Maybe because of two big events of the last week–the solar eclipse on Monday and the final episode of season 7 of Game of Thrones on Sunday– everything between was a blur. (The songs are from Season 6, when GOT music has never been more beautiful.)

Through #14 welding glass, the sun looks like a small green orb. Very SF-ish.

Jon Snow is who we thought he was, although until the last night we didn’t know his true name. Now we do, and my life is complete.

Photo by Mark Tegethoff on Unsplash

But, since the eclipse is old news and Game of Thrones really doesn’t need additional promotion from my website, I’ll talk about my books and my own fictional invention – ellidas.

An ellida is the female offspring of a werewolf father and a wizardess mother. This is only the necessary prerequisite. Not every daughter of the werewolf/wizard couple becomes an ellida. The most important ‘ingredient’ is of a spiritual nature. It’s in the inner beauty, humanity, strength and balance.

An ellida is the living embodiment of the ancient alliance between wizards and werewolves, the powerful force of good, the most treasured member of her werewolf clan, its highest authority, and the greatest honour granted to a clan. She brings prosperity, happiness and peace to her people, and never abuses the power given to her.

Ellidas are above the clan hierarchy; they have the power to overrule any alpha’s decisions. They are military leaders of their clans as well, although this particular function is ceremonial: an ellida’s life is too important to be risked in an open battle.

Once, Astrid asked her mentor, Ellida Morgaine, why it is that only women can be ellidas.

“Because no sane creator, or god, or force, or whoever you like, would grant such power to a man,” Morgaine said. “It would be too much for any man to handle…”

So how did I come up with this word?

I don’t know. Like for my Tel-Urughs, I thought a lot about the name that would frame the concept. I like names that start with vowels. That was my starting point. Then I tried different words. Different lengths. Different consonants. Open vowels, closed vowels… And stopped on ellida. I heard melody in this word. Lightness and strength at the same time. I often see words in colours, and this particular combination of letters and sounds was silvery-gold, with a touch of blue, like the full moon on the ink-blue night sky. Or like the shiny metal surface of a shield.

And thus Astrid became an ellida, and a shield, with eight little moons in different phases, ended up on the book cover.

Now what about the cosmic connections between writers and stories that form the title?

When my book was written, but still in manuscript, I came across a Celtic myth about Elathan, or Elatha, or Elada. (I still remember the goosebumps I got). He was a Moon/Sun God; he was forever young, had golden hair and sailed in a silver vessel. It was said he had a sense of humour and a sense of nobility.

Like Astrid, the Ellida of Red Cliffs.

You can read the story of the first ellida of the werewolves and wizards’ realm here on my website, in Excerpts.