by Tracey Warr
The Conquest series draws on the legend of the Engulphed Court of the sunken kingdom of Cantre’r Gwaelod or the ‘Welsh Atlantis’. I have transposed the legendary Cantre’r Gwaelod from Cardigan Bay to Carmarthen Bay. A real earthquake was recorded in Pembrokeshire on 20 February 1247 (a little later than my fictional version, but it is possible that there was a record of an earlier one that did not survive). The 1247 earthquake was severe enough to cause damage to Saint Davids Cathedral.
The Welsh poem, ‘O sea-bird’, quoted by Nest on the first and last pages of the novel is from the poem ‘To the Sea-gull’ by the mid-14th-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, and so anachronistic in 1107 (Gurney, 1969). There was a Welsh bard, named Breri, singing songs about Gawain at the French courts (Weston, 1905). Nest’s remark that ‘my country is made the dwelling place of foreigners and a playground for lords of alien blood’ is adapted from William of Malmesbury’s complaint about the Normans in England (although he, himself, was half Norman) (1998–9, pp. 414–17). Benedicta and Amaury’s quotations from the poems of Ovid employ translations by Jon Corelis (Corelis).
The wooden spyloft at Saint Alban’s Abbey was built around 1400, so rather later than my fictional version in this story. In several places I have quoted from Amanda Hingst’s excellent study of Orderic Vitalis’s history of the Normans, the Historia Ecclesiastica, and from her translations of his work (2009). I have referred to Orderic’s monastery as Ouches, since as Hingst points out, that was the name it was known by in Orderic’s time. It was not until the late 12th century that it became more commonly known ast Saint-Évroult, after the name of its patron saint (2009, p. 142). Benedicta’s admiration for well-formed men such as Amaury de Montfort and the men-at-arms who accompany her to Fontevraud owes a debt to Anna Comnena’s description of Bohemond of Antioch in her Alexiad (1148).
Selected Bibliography
Brut y Tywysogion: Or, The Chronicle of the Princes, 681–1282. (1864) transl. and reprinted in Archaeologia Cambrensis, 10.
Ackroyd, Peter (2012) The History of England: Volume I Foundation, London: Pan.
Babcock, Robert S. (1992) ‘Imbeciles and Normans: The Ynfydion of Gruffudd ap Rhys Reconsidered’, Haskins Society Journal, vol. 4, pp. 1–9.
Bond, Gerald A. (1995) The Loving Subject: Desire, Eloquence, and Power in Romanesque France, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Cawley, Charles (2014) Medieval Lands, http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/Search.htm.
Comnena, Anna (1148) Alexiad, transl. Elizabeth A. Dawes (1928), http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/AnnaComnena-Alexiad.asp.
Corelis, Jon, Translations of Selected Poems by Ovid, https://www.poemhunter.com.
Duby, Georges (1985) The Knight, The Lady and The Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France, trans. Barbara Bray, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Dyer, Christopher (2002) Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain 850–1520, New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
Ferrante, Joan, ed. (2014) Epistolae: Medieval Women’s Latin Letters https://epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/
FitzStephen, William (1990) Norman London, New York: Italica Press. Written around 1183.
Gravdal, Kathryn (1991) Ravishing Maidens: Writing Rape in Medieval French Literature and Law, Pennsylvania: University of Philadelphia Press.
Green, Judith A. (2009) Henry I King of England and Duke of Normandy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gurney, Robert, ed. and trans. (1969) Bardic Heritage, London: Chatto & Windus.
Hingst, Amanda Jane (2009) The Written World: Past and Place in the Work of Orderic Vitalis, Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.
Hollister, C. Warren (2001) Henry I, New Haven/London: Yale University Press.
John of Worcester (1995–8) Chronica, ed. and trans. by P. McGurk, The Chronicle of John of Worcester, vols. 2 and 3. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Originally published in the 12th century.
Johns, Susan M. (2013) Gender, Nation and Conquest in the High Middle Ages: Nest of Deheubarth, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
LoPrete, Kimberly A. (2007) Adela of Blois: Countess and Lord c. 1067–1137, Dublin: Four Courts Press.
Malmesbury, William (1998–9) Gesta Regum Anglorum: The History of the English Kings, ed. and trans. R.A.B. Mynors, R.M. Thomson, and M. Winterbottom, 2 vols., Oxford: Clarendon Press, vol. 1. Originally published in the early 12th century.
Maund, Kari (2011) The Welsh Kings, Stroud: The History Press.
Maund, Kari (2007) Princess Nest of Wales: Seductress of the English, Stroud: Tempus.
Maund, Kari (1999) ‘Owain ap Cadwgan: A Rebel Revisited’, Haskins Society Journal, vol. 13, pp. 65–74.
Mortimer, Ian (2009) The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England, London: Vintage.
Rowlands, Ifor W. (1981) ‘The making of the March: Aspects of the Norman settlement in Dyfed’, Anglo-Norman Studies, 3, pp. 142–57 & 221–5.
Thompson, Kathleen (1991) ‘Robert de Bellême Reconsidered’, in Marjorie Chibnall, ed. (1991) Proceedings of the Battle Conference, Wood-bridge: Boydell & Brewer, pp. 263–86.
Venarde, Bruce L. ed. & trans. (2003) Robert of Arbrissel: A Medieval Religious Life, Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press.
Weston, Jessie L. (1905) ‘Wauchier de Denain and Bleheris’, Romania, 34, pp. 100–5.
Wickham, Chris (2016) Medieval Europe, New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
A full bibliography of my research is on my website: https://traceywarrwriting.com.
Acknowledgements
I had the pleasure of living for some years in Pembrokeshire where this novel was first conceived. My experiences of Wales were enriched by my friends there, especially my muse, Bob Smillie, and my former neighbours, Andrew and Bodil Humphries. My friends and tutors on the MA Creative Writing at University of Wales, Trinity Saint David’s also contributed to the delight of my encounters with south-west Wales.
My parents, Edward Warr and Maureen Warr, are both great readers and have been constant supporters in everything I have done, along with the rest of my lovely family. I am grateful to all my writing and reading buddies who have so enriched my engagement with text, including Jack Turley, Tim Smith, Mi Jung Seo, Gina Connolly, Anita Goodfellow, Ann Hebert, Karen Pegg, and all the members of the Parisot Writers Group in France. Writing this novel was significantly enabled by the Literature Wales Writers’ Bursaries supported by The National Lottery through the Arts Council of Wales. My membership of the Historical Novel Society has been important in giving me a rich context for my work as an historical novelist. It is always a tremendous pleasure working with the staff at Impress Books and I am especially grateful to Richard Willis, Rachel Singleton, Laura Christopher, and Natalie Clark.
Also available in the Conquest series:
Conquest I: Daughter of the Last King
Also by Tracey Warr:
The Viking Hostage
Almodis the Peaceweaver
Copyright
First Published 2017
by Impress Books Ltd
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© Tracey Warr 2017
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Printed and bound in England by Short Run Press Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
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