Showing results by author "Christopher Webster" in All Categories

After the death of his brother, Heorogar, in a battle with the Heathobards, a reluctant Hrothgar is appointed king. He immediately finds himself on the horns of a dilemma: does he fight the Heathobards, or does he offer his daughter, Freawaru, as a ‘peaceweaver’? Either decision seems doomed to fail: his army is not big enough to win a decisive victory, but if he makes peace, his nobles will think him weak and want to remove him from the throne. Hrothgar is best known from the Anglo-Saxon epic poem, Beowulf, where he appears in a background role as the king whose hall is attacked by a ...

Dreng (Anglo-Saxon): "Young warrior". Nithing, the first book of the English Dawn Pentalogy, begins in medias res, with Hengest exiled from Angeln for a revenge raid on Frisia which he led when only 17 years of age. This is the story of that raid and the events leading up to it.

"Now the Normans neared the standard, where Harold had stayed striving to the utmost, but the arrow had wounded him in the eye and he suffered piteously from the pain. A Norman baron sprang from the battle and hit him on the aventail of his helmet and beat him down. He did his best to get up again, but another knight beat him on the thigh through to the bone..." Book Three in this series includes this account of the Battle of Hastings based on Wace's Roman de Rou. Other stories include the adventures of a housecarl who, after the defeat at Hastings, joins the Varangian Guard, a story about ...

This collection of stories and poems covers the period from first wave of migration in c. 449 to the end of Anglo-Saxon England with the Norman Conquest in 1066 and include stories about the most popular Anglo-Saxon heroes and events, such as Hengest, King Alfred, the Battle of Maldon and the Battle of Hastings. They also include material from the common Germanic stock, such as the legends of Beowulf and Starkath.

Book III of The Jorvik Trilogy tells the story of Eric Bloodaxe, using the fragmentary skaldic poem Eiríksmál as a basis. After his father's death, Eric fights with his brothers for control of Norway, but is finally driven out by his brother, Hákon the Good. He takes the kingship of Jorvic at the invitation of Archbishop Wulfstan who wants the Kingdom of Jorvik to be independent of the Wessex hegemony. But as Wessex threatens and allies waver, Eric must deal with treachery, a demanding wife, and the ghosts of his own bloodthirsty past.

This story of amour courtois, senile lust, and true love is based on the ballad of Robin Hood and Allan-a-Dale. I have given it a Conisbrough setting at a specific date in history, 1190, one year after King Richard I left England to go on crusade, leaving his brother John to wreak havoc with the kingdom, and with the heart of his mistress, Adela, at Conisbrough Castle. Deserted by her royal lover, Adela makes a play for Allan-a-Dale, putting his life in jeopardy. Allan-a-Dale visits Conisbrough Castle and Adela takes a fancy to him. To make matters worse, Allan falls in love with her sister...

Attila explodes on the world, threatening to bring down the Roman Empire, and few can stand against him. Waldere is one, who, after escaping from Attila, and fighting single-handed, dispatches eleven of his attackers. Another is Aurelius, Britannia's rightful king, but in exile in Armorica. These heroes, and many others, join forces with Aetius, who has put together a shambolic army of allies, auxiliaries and and foederati, the last that Rome will ever field – but is it enough to protect the Empire from the fury of Attila? This is the second part of the English Dawn pentalogy, which tells...

This is the missing book of the Hengeid Tetralogy—an “Interquel” to be read between Books 2 and 3. It tells the dramatic tale of Attila and Waldere, shedding crucial light on the events that shape Hengest’s destiny. In 449, soon after Hengest’s first venture into Britannia, one of the most decisive battles in Western history raged in far away Gaul—the clash between Aetius, leading Rome's last legion, and the Hunnic hordes led by Attila. Among those in the fray was Hengest’s greatest rival for the dominion of Britannia: Aurelius Ambrosius—but will his legion survive the storm...

This collection of stories set in the Anglo-Saxon period begins with a novella about Brother Boniface, a monk who becomes the victim of a Viking raid. It also includes the story of Offa’s single combat in the English homeland of Angeln, Sigurd’s fight with the dragon Fafnir, Beowulf’s fight with the troll-wife, and several other lays and legends including a poem which explores what might have happened if the greatest Celtic warrior (King Arthur) were to be matched with the greatest Germanic warrior (Beowulf).

Britannia is overrun by migrants who speak a strange language and worship heathen gods, and Bishop Brice is given the job of trying to persuade the Romans to send a legion to drive them out. But the Romans have their own problems and are reluctant to spare any of their dwindling forces. However, a bishop called Germanus, eager to suppress the Pelagian heresy, manages to put together a small force to help the Britons. His religious zeal leads to a great victory at Maes Garmon - but can it protect him from the wiles of the Angle angel, Rowena? This is the fourth part of the English Dawn ...

