Charleston’s ivory towers.
Usually, I can’t remember the first time I experienced a word. Language was a subconscious learning process for me, like it is for most people, and when I learned to read, the words flooded in too quickly to remember any timeline for them.
But there is one word I remember learning: citadel.
I first read this word in a stunning young adult fantasy novel by Sheryll Jordan, an Australian author, called Secret Sacrament. Her characters shone in the fictional world she created: the main one being Gabriel, a young man with red-gold hair and a passion for the art of healing. Amidst his nation’s political strife he went to learn medicine in the city’s ivory tower of learning, the citadel. His talent stuck on the web of intrigue around him, and the story’s end was his heroic prevention of genocide. I loved him, and I loved his school. The citadel. In the book it was a strong city fortress, but also a pacifist center for learning from which Gabriel drew strength to finish his struggle.
Good fantasy books have the power to muddle reality. As I immersed myself in this powerful story, I struggled to remember hearing the word citadel used before in real life. It felt familiar to me, but then again, so did Gabriel. Why did it seem so integral? Where did this word carry weight, the same weight or more that it carried in my book? I finally asked my dad. “It just means ‘a fortress’,” he said. Google wasn’t available to me back then, so I had no way to explore further. The word stayed in the context of a fantasy story.
It wasn’t until years later in college that I realized there was a school named The Citadel, and that school is in Charleston, South Carolina. Of course, I had to go explore and see what I could see of it while I was in Charleston. Thankfully, years have passed since I read Secret Sacrament – enough time that I managed to stay open minded about The Citadel being totally different than the one in the story I love.
Although it’s a military school, it’s not the fortress you may imagine a citadel being. The gate stands open to the public, and despite a stern warning about the 10 mph speed limit being enforced by radar, there’s not a heavy police presence. The campus is beautiful, dotted with various monuments, and the buildings are creamy ivory. Cadets in uniform grouped into packs tromp along the sidewalk. In contrast, I wore a pink flowered dress and carried a camera over my shoulder – but this Friday, plenty of family members were on campus attending commissioning ceremonies and I didn’t attract as much attention as I might have normally.
Next door to the school is Hampton Park, and I went to explore that as well. It was beautiful by the early morning light, with the dew still on the roses.
Part of me is a little miffed that there’s no actual fortress in Charleston that lives up to my fantasy ideal. But then again, a fortress like that wouldn’t go very well with the rest of Charleston anyway. The fantasy will have to stay just that.
~ The Dauntless Princess ~