The Marches children

Marcher children are treated like any other growing thing; they are nurtured so that they may grow straight, strong and true, they are showered with love like the rain and sun and with discipline like the frost and wind.

It is universally recognised in the Marches that children are not yet “finished”, that is, that they have not grown enough in order to bear fruit (have children of their own, fight in the armies, or contribute to the nation in quite the same way as an adult). Until adulthood is reached, a child’s soul has not “fixed” or “settled” in their body, this is why children can be prone to selfishness, whim or fancy and can be unpredictable or fickle.

However, that doesn't mean they can't be useful to have around. The notion is that they'll learn best by watching and helping where they can. This practise is formalised by custom as "giving a hand". It's a precurser to apprenticeship but more based on the child’s interest and not a permanent thing. If a child is watching what you’re doing, ask them to ‘give you a hand’ and give them something to ‘do’, something which doesn’t get in your way. That involves them in what you're doing whilst they watch and learn. An interested child might ask if they can ‘give you a hand’, meaning they want to learn more by helping out.

Most Marcher children are given a poppet each year. Looking after the poppet is part of the child’s growing and maturing process – “learn to look after yourself and you’ll better look out for others” many a mother has been heard to say to her child. The poppet contains a hearth magic that helps to protect the child against disease and illness. When the child’s poppet is ploughed back into the field their connection to the land is strengthened.

When a child passes the tests of adulthood, there is a celebration. Not unlike a birthday, gifts are given and some parents present their children with a weapon so that the child may fight for the Marches when needed and with a tool so that they may work the land in the mean time. These items are often heirlooms and have been passed along generations of families. There are a few regional variations upon this, but the principles are the same. Some well-wishers give a gift of symbolic jewellery representing the items instead.

Things every Child should know

• Heart and hearth, child, heart and hearth. Your Household is very important. You must work hard, learn things, and be the best you can be to keep your Household strong and safe.
• Know a body by their March; judge'em by their company Choose your friends carefully; stick with them and they will stick by you.
• One boy's a boy, two boys is half a boy and three boys is no boy at all. Work always comes before play. If you're are given a job, stick with it until it's finished.
• The answer lies in the soil. Your Household’s farms and lands are very important and must be looked after properly. Listen to the Landskeepers, they know more about the land than anybody else, and can tell you all kinds of interesting things about it.
• The land sees all. Never tell lies and always speak up if something is wrong. Do as your leaders say, speak up if you don’t agree, and never make a promise you can’t keep.

At sixteen summers I was finally a man, and ready to take my place in the world. From my ma I got this old almanac that she’d had off her nanna afore her. At the time I wasn’t too impressed, truth to tell, but you’d be surprised how handy the damn thing has been over the years, especially since I got me own place and had to figure out plantin’ an’ croppin’ an’ such for meself. From me da I got Old Stinger, the gnarled ash bow what was made by me great-great-grandad. Not much of a bowyer but a real bear of a man who could straight-arm an anvil . Pull on it like an oxen, an’ by Virtue, if you didn’t learn to use it just so you’d find out the hard way why it was called Stinger, cos you wouldn’t be able to use yer hand fer the rest o’ the day! But I didn’t care, an’ I thanked ‘em right smart (somethin’ told me bein’ a man didn’t mean too old for a switchin’ if I didn’t show manners.) That night I got to go out to the lightning oak with the other young things, to say our words to the Landskeepers, an’ after that there was beer an’ dancin’ an’ such under the stars. Next mornin’ I was a man steerin’ a plough instead of a boy steerin’ a plough. Not sure why it made all the difference, but somehow it did.