I'm still not exactly sure why I wanted to set The Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff in the Early Middle Ages, but I know that I was drawn to stories of the period. I started writing the story in about 1994, before I started my MA, so the interest was sparked by history books for the general market and I had not at that stage picked up a copy of Bede's Ecclesiatical History to begin to read the primary sources - indeed at that time I knew more about the later Historia Britonnum and Annales Cambriae than I did about the Anglo-Saxon sources.
What I was aware of was the prominent position of Northumbria at that time. I have since learned to develop a layer of scholarly cynicism, to see Bede and other contemporary writers as people with agendas and bias, not as pure, disinterested chroniclers of events. Nonetheless, there was definitely something dynamic and vital about the kingdom in the 7th century, a fact that is attested in the monumental sculpture, the incredible illuminated manuscripts and the fact that no other kingdom at the time produced so many writers who could present their stories of saints and kings and be preserved after Northumbria had ceased to be independent and became a relatively minor earldom and ultimately remembered only through the county name of Northumberland.
It is difficult to define when the concept of Northumbria came into being and whether it was meant to represent a unified political force or to be descriptive of a group of peoples who came to be united. The inverse term of South Humbrians was certainly used (by Bede, of course) to refer to all the other English kingdoms, but that label did not stick, largely because the South Humbrians included Mercia and the West Saxons, who were to be the main rivals in later centuries for the dominance of England.
There were two principal dynasties involved in the formation of Northumbria, the Idings in the north and the Soemilings in the south. The Idings ruled a land given the Latin name of Bernicia, which I have called Bernice (not pronounced Ber-nees like the girls' name, but Ber-nee-che). The Soemilings ruled ina land in modern Yorkshire called Deira, which I have given the alternative name of Dere in the book after the name of the Roman road which runs from York to Edinburgh.
Ida was a king of Bernicia and is said to have joined Bernicia and Dinguaire (Dinware in the book). As the older name given in Welsh sources for Bamburgh is Dingauiraroy (or something similar), this seems to represent a more southerly kingdom, probably centred on the River Tyne, absorbing a more northerly one. Ida seems to have had a lot of sons, the greatest of whom was Æthelric. They were under repeated attack particularly by Urien of Rheged and Morcant, but they survived it all in part because the Welsh were divided and Urien was killed by an assassin. Æthelric's son, Æthelfrith, was the first king of both Bernicia and Deira. He also seems to have expanded his territories westwards at the cost of kingdoms like Rheged and its forgotten southern neighbours.
Soemil is named in the ancestry of the kings of Deira, but may not have been an actual person. For the purposes of the book, I have assumed that he was, and that the Grufflings are descended from him, thus giving them royal blood. The first king of Deira named in history was Ælle, for his name is said to have been known to slave traders in Rome, as recounted in the Life of St Gregory. It was Ælle that was defeated by Æthelfrith when he became ruler of both kingdoms. Ælle's son Eadwine (Edwin) was forced into exile until the time was ripe for his return. Eadwine defeated Æthelfrith and in turn ruled over both Deira and Bernicia, the only Soemiling to do so. The importance of the line continued after his death, however, as we shall see in time.
Into this situation I have placed our family of Grufflings. The two older boys were born in Deira and stayed there as fosterlings when their mother died. Their father was sent north into Bernicia, to the place that Bede tells us was called Ad Gefrin and is know called Yeavering, in Northumberland. Here he remarried, a political match to a princess from the fallen royal family of Rheged. They had two sons and a daughter, born in the north and of mixed ancestry - they differ from their elder brothers in being biligual, learning Welsh from their mother even though English was their main language. When Edgar and his elder brother Athelred join the family, they are almost full grown men, and Athelred is taken by his father as his assistant. The younger boys learn to get along with their older brothers, but the differences between them can cause arguments to flare up - as with brothers anywhere.
In AD 633 two significant events seem to have occurred. The first was that Cearl of Mercia (or Mierce) was deposed by a kinsman called Penda. The second was that Cadwallon (or Cadwalla), who was the king of Gwynedd, rebelled against Eadwine. Together with this same Penda, he marched out against Eadwine, who fell at Hatfield Chase. Cadwallon stormed northwards, harrying the land and seeking out any English settlers, putting them to the sword. Bede states that his intention was to destroy the English race. This is the situation facing the family at the beginning of the book. The events at Yeavering are not part of history, although the excavation there by Brian Hope-Taylor identified two attempts to burn the place to the ground, neither of which was particularly successful. I have taken the first attempt as being in AD 633 and have based my account around that fact.
In a future post I will discuss the aftermath of Eadwine's death further, as it has an impact on one minor character and will affect the world to which the Grufflings return.
