“The water is shallow, it will be warm,” he assured her. “I will be holding you the whole time. But as you know, water makes clothing heavy.”
Here he dropped on one knee before her. He unfastened the toggle on one of her shoes, then on the next, and pulled them off. He reached up her skirts to her knees, untied the strip of cloth tying each of her stockings on, and rolled them down and off.
He stood, and took her in his arms. “I can not –” she began, a protest smothered by his lips. His mouth met her own, gently at first, and then with growing pressure. Her arms rose up about his bare back, she could not help it. He tasted her, nibbling at her lips, and then with the flicking of his tongue. He did not stop, his lips insistent on hers, his tongue demanding more. It had been long since they had kissed thus, and to do so now under the sky and with his bare chest pressed against her – she could not recall such a time.
His hands ran down her back, gathering up fistfuls of gown and shift, pulling them up until his hands met the flesh beneath. He cupped his hands on the bare skin of her rump and pressed her to his loins.
He kissed her again, and smiled down as he loosed her gown. Her skirts fell back again to her ankles. His hands found the knot of her head wrap, untied it and let it fall, freeing her hair of chestnut gold. Once again he dropped to his knee. There at her feet he took the hems of her gowns in both hands, and began to stand, pulling them over her head. “You will swim best if you are naked,” he murmured. Now she would wear nothing but the silver disc bracelet upon her wrist.
She stood, as he wanted her, naked in his arms.
He brought his mouth close to her ear and whispered his command. “First I will show you on the blanket how to move your body when you are in the water.”
Here Ends Book Eight of The Circle of Ceridwen Saga
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The Circle of Ceridwen Saga:
Sidroc the Dane
The Circle of Ceridwen: Book One
Ceridwen of Kilton: Book Two
The Claiming: Book Three
The Hall of Tyr: Book Four
Tindr: Book Five
Silver Hammer, Golden Cross: Book Six
Wildswept: Book Seven
Also by Octavia Randolph:
Light, Descending
The Tale of Melkorka: A Novella
Ride: A Novella: The Story of Lady Godiva
You've read the books - now enjoy the food. Your free Circle of Ceridwen Cookery Book(let) is waiting for you at www.octavia.net.
Ten easy, delicious, and authentic recipes from the Saga, including Barley Browis, Roast Fowl, Baked Apples, Oat Griddle Cakes, Lavender-scented Pudding, and of course - Honey Cakes. Charmingly illustrated with medieval woodcuts and packed with fascinating facts about Anglo-Saxon and Viking cookery. Free when you join the Circle, my mailing list. Be the first to know of new novels, have the opportunity to become a First Reader, and more. Get your Cookery Book(let) now and get cooking!
The Glossary of Terms and other background information follow.
The Wheel of the Year
Candlemas - 2 February
St Gregory’s Day - 12 March
St Cuthbert’s Day - The Spring Equinox, about 21 March
St Elgiva’s Day - 18 May
High Summer or Mid-Summer Day - 24 June
Sts Peter and Paul - 29 June
Hlafmesse (Lammas) - 1 August
St Mary’s Day - 15 August
St Matthews’ Day - The Fall Equinox, about 21 September
All Saints - 1 November
The month of Blót - November; the time of Offering
Martinmas (St Martin’s) - 11 November
Yuletide - 25 December to Twelfthnight - 6 January
Winter’s Nights - the Norse end of the year rituals, ruled by women, marked by feasting and ceremony
Anglo-Saxon Place Names, with Modern Equivalents
Æscesdun = Ashdown
Æthelinga = Athelney
Apulder = Appledore
Basingas = Basing
Beamfleot = Benfleet
Beardan = Bardney
Bearruescir = Berkshire
Bryeg = Bridgenorth
Buttingtun = Buttington
Caeginesham = Keynsham
Cippenham = Chippenham
Cirenceaster = Cirencester
Colneceastre = Colchester
Cruland = Croyland
Defenas = Devon
Englafeld = Englefield
Ethandun = Edington
Exanceaster = Exeter
Fearnhamme = Farnham
Fullanham = Fulham
Geornaham = Irnham
Glastunburh = Glastonbury
Hamtunscir = Hampshire
Headleage = Hadleigh
Hreopedun = Repton
Iglea = Leigh upon Mendip
Jorvik (Danish name for Eoforwic) = York
Legaceaster = Chester
Limenemutha = Lymington in Hampshire
Lindisse = Lindsey
Lundenwic = London
Meredune = Marton
Meresig = Mersea
Middeltun = Milton
Readingas = Reading
River Lyge = River Lea
Sceaftesburh = Shaftesbury
Snotingaham = Nottingham
Sumorsaet = Somerset
Swanawic = Swanage
Turcesig = Torksey
Wedmor = Wedmore
Welingaford = Wallingford
Witanceaster (where the Witan, the King’s advisors, met) = Winchester
Frankland = France
Haithabu = Hedeby
Norse Place Names:
Aros = Aarhus, Denmark
Laaland = the island of Lolland, Denmark
Land of the Svear = Sweden
Glossary of Terms
Asgard: Heavenly realm of the Gods.
