Ah, the joys of writing historical fiction or fantasy. What do you try to get “right” when you build your setting and characters, and what do you elide, or just omit entirely? Sarah’s comment the agent who said she should show human sacrifice as a positive good touched on a dilemma I’m currently facing: How accurate should I be?

The book is set in, um, well, roughly late Iron Age Scotland, on the western side of the Island of the Mighty. So the culture is broadly Celtic, be it more Irish Celtic or Brythonic/Pictish. This means a pagan world, with sacrifices. So … what about human sacrifice?

If the book were accurate to the archaeology and Classical sources, human sacrifice would be seen my the characters as a positive good, just like sacrificing a sheep or cow, or valuable goods. The various peoples called “Celtic” practiced human sacrifice, as did most other humans in Eurasia, as far as we can tell. There was nothing “wrong” about it. Modern readers, however … might balk at a “good guy” enthusing about why offing someone by, oh, burying them alive (or mostly alive) to ensure that a wall or bridge remained standing was a great and standard thing.

Casual violence that was normal in the premodern world would make readers run, unless it is very carefully written and makes very, very good story sense. Now, I have one advantage, in that the protagonist should not have to fight, because he’s a member of, well, a sort of protected class. He can fight if he has no choice, but prefers to use words, wit, and avoiding trouble as opposed to defaulting to sword, knife, or spear. However, his world is, by today’s standards, very violent, with casual brutality the norm. So that I’m eliding.

There are other details that readers would prefer not to be immersed in. The scent of a medieval city in summer comes to mind. I’ve been in Vienna and a few other places in summer, when the air temp is on the edge of hot, and the walls and stone buildings reflect and trap the heat. Now, add garbage, manure of various kinds, mudflats and perhaps tanning and slaughter house scents if the wind is right (or wring), wood or coal smoke … An EPA air quality specialist would flee, shrieking, from Medieval Hamburg or Vienna.