by Smith, Skye
Raynar had no time to see what was happening at the cart. With the help of the village boys, he had set up the archery field and marked safe distances around it with ribbons and stakes. Some boys kept a vigil at the stakes to keep folk from strolling into danger. Other boys fetched the spent arrows between salvos and returned them to the archers. The elder boys were in charge of the borrowed bows and arrows, and they did a good job of making sure they were returned.
Since the entrance to the first round was but two pennies, Raynar had the contestants pay the fee as they stepped forward for their first shots. Only half of them made at least one good shot, and they were handed a ribbon so they could return for the next round. After each round the targets were moved a further ten paces away. It took five rounds to choose the final three.
Before the final round, Raynar invited the final three archers to meet him for ale in the early evening. These were the men that he needed to talk with about the brotherhood, and about spreading the knowledge of the bows.
The final round was exciting and the cheers were loud. The winner was obvious after his third arrow. The prizes were awarded by the Queen of the May and her princesses. All three were beautiful girls wearing colorful and slightly scandalous clothing. They had the careless swagger of strong ale about them. Raynar hoped that each had already visited Gwyn's herb display, because they had many lusty admirers.
The match had put forty pennies into Raynar's purse, which was more than enough to cover the cost of running the match, but still did not pay for all the prizes. It would certainly buy them food and ale until the next fete. As they had expected, once the tu’pence match was decided, the talk on everyone’s lips was of challenges and wagers.
Gwyn left John on watch to sell his arrowheads, and she and Raynar walked casually through the village common. There was only one alehouse, or rather, ale garden which must have borrowed every bench in the village. It was run by the village on behalf of the village to pay for the expenses of having the fete. The servers were the mothers of the village, who had no trouble keeping the men and the boys from drinking too much.
It was very much a springtime country affair. There were many stalls, mostly local women selling their craft, but there were traveling merchants as well. Gwyn waved to some that they recognized from the prior fete. Happiness was everywhere. There were contests for weaving skills, and for cooking skills, and contests for growing skills, and there were prize animals on show.
The farmers had all come to discuss the plantings and the breedings to come, as their wives gossiped, and their children flirted. There was even a King of Fools chosen from amongst the recent patrons of the local pillory. As the Lord of Misrule, he ruled the fete with the help of the Queen of the May.
If there was trouble, they would intervene to keep the feeling of the fete light and cheerful. Crimes committed at the fete would be judged and the punishment decided by Misrule, so that amends were made immediately before people went home. The local bailiff rarely attended a fete, because he did not want to be at the mercy of the Lord of Misrule during his one day of power.
Raynar went back to the match field and rang a chime to make it known that the shilling match would be starting soon, and he rounded up his boys to take their positions. They had been enjoying sweets, pies, and ale paid for by Raynar. Boys were boys were boys in every village. They enjoyed helping and having a little authority, and they were eager to be put to work so long as it wasn't for their fathers.
He was amazed when a dozen archers paid the shilling entry. He recognized four from the morning match, but no others. The others all shared the calm look of grizzled battle veterans, and Raynar expected they were fyrdmen or huscarls who had recently been in battle. The bows they carried were a cut above the bows used at the morning match, and the men a generation older.
There was a practice session first so that the men could get the range. Raynar offered any the use of one of the longbows. Every one of the men went and chose a longbow and tried it out. They had all seen John's demonstration and now had the chance to try the Welsh bows for themselves.
"Sales of bows could be brisk today" he thought as he watched all of these men try his bows. It was a thought too soon, for only three men decided to use the borrowed bows in the competition. As one man told him, his old bow was not as powerful as the longbow, but it was an old friend and therefore aimed itself.
It was almost time to start the first round of the shilling match, when Raynar had a flash of insight. He called for the crowd to be quiet, and then invited each contestant to introduce himself and say a few words about why a gambler should bet on his winning the day.
Some of them were shy and simply stated their names and where they were from. The grizzled ones, however, in the way of warriors everywhere, told exaggerated tales of their prowess and renown with a bow. The crowd loved it, but none of it changed the minds of the gamblers. They had made their wagers while watching the men practice.
The archers were all so good, that after the first round of the match only one man had dropped out. With the permission of the archers, Raynar ordered the targets moved twenty paces further for each round rather than ten.
After the second round four more dropped out, and one swapped his own bow for a Welsh bow so that he had better range. Since each round lengthened the range, it wasn't long before two more switched to a Welsh bow.
The third and fourth round had no more drop out.
The fifth round saw two of the local favourites drop out, which angered the gamblers who had been so sure of them. At that point, the targets were moved only five paces per round.
It took seven rounds to finish the competition. The winner was a local verderer, and the next two were both fyrdmen who had survived the battle of Fulford. The Queen of the May passed out the winnings and the prizes and more than a few kisses were stolen from her.
