5.19: A debrief with Hipparchus
While Alcock talks with Lois the hippo, pTravis, Masongill and Lottie seek out Lois’ brother Hipparchus in his study. They are still wearing the insignia of the Order of the Sponge.
After they have told him what they can remember of the night before, they ask him what he thinks it means.
“I think you were caught up in a Wild Hunt.”
When the others look blank, he continues.
“The concept of the Wild Hunt was first recorded by the German folklorist Jacob Grimm in his 1835 book, Deutsche Mythologie. Grimm introduced and popularized the term Wilde Jagd or Wild Hunt to describe a phenomenon that appears in the folklore of the Germans, Celts, and Slavs. Wild Hunts typically involve a chase led by a mythological figure escorted by a ghostly or supernatural group of hunters engaged in pursuit. The children’s novelist Alan Garner makes use of this idea in the climax of his book The Moon of Gomrath. Indeed, some might think that Lottie’s experience last night was quite like that of the character Susan in that book.
Jacob Grimm believed that contemporary folklore was a preserved remnant of ancient beliefs which he traced back through early modern to the medieval times. Perhaps the kernal of truth behind all of these stories is the real activity over two millennia of the mysterious Order of the Sponge.”
“Cool!” says Lottie. “Can we summon them again?”
“No!” pTravis almost snaps.
“Can we at least carry on wearing the insignia?”
“Yes” he says more gently. “But perhaps not in front of Alcock.”
“We never did work out the connection between the insignia and Juggins being a traveling valet with a sponge and iron. Without his iron, we could not have summoned the Order. Do you know, Teach?”
“No. On that connection, my correspondent from East Molesey has no information.”
“And do you remember that advert in the newspaper we found in Juggins’ den? It was for a frying pan called ‘chevalier’! And what are we? Chevaliers de l’Ordre de l’Éponge! And hang on, isn’t it significant that Teach’s spooky contact is from ‘East Molesey’ - which sounds quite moley to me! (Sorry Masongill.)”
“Hush now, young Lottie” says Hipparchus with a smile “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!”
As they leave the study, pTravis realises, perhaps for the first time, something of the ethos of the Potting Shed. Hipparchus is one of the four founder members of the commune and is loyal to its pacifist values. No doubt he will sip a Bas Armagnac with Alcock later this evening – or perhaps more accurately, he will sip his digestif in the company of Alcock – but pTravis is convinced he will reveal nothing of his – pTravis’ – thoughts or plans of future involvement with the Order of the Sponge. The Potting Shed is happy, albeit tactfully and discreetly, to accommodate different views.
When everything has died down a bit, he must stress this to Lottie, who never seems to grasp what a brick her mysterious tutor really is.