They should have known with a middle name like Morta, that nothing good would come from her. Or at l

They should have known with a middle name like Morta, that nothing good would come from her. Or at least, they ought not to have crossed her, ought not to have sold her off to Magnus Rowle for galleons to fill their coffers and pay of her brothers’ gambling debts. Not to a foulmouthed ruffian. Not even for a claim to the Orkneys. But Lavinia Morta Nott rose far above them all, far above the schemes of her father, Isambardus Nott. It begins with an innocent question that plays upon her father’s ambition. All the other families have great works of arts to their name - why have we none? And so she begins to name them. She whispers them in a feverish prayer wherever she goes. Arthur, Teutates, Haephestus, Bouddica, Hecate, Thor, Hengist, Robert the Bruce . Arthur, Teutates, Haephestus, Bouddica, Hecate, Thor, Hengist, Robert the Bruce. Again and again, never ceasing, inked in all her letters to her father, peppered in every conversation they have, thrown across dinner tables until all are singularly wearied of hearing those names. What follows is a proud man’s folly. The other families have their tales and their tapestries. Isambardus Nott commissions an opera, Guðrún, he calls it and winks at his sour-faced brother Andros. Who’s to say we aren’t sons of Guðrún or that our tale is fanciful? Children of Morgana and Arthur, indeed. Lavinia ducks her head and hides her smile. All is going according to plan. I will sing, she tells her Papa. I am a daughter of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Nott. Would you have a stranger sing our words and learn our magic? Let me sing, papa, I will make us proud - I will lift us far above the rest of them, I will show them what mettle the Noble and Most Ancient House of Nott is made of. Andros says but one word and leaves his brother to his folly. Hubris. Guðrún premieres in Apollyon Hall in London on the 3rd of March, 1871. Lavinia Morta Nott is in full form. It is indeed an operatic spectacle and Lavinia wins the audience to her side with her first aria, swearing revenge against her brother Gunnar for murdering her true husband Sigurd. She flees into the forests and there she weaves her first magic; a tapestry that depicts a great war in which her brothers will be killed. Again she is betrayed, this time by her mother, Grimhild who summons her brothers to her halls and bids them sneak a potion into Guðrún’s drink; a potion to forget the death of Sigurd. Alas, it is too late for the wheels of war are already in motion and the armies of the Hun come sweeping down from the hills into their plains. Guðrún forces herself to marry the Hun in order to save her family from their impending doom. In a touching aria, she considers the Hun and calls him a boor, a fool, a drunken philanderer, but this is her duty and she must do her duty by her family, even if it means a life time of unhappiness. A third betrayal follows, this time at the hands of the Hun, who murders her brothers in a fulfillment of the prophecy she has woven into her tapestry, but has long forgotten under the spells her brothers have put on her. Unknowing, therefore, that it is she who had set this into motion, Guðrún prepares a last magic on stage - a magic which will end her husband and his family and win her her freedom. This time as she weaves and sings, it is not her mother who visists her but the three Norns, who beg her to reconsider her actions and stop this cycle of violence before it is too late. Guðrún refuses in a duet sung with the three Norns that is lauded for its stunning harmonic intricacies by the Arts section of The Daily Prophet the next day. Her final revenge takes place during a large feast to celebrate one of the Hun’s many conquests. The Hun is halfway through his dinner when he finds that he has not been eating the flesh of the boar as he supposed, but the flesh of men, when the cook brings in the final course - the heads of his sons baked and basted. Guðrún then sings her last aria, declaiming the Hun’s cruelties and falsehoods and then swears that she will have her revenge on him, even if it should take her life. The hall bursts into fire and Guðrún raises a torch triumphantly as it collapses all around her in flames, killing all the revellers, the Hun and herself. The next day the front pages of The Daily Prophet are dedicated not to Lavinia Morta Nott’s stunning performance, but the massive fire at the Rowle family seat that killed Magnus Rowle, his family, his wife Lavinia Nott and all her family save her uncle - Andros Laocoön Nott. (Pics: 1, 2, 3, 4) -- source link

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