Meanwhile Raynar motioned to the boys to gather up all the gear and take it to the cart. John knew to pay them a ha’penny each only after the cart was loaded. On the field the gamblers were flashing purses, and there was boasting and sadness and laughter. The high spirited crowd began to move generally towards the alehouse.
Before the contestants could leave for the alehouse, Raynar gathered them in to him, and waited while all others moved away to go and drink ale. When no one else was within ear shot he told them that he was of the Brotherhood of the Arrow. He told them that the brotherhood was using these matches and fete's to encourage archery in every village. The men mumbled things like "good idea" and "about time" and "can I help".
He explained that all coin he made from the match went to moving the match along from village to village, but that the bows and staves were provided from the brotherhood's purse. Thus the brotherhood was spreading powerful bows that could defeat armour. At this, the warriors amongst them nodded. They knew he really meant 'defeat Normans'.
"It is our aim to have a sample of a ywen bow, and a sampling of raw staves in every village in the north," explained Raynar, "Ywen trees are not common, but almost every valley has a few, as do the church yards. With one bow as a sample, and some sample staves, then the learning of the shaping craft can begin even while fresh cut staves are being seasoned.
Will you help us to spread the craft of these bows?" Most of the men were nodding thoughtfully. "For those that did not win a bow today, you could earn one by coming and talking to me at my cart before you go home to your village. I will expect only a small vow in return, that you will encourage the crafting and use of such bows in your village."
There were nods and eager looks of approval on all the faces. "I will be camped here overnight. If any of you want more information on the brotherhood, I invite you to find me. As for right now, well, I think the alehouse owes us some free jugs, considering the business we have brought them on this day."
That worthy thought cheered them all and they walked together in search of ale. At the ale garden, one word from a huscarl, and a bench full of youngsters cl
eared away, so that the archers could all sit together and talk bows, and points, and battles. None of them paid for any ale, as between the thankful alehouse, and the thankful gamblers, the jugs kept coming.
Meanwhile, at the cart, John was busy being a merchant. The winning gamblers were using their winnings to buy bows as gifts, probably for the very archers that had been in the match. Each bow sale took John's personal attention because he needed to match the size and strength of each bow, to the size and strength of the man it was for. It was no use giving a man a bow he could not draw. Younger men were busy choosing staves, which were a fifth the price of a bow.
Men were sifting through the barrels of arrow points and the arrow blanks. The points were selling by the dozen. The most popular point was the one that John called his fishing point. It was long and thin and sharp, with two tiny barbs on the same side. Not only was it perfect for shooting fish, but simply by wrapping a flat ribbon of lead around the shaft behind the point, it became a mortal enemy to mail.
To make the point, John had set up a display with some old mail wrapped around a melon with a fishing point arrow through it from side to side.
In the shade of the cart, Gwyn was in constant whispering discussions with women of all ages. John accidentally heard her instructions for the child safe herb and wished he hadn't. He had thought you chewed and swallowed it, but you only chewed it to prepare it for elsewhere.
At one point he walked out of earshot with a red face after he had heard Gwyn instructing an angelic looking young mother about how to use her tongue and mouth if she wanted a pause between children and still keep her man from visiting the alehouse women.
That night, after the rest of the common was peaceful, their camp still had many visitors. Some alone, some in two's. The verderer who had won the match brought a cousin who was the bowyer from the next village. From his winnings he bought his cousin a bow and a few staves, and eagerly showed him the display of the fresh cut ywen bough. Quietly, to one side, he asked questions about the brotherhood, and how he could join.
Here was a problem that Raynar had not been able to solve. When last in the company of the brethren it was decided that new members must be invited to join, and had to be vouched for by at least two existing members. The flaw in this was that membership could not begin to grow in new village until there were two members in that village.
Since the verderer and the bowyer were of the same village, John and Raynar both vouched for each of them and Raynar took them aside and told them the oath, and then had them swear to it. Once sworn, Raynar freely told them more about the brotherhood.
By this time two huscarls and two fyrdmen from the match had joined them. Raynar told everyone the story of the skirmishers, and the battlefield feeling of brotherhood, and the oath before separating, and the importance of training fyrdmen in the skills that would defeat heavy cavalry. The warriors in the group had met the Norse in battle, but never the Normans. It was therefore arranged that in the morning Raynar would show them how to defeat cavalry.
"So much for an easy day of packing and saying goodbye," said Gwyn when Raynar told her the plan for the morning.
In the morning, the two huscarls came to fetch them. Their lord had given them permission to use the grounds at his manor. When they reached the manor, they found that the lord had arranged for a larger audience. Instead of the men they had talked to at the match, there were an extra half a dozen huscarls and a dozen fyrdmen.
All night long Raynar had been refreshing his memory about the training they had done at Wallingford before they had all been sent home. This morning he began by describing the size of the Norman battle horses and how they had been trained to battle in partnership with the knights. He then described the armour and weapons that the knights used. Only once they understood how formidable were the mounted knights, did he try to explain how infantry could beat them. He kept repeating the basic rules such as "Bring down the horse first and then attack the man."
