The Books
This series of books is set in 651 AD, in the eastern kingdom of East Anglia. Three young companions, Aelfric, Eanfled and Daegal, fight against the roles they have been assigned in their secluded neighborhood. With war at their doorstep, they venture beyond to face an increasingly testing set of problems, each the result of their previous success. Beyond treasure, they find lasting bonds which form the true foundation of their own community.
When the initial “Interlude” was written, it ended at the return from their first journey. I was curious about what happened to these people and continued the story with a second journey of a similar length. The resulting book was long for its genre, so I have split it into its natural halves: “Hunt for a Different Day” and “The Morning Gift”. These follow the same plot as Interlude, just expanded with a few more tales and a better awareness of who the characters will become.
“Interview with a Giant” explores how Aelfric and Eanfled attempt to demonstrate maturity in their new positions to the elders who think they are their betters. The first books also did not do justice to Daegal’s fiancée, Mae. Here she is able to show who she really is.
“Denial of Gilt” finds Aelfric and Eanfled evolving their relationship as adults. It also finds them treated as such by the royal benefactors who had previously treated them as curiosities.
In addition to the books themselves, the tales told within the main stories have been included in “Tales from the Hearth”. They seemed to deserve a place of their own.
Hunt for a Different Day
Early Anglo-Saxon England was the stage of persistent wars between the great kingdoms. We find the heir to a small estate in the kingdom of East Anglia captured during one of these. It is a crisis for his community, but for Aelfric, his younger brother, it is an opportunity to escape the frustrating limits of village life. A journey to rescue him will allow him to look for a destiny of his own.
With limited means and no knowledge of the outside world, he has to rely on the resources of two others: Eanfled, daughter of a wealthy thane; and Daegal, an orphan from a neighboring kingdom. Both are also struggling with loss and find in Aelfric's quest an opportunity to break free of the expectations which define their own lives.
To succeed, their journey will require all three to put their lives on the line. Aelfric is reluctant to do this but finds Daegal has unexpected skills. In Eanfled he is alarmed at her enthusiasm for the danger he is putting her in, making him question the relationship that is growing between them.
The Morning Gift
The wars between the Great Kingdoms had drawn Aelfric out of his quiet existence and into a wider and more dangerous world. The success of his initial quest, and the manner in which he achieved it, had been noticed, though, and he finds himself pulled into the affairs of court life. A new quest sets him on another hunt across the Eastern kingdoms, this time in search of an ancient letter, promised as a gift to the Princess Aethelthryth on her marriage. The resulting alliance would expand the Kingdom of East Anglia westwards. Without the letter, the marriage would not happen.
In the previous weeks, Aelfric’s colleague, Daegal, had reconnected with his roots in the fens of Gyrwe, and had proved he had skills which would be critical to the success of any future adventures.
Eanfled was another matter. The bond between Aelfric and Eanfled had evolved to a point where they each had expectations of the other. These did not necessarily match. For her, it meant a sharing of his life, including the dangers. For him, his concern for her safety made him reluctant to include her in the hunt. It was, after all, barely two weeks since he had saved her from northern raiders. It was a debt she was aware of, a debt she would settle by rescuing him from the same raiders.
Interview with a Giant
Folkright, the common law of early Anglo-Saxon times, laid out the rules of community life, controlling property and succession as well as the criminal codes. Enforcement would come from the privileged who took their authority from the king. This is how Aelfric’s father described it, but he then continued with the reality that justice was half a kingdom away and a month too late.
The fortunes had been kind to Aelfric. After a testing few months, they had allowed him to return home with the opportunity to start a life of his choosing. He quickly realized the truth of his father’s words, that his fortune was enough to buy an estate but not to keep it. Making it a home for those he cared for most, could simply put them in danger. The wits he had used on his previous ventures were not enough. He knew he was not yet prepared and would have to prove his worth.
Ultimately, though, the safety of his new estate would come from an unexpected ally.
Denial of Gilt
Anglo-Saxon settlements were isolated by nature, requiring a high degree of self-sufficiency for survival. Life was hard, also by nature, but the ties of community allowed burdens to be shared, and joys to be amplified. It was not difficult to persuade communities to fight for what was theirs; they had common purpose and local loyalties. When distant kings, with increasing aspirations, demanded these communities fight for them, common purpose was harder to establish and unquestioned loyalty was not always enough.
Treasure was usually an effective inducement but it was an inexact currency. For two hundred years, armies had been small and coin had been rarely needed or used to raise them. It would only be a matter of time before ambitious kings would realize that the business of war would be simplified if the minting of coins was revived.
Two coins had set in motion Aelfric's first adventures away from home. The fates had protected him during that time, allowing him to establish a community of his own during an interlude in the wars between kings. But these fates demanded a price for their support. He had been noticed,and the task they set him was to delay that revival.
Tales from the Hearth
These tales are included in the narrative to provide insight into the characters, in a time where the medium of the day was the spoken word. Whenever I read from the books for others, the choice is inevitably one of these tales. They are collected here to give them some space of their own.