Religion

Religion is woven throughout The Winter King. Christianity has since Roman times been making inroads into traditional Druidism while foreign faiths, Isis for women and Mithras for male soldiers, have been introduced but enjoy small followings. The initiation rites of Mithras are detailed as an assault on all the senses—like the battlefield.

Enmity between paganism and Christianity is not yet great (although millennialism—the belief that the mysteries of the Book of Revelation is about to be poured out—is on the rise, preached by vagabond priests followed by hordes of women. Christians use the sign of the cross much as Druids using spitting and touching iron to ward off evil. The new faith appears to be a thin veneer. The senior Christian bishop, Bedwin, is a tolerant man, even maintaining his membership in Mithras from his early warrior days. Zealous, energetic, grasping Sansum...