The Rood and the Torc Read online

  “How long must I stay in hiding? Are you ashamed of me?” The voice asked.

  Kristinge sighed. He turned and faced Aewin. She gave him enough room to spin, but kept her arms around his waist. “I only worry about Eomaer—”

  “That he will still come and take me from you?” Aewin finished. “Do not fear. He could not keep me from you before, and he will not succeed now. I have chosen to be your wife.”

  Though he had taken Aewin as his wife more than three months previous, Kristinge still felt his heart pumping with excitement to hear those words. He leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. “Réadban is dead. His war band was defeated by the Franks.”

  “I heard.”

  “Why did I not know you would be listening?”

  Aewin shrugged.

  “Then you heard also that your brother survived, escaping the pursuing Franks on horseback?”

  “I heard.”

  “I am glad. Though I fear he seeks my life—” He couldn’t finish the sentence.

  “You did not betray him,” Aewin comforted.

  “Perhaps I did; perhaps I did not. But he feels betrayed and will not easily forgive.”

  “Then be content that I, at least, am yours,” Aewin said with a smile.

  “I am content,” Kristinge replied. Arm in arm, they stepped back into the hut.

  Historical and Literary Notes

  Most of the main characters of this book are my own creations. In particular, Kristinge son of Finn and Hildeburh, was born in my imagination, as was Aewin daughter of Eodan. The same is true of nearly all of the other Danish and Frisian characters in this story: Fjorgest, Aelfin, Dylfines the bard, Eomaer the brother of Aewin, Maccus, Ceolac, and so on. The only Frisian exceptions are the chieftain Aldgisl and the infant Rathbod.

  Willimond has as inspiration two historical figures: Wilfrid and Willibrord, late seventh and early eighth century missionaries to Friesland. Also, Willimond’s mentor Aidan was a real person, the “Apostle of Northumbria” and the founder of the famous monastery at Lindisfarne (or Lindisfarena as it was known in Old English). However, Willimond himself is also an imagined character.

  Some readers will recognize Finn and Hildeburh as literary figures from the poem Beowulf. While it is likely that the Beowulf poet himself based them on historical figures, not much is known about them other than what the Beowulf poet puts into the mouth of Hrothgar’s bard (who sings a poem within the poem at a celebration in the mead hall Heorot). The only other source we have about the fight at Finnsburg (which happened six years before this tale and forms its backdrop) is what can be gleaned from one other source, the fragmentary poem known as “The Finnsburg Fragment.”

  Nonetheless, every story must have a geographic and historical setting. My tale is set in northwestern Europe in the mid-seventh century during the waning days of the Merovingian Dynasty. I have sought to paint an accurate portrait of this historical setting and some of its famous figures. Many of the places, events, descriptions, and characters in this novel are based on historical and archaeological (as well as on literary) sources. For example, from references to a few historical events—the slaying of Grimoald by Clovis, followed not long after by the death of Clovis himself—the reader familiar with early Medeival Europe may even narrow the period of this novel to the years 656-658 ADE.

  The Irish monk Columbanus—whose shadow hangs over the early part of this story though he does not enter it—founded the three neighboring monasteries of Luxeuil, Annegray, and Fontaines. He was a famous and important figure in Merovingian Francia, and the sketch I tried to draw of him relies on historical sources. To say that his latter relationships with the ruling kings and queens of Francia were tumultuous would be an understatement.

  Saint Walbert was a Frankish nobleman who gave up the military and aristocratic life and eventually became the third abbot of Luxeuil in 628. He remained abbot for forty years (through the time this story takes place)—though he often lived a hermit’s life—and was responsible for bringing the Benedictine Rule to Luxeuil.

