Hereric existed and was Eadwine’s nephew. It is not known whether Hereric was the son of a sister of Eadwine or of a brother, and his date of birth is not known, although a minimum age can be conjectured from information given by Bede. Bede also tells us that Hereric lived in Elmet during at least part of Aethelferth’s reign in Deira. Everything else concerning Hereric is my invention.
King Ceretic of Elmet existed, and was king of Elmet during part or all of Aethelferth’s reign in Deira, though the date of his accession is not known.
Osric of Deira, son of Eadwine’s uncle Aelfric and therefore Eadwine’s cousin, existed, though it is not known what happened to him during Aethelferth’s reign in Deira.
Aethelric of Deira – there is confusion here. Bede does not mention him, but the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions a king called Aethelric who succeeded Aelle and ruled for five years. The date given in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for Aelle’s death is 588 AD, which conflicts with Bede’s statement that Aelle and Aethelferth were both ruling north of the Humber when St Augustine arrived in 597 AD. However, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle refers to ‘Northumbria’, whereas Bede is quite clear that Deira and Bernicia were separate kingdoms at this time, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle may have confused an Aethelric of Deira with Aethelferth’s father, Aethelric of Bernicia. If Aethelric of Deira existed, his relationship to Aelle and Eadwine is not known. I decided to make Aethelric of Deira a separate individual from Aethelferth’s father, and to make him a cousin of Eadwine and a client king ruling as Aethelferth’s puppet. This could account for his absence from Bede’s account but also explain his appearance elsewhere.
Lilla existed, and Bede tells us that he was Eadwine’s thane and best friend and describes the date and manner of his death. Nothing else is known.
A thane called Fordhere also existed and is mentioned in Bede, but all we are told is the date and manner of his death.
King Caedbaed of Lindsey is mentioned in the genealogy of the kings of Lindsey and his position in the list puts him in approximately the early seventh century. Nothing is known of him.
King Aethelbert of Kent, according to Bede, was overlord of all the English kingdoms of southern Britain in 604 AD and died in 616 AD.
King Iago of Guenedot (Gwynedd) is mentioned in medieval Welsh genealogies, Annales Cambriae and the Welsh Triads. Annales Cambriae dates him to the early seventh century.
All the other people and events in the story are my invention.
Note on proper names
A small number of Old English personal names survived into later centuries and are still in use as Christian names (e.g. Edward, Edwin, Alfred). I have deliberately used archaic spellings for such names (e.g. Eadweard, Eadwine, Aelfred), for consistency with the many other Old English names that did not survive and do not have modern spellings.
The name Rhonwen is, as far as I know, a Welsh form of the name Rowena and is not attested before Geoffrey of Monmouth. However, the man’s name Rhun is recorded in 6th- and 7th-century contexts, and it seems not unreasonable to me that there might also have been an equivalent feminine form (Rhunwen, or Rhonwen) in use at the same time.
Note on place names
I have deliberately avoided using regional, ethnic or linguistic labels that still have meaning in a British context today. So I refer to the island as Britannia (not Britain), its Romano-British inhabitants and their language as Brittonic (not British or Welsh), and its Early English inhabitants and their language(s) as Anglian or Saxon (not English).
Where the place names of the period are recorded or can reasonably be conjectured, I have used them. Some of them, such as river and hill names, are still in use in the present day. Where multiple names are recorded for the same place (e.g. York was called Eboracum in Latin texts, Caer Ebrawg in medieval Welsh poetry, and Eoforwic by the early English), I have used the one which seemed most appropriate in the context. Where place names have been lost, for example in regions that would probably have spoken Brittonic languages at the time but now have English or Norse place names, I have invented place names that seem to me reasonable for the places described and have given them in modern English. For the most part these are topographical names (e.g. Black Hill, Stony Ford, Shivering Mountain), with a handful of mythological names (e.g. Portal of Annwn). This roughly reflects the form of modern place names in Welsh and Scots Gaelic, and therefore seems reasonable for an earlier relative of these cultures.
All the places described are real places. The glossary gives their modern equivalents, so the interested reader can identify them on a modern map such as a motoring atlas if so inclined. The major places are also plotted on the sketch map at the front of the book. Where I have been able to find out what the place looked like at the time (e.g. the Roman fortifications at York) I have described them faithfully. Otherwise I have made what seems to me to be a reasonable estimate, based where possible on evidence from similar sites elsewhere. I should admit here that the excavated Roman sewer at Church Street in York is only 1m high, and in the novel I describe a sewer (in a different part of the city) as about 2m high (similar to the sewers excavated at Roman Chester) because otherwise it would have been a most unpleasant obstacle for Heledd to negotiate. Routes of Roman roads are mostly from the Ordnance Survey map of Roman Britain.
Glossary of Place Names
Ardotalia: Melandra Castle Roman Fort, Glossop, Derbyshire. The English Place-Name Society is of the view that ‘Melandra’ is the invention of an 18th-century antiquarian, and that Ardotalia is the most likely Roman name of the fort
Beacon Bay: Whitby, Yorkshire (translation of Streanashalch)
Bebbanburgh: Bamburgh, Northumberland
Bernicia: Kingdom occupying roughly the area of modern Northumberland and parts of south-east Scotland
Bleak Hills*: Bleaklow Hill, Derbyshire
Boggle Bay*: Robin Hood’s Bay, Yorkshire. Boggle Hole is still a local landmark at the southern edge of the bay, and the local name for the village is Bay Town. I have combined the two to invent a possible early name.
Britannia: The island of Britain
Caer Luel: Carlisle
Caerlegion: Chester
Calcacaster: Tadcaster, Yorkshire
Calchvynydd**: White Peak District, Derbyshire
Catraeth: Catterick Bridge Roman Fort, Yorkshire
Chilbage Brook: Ladybower Brook, Derbyshire. Chilbage Brook is recorded in a document of 1656. No meaning is known, nor are there earlier forms of the name recorded.