A tomboyish girl, fond of stories of shieldmaidens and waelcyries, gets involved a viking raid led by her older brother. The raid goes wrong, and her stepmother tries to teach her that her 'womanly weapons' have more power. She goes on to seduce one king of Britannia and kill another, thus playing as large a part in the conquest of that country as her father, Hengest – but can she ever find true love? This is the third part of the English Dawn pentalogy, which tells the story of the conquest and settlement of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century, set against the broad sweep of ...

A nithing – an outcast – is set upon by robbers and nearly killed. But he fights back, joins their band, and eventually earns a place with King Hoc of the Half-Danes. That nithing is Hengest, hero of the Battle of Sonderburh, who rises to become the king’s thegn – until he is drawn into Hoc’s bitter feud with the Frisians, with consequences that will test his courage and loyalty. This is the first book in the English Dawn Pentalogy, a sweeping saga of the Anglo-Saxon conquest and settlement of 5th-century Britain. Set against the decline of the Roman Empire, Attila the Hun’s ...

"I am thy fool, and I shall lose my wits." In this dark and compelling idyll, the great wizard Merlin, wise, but weary, and growing old, falls under the spell of Vivien, a cunning and ambitious seductress. Through flattery and deceit, she seeks to learn his secrets and gain power over him. A tale of betrayal and the downfall of wisdom, Merlin and Vivien explores the dangers of desire and the fragility of even the greatest minds.

English Dawn tells the story of the conquest and settlement of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century, set against the broad sweep of events in the Dark Ages: the decline of the Roman Empire, the rise of Attila the Hun, the raids by the Picts and the Scots, and the usurpation of the kingship of Britannia by the tyrant, Vortigern. Anglo-Saxon culture is presented in all its richness, including the history and the legends, the arms and armour, and the songs and sagas. Celtic legends about the Sword of Albion and the dragons of Dinas Emrys are also included, along with an original ...

“The white dragon is the symbol of the incomers – Hengest and his Angle hosts. They seek to claim this land as their own, to carve kingdoms from its heart. The red dragon is the spirit of the native Britons, the blood of your people, resisting.” When Vortigern's tower crumbles and two dragons rise from the depths—one red, one white—only Merlin can uncover their meaning. Summoned to make sense of the omen, he reveals a vision of Britain's fate: the Red Dragon of the Britons locked in deadly struggle with the White Dragon of the Saxons. Though Merlin banishes the beasts, their ...

It is twenty years since Hengest and his warriors were driven from Britannia by Aurelius Ambrosius. Now Childric, his kinsman, hungers for revenge and the reconquest of what he calls Angleland. Yet one obstacle stands in his path: Merlin. To strike at Arthur’s greatest ally, Childric turns to the Angle wise woman, Morwei, who conjures the illusion of the Holy Grail—a lure designed to ensnare Merlin and lead Arthur’s marchogion to ruin. But can even such a deception undo the most sagacious of wizards? Note that, though the book is a sequel to the English Dawn Pentalogy, the story is ...

In Book II of The Jorvik Trilogy, Olaf Guthfrithson, a descendant of the legendary Ivar the Boneless and king of Dyflin, dares to challenge the might of England. Crushed at Brunanburh in 937, he bides his time until the death of King Athelstan enables him to capture Jorvik. Olaf quickly turns his sights to Mercia, taking the beautiful Wulfruna, First Lady of the Mercians, as prisoner. But when duty and desire clash, it is Olaf who finds himself the prisoner – of love.

Two poachers, Peter and Gregory, play a trick on Father Bernadine by stealing a cask of his wine. He punishes them by laying a curse on the cask, and when they open it, a serpent wriggles out. The serpent grows until it terrorizes the town of Coningsburgh. Only one person can save the people from destruction – young Robert and his little dog Toby – but how can a boy and his dog take on the might of the serpent?

In 1317, Lady Alice de Laci, wife of the powerful Earl of Lancaster, was abducted from Pontefract Castle by an agent of William de Warenne. In revenge, Lancaster laid siege to Conisbrough Castle. This version of the story is closely based on William Leatham's classic poem, Sandal in the Olden Time.

England will burn – and Halfdan Ragnarsson will fuel the fire. Son of the feared Viking warlord, Ragnar Hairy-Breeches, and brother to Ivar the Boneless and Ubba Frisi, Halfdan sails for England at the head of the Great Heathen Army, sworn to avenge his father’s death by making a blood-eagle of King Aella. He goes on to conquer Eoforwic, and renames it Jorvik, despite the opposition of a cathedral canon named Cynewulf, and, later, crosses swords with a mysterious shieldmaid at the Battle of Ashdown. Halfdan of Jorvik is the opening novel of The Jorvik Trilogy, an epic saga of invasion, ...