  Similarly, the abbess Telchild and her brother Agilbert were also real and important figures of the day, and both were buried in crypts at the monastery at Jouarre—another real place: a combined monastery and abbey which had close ties to Columbanus and Luxeuil. Agilbert eventually left Francia for Britain where he was consecrated as bishop, but his inability (or unwillingness) to learn Old English (and perhaps his contempt for the language and its people) seems to have been an impediment to his success there. At the famous Synod at Whitby in 664, Agilbert took the part of Rome against the Irish monastic tradition in the debate over the correct calculation for the dating of Easter. Though he appears only briefly in my tale, I did seek to depict him with a slightly less generous and gracious personality than his sister Telchild (also known as Theodechildis) about whom actually very little is known. There was also a real princess named Osanne, who ended up at Jouarre. (I have no reason to believe she was a visionary prophetess, but I’d like to think she might have been one.)

  All of the Merovingian kings and queens named in this book, as well as the various Mayors of the Palace, are also historical figures: Clovis and his wife Queen Balthild, Ebroin, Childebert, Sigibert, Dagobert, Chlotar (or Lothair), and Grimoald. Clovis was indeed believed to have been insane, and by all accounts he was at least as hedonistic as portrayed in this book, while his wife Balthild (who really had been a Saxon slave girl, though perhaps of noble lineage) was a great benefactor of the abbeys around Paris and indeed was a saintly figure. She founded the Abbey of Chelles (where she was eventually buried). After the death of her husband she gave up her title and spent the rest of her life caring for the poor and sick.

  Much less is known about Friesland (or Frisia) and its people than about Merovingian Francia. But something is known about two of the earliest missionaries to the Frisians. In 678, a monk named Wilfrid (who was actually Agilbert’s spokesperson for the side of Rome at the Synod at Whitby, and who also studied for a time at Lindisfarne) was traveling from England to Rome (after apparently being expelled from Northumbria). He was blown off course, or perhaps shipwrecked, and found himself in the Frisian town of Utrecht where he was taken in and harbored by a Frisian king named Aldgisl. He stayed in Friesland for some time preaching the gospel to the Frisians. According to some sources, Ebroin—who by that time was functionally ruling Francia—hated Wilfrid and sent messages to Aldgisl to have Wilfrid captured or killed. Aldgisl refused.

  Wilfrid did not stay long among the Frisians, and he was not very successful in winning converts. However in 690 a disciple of Wilfrid named Willibrord followed in Wilfrid’s footsteps and ended up spending most of the rest of his life in Friesland. He founded several churches, achieving at least moderate success and eventually becoming known as the “Apostle to the Frisians”.

  Unfortunately the Frisian king Aldgisl, who was supportive of the church, was succeeded by one Rathbod. Rathbod appears here, but only as an infant grandchild of the treacherous Réadban. There is some indication he might have been a child of Aldgisl, but it is not at all clear. I have made him a more distant relative instead. Whereas Aldgisl supported the missionary endeavor, Rathbod was a pagan who hated both Christianity and the Franks. In 716 he burned many churches, drove Willibrord out of Friesland, and rebelled against Frankish rule. He died in 719, some sixty years after this story takes place.

  The sources upon which I based my portrayals are many. They include a number of scholarly articles describing archaeological finds. One, amazingly enough, was particular to seventh century Friesland, describing especially its jewelry. The very narrowly focused article “Seventh-Century Jewellery from Frisia: A Re-Examination” by Ruth Mazo Karras (appearing in the journal Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 4, 1985) proved very interesting. Almost all of the Frisian villages mentioned in this novel are actual archaeological sites with relics from seventh century Frisian life. I have attempted to describe buildings, jewelry, weapons,
clothing and even the layout of the villages of both the Danes and Frisians as accurately as possible.

  Others sources were more general to the Germanic peoples of the early Middle ages and discussed everything from jewelry and coinage to weapons and religious artifacts. I also drew from a number of more general (less technical and more readable) books. My favorite was The Birth of France: Warriors, Bishops, and Long-Haired Kings by Katherine Scherman, but I also gathered bits of information as well as a more general sense of the time and its peoples from several other sources including: Everyday Life of the Barbarians: Goths, Franks and Vandals by Malcolm Todd; Christendom: a Short History of Christianity and its Impact on Western Civilization by Roland Bainton; The Church Under Siege by M.A.Smith; and Christianity and the Celts by Ted Olsen.

