King Alfred’s World
Who are the characters in my books?
They would have had mixed blood, from:
- “British”- the name for those living in England when the Anglo-Saxons arrived - maybe Celts, maybe “Ancient Britons”, maybe both - it depends on your favourite historical theory. Add a dash of leftover Roman. Macsen (Untamed).
- From northern Germany/Denmark, came the Anglo-Saxons:
Anglians - from Angeln - largely settled the middle and north of England - the kingdoms of Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria. Gemma (A Fragile Trust), and Berg (Destiny) were Anglian.Saxons - from Saxony - largely settled in the south - the kingdom of - Wessex. Ash (A Fragile Trust) was Saxon.
Jutes- possibly from Jutland - largely settled in the south-east - Kent.
Viking Invaders - In later Saxon times, Vikings from Scandinavia first raided and then invaded Britain. Saxon resistance centred in Wessex under the brave King Alfred the Great. A Fragile Trust and Destiny (March 2006) show the courage of those who lived and loved in such dangerous times. (See below - King Alfred.)
The warrior thane The thane, or noble warrior, wore chain mail like a medieval knight and used a sword and spear and perhaps a battle axe.
Swords were objects of beauty and veneration, decorated with silver or gold, given a name, and possessing a character as distinct as a person’s.
A thane and his lady might well be able to read, in English and possibly Latin.
The thane did not live in a castle, but in a high-roofed wooden hall, much like the “Golden Hall of Rohan” in the “Lord of the Rings” films.
Was it gloomy? Imagine it torchlit, perhaps filled with the glow of oil lamps. It might have been rough to our eyes, but it would have been filled with colour.
King Alfred’s hall in Destiny had carved and painted pillars and was hung with a brilliant tapestry which the Lady Judith (Fearless) helped to create.
Anglo-Saxons were gaudy.
Ash (A Fragile Trust) finds a hall with carved and painted pillars. King Alfred’s hall has fine tapestries hung on the walls.
The Lady
Women enjoyed a measure of strength and independence lost to them in later medieval times. It might have been a warrior’s world but was easier for women to inherit and keep property than in the later Middle Ages.
A free woman could own property or inherit it and could defend her rights in a court of law. When she married, she personally kept the “morning gift” with which her husband wooed her. She could divorce him, and she and her brother oversaw the rights of her children.
The lady wore a long dress, or ‘kirtle’, with a tunic over the top. If she was wealthy, her clothes would be fine, decorated with braiding and embroidery.
The church expected her hair to be covered with a veil. St Aldhelm fulminated against hair at the forehead and temples being crimped with a curling iron and bright-coloured headdresses sewn with interlaces of ribbons!
The lady would have worn jewellery and probably natural cosmetics.
Who else?
The churl, or independent farmer, peasant farmers, blacksmiths, swordsmiths, goldsmiths, merchants, monks, nuns and priests, minstrels, servants and slaves.
How did one become a slave? Nothing to do with race. A person might be born so, rather like a later medieval serf or unpaid servant. Or slavery might be punishment for a crime. It might be the fate of a captive taken in war (particularly after the Vikings invaded). Wulf became a slave in Forbidden.
A Word on Runes
Runes were symbols which functioned as an alphabet long before the Latin script we use became common.
Their angular shapes had a practical application that allowed them to be easily carved into wood or stone. But in an Anglo Saxon’s mind, runes also had a mystical meaning.
The Vikings - Distant Cousins and Dangerous Enemies
Legend says that in 793 fiery dragons flew through the night sky of Northumbria - omens of the Vikings’ first raid, a fearsome plundering of the Lindisfarne monastery. Raiding became invading. Just like the Anglo Saxons several hundred years before, the Vikings were coming to Britain to stay.
At home, the Scandinavians were farmers and craftsmen, traders and lovers of song and story, loosely sharing a similar northern background to the Saxons. However, the bands of Viking warriors who chose to sail out in their hauntingly beautiful longships became a fierce fighting elite, plundering their way through Europe with stunning success.
These Viking “great armies” were skilful and almost unbeatable. The story of the stubborn opposition to the almost overwhelming force of the Vikings, then the eventual absorption of the invaders into British life, forms the background to my books.
The Vikings’ amazing legacy lives on in so many fascinating ways, from words taken into the English language, to the unexpected reminder of their organisational skills still visible in the regularly spaced shop frontages of the English city of York.
