Key terms & definitions

A group of citizens who take law enforcement and punishment into their own hands outside the established legal system.

A person who punishes suspected criminals without lawful authority.

A gathering for prayer before the main funeral liturgy, usually on the evening before the funeral.

A short, vivid description of a person, scene or moment.

A Buddhist monastery where monks or nuns live and practise Buddhism, often with spaces for worship and study.

People from Scandinavia who undertook overseas raiding, trading and settlement; some established kingdoms outside Scandinavia.

In Propp’s theory, the character or force that obstructs the hero’s progress.

A peasant bound to a lord’s manor, owing labour services and needing permission for activities such as leaving or marrying.

The condition of being an unfree tenant under a lord, with restrictions on personal freedom and obligations such as labour services.

A finger-like projection of the lining of the small intestine that increases its surface area for absorption.

A finger-like projection of the small intestine's lining that increases the surface area for absorption.

The rules and discipline governing Buddhist monastic life, including ordination procedures.

A strong desire to take revenge for an injury or wrong.

The name used in Norse accounts for land reached in North America around AD 1000; its precise extent is uncertain.

An adhesive-backed vinyl graphic, cut or printed and applied to a product’s surface.

The use of physical force to injure, damage or destroy. In the novella, violence also exposes cruelty and the fragility of civilised behaviour.

The use of physical force to harm, damage or kill.

An offence involving physical harm or the threat of violence, such as assault.

Protest that uses physical force against people or property to express opposition or pursue change.

Suffering arising when something pleasant changes or comes to an end.

Insight meditation that develops understanding of the nature of existence, especially impermanence, suffering and non-self.

Promotional content that spreads as people share it with others, especially through social media.

Promotion that spreads as people pass content or recommendations to others, particularly online. It may develop through audience activity rather than a planned campaign.

The belief that Mary conceived Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit without sexual intercourse.

The name the English gave to a region of Atlantic North America in honour of Elizabeth I, the ‘Virgin Queen’. Roanoke Island was chosen for its first English settlement.

An English trading and colonising enterprise chartered by James I in 1606 to establish settlements in Virginia.

Khrushchev’s agricultural campaign to increase food production by cultivating previously unfarmed land, especially in northern Kazakhstan and neighbouring Russian areas.

A newly grown or extracted material that has not previously been used in a product.

Paper-making fibres obtained from fresh raw materials rather than recovered paper.

An image formed where light rays appear to come from when traced backwards; it cannot be projected onto a screen.