Lija and Jur's wedding

The wedding of Lija, daughter of the clothier Sten, and Jur, son of the dyer Krecz, in Sowerby, at the edge of winter in a lean year — a marriage meant to stitch together two feuding craft houses. The feast was given to Olma, the best hired cook in the town, for seven lean days. The wedding was held in the guild hall, the shared, neutral feast-room, despite the first snow; guests from the south never arrived, for the roads through the Wool valley had closed. The vow was sworn before witnesses of the guild elders, over fire and salt, and the wedding bread was broken, not cut. After the wedding the houses' old quarrel was suspended, not settled.