My short story, The Samhain Roads, has been published in Superpresent Magazine. In it you can follow siblings Aoife and Liam as they search for their missing sister Neasa in the mysterious Gleann Nimhe. As they search, their quest for answers becomes a haunting exploration of guilt, loss, and acceptance.
What’s Superpresent Magazine?
Superpresent is an American arts magazine. It features poetry, short stories, creative non-fiction, photography, artwork and short videos.
This is how they describe what the name means:
The name Superpresent conveys multiple meanings. It could be something very much in the here and now, or something beyond the present state of being or thinking, or something surreal, or it could simply be a great and wonderful gift. In this sense, we seek to present poetry, essays, short stories, and visual arts that are compelling and in someway represent an aspect of the super present.
What’s the Samhain Roads About?
Well, the logline is:
In a misty glen in Ireland on Samhain night, estranged siblings searching for their missing sister encounter an apparition that forces them to confront their guilt and sorrow and who may eventually help them accept their loss.
To avoid spoilers, it’s probably best if you read the story before reading the rest of this article. It’s available for free here.
The Samhain Roads: Analysis
Okay. Spoilers from here on:
The Samhain Roads is written in four distinct sections, three from Aoife’s point of view and one from Liam’s. Each section is about five hundred words, the idea being to break the story into four passages that can stand alone as flash fiction stories in their own right, but come together to tell the entire story.
Aoife and Liam have very different attitudes about both their sister’s disappearance and the possibility of the supernatural. Aoife is willing to embrace the possibility that something inexplicable has happened, while Liam is much more sceptical. They are both coping with their sister’s disappearance in different ways, Aoife by clinging to the desperate hope that Neasa is still alive, and Liam with an inarticulate rage that hides a deep and corrosive guilt.
Liam’s encounter with Neasa forces him to face the consequences of his dismissive attitude to his sister, leading to moments of guilt and regret and, ultimately, to a tentative redemption.
Aoife, in contrast, receives the reassurance that she needs that though her sister is gone she’s not left her entirely alone, and that their love endures.
Both characters come to accept Neasa’s choice, enabling them to survive and recover from Neasa’s disappearance. They also both come to see that they, and their now dead mother, drove Neasa away by refusing to believe her or listen to her and with their attempts to control her.
The Inspiration For The Samhain Roads
Roadtrip
The theme of this edition of Superpresent was ‘roadtrip’ and I wrote The Samhain Roads specifically in response to the theme.
The story starts and ends on a real world road, the R251, which passes through the valley known as Poisoned Glen. Poisoned Glen is actually a mistranslation of the Irish name, Gleann Nimhe, the correct translation being ‘Heavenly Valley’, but the mistranslated name is how it’s known in English. It’s a beautiful spot.
The main road trip taken in the story, though, is the supernatural ‘road’ that Aoife and Liam traverse between this world and the world of Themselves that Neasa inhabits. And, despite Aoife’s denials, perhaps there was something in the coffee—who knows?
Neasa’s Story
The Samhain Roads is also a sequel to my flash-fiction story Can You Not See Them At All?, which tells the story of Neasa’s journey to the Other World from her point of view. That story is hopefully going to be published elsewhere. If/when it is I’ll post a link to it.
Some Relevant Irish Folklore
Samhain
Samhain is an ancient festival that was co-opted by Christianity as Halloween. Most of the Halloween traditions, such as bonfires and trick-or-treat, are bowdlerised versions of Samhain customs. They even took the date that Halloween takes place on from Samhain.
Samhain one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals:
- Imbolc (February 1)
- Beltaine (May 1)
- Lughnasadh (August 1)
- Samhain (November 1)
The Other World
In the mythology of many nations and religions, there are other worlds parallel to ours. The best known Irish name for this concept is Tír na nÓg, which means land of youth, though in Irish mythology Tír na nÓg is just one of the many other worlds beyond ours.
In Irish folklore, there’s also a belief that travel between this world and parallel worlds is possible, particularly at certain times of the year. Samhain is when passage is easiest, and this allows the inhabitants of the parallel worlds, and the souls of the dead, to enter our world.
Themselves
People give many names to the inhabitants of the other world. One of the more common ones in Irish folklore is ‘Themselves’.
The Black Horse
The black horse in the story is a púca. A púca in Irish mythology is a shape-changing spirit that often takes the form of a horse, a human, or various other animals. They are a force, sometimes benevolent, sometimes malevolent, usually mischievous, that humans can sometimes harness by treating kindly.
The Samhain Roads: Want to Read It?
Superpresent is available here. It’s a free download, though you can also buy a hard-copy.
What do you think?
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