Glossary for 9th of 12 book series – Some of the people, foods, places and things mentioned in this glossary will be found in other books in the series. Some will not. Some are merely mentioned in passing and have no important part in story, however, I included all characters, including animals, into this glossary. Some will go on to be important in future books, but since they aren’t yet, they’ve been listed in the minor category column.

Characters:

Main Characters:

Angus McAllister – Fiona’s Uncle – her father’s older brother – age 50, lives in Inveralba. Light brown hair with gray, blue eyes. Lives in a croft and has lots of cats.

Callum McAllister – 10 years old, brown eyes, dark brown hair, cousin to Fiona and Elspet

Elspet McAllister – 10 years old, reddish hair and blue eyes, cousin to Fiona and Callum, artistic, draws

Fiona Isabella McAllister – 11 years old, blonde hair, green eyes, lives in Inveralba and is a descendant of King Kegan and King Dugan.

Mairi Anna Ferguson McAllister – Fiona’s mum, makes honey from heather and bluebell and thistle.  Sells it in the shops to tourists and also sends it off to Edinburgh and Glasgow. She also is a good cook and works part time at McKenzie’s bakery in town.  Age 35, brown hair and fern green eyes

Drayton Steele – Descendant of King Dugan and Princess Isabella and owner of the necklace stolen from King Kegan – Age 19. Son of Shardow Steele and Penelope McAllister.

Jack Thomson/ Artur - Pearl – Pretending to be a brother of Johnny. He is actually Artur, one of King Kegan’s 12 men and hid the 3rd jewel, the pearl, in Seychelles. He is from Arabia with dark hair and eyes, about 32 years old.

Jacob Thomson/Gamlas – Opal – One of the 12 men who hid the 8th stone, opal, in Nepal. From Burill in Arabia, with Arab features – olive skin, dark eyes and hair. He is 26 years old.

Jared Thomson/Chessa – Amber – One of the 12 men, who hid the 7th stone, amber, in Mexico. From Burill in Arabia, with long dark brown hair that he wears in a pony tail, brown eyes. He is 28 years old.

Jason Thomson/Buntabi – Ruby – One of the 12 men, who hid the 6th stone, the ruby, in Jordan. From Burill in Arabia, with African heritage, so he has short, curly black hair, brown eyes, and dark brown skin. He is 31 years old.

Jasper Thomson/Collos – Sapphire- One of the 12 men, who hid the 9th stone, the sapphire, in La Mancha, Spain. Blue eyes, Germanic and Frank heritage. 30 years old.

Jeffrey Thomson/ Kitar -  Emerald – One of the 12 men, who hid the 4th stone, the emerald, in Yukon. From Burill in Arabia, but with Germanic descent, so has blond hair and blue eyes. His mother was Arabic, but his father was of Germanic blood  and he came to Burill to live. He is 39, the oldest of the 12 men.

Jesse Thomson/ Pond - Spinel -  One of the 12 men, who hid the 2nd jewel, spinel in Iceland. From Burill in Arabia so he has dark hair and brown eyes. His is 27 years old

Jimmy Thomson/Cowan – Black Obsidian -Pretending to be the brother of Johnny. Is actually Cowan, one of King Kegan’s 12 most trusted me and he hid the 1st jewel in Hydra, Greece. He is from Arabia – so he has dark hair and eyes.

Johnny Thomson/ Alroy Cathmore - Posing as a tourist from London, come to Inveralba to fish and hunt – Age 37 – He has light brown hair and brown eyes – his ancestry is Persian. King Kegan’s scribe and author of the book the children found.

Julian Thomson/ Edwi – Topaz – Hid the jewel in Tasmania, one of the 12 men who hid the 5th stone, Topaz– has black hair and dark brown eyes and is 28 years old

Minor Characters:

Princess Anna - Daughter of King Kegan and Queen Sarmantha, wife of Robert of Ferguson in Scotland and mother of Jorbi. Also ancestor of Fiona and Mairi. 14 at time of capture by King Dugan. 15 when she gave birth to Jorbi.

Cervantes - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (September 29, 1547 – April 22, 1616), was a Spanish novelist, poet and playwright. He is best known for his novel Don Quixote de la Mancha, which is considered by many to be the first modern novel, one of the greatest works in Western literature, and the greatest of the Spanish language. It is one of the Encyclopedia Britannica's "Great Books of the Western World" and the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky called it "the ultimate and most sublime word of human thinking". Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion learned the Spanish language so that he could read it in the original, considering it a prerequisite to becoming an effective statesman. Cervantes was born at Alcála de Henares, Spain, on a day not recorded, but since he was named Miguel it is guessed he was born on the feast day of St. Michael (Sept 29) in 1547. He was the second son and fourth of seven children of Rodrigo de Cervantes and Leonor de Cortinas. His father was an impoverished apothecary-surgeon and came from an old family of Northern Spain. He died in Madrid on April 23, 1616.

