Special Guest Post by David Pilling, Author of The Northman (The Bloody Hand Saga Book 1)

Available from Amazon US and Amazon UK 

“William came over the sea, with bloody hand came he...”

1069 AD. Three years after the Battle of Hastings, William of Normandy had yet to crush resistance in England. To the north, the people of the Danelaw refused to bow to the Norman yoke. In the east, the famous Hereward waged savage resistance in the fens of Lindsey. Meanwhile the sons of Harold Godwinnsson, backed by a Viking fleet, planned to return and avenge their father.

To begin with, the most serious threat came from the north. In 1068 the earl of Northumbria, Gospatrik, joined forces with Edgar Aetheling, the last male descendent of the House of Wessex. William raced north to deal with the revolt, which melted away in the summer. Several of the rebel leaders, including Edgar, fled into Scotland to take refuge at the court of Malcolm III.

This was not the end of the trouble. William had replaced Gospatrik with one of his Norman followers, Robert Comines, who was slaughtered by English rebels at Durham in 1069. Afterwards the rebels turned once again to York, where they killed the Norman constable and many of his men. At the same time fresh revolts broke out all over the kingdom, from the Welsh border to Dorset, Shrewsbury and Devon. William was forced to fight another pitched battle at Stafford, where he scattered a rebel army.

Many of the rebels took to the woods and fens. The most famous of them was Hereward, later called 'the Wake', an obscure Lincolnshire thegn who set up camp inside the impenetrable fens of Ely. Although Hereward's deeds were later exaggerated, he posed a serious enough threat to the Normans. Another famous rebel leader was Eadric 'the Wild', a thegn of Shropshire who allied with Welsh princes and launched ferocious raids on the Norman garrisons at Shrewsbury and Hereford.

The Normans called these forest outlaws the 'silvatici', which translates as 'wild men' or men of the woods. According to a Norman chronicler, Orderic Vitalis, these men lived in rough tents in the wild, disdaining to live in houses lest they became soft. The Abingdon chronicle says that many plots were hatched by the English, that some hid in woods and others in islands, plundering and attacking others who came in their way.

Many strange legends gathered about the silvatici. For instance, Hereward was said to have slain a gigantic bear in combat, while Eadric became associated with all kinds of folk-tales. In one tradition Eadric marries a succubi, a type of demon or supernatural entity, who bore him a son named Aelfnoth. Others claim Eadric is still alive, trapped in the mines beneath the wild hills of Shropshire, and that he is the leader of the Wild Hunt: a band of ghostly horsemen that sweep across the land at certain times of year.

The tale of this bloody and brutal time is written by Thorkell Skaldsson, once a bard in the service of Waltheof, the last English earl. In old age, thousands of miles from England, he still mourns the conquest of his homeland. Before he dies, Thorkell has vowed to write the truth...of Duke William, Harold Hardrada and Sweyn of Denmark, of the Emperor Alexios and the mighty city of Micklegarth...of the fall and rise of the English.

The Northman has one last saga to tell...

David Pilling  

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About the Author

David Pilling is a writer and researcher, addicted to history for as long as he can remember. The medieval era has always held a fascination for him, perhaps because he spent much of his childhood exploring the misted ruins of castles in Wales. David also has a keen interest in the Byzantine Empire, the post-Roman period in Britain and the British & Irish Civil Wars. Find out more at David's website http://pillingswritingcorner.blogspot.com/ and follow him on Facebook and Twitter @RobeH2