  I am particularly indebted to the late Professor Robert Farrell of Cornell University who introduced me to Old English Language and Literature, helped me through my first translations of Anglo-Saxon poetry, gave me an introduction to medieval archaeology and pointed me to many sources, and helped me gloss certain words such as wic using hints of older meanings. In many ways he helped inspire this book.

  I’m thankful also to numerous lectures on early medieval Europe from colleagues at Middlebury College and elsewhere over the past two decades. The scene of the land bequest to the monastery at Luxeuil in Chapter 1 is based on real practices of the day. Nobles and landowners might have been wealthy and powerful, but they were not always educated and in many cases could not read. As a result, a mere legal document with words on paper was worth much less, and thus the need for ceremonies with memorable events to mark the event of a land grant—and give it legal weight.

  My older brother Willard Dickerson III—who has a Ph.D. in medieval history from Cornell University and was studying for that degree at the same time I was studying Old English Language and Literature and medieval studies (also at Cornell)—also pointed me to several sources. Though his period of interest was several centuries later, he provided considerable assistance: talking with me about the writings of Bede, and finding good books for me.

  The Songs and Poetry

  A word or two should also be said about literary as well as historical and archaeological sources. Kristinge, the protagonist of this story, is a bard (as well as a monk, for a short time a king, and later a hermit). He sings many songs throughout the story: in Francia at the estates of nobles and in the palace of Clovis, later in the Danish mead hall of the chieftain Fjorgest, and eventually back among the Frisians in Aelfin’s hall in Ezinge.

  A small number of those poems are my compositions, but the majority are either translations of, or are adapted from, medieval poems in the Old English language—many of which have Danish heroes and presumable earlier Danish or Norse sources. In both my own original poems (such as the heroic lays of Folcwalda and Ulestan) and in my translations, I sought to keep the style of Old English poetry by including its alliterative scheme, style of imagery, and especially its metrical form: each line is composed of two half lines of two stressed and usually two unstressed syllables. Consider, for example, the line:

  From Hwitstan he went the wise thane Ulestan

  from hearth, from home, from hall and from king.

  Both of these lines have a triple alliteration. In the first, all three stressed syllables, all beginning with the “w” sound: “Hwit-”, “went”, and “wise”. The final stressed syllable would be “Ule-”. In the second line, the alliteration and stress is on the “h” sound of “hearth”, “home” and “hall.” (The two unstressed syllables per half-line is a loose rule; multiple syllables such as “-stan he” may blur together as one, or may simply be ignored.)

  The translations and adaptions of poetry are from the following poems:

  “The Pearl” (sung or chanted by Kristinge in Chapter 2)

  “Deor” (recited in part in Chapters 3 and 4)

  “The Dream of the Rood” (Chapter 8)

  “The Seafarer” (Chapter 10)

  As noted, the translations and adaptions of these four poems are partly my own—but not without help! I made use of several classic sources, including: John C. Pope’s edition of Seven Old English Poems including his commentary and glossary; Ralph Quirk and C.L. Wrenn’s An Old English Grammar; Bruce Mitchell and Fred Robinson’s A Guide to Old English; and Sweet’s Anglo-Saxon Reader. I also give my high recommendation to the thoroughly comprehensive volume, An Introduction to Old English, written by Prof. Jonathan Evans of the University of Georgia.

  The hermit’s song of Chapter 23, by contrast, is not my translation. It seems to date back at least to ninth century Ireland. When I first saw it many years ago, I copied it word for word thinking it would fit beautifully into the mouth of my seventh-century monk Kristinge, trained as he was by the Irish monk Willimond. Unfortunately, I have lost my source for this poem. However I have since been able to find the same translation in two books: The Foundations of Christian Art and St. Francis of Assisi and Nature.

  The Biblical stories and songs sung by Kristinge are more or less my own versions, but they were largely inspired by another Old English epic poem known as The Heliand, or “The Saxon Gospel,” which actually comes not from England but from Francia during the Carolingian dynasty (which succeeded the Merovingian). Here I am indebted G.Ronald Murphy’s beautiful translation and commentary, The Heliand: The Saxon Gospel.

