The other project

I have referred to it elsewhere on this blog as "the other project." Well, if you are interested in finding more about it, I have uploaded it onto Authonomy where it is free to view in its unedited form. To view it you will need to be a member of Authonomy; a website run by Harper Collins which allows authors to showcase their work in the hope of receiving constructive criticism and (hopefully) attracting the attention of the editors at Harper Collins or even another publisher.

So, what is the other project? The title it is currently lurking under is "Cædmon: The Lord's Poet."

"Here, my friend, take the harp. I am sure you can entertain us with a fine lay!"

When his lord makes him swear an oath never to sing his greatest composition again, and carrying a burden of additional lies and slanders, Cædda seeks refuge in anonymity and exile as a slave near remote Streneshalh.

His past returns to haunt him when a menacing stranger appears at the Winterfilling Feast, calling upon him to sing.

Eluding his pursuer, he finds refuge in an isolated cow byre. As he contemplates his life story and his immediate situation, he must make a final decision.

Can the Lord’s Poet avoid retribution again, or is it time to rise to the challenge and embrace his destiny?

The Library

Some time ago I published a list of books on this blog. All of the books shared a common theme: historical settings which can be described as Anglo-Saxon, separated by defining them in terms of blocks of time within this span, which includes both Dark Age and Early Medieval periods.

As is the way of posts, this list has long since dropped to the bottom and is therefore hard to find. Even though I have added to it over time, it remains quite anonymous. Therefore I created a new page called the Library, which has all of the books on this list as well as being an opportunity for me to expand the list into new categories.

I have included a section on Children's books which relate to the same periods of history and to stories with a modern setting but with influences from Anglo-Saxon or Norse literature.

You can see the Library here

A look at other fiction set in the Early Middle Ages

There is a good sized body of historical fiction with an Anglo-Saxon bent out there. Most of it is good, often it can be seriously flawed, but generally it is entertaining stuff and a good way to bring to life the period. I have arranged the list below into roughly chronological periods which are however undefined in terms of dates.

My most common dissatisfaction with books about the period is simple things being wrong, such as pre-Viking Age characters being given Scandinavian names when there is a substantial choice of English names and enough name elements known to make up your own constructs. Then there is the treatment of Anglo-Saxon paganism as being identical to Scandinavian paganism but with a W at the beginning of Odin, not to mention good old fashioned anachronisms. There are a few other points along these lines but this is not the place to make specific criticisms. As these all point to Amazon, take into account the customer reviews there - there may even be some of mine!

NB: An updated list is available here.

Settlement Period
Rhinegold Technically this is of only passing connection to the Anglo-Saxons, being set in Europe throughout, but I have included it for character and because it is truly outstanding!
Hengest's Tale An account of Hengest's adventures in Frisia, possibly aimed at a younger reader.
Men Went to Cattraeth From the other side: an account of the Gododdin.
Ragnarok Bad title (suggestive of Viking Age) for a good book. A British noblewoman marries an English king.
The Way Of Wyrd: Tales of an Anglo-Saxon Sorcerer Not certain what period this belongs to but it is presumably early rather than late. The title says it all.
The Saga of Beowulf A modern retelling of Beowulf. Originally conceived in two episodes, The Land of Death and Shadow followed by The Land of Fire and Ice. It is also available on Kindle

Heptarchy Period
The Amber Treasure (Northern Crown) Set in the 6th/7th century in Deira
Ship Burial: The Rune of Ing A Christian mission from Kent to East Anglia finds the way is less than smooth.
Paths of Exile King Edwin's life as an exile after his father's death.
Storm Frost Set in the 7th century but the location is unknown.
Brightfire: A Tale of Sutton Hoo Sequel to Storm Frost set in 7th century East Anglia
The Whispering Bell Set in 7th century Mercia - the tale of an orphaned girl.
Month of Swallows Story of Hilda, a girl in the court of King Edwin of Northumbria
Holy Isle Sequel to Month of Swallows. Good luck finding a copy (you are up against me for one!)
Wolf Girl A crime story set in 7th century Northumbria

Viking Period
The Last Kingdom Northumbrian exile fights the Vikings
The Pale Horseman Northumbrian exile at Athelney with Alfred of Wessex
The Lords of the North Northumbrian exile returns home
Sword Song Northumbrian exile returns to help Alfred of Wessex
The Burning Land Northumbrian exile saves Wessex
Hrolf Kraki's Saga Poul Anderson's faithful rendition of the saga with additional material from other sources makes for an almost saga-like reading experience; not to everyone's taste as it can feel like reading a translation rather than a work of fiction.
Byzantium Irish monk enslaved by Vikings finds his way by the Volga to Byzantium.
Raven: Blood Eye A Viking's life.
Raven: Sons of Thunder More Viking's life
The Whale Road Viking band in search of the treasure of Attila
The Wolf Sea Still looking for Attila's treasure by way of a stolen sword.
The White Raven Apparently finished with Attila's treasure the boys have problems at home.
The Prow Beast  Their homes lost and their boat sunk, the boys get involved in Swedish politics.
Far After Gold Scottish lass enslaved by Viking brute/hunk in M&B style kirtle-ripper

Pre-Conquest Period
The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth A look back at the Battle of Maldon from the grisly battlefield.
Mercenaries Norman lads go out to seek their fortune
Warriors Norman lads make a name for themselves in Italy
Conquest Normans + Conquest = ?  No, not 1066, this sees our Norman lads go on Crusade.
Housecarl The life of a Huscarl in Harold Godwinson's army.