Nobody, absolutely nobody, liked the idea of injuring a valuable animal. After all, it would be the main prize of the fighting. At Raynar’s prompting the farm's largest draft horse was brought into the training ground. He had a farm lad sit on the horse with two sticks, one the length of a cavalry sword and the other the length of a cavalry lance.
He invited each man come forward with their own weapons and then showed each man the weakness of their weapons for fighting the lad on the giant horse. Their Danish style swords and axes were too short, their normal self bows were not powerful enough, their spears were too short, their pikes were too short, and they had no pole axes. Eventually all these experienced warriors got the point. The Norman horses were so tall that the only sure way to defeat the man, was to defeat the horse first.
Next it was pantomime time where he showed them all the easy ways of bringing down a horse and the simple tools at hand that could be fashioned to do this. He had them mock up some pikes and pole axes by lashing farm tools to long staffs.
"The Norman knights have designed their strategies and weapons around fighting shieldmen armed with normal swords and normal battleaxes, or for fighting other mounted knights. To beat them you must fight them in ways that they do not expect. Ways that they are not prepared for." He held up the home made pole axe. "Two of these in the hands of two brave farm lads can slaughter a knight. The problem is catching him, because he will race away from you if he sees these weapons."
This time he used a pole axe to pantomime hooking the rider and dragging him backwards from the saddle. The pantomime continued by using the pole axe to cut off the head and a dagger to stab through a helmet's narrow eye slits. The men now knew enough theory to practice amongst themselves, while Raynar walked amongst them and explained their mistakes.
John spent the time talking to the horsemaster of the stable. Gwyn had disappeared with women into the manor. Raynar eventually went and sat with the lord and watched the practice. The land lord was an old man now, at least forty, and too old to ever fight in a shieldwall again.
"How is it you have so many huscarls? This is not a large manor." Raynar asked.
"They are not all mine. They are from the manors around. Mine were the archers in your match. They told me some of your stories, about your being at Stamford against Harald and at Hastings against William, and about you being one of Hereward’s skirmishers. I sent some lads on the run to bring the rest here."
They watched as a pushing match started between men who wanted to actually bring the plough horse down, and those that did not want to risk injuring a useful beast.
"Some of those men on the practice field are the new lords-to-be of manors," the lord pointed out, "They will be joining me for food later, and I hope you will eat with us and tell us more stories of the Normans. Is there anything you need from me, as a thank you gift for this training."
"Would you have an old saddle that would fit that mare?" He pointed to Abby.
"Come, let us talk to my horsemaster. I am sure he can arrange something." They left the horsemaster and John with the task, and later they saw John throwing a saddle into the cart.
Raynar had much to tell this lord, but waited for the meal when all would be listening in the great hall. Gwyn had never shared a table with lords and ladies before, and was nervous in case she embarrassed herself. There was no need. These lords were farmers not courtiers, and had the easy manners of farmers.
After a feast of spitted venison and lamb, the men swigged their ale and waited for the women to finish their wine. One man yelled out for a story of Normans, and Raynar stood, but was told by the host that such stories were not fit for the womenfolk and they must wait until the women retired.
"Sire, " Raynar called out," I have one story that should be heard by the women," and he started telling the women about the widows of Kent, and the Dead and Bed tragedies." Once he was speaking there was a hushed and seething silence until he finished.
He ended by saying "So the Normans are moving north, and t
hey have with them a list of land now run by the widows from last years battles. If you have kin that fit this description, then get to them quickly and bring them and their children to safety before the Normans find them." The chatter in the room swelled and became a roar. Every land lord in England had new widows amongst their kin.
After listening to this story, and to Raynar's glib way of story telling, the women now refused to retire and demanded more stories of the Normans. Raynar was hoarse before the evening was over.
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THE HOODSMAN - Hunting Kings by Skye Smith
Chapter 20 - A Priest, a Witch, and a Fairie, Southwell in May 1067
The next two fetes were much less work and therefore much more fun. They now knew what to expect and had solved a hundred little problems since their first fete. When they set out, they had thought that the supply of bows and staves would last all summer, but the next two matches made it obvious that they would run out before the end of the month.
It was now almost White Sunday, and together they decided to follow the other merchants to Nottinghamshire's biggest fete of the year. The Whitsun fair at Southwell.
As usual they sent John ahead to give notice of the match and to arrange for a field with the elders of the town. He was waiting for them at the edge of town when they arrived. "They already have an archery match. They always have an archery match. They looked at me as if I had two heads. Now what do we do?"
"We have fun" the other two said in unison.
"John, this is wonderful news!" Raynar exclaimed, "We can let others do all the work while we just run the stalls and enjoy the fete. We can even enter the match."
"It isn't just one match but a true tournament. There is a match with swinging targets, another for distance, one for wands, and another for speed. It takes two days. There are so many archers in town that the first day's contests are simply to qualify for the actual matches of the second day."
