Writer's Grove

Atticus’s necklace

This has been in the works for a while and I’m so happy to finally be able to share it with you! Badali Jewelry has been working with me to create an officially licensed version of Atticus’s necklace, and I love it!

Bit of background on it: The necklace you see on the covers of my books was a complete (and pleasant!) surprise to me. It was commissioned from a jeweler by the cover artist for the photo shoot and I was blown away that he would go to the trouble. And it looks great! However, it was based on a sketch I’d made for charm placement and I wasn’t consulted on the design of the individual charms, and the jeweler also decided to connect everything with twine rather than use the silver chain that I specifically state Atticus uses in the book. These are quibbles, to be sure, but important ones if you’re making an official version. And Badali wanted to make an official version.

On our left side of Atticus’s cold iron amulet we have the shapeshifting charms and the bear charm that Atticus uses for energy storage. From l-r it goes bear, stag, hound, owl, and otter. Here’s a closer look at them:

The stag charm was modeled after the design on the Gundestrup cauldron and the others are fairly straightforward. The charms on the other side might require some explanation.

Here’s a close-up shot of them. From l-r we have camouflage, night vision, magical sight, healing, and the soulcatcher.

Camouflage blends him in with his surroundings but is not true invisibility, so Atticus represented it with a hammered silhouette. The night vision charm employs a Celtic sun. Magical sight is represented by the third eye—which Atticus uses for the name of his shop and says is a reference to Vedic beliefs. Several deities in the Hindu pantheon have a third eye. When Durga, for example, opens hers, it triggers a transformation into Kali the Destroyer. That’s not what happens for Atticus, obviously, but he does see the world from a different perspective when he casts that particular binding and it seemed to him an apt metaphor to use. The healing charm is a representation of the many healing wells throughout the UK. In legends of the Tuatha Dé Danann they would heal warriors or other wounded in such a well, the waters gifted with magical healing powers. Dian Cecht was said to have an especially powerful one. Atticus & Granuaile visit and use such wells in TRAPPED when they go to Mag Mell. Christian churches were often built near the sites of pagan holy wells and their nature assimilated into Christian tradition. Many of them were called St. Brighid’s well, which gave rise to names like Bridewell, and so on.  So to Atticus these wells would be more symbolic of healing in his mind that a Greek caduceus with a snake twined around it or whatever. Lastly is the soulcatcher, a nine-pointed star in a circle and also containing a circle with a shiny soul in there. When reading the stories of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the importance of nine becomes clear rather quickly—it comes up often. It’s one of the reasons I’m writing nine books instead of fewer or less: Atticus would associate anything important with the number nine.

Badali Jewelry does great work. They sell officially licensed jewelry for Patrick Rothfuss and Jim Butcher as well and some spiffy Lord of the Rings stuff too. They’re offering two different versions of this necklace regarding materials: Sterling silver and white bronze. The amulet is iron! They did their best to keep the price down but it’s a labor-intensive piece; it’s like doing 11 items instead of one. They will be on sale for the first time at Phoenix Comicon June 5-8, and online as well at that time. Regular retail for silver is $205 but will be on sale for $139 at shows and online; regular price for white bronze is $135 but will be on sale for $89 at shows and online. And, of course, they have Granuaile’s iron amulet for sale as well. (Or the Morrigan’s, if you prefer.)

If you’re headed to Phoenix Comicon, I hope to see you there (my schedule was in the previous blog post), and please stop by the Badali Jewelry booth to check out the Iron Druid stuff!