Daína Chaviano (Author)

Why this emphasis on crossing boundaries of time and space from one parallel universe to another? Why the theme of characters living in one world but belonging to another, yearning to make contact with the forces of the universe that will bring them home? A possible answer lies in shamanism. [...] Chaviano's use of the Merlin legend is original and takes into account archaeological evidence about the Celts, Druids, and Stonehenge. The idea of trans-dimensional flight and parallel universes might be said to have its origins in Celtic mythology. In Celtic religion the Druid priest is a shaman and shift-changer, someone who can cross over the boundaries of the parallel worlds of the ancestors and the living, someone who can change into a bird and fly from one realm to the other and back. (Complete text in PDF).