  As a final note, some readers may wonder why I used Old English rather than Old Frisian poems as inspiration. The most important reason is simply that, essentially, there is no surviving literature in Old Frisian—nothing from before the twelfth century. There are, however, numerous surviving poems in Old English. And one should keep the following points in mind before worrying too much about the differences, or about putting Old English poems in the mouth of a Frisian bard singing in Francia and Denmark. Not only was Old English (or Anglo-Saxon as it is sometimes called) closely related to both Old Frisian and Old Danish, but as the story notes there were even many Saxon tribes and villages in Friesland. Songs and poems often traveled from one people to another, and similar tales can be found all over northern Europe—thus the presence of an Irish bard such Dyflines in Friesland would not have been altogether unheard of. Willimond came to Friesland from Anglo-Saxon England and would have brought its stories with him. Of course it is also simply the case that I myself, the author of this work, am English speaking and all of this tale has in one way or another been translated into English.

  As a lover of this poetry, I am delighted to share it with my readers. In the end, though, my primary goal was to tell a good story and a true story, and to tell it in the best way I know how.

  Glossary of Terms and of Persons, Historical and Fictional

  Terms

  axwei: From Old English, an “ox way” or “cow path” around the outside of a terpen village.

  hearthwerod: From Old English, this term could be rendered literally “hearth companions” but that would miss the depth of meaning of the term; it signified a strong bond of community of a chieftain and his most trusted warriors and advisors who lived together, fought together, slept together, and shared together the fellowship around the hearth fire in a Saxon or Frisian mead hall.

  rood: a wooden rod, or tree, and the first Old English word used to signify the cross of Christ.

  scop: a Germanic poet or bard, but also (especially in Denmark) one with religious teaching duties as well.

  terp: an artificial hill or mound, often created from old cow dung or clay, upon which settlements (such as Ezinge) were built offering both elevation above oft-flooded lowlands as well as a more defensible position against raiders and other enemies.

  torc: a band of twisted or wound gold worn around the neck of a chieftain as a sign of wealth and authority.

  wic: this term could mean simply a “home” or “settlement” near the sea, but it is often associated with a seaside location for trade. In this novel, following hints of an older meaning, it refers to a
“beach” or especially a sandy place where merchants could safely come ashore in longboats to trade. Coastal villages might themselves be called wics, or they might have nearby associated wics. The variant “wic”, “wich”, and “wick” often appear as a suffixes in English place-names.

  weregild: in Old English could be rendered simply as “blood gold” or “blood money”, but the underlying concept was deeper and was very important in old Germanic cultures (including Saxon, Frisian and Danish). When a chieftain or warrior was killed—in battle or lesser forms of manslaughter—the weregild was the price owed for that person’s death, and it was the obligation of the slain one’s kin (or thanes) to exact that price from the slayer. Though it might literally be paid in gold in order to prevent a further feud, often times the weregild was poetic metaphor for a revenge slaying.

  Persons (Fictional)

  Aelfin, son of Aeltar: a chieftain in the Frisian village of Ezinge, and once a friend and thane of Finnlaf, son of Finn.

  Aeltar: a one time loyal thane of Finn, and a chieftain of the Frisian village of Domburg.

  Aescholt: a Frisian warrior and cousin of Eomaer; the name means “grove of ash trees.”

  Aesher: a Danish chieftain, and a cousin of Fjorgest.

  Aewin: daughter of Eodan, a Frisian chieftain, and the brother of Eomaer. Was once promised in marriage to the Frisian prince Finnlaf, son of Finn, but Finnlaf was killed before the marriage.

  Benetus: a wealthy Gallo-Roman nobleman.

  Beow: is the name of both a legendary Danish hero of old and also Frisian warrior who becomes a thane of Folcwalda.

  Beowlaf: son of the Frisian warrior Beow and a thane of Finn.

  Berigyldan: a peasant in Hwistan during the reign of Finn, and the wife of Lopystre; the name means “golden berry.”

  Blostma: a peasant in Hwistan during the reign of Finn, and the daughter of Lopystre and Berigyldan, the name means “blossom.”