Combe*: Hope, Derbyshire
Dal Riada: Kingdom occupying roughly the area of modern Argyll
Deira: Kingdom occupying roughly the area of modern Yorkshire
Derwent Bridge*: Bamford, Derbyshire (invented from Bamford = beam ford = ford where there used to be a bridge built of beams)
Derwent Hafod*: Shieling at the confluence of Abbey Brook and River Derwent, beneath the present site of Howden Reservoir, Derbyshire
Derwent Stone*: Hope Cross, Derbyshire
Derwent Vale*: Valley of the River Derwent, Yorkshire, east of York city
Derwentcaster*: Malton Roman Fort, Yorkshire
Eboracum: York Roman Legionary Fortress. Also called Eoforcaster (Anglian) and Caer Ebrawg (Brittonic)
Eboracum Vale*: Vale of York, west of York city
Elmet: Kingdom occupying the area around modern Leeds
Eoforwic: Anglian settlement just south of York Roman Legionary Fortress, around the confluence of the rivers Foss and Ouse
Fulla’s cabins*: Fylingthorpe, North York Moors
Gododdin, kingdom of: Kingdom occupying roughly the area of modern Lothian and Edinburgh
Great Stone Edge*: Stanage Edge and Froggatt/Curbar/Baslow Edges, Derbyshire
Great Wall*: Hadrian’s Wall
Guardian Howe*: Lilla Howe, North York Moors
Guenedot: Kingdom occupying roughly modern North-west Wales. The modern spelling of the name is Gwynedd
Heatherford*: Hathersage, Derbyshire
Home of the Gods*: Goodmanham, Yorkshire
Kyndyr: Kinder Scout, Derbyshire
Lindsey: Kingdom occupying roughly modern Lincolnshire
Loidis: Leeds
Lousy Hill Lane: Road linking Littlebeck with Red Gate, North York Moors. It’s a modern name but too wonderfully descriptive to resist.
Lundencaster: London Roman Fort
Makerfield: Area in west Lancashire, west of Manchester. I have extended it to include the area of modern Greater Manchester
Navio: Navio Roman Fort, Brough, Derbyshire
Picts, kingdom of: Kingdom occupying modern North and East Highlands of Scotland, north of the Forth valley and east of the main mountain spine. ‘Picts’ is a Latin name and their own name for themselves is not known.
Portal of Annwn*: Peak Cavern, Derbyshire
Rheged: Kingdom occupying modern Cumbria, southern Galloway and part of Lancashire
Shivering Mountain*: Mam Tor, Derbyshire. The hill is locally known as Shivering Mountain because of the frequent landslips on its southern face.
Strat Clut: Kingdom occupying the area of modern Strathclyde
Swine Hill: Lose Hill, Derbyshire (from hlose hyll = pigsty hill)
Water of Annwn*: Peakhole Water and lower River Noe,
Derbyshire
Wharfedale: Modern Wharfedale. Heledd’s hall is imaginary, somewhere near modern Ilkley. I’m afraid ‘dale’ is an anachronism because it is derived from a Norse word that wouldn’t have been in use in Britain for another two centuries, but it has the benefit of being recognisable.
Wicstun: Market Weighton, Yorkshire
Withy Hill: Win Hill, Derbyshire (‘withy hill’ recorded in late 13th century)
* Invented name
** Name documented but location uncertain. Various modern authorities place it in the Chilterns and in the area around Kelso; I have chosen to place it in the White Peak. As it is a descriptive topographical name (its elements mean ‘chalk or limestone hills or uplands’), it is quite possible that several places with chalk or limestone uplands had this name in the seventh century, just as there are several hills called Ben More (‘big hill’) in modern Scotland.
It should be noted that the boundaries of the kingdoms are not known with any certainty and probably fluctuated considerably over time according to the relative military strength of their own and neighbouring kings.
Last words
At the end of Paths of Exile we have reached early spring in 606 AD. There are still nearly eleven years to go before Bede takes up the story, so Eadwine and his friends will fight again.
I hope you enjoyed reading the novel. If you have any comments or questions, why not get in touch? I like to hear from readers, and can be contacted by email at: [email protected]
About the Author
Carla Nayland is a scientist with a lifelong interest in history and archaeology. She has long been fascinated by the early medieval period, sometimes called the ‘Heroic Age’ or the ‘Dark Ages’, the centuries after the end of the western Roman Empire. This was a formative time in British history, and it was in this period that the countries of England, Scotland and Wales first began to emerge. It was a colourful period of tremendous diversity, with numerous religions, ethnic groups, languages and cultures all jostling for position. We are lucky enough to have a near-contemporary source, a history of the church in England written by the Venerable Bede in 731 AD, which is full of vivid characters, drama, warfare, intrigue and betrayal. Carla Nayland set out to bring this little-known period of history to life through historical fiction.
Numerous articles on the history and culture of seventh-century Britain, including the historical background to Paths of Exile, can be found on Carla’s website and blog:
www.carlanayland.org http://carlanayland.blogspot.com
Subjects range from the use of silk in Anglo-Saxon England to human sacrifice, and new articles are regularly added.
She also writes fiction set in an invented world loosely based on medieval Britain: Ingeld’s Daughter is available as a free PDF from Carla’s website: http://www.carlanayland.org
The double headed dragon on the cover was designed and embroidered by the author. It is based on two dragons: one is the fearsomely stylised creature in bronze gilt of the Sutton Hoo shield; the other appears as an illuminated letter in the Lindisfarne Gospels.
Paths of Exile Page 41