The Wolf's Lair

                     THE DEEDS OF EDWARD THE ELDER

1100 years ago King Edward the Elder was occupied in checking the depredations of the Danes.

An important part of Edward the Elder’s efforts against the Danes, as it had been of Alfred’s, was the construction of fortresses to restrict the freedom of movement of the invading armies. The restoration of Chester in 907 has already been noted. In November 911, Edward ordered a fort built at Hertford, blocking the southward advance of Danes from Bedford and Cambridge; in the summer of 912 he took his army to Maldon in Essex and camped there while a fort was built at Witham, blocking the westward advance of Danes from Colchester, while a second fort was built at Hertford.

ANGLO SAXON CHRONICLE ENTRY FOR 912 AD:

This year died Æthered, alderman of Mercia; and King Edward took to London, and to Oxford, and to all the lands that thereunto belonged.This year also came Æthelflæd,lady of the Mercians, on the holy eve called the invention of the holy cross, to Shergate, and built the fortress there, and the same year that at Bridgenorth.

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1011 AD was no cakewalk for England. The English had their hands full once again with a rampaging Viking army, as this entry in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle details.

This year sent the king and his council to the army, and desired peace; promising them both tribute and provisions, on condition that they ceased from plunder. They had now overrun East-Anglia, and Essex, and Middlesex, and Oxfordshire, and Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire, and Buckinghamshire, and Bedfordshire, and half of Huntingdonshire, and much of Northamptonshire; and, to the south of the Thames, all Kent, and Sussex, and Hastings, and Surrey, and Berkshire, and Hampshire, and much of Wiltshire. All these disasters befel us through bad counsels; that they would not offer tribute in time, or fight with them; but, when they had done most mischief, then entered they into peace and amity with them. And not the less for all this peace, and amity, and tribute, they went everywhere in troops; plundering, and spoiling, and slaying our miserable people. In this year, between the Nativity of St. Mary and Michaelmas, they beset Canterbury, and entered therein through treachery; for Elfmar delivered the city to them, whose life Archbishop Elfeah formerly saved. And there they seized Archbishop Elfeah, and Elfward the king’s steward, and Abbess Leofruna, and Bishop Godwin; and Abbot Elfmar they suffered to go away. And they took therein all the men, and husbands, and wives; and it was impossible for any man to say how many they were; and in the city they continued afterwards as long as they would. And, when they had surveyed all the city, they then returned to their ships, and led the archbishop with them.

Land of Ire is the second chronicle of my Viking/Anglo Saxon Age drama/action/suspense series. Set two years after the end of Blood Oath, Land of Ire follows Wulfric Orvarsson on his ill-starred journey through England and across the sea to forbidding lands where he must wage both an internal and external struggle in order to salvage the lives of his kinfolk. Fast-paced, heart-stopping and emotional, Land of Ire is a dark, thrilling excursion into the perilous world of the 10th century. Click below to be taken to the publisher’s website where you can order the book directly. The novel is also (or will be) available on most popular online book shops.

Apart from the wealth of factual medieval literary accounts of Viking depredations across the face of Northern Europe, the Icelandic Sagas feature numerous accounts of barbaric raiding by Norse pirates during the Viking Age. What many readers of such tales are not aware of is that there was an actual term that related to these raids. The strandhögg was not merely a haphazard and disorderly storming of a seaside village, it was often the calculated and deceptive practice of gaining the confidence of the local villagers, only to return later to systematically pillage those whose trust had just been earned. From this, so say the writers of the northern tales, was how a Viking “won great honor”!

I am in the final stretch of the second book, a sequel to The Raven & the Wolf: Blood Oath. Details on title and expected publication forthcoming.