Silver May Tarnish

A novel by Andre Norton and Lyn McConchie.

Publishing History

  • Paperback, Tor, 304pp., ISBN: 0-7653-4553-6, 2005
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Timeline Notes

  1. p1. Lorcan born in Erondale in the Year of the Pard.
  2. p2. Two siblings died of the Coughing Sickness in the Year of the Pronghorn, some years before the Year of the Pard.
  3. p3. Alizon making trouble - Lorcan is nearly eight.
  4. p7. Meera, Lorcan's sister born, their mother dies.
  5. p9. Anla 14 - a year later, Merrion is 17, Lorcan is 8.
  6. p11. Another 2 years - Meera dies aged 2, word was of war, Lorcan 10. Spies in High Hallack. Year of the Moss Wife ends.
  7. p12. Invasion.
  8. p13. Father & Merrion die.
  9. p15. Aged 10, Lorcan is Lord of Erondale and reaches Paltendale.
  10. p21. Three years later.
  11. p26. Three months later.
  12. p27. Six months later - Berond died - Lorcan is 14.
  13. p29. Lorcan is 15.
  14. p42. Were-Riders gathered once more - Were-Riders fighting for nearly three years - near end of Year of the Hornet. Lorcan is 17.
  15. p43. Battle of Hagar Pass.
  16. p47. Nearly a year passed, Lorcan 18 Years old at end of Year of the Unicorn.
  17. p52. Meive (narration) “I lay in my bed remembering that year when I had been ten and eager to learn” She is chosen to be trained by the “Wise-Woman of the Bees” as her apprentice.
  18. # p53. Two years before, when Meive was 8 a 13yr old boy named Neeco was not accepted by the hive and left the village.
  19. p55. Ithia the Wise-Woman says, “Keep her with you two further Winters. Once she is twelve, let her join me in my home…” Meive (narration) “For two years I was happy.” “But a year before Ithia bespoke me, she had gone on a journey. From that she had returned with two new queens. They were larger, blacker, and fierce.”
  20. p61. Meive (narration) “I had just turned thirteen.” Ithia spoke then. “…Spring comes swiftly now.”
  21. p75. Meive (narration) “The cheeky lad I recalled was gone. In his [Neeco's] place a man of eighteen strutted.”
  22. p77. Meive (narration) “I was a girl and only thirteen.”
  23. p86. Meive (narration) “Summer came—for the third time I believed. If I was right, then I was now sixteen.”
  24. p88. Meive sees Lorcan for the first time. [Spring, the year after the Year of the Unicorn]
  25. p140. Lorcan (narration) “It had been late Spring when I met my lady. Now it was Summer.”
  26. p181. Levas says “We named her [the kitten] Gathea.” Both Lorcan and I recognized the name. It was that of a legendary wise woman who had been with our people when first we came into the dales. (see Horn Crown)
  27. p211. Lorcan (narration) "It had been Spring when Devol laid hands on me, almost Summer when Meive freed me…It had been Spring again when we reached Tildale. Now it was almost Fall. Belo and his comrade had set out seeking one to pay my ransom neigh eighteen months gone."
  28. p224. Lorcan (narration) “That first Winter was one I think I shall never forget.”
  29. p286. Meive (narration) “On the longest day of the year we were wed, Lorcan and I…”
  30. p294. Appendix is a study of the song “Silver May Tarnish” and it’s variations attributed to “Lautron of Alsvale, song gatherer of Lormt. Year of the Pard.”

Timeline Analysis

Lorcan's Age Meive's Age Year Name Event
-3? -5? Year of the Pronghorn Coughing Sickness
0 -2 Year of the Pard Lorcan born
10 8 Year of the Moss Wife
11 9 Year of the Fire Troll War begins
12 10 Year of the Leopard
13 11 Year of the Gryphon
14 12 Year of the Raven?
15 13 Year of the Night Hound?
16 14 Year of the Fire Drake
17 15 Year of the Hornet Battle of Hagar Pass, Alizon defeated
18 16 Year of the Unicorn Lorcan fights bandits and travels south.
19 17 Year of the Red Boar In spring of this year, Lorcan is caputured by bandits. Meive saves Lorcan from these bandits in summer. They begin wandering the Dales looking for people to repopulate Honeycoombe.
20 18 Year of the Hippogriff In spring of this year Meive and Lorcan visit Tildale. Almost a week after they leave Tildale they come across the few people left of Drosdale and rescue them from bandits. Four days later they hire Levas and his men. Sometime later they go south-east and enter Erondale where Lorcan removes some of the treasure. From there it is a slow ten-day journey to the edge of Merrowdale. They rest there the night before arriving in Honeycoombe the next day. Laer that year Meive goes to the Inn of the Forks to gather more people and arrives back with more people. It takes five days to get to the Inn at a reasonable pace. There were now twenty-four in Honeycoombe. It is this winter that Hogeth decides to come after Lorcan, but he and his army are killed.
21 19 Year of the Roc Lorcan and Meive wed as are Levas and Elesha. Lord Silas and his people arrive in summer and settle in Merrowdale. Meive is pregnant by the end of the year and will give birth before the summer of the next year.
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