One Was Una

One was Una: A Child’s Book of Wortcunning. It was printed by a lovely employee-owned printing press on lightly textured 80lb art paper. It is 28 pages and measures 4.75 x 6.75 inches. It comes signed and bound by the author using red linen. The small scale of most of her work is inspired by her love for tiny worlds. 

What is Wortcunning? It is an Old English word that means 'to KNOW the herbs.' Wortcunning isn’t just 'herbalism,' as we know it today. It’s knowing plants in a medicinal, magical, relational, ancestral and intuitive sense, rather than purely memorizing the medicinal qualities of each plant. Today we would probably call it 'Folk Herbalism.' In keeping with the spirit and time of 'Wortcunning,' This book is based on the very very old Anglo Saxon 'Nine Herbs Charm.' The 'Nine Herbs Charm' invokes 9 plants held sacred by the Anglo Saxons around 1000 AD (and likely for thousands of years prior) and asks for their help. It addresses them as mighty heroes rather than commodities. It is really cool that we have this rare written record of pre-christian Anglo-Saxon animist practices and beliefs.

One was Una, was written and designed to appeal to curious readers of all ages. It can be read quickly with very young children as a fun counting book that introduces them to nine magical plants (and 10 is the healer who sang over them). It can also be flipped back through by older kids to view the lefthand pages for more detailed but age-appropriate info on the nine plants and how they were known in medieval England. Finally the last 3 pages are committed to curious nap-trapped parents who want to read the actual 9 herbs charm, and a bit about it.