Ha, I mean, the entire notion of canon era Ewen considering the EU is fairly ludicrous given that you’d have to explain to him what a unified Italy even looks like!

…and now I’m contemplating trying to explain Eurovision to someone from the 18th century.

To return to your main point re symbolism: thank you again for pointing that out. I am curious to go back through the rest of the book and see as to what sort of things Broster notes with regards to the natural world and examine the symbolism. It’s something that makes her writing very rich, I feel.