Nellie McAllister Crawford – Fiona’s great aunt on her father’s side, age 72, sister to Catriona and Penelope, oldest of the 3 sisters. Aunt of Drayton Steele

Duncan Donaldson – Man who lives in croft outside of Inveralba. He runs the river rafting business on the River Alba.

King Dugan - Descendant of King Bartolf, evil king, who lived in Zanaad, North Africa. Father of Ithgar and Jorbi (birth father).

Dulcinea –  Owns an inn in Consuegra, Spain. A descendant of Don Quixote and Dulcinea and a good friend to Fiona, Callum and Elspet.

Dr. Gillespie – A doctor who lives in Inverdrochit that takes care of Jesse after his near death by drowning in River Alba.

Talon Hormdin – King Dugan’s scribe, wrote book which Drayton has in possession.

Dr. Innes – The doctor who lives in Inverabla, who cares for Drayton when he is injured.

King Kegan  - Descendant of King Rolfin – good king, he lived in Burill on the Arabian Peninsula and left, taking his family to Scotland and built Castle Athdara. Father of Isabella, Anna, Cerdic, Gelis, Rayad and Gilian. Married to Queen Sarmantha. Died at age 43. Son of King Abbasan and his wife, Queen Nadia.

Lephimah – Wizard, Son of Zerahemna, lives in Xilia and is now caretaker of Cloudwaltzer, the black dragon.

Malcolm McAllister – Callum’s father – is a gillie. When people come to the highlands to shoot grouse, partridge, or hunt a deer, or want to go fishing, he takes them and shows them where the best places are. He has a few hounds that he uses to scare out the grouse. He often brings home fish he’s caught in the loch and streams for his family and also venison. Age 38, brown hair, brown eyes

Wizard Phelan - King Dugan’s evil wizard, wizard of Xilia

Don Quixote - Don Quixote de la Mancha  is a novel by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Published in 1605, it is one of the earliest written novels in a modern European language and is considered by some to be the finest book in the Spanish language. [1]. Don Quixote is almost universally accepted to be the emblematic work of Spanish literature. The adjective "quixotic", at present meaning "idealistic and impractical", derives from the protagonist's name, and the expressions "tilting at windmills" and "fighting windmills" come from this story. There are many adaptations of the book, mostly designed to modernize and shorten the text. One such adaptation is authored by Agustín Sánchez and runs to only 150 pages.

King Rolfin - Owner of the original orb – good king, brother of Bartolf. Lived originally in Hadrumetum, near Carthage, but fled and moved to Burill on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula(Yemen)

Queen Sarmantha – Wife of King Kegan, mother of Princess Anna, Princess Isabella, Prince Cerdic, Princess Gelis, Prince Rayad and Princess Gilian. Comes from Viking stock, born in Norway.  Her father, King Aluric, did trading with Kegan’s father, Abbasan, and when Kegan and she met, they fell in love. She had fair hair, violet eyes, and was 35 when she died. Her mother was Queen Finna.

Penelope McAllister Steele – Drayton’s mother and wife of Shardow Steele, who is now dead, age 51. Youngest of the 3 sisters, Nellie McAllister Crawford and Catriona McAllister McAllister

Shardow Steele – Drayton’s father – dead

Places:

River Alba - Flows through village of Inveralba into Loch Doon (where does it start and end)

Amarguillo River – A river that flows near Consuegra, Spain

Castle Athdara - Built by King Kegan on the shores of Loch Doon near today’s Inveralba

Burill – name of King Rolfin’s kingdom in the Arabian peninsula after he moved from Hadrumetum

Consuegra, Spain – A town in La Mancha Spain

Inveralba -Village where Fiona and her family and friends live in the highlands of Scotland

Inverdrochit - Mairi was born here, a village on the opposite side of Loch Doon

La Mancha, Spain – An area in spaing made famous by Don Quixote

Loch Doon - a loch (lake) near Inveralba, Scotland

Man of La Mancha Inn – The inn owned by Dulcinea in Consuegra, Spain

Saffron Inn – Drayton Steele stays here during his time in Consuegra, Spain

Sancho Belly – One of the Consuegra Windmills

The Target – One of the Consuegra Windmills

Toledo, Spain - Toledo is a city and municipality located in central Spain, the capital of the province of Toledo and of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. Toledo was originally a Roman Empire outpost under the name Toletum. It later served as the capital city of Visigothic Spain, beginning with Liuvigild (Leovigild), and was the capital until the Moors conquered Iberia in the 8th century. Under the Caliphate of Cordoba, Toledo enjoyed a golden age. This extensive period is known as La Convivencia, i.e. the Co-existence (of Jews, Christians, and Muslims]]. Under Arab rule, Toledo was called Tulaytulah. On May 25, 1085 Alfonso VI of Castile took Toledo and established direct personal control over the Moorish city from which he had been exacting tribute. This was the first concrete step taken by the combined kingdom of Leon-Castile in the Reconquista by Christian forces. Toledo was famed for its production of steel and especially of swords and the city is still a center for the manufacture of knives and other steel implements. When Philip II moved the royal court from Toledo to Madrid in 1561, the old city went into a slow decline from which it never recovered.