Post-Conquest Period
Last of the English Story of Hereward the Wake
Hereward Another Story of Hereward the Wake (not yet published)

One final comment: I have discovered in the course of compiling this list that at least one book that I had listed elsewhere (but not here) is probably the work of a Neo-Nazi. The Anglo-Saxons seem to hold a great deal of fascination for English Neo-Nazis, so I suppose a small sample of books from the genre may reflect their distasteful world view. If any of the books here are of the same ilk, I unreservedly apologise for including them. This list is to be viewed as a wide sample of the genre rather than a list of recommendations!

The Billy Goats Gruff in Blighty!

The Adventures of the Three Billy Goats Gruff is now available from Amazon in the UK, priced £7.60

Thanks Amazon.co.uk for including the additional information that I sent in.

A small beginning

If you can't wait to get your hands on my book it is now possible to order copies of the Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff from the publisher, Eloquent Books. This is at the full (US) market price of $13. It should be available on Amazon and Barns & Noble soon.

Setting (1) The time and place at the beginning of the book

The book opens in the autumn of AD633 in a place I call Gatburgh. The ruler in the region at the time was King Eadwine. This land would later to be known as Northumbria but there was no such political sense of unity at the time and each separate component of the realm ruled by Eadwine had its own history and traditions. Gatburgh lies in the province that I have called Dinware from the Welsh Din Guaire. This later becomes merged in the popular mind with Bernice (Bernicia) which lay further to the south, centred on Tynedale and especially Corbridge.

Eadwine had converted to Christianity a mere six years earlier and so the religion from the south had strong backing but relatively weak roots. Christianity had been known of for much longer among the Welsh population of Britain, but although there had been Welsh Christians in the north of Britain for a long time, it would seem that this corner of England had remained pagan even up to the coming of the English. In my book I have assumed that it was the threat of encroaching Christianity that persuaded the leading families of Dinware to offer the rulership to Ida, a Saxon pagan already strong in Bernice to the south. By bringing in a strong pagan of a different tradition, they safeguarded their own ancient ways against the tide of Christianity. The tactic works for about two generations, maybe slightly longer. By this time the population is thoroughly mixed and the language of Ida and his successors dominates everyday life to the point that names of places are becoming English names.

Gatburgh is an attempt to give an English name to modern Yeavering; a place known to history as Ad Gefrin. This itself is a Latin rendition of Welsh Gafre Vrin which translates as the hill or place of the goats. My name Gatburgh derives from the Old English gat (goat) and burh (fortified place). The place is named in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Bede) as being a royal palace site, from where we get the Latinised name. Excavations by Brian Hope-Taylor (H-T) at Yeavering revealed a sequence of occupation whose earliest stages probably pre-date the Anglo-Saxon presence in the area but whose development clearly shows evidence of a change in building style that suggests the arrival of a new culture. I have assumed for the book that the name Gatburgh will fall out of use once Eadwine's people are no longer in command of the site.

You can see the attraction of the place for my story about goats. Yeavering was probably a site which in pre-Christian times was the centre of what can only be called a goat cult. This is echoed in Grave AX from H-T's site report which is mentioned in passing in my book and has both an animal skull and a broken staff in it. The animal skull, identified as a sheep by H-T, I have re-assigned as a goat. The two skull types are difficult to tell apart as the two species are very close (hybrids are possible). More importantly, the staff (which is discussed in terms of being a surveying device by H-T) is surmounted by a bronze and wood figurine that closely resembles a goat. This staff and another identical one come into the story at different points in time and are a significant part of the development of the story.

I still find it somewhat strange that I learned all of this long after I had chosen Yeavering as the origin place for the brothers; before I had really researched the place. Even the place-name was at that point an unknown factor, all that I knew was that it was a known site of Anglo-Saxon date. It was one of several times that I found things falling neatly into place as I developed my story. That I subsequently developed the story around the site I can only hold up my hand to but then it really is a fascinating site.

Links/further reading:
H-T's book Yeavering: An Anglo-British Centre of Early Northumbria is usually pretty expensive; I was fortunate to have access to it while studying at Newcastle University.
A more accessible format for information on this subject is Paul Frodsham's recent book Yeavering: People, Power and Place
More immediately you can view the Past Perfect website devoted to the location. Check it out (especially the sparrow's flight), it is well worth a visit!

Introduction

Hello world, this is the blog for the Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff, a novel by Kevin Futers (that's me!) about the Three Billy Goats Gruff, available from Eloquent Books in the near future.

I'm not certain at this stage what you can expect from this blog but I will try to keep things nice and simple, tell you a few things about the book and other things that are going on connected to the book, such as promotions and book signings.

For now I can tell you that the story takes the traditional story as a starting point and then takes the three protagonists (or antagonists if you take the trolls' viewpoint) on a quest to undo a curse. The action takes place against the background of the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland, England and The Borders Region of Scotland during the seventh century AD. It is a world still in touch with other realms of reality, a world where trolls walk freely in the waking world (so long as you are awake at night) and a walk in the mists can transport you to the delights and horrors of Elfland. It is a world on the cusp of change, a change that is fragile and could easily be halted.

The brothers Gruff are in Trolldom against their will because they have been turned into goats and only the trolls have the solution to their predicament. As we all know, things get off to a bad start over a simple bridge crossing. Can they turn the situation around and dispel the curse?