"We danced in the night until we became the night, our feet kicking up stars.” Thistle’s words could have been spoken by any of those around her, the People of the Mother, a peaceful folk roaming Europe’s windswept plains. For this is the time of the Great Mother, a primal period in which humans experience themselves as part of a group, not as separate beings. But, around 10,000 B.C., some among them sense a warning of change. Thought Holder can no longer answer their questions. Mad Eda, the West Woman, tells of strange sicknesses and storms. Tenja the Starwatcher is torn from her dreams by images of a broken sky. Konya the Mapmaker stumbles into Thistle’s camp on a quest for the highest peaks.
Though no more than a child, Thistle ponders her elders’ words and ways. Puzzling images soon come to her as well, forcing her to set out on a journey for the truth. Her path takes her to the camp of the Arn, yellow-haired giants with eyes like the sea, then leads her through loss and loneliness to the terrifying realization that will change her life forever. The Light at the End of the World is not only Thistle’s story. It is the tale of all who lived at the end of the last Ice Age, an era remembered in myth as the time “when Sky made war on Earth,” taking our ancestors to the threshold of catastrophe. And perhaps it is our story as well. In the turbulent decades that await us, our challenges are the same: to align ourselves with love rather than fear and to remember that everywhere we walk is sacred ground.
