supernatural thing to happen.
Fetch in the Forest - “Fetch”, in this case, meaning a spectral double of a living human, from Irish folklore. Sighting one is an omen of impending death.
Witch of the Glen - Perhaps a reference to Corrag, the Witch of Glencoe. Glencoe Museum tells the story of her supposed ability for foretelling.
The Hue and Cry of mortal men - Hue and Cry=the community is the police and we’re calling all the police to follow the person who did a crime. Statue of Winchester of 1285
Winsome and lissom and Fey - Calling our witches and Mistresses graceful, I suppose. Or wishing the entire enterprise of the invocation beauty and grace.
Hail to the _______ Mother of Changelings - Changelings being fae creatures that are swapped with human babies. Which mother are they hailing? Perhaps those that make up the book are the Mother of Changelings.
Doubled paths and trebled means - The mother’s path diverges, and trebled is to triple, so is there something to the first three people to handle the book? Perhaps the first three people will shape what the book becomes.
Troubled dreams of salt and ash - not sure about this, salt and ash are generally protective, or representative of the cleansing power of fire, in the case of ash. Perhaps this causes the people writing in the book to go mad?
The next parts help explain how Cynthia ends up being trapped in the book:
[Second Hand: charcoal smudging, two pages; dampened and stained]
Cold in here—death and shadows—funny there should be a book! the universe provides for last will and testament! [illegible]
[illegible] I cannot write, mustn’t [illegible] they’re coming I hear them they’ll hear scratching [illegible] knives to tickle my throat oh please
They say they’re kind. I think that’s what we tell ourselves to be less afraid because how could anyone know? Do [blood stain] the dead speak?
Do the tongues blackening around their necks sing?
why do I write? save me, please, save me, stone and ivy and bone I want to live I want to breathe they have no right [illegible]
[Third Hand: Chaotic, uneven. Implement uncertain—possibly a knife, ink-tipped]
What a beautiful book this is. I wonder where she found it. I could write poems in it. This paper is so thick, so creamy, it puts me in mind of the bones in the ivy. Her bones were lovely! I cannot wait to see how they will sprout in it—I kept her zygomatic bone, but her lacrimal bits will make such pretty patterns in the leaves!
Cynthia’s last words convey her wish to be saved, and mentions stone, ivy, and bone. She also mentions them using knives to slit her throat, and the third writing implement is a knife.
The third hand mentions the paper, “puts me in the mind of bones in the ivy. Her bones were lovely!”
Unlucky! Cynthia’s bones and what was around her at the time of her death bound her to the pages. Likely she was in a stone prison, and the ink in the first hand is mentioned to be “green paste”, so I’m thinking ivy might have been used in its making, and she also bound herself to the book in that sense.
It’s not a coincidence that Cynthia was murdered by a knife, the third hand was written with a knife, there’s a Sisterhood of Knives, and the third hand mentions her wanting to show the book or the paper to her sisters.
The fourth hand is described as, “...agony of right-slanted whorls and loops, a gallows-cursive that nooses my throat with the thought of who must have written it”. The writer of the fourth hand mentions studying the book, and also, using Leuwin to study the book. The “gallows-cursive” remark was very deliberate, to indicate that this sister is calculating and ruthless.
Then there’s the lengthy exchanges between Leuwin and Cynthia, but I can’t help but feel that because other people put something of themselves into the pages, that it’s not just Cynthia that is seeping out in the writing. There is the long ago person who wrote the invocation, there’s the Sister that committed murder, there’s the Sister who wanted to use Leuwin to study the book.
Cynthia ropes Leuwin into make him love her, and drives him mad. As she speaks to Dominic in the final pages, some sinister undertones seep out.
...Slowly, you become aware of how they see you, and without looking, quite, you know that they are playing the game too, that they imagine you seeing them as beautiful, and it is a splendid game, truly.
Cynthia describing her interaction with Leuwin as a game reeks of manipulation.
Then when she speaks to Dominic towards the end:
I feel this troubles you. I do not feel particularly beautiful when you read me, Dominic. But I know it is happening.
Will you truly not answer? Only write me down into your own little book? Oh, Dominic. And you think you will run away? Find him help? You’re sweet enough to rot teeth.
Cynthia speaks with a finality or inevitability, and insulting him with the “rot teeth” remark makes me believe she means him harm. Which means, the Sisterhood means him harm, as Cynthia is also partly made from them.
No doubt he will be terribly angry. No doubt the Sisters will find out you know something more of them than they would permit, as I did.
It’s been a while since I’ve felt sorry for someone who wasn’t Leuwin, but I do feel sorry for you.
Good night.
Cynthia was murdered because she knew something of the Sisterhood and they killed her. So, unfortunately, Dominic is about to get deleted. Good bye, sir!
And that’s a wrap. What a cool story! I liked every story a great deal, but I think this one was my favourite, since it was very creative. If you read to the end of this, I hope it helped or something!
It's the prologue?