Truro, Cornwall, England - The bustling cathedral city of Truro is a city for all seasons and for all interests. From the flowing rivers to the picturesque Georgian streets, the 18th and 19th century town houses and the magnificent Victorian Cathedral that dominates the city there is something for everyone. Truro derives its name from the Cornish Tri-veru, meaning three rivers, and developed as a tin port between the Truro River and the rivers Kenwyn and Allen. There has been a town here since the 12th century when Richard Lucy, Chief Justice of England in the reign of Henry II, built a castle at the top of what is now Castle Street. Remains of the castle were found during excavations for the cattle market that was held there until recent years. It is now the site of the Courts of Justice, the County Courts for Cornwall. By the 14th century Truro was an important inland port and one of the five stannary towns in Cornwall. Copper and tin were assayed and stamped here twice a year and then shipped from the port. The Black Death arrived in the late 14th century and with death and a mass exodus the town was neglected. In both the 17th and 18th centuries Truro was quite industrialized with tin smelting, an iron foundry, pottery, a tannery and carpet and wool making. The rivers were essential to all this industry and it would have been a busy place. It was in the 18th and 19th centuries that Truro flourished. Tin prices increased and wealthy mine owners built elegant town houses. Truro was called the London of Cornwall and the Assembly Rooms on High Cross, with a theatre as well, were the centre of this high society. Queen Victoria granted Truro city status in 1877, three years before the laying of the cathedral's foundation stones. The cathedral was built on the site of the 16th century parish church.

The Turk – one of the Consuegra Windmills

The Vixen – One of the Consuegra Windmills

Xilia - Kingdom where the wizards come from.  The rivers look like gold when the sun shines because they are filled with tiny bubbles of air. The leaves are perfect shaped and no insects eat them. The flowers are brilliant and the birds sing perfect melodies. All animals live with the wizards in peace and harmony and it is a land of fruit and honey on every table.

Food –

Bizcocha manchego - cake soaked in milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon

El Moje Manchego – The cold broth with black olives consists of potatoes sautéed with garlic, paprika, tomato and bay leaf, to which by way of compassion a poached egg is added.

La Mancha Pasta – A dish made with pasta, olive oil, garlic, mushrooms, cilantro, lemon juice, parmesan and cracked pepper

Manchego Cheese – Manchego cheese is the most important and well-known sheep’s milk cheese in Spain. The shape of this cheese is very characteristic and defined, due to the traditional use of esparto grass molds which imprints a zigzag pattern along the side of the cheese. The small wooden boards used for pressing the cheese also imprints the typical wheat ear pattern on the top and bottom. This rustic molds are used outside of La Mancha as well. Thus, there are other Spanish sheep's milk cheese with similar shape and markings, known commonly as "Manchego style" cheese.

The true Manchego cheese, however, is made only from whole milk of the Manchega sheep raised in the "La Mancha" region. This region is a vast high plateau, more than 600 meters above sea level, which extends from east to west and north to south, adjoining the provinces of Toledo, Cuenca, Ciudad Real and Albacete, all in the Castile-La Mancha Autonomous Region southeast of Madrid. Manchego cheese has a long historic and literary tradition, as it was mentioned by Cervantes in the legendary "Don Quixote of La Mancha". Today, there are two types of Manchego cheese: the farmhouse type, made with unpasteurized sheep's milk and the industrial type, made with pasteurized milk. In both cases, however, milk from Manchega sheep is the only type used and the cheese is produced in clearly defined homogenous surroundings of wheat fields, fallow land and brush fields. The climate is extreme continental with cold winters and hot summers.

Mancha Manteles – A dish made with  turkey or chicken, Lard, Ancho chiles, Pasilla chiles, Serrano chiles, Almonds, White sesame seeds, Chorizos, Onion, Tomatoes, Cinnamon, chicken stock, Sugar, Cider vinegar, Salt, Pineapple chunks, apples, banana.

Mantecados – As for sweets these oily buns and fried biscuits dipped in honey are plentiful.

Paella - Paella is a rice dish, originally from Valencia, where it is eaten especially on Sundays and during the Falles. There are many variations of it with different ingredients. The name paella is the word for "frying pan" in Valencian (from Latin paella). However, the dish has become so popular in Spanish that the word paellera is now usually used for the pan and paella almost exclusively for the dish. Paella is usually garnished with vegetables and with meat or seafood. The three main ingredients are rice, saffron, and olive oil.

Animals –

Manchego sheep – sheep indigenous to La Mancha, Spain

Plants –

Saffron crocus – The spice saffron is made from the stamen of this flower.

Odds and Ends

Celebration of the Rose of the Saffron – Annual festival held in Consuegra Spain to celebrate the saffron harvest        

Flamenco dancers – Flamenco is a song, music and dance style which is strongly influenced by the Gitanos, but which has its deeper roots in Moorish and Jewish musical traditions. Flamenco culture originated in Andalusia (Spain), but has since become one of the icons of Spanish music and even Spanish culture in general.

Marionettes - Gomez and Angelina (Like Punch and Judy)