brewster: the female form of brewer (and, interestingly enough, the female form of baker is baxter… so many common names are rooted in professions and trades…).
browis: a cereal-based stew, often made with fowl or pork.
chaff: the husks of grain after being separated from the usable kernel.
ceorl: (“churl”) a free man ranking directly below a thegn, able to bear arms, own property, and improve his rank.
cottar: free agricultural worker; in later eras, a peasant.
cresset: stone, bronze, or iron lamp fitted with a wick that burnt oil.
drekar: “dragon boat,” a war-ship of the Danes.
ealdorman: a nobleman with jurisdiction over given lands; the rank was generally appointed by the King and not necessarily inherited from generation to generation. The modern derivative alderman in no way conveys the esteem and power of the Anglo-Saxon term.
fulltrúi: the Norse deity patron that one felt called to dedicate oneself to.
fylgja: a Norse guardian spirit, always female, unique to each family.
fyrd: the massed forces of Wessex, comprising thegns – professional soldiers – and ceorls, trained freemen.
hack silver: broken silver jewellery, coils of unworked silver bars, fragments of cast ingots and other silver parceled out by weight alone during trade.
hamingja: the Norse “luck-spirit” which each person is born with.
leech-book: compilation of healing recipes and practices for the treatment of human and animal illness and injury. Such books were a compendium of healing herbs and spiritual and magical practices. The Leech Book of Bald, recorded during Ælfred’s reign by a monk named Bald, is a famed, and extant, example.
morgen-gyfu: literally, “morning-gift”; a gift given by a husband to his new wife the first morning they awake together.
rauk: the striking sea- and wind-formed limestone towers on the coast of Gotland.
seax: the angle-
bladed dagger which gave its name to the Saxons; all freemen carried one.
scop: (“shope”) a poet, saga-teller, or bard, responsible not only for entertainment but seen as a collective cultural historian. A talented scop would be greatly valued by his lord and receive land, gold and silver jewellery, costly clothing and other riches as his reward.
shingle beach: a pebbly, rather than sandy, beach.
skeggox: steel battle-axe favoured by the Danes.
skirrets: a sweet root vegetable similar to carrots, but cream-coloured, and having several fingers on each plant.
skogkatt: “forest cat”; the ancestor of the modern Norwegian Forest Cat, known for its large size, climbing ability, and thick and water-shedding coat.
strakes: overlapping wooden planks, running horizontally, making up a ship’s hull.
symbel: a ceremonial high occasion for the Angle-Saxons, marked by the giving of gifts, making of oaths, swearing of fidelity, and (of course) drinking ale.
thegn: (“thane”) a freeborn warrior-retainer of a lord; thegns were housed, fed and armed in exchange for complete fidelity to their sworn lord. Booty won in battle by a thegn was generally offered to their lord, and in return the lord was expected to bestow handsome gifts of arms, horses, arm-rings, and so on to his best champions.
Tyr: the God of war, law, and justice. He voluntarily forfeited his sword-hand to allow the Gods to deceive, and bind, the gigantic wolf Fenrir.
Tyr-hand: in this Saga, any left-handed person, named so in honour of Tyr’s sacrifice.
Urd: the youngest of the three Norse Norns, determiners of men’s destinies. Urd makes decision as to one’s calling and station in life.
wadmal: the Norse name for the coarse and durable woven woollen fabric that was a chief export in the Viking age.
wergild: Literally, man-gold; the amount of money each man’s life was valued at. The Laws of Æthelbert, a 7th century King of Kent, for example, valued the life of a nobleman at 300 shillings (equivalent to 300 oxen), and a ceorl was valued at 100 shillings. By Ælfred’s time (reigned 871-899) a nobleman was held at 1200 shillings and a ceorl at 200.
Notes to For Me Fate Wove This
Chapter the First: A King’s Daughter
St Edmund. Once patron saint of England (later superseded by St George), he is also patron saint of Kings, and interestingly enough for our times, of pandemics. The King of East Anglia was only twenty-eight years old when he was killed, 20th November in the year 870 (possibly 869). The town of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk is named for him; and his remains may still reside somewhere on the grounds of the ruined abbey. Shortly after his death his legend began to grow, and eventually coinage was issued in East Anglia with the inscription “O holy king Edmund.” The earliest of these may have in fact been struck by Danish King Guthrum, more evidence of Guthrum’s own cultural assimilation. The massive Cuerdale Hoard (over 8,600 items, housed at the British Museum) unearthed in Lancashire in 1840 contained 1800 of these coins citing Edmund, evidence of how widespread their minting must have been. Edmund’s cult grew following the Life of St Edmund compiled by the French monk, Abbo, a distinguished intellectual who went on to become Abbot of Fleury. Abbo wrote of Edmund’s death and subsequent miracles more than one hundred years after the young King’s murder, when in residence at the monastery of Ramsey during 985-987. Abbo was inspired perhaps by his memory of meeting an elderly warrior at the court of King Æthelstan (King Ælfred’s grandson). The man had served as personal retainer (possibly even bearer of his war-banner, I like to think) to Edmund, and been with him on the day of his capture. In the Middle Ages the Shrine of St Edmund at Bury St Edmunds became one of the most famous and wealthiest of all pilgrimage places in England, with magnificent gifts presented in honour of the martyr. It was utterly pillaged and destroyed in 1539 during the Protestant Reformation, and the monks driven away. The abbey fell into ruins. Edmund’s life continues to inspire, and some believe his holy prayer still protects the town named for him. It is a pity he is no longer regarded as the patron saint of England, for Edmund not only died a kingly death, but is wholly English, unlike the Cappadocian-Palestinian George. Edmund's feast day recalls the day of his death, November 20th.
Chapter the Second: The Riches of Oundle
Judith. The Old Testament tale of the heroic Judith has been preserved in Old English in a single, precious manuscript, known as Cotton Vitellius A xv. This unique manuscript, housed today in the British Museum, also contains our only copy of the epic Beowulf. Thus we find in a single folio a tale of two heroes, one female, one male, risking their lives to protect their people. It makes sense that in an age when physical daring was greatly valued, Judith’s courage would be highly appealing to women of all classes.
Chapter the Eleventh: Ever Deeper
Ælfred’s doubled forts along the River Lyge – the River Lea – was a good example of his tactical thinking. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 895 records “…Then the following autumn the king encamped in the neighbourhood of the fortress while the corn was being reaped, so that the Danish men could not keep them back from the reaping. One day the king rode up along the river and looked to see where the river could be blocked, so that they would not be able to bring out their ships. This they proceeded to do: they made two forts on the two sides of the river, but when they had just begun that operation and had encamped thereby, the [Danish] host saw they could not bring out their ships. Thereupon they abandoned them and went across country…”
As we saw in Book Seven, Wildswept, in the capture of Haesten’s wife, the Chronicle goes on to once again mention the wives of the invaders: “… The Danish men had placed their women in safety in East Anglia before they went out from that fort…” (G. N. Garmonsway translation, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, J.M. Dent & Sons, LTD)
Chapter the Eighteenth: To Gotland
Haesten. This famed Viking leader who wreaked so much havoc in Frankland and Angle-land vanishes from the annals of history after 894. No further mention is made of him in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle nor any other surviving record. He was already old when he landed at Middeltun (Milton in Kent) fronting eighty ships in 892, and it is possible the rigours of his final campaign – in which he harried Wessex and Anglia and yet was ultimately unable to wrest control of either – finally took its toll.
Jephthah’s daughter. From the Old Testament Book Of Judges. “And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances; and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass that when he saw her, he rent his clothes, and said, Alas my daughter! Thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back.”
Acknowledgements
The writing of this novel felt akin to sailing on a ship undertaking a wrenching voyage. I stood in its prow, speechless, but pointing towards its Fated destination. Luckily I was never quite alone. I was companioned by two Wise Women who aided me to shores I could not describe. Beth Altchek was star-reader, encouraging me as to signs ahead. Libby Williams’ steady hand on the steering-beam never lifted. Their unflagging interest and support did much to bring this vessel – and its creator – safely to land.
The list of First Readers for this novel was by design extremely small, and each and every one of them exceeded high expectations. For their service to this novel and to me I bear endless gratitude. Judy Boxer, Shani Goode, Krista Gore, Elaine MacDonald, Dianne McDonald, Diane T. Miller, Ellen Rudd, Linda Schultz, and Lorie Witt, my deepest appreciation for your taste, acuity, and passion. You truly embody the reasons The Circle of Ceridwen Saga continues, and thrives.
Janine Eitniear and Misi are Founder and Moderator respectively of The Circle of Ceridwen Discussion and Idea Group on Facebook. Their unstinting effort, loyalty, and creativity in that Group, as well as their ongoing service as First Readers, can be matched only by the affection I hope they know I bear fo
r them.
About the Author
Octavia Randolph has long been fascinated with the development, dominance, and decline of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. The path of her research has included disciplines as varied as the study of Anglo-Saxon and Norse runes, and learning to spin with a drop spindle. Her interests have led to extensive on-site research in England, Denmark, Sweden, and Gotland. In addition to the Circle Saga, she is the author of the novella The Tale of Melkorka, taken from the Icelandic Sagas; the novella Ride, a retelling of the story of Lady Godiva, first published in Narrative Magazine; and Light, Descending, a biographical novel about the great John Ruskin. She has been awarded Artistic Fellowships at the Ingmar Bergman Estate on Fårö, Sweden; MacDowell Colony; Ledig House International; and Byrdcliffe.
She answers all fan mail and loves to stay in touch with her readers. Join her mailing list and read more on Anglo-Saxon and Viking life at www.octavia.net. Follow her on Facebook at Octavia Randolph Author, and for exclusive access and content join the spirited members of The Circle of Ceridwen Saga Discussion and Idea Group on Facebook.
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