The Wind from Hastings [Hardcover]

Morgan Llywelyn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2000

Edyth, wife of King Harold of England, disappeared forever on the day of the great Battle of Hastings in 1066, taking with her the legitimate heirs to the thrones of England and Wales. This is the story of that amazing woman, who loved and married the King of Wales and then the man who would be King of England, only to witness his historic defeat by the light of Halley's Comet.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Since 1980 Morgan Llywelyn has created an entire body of work chronicling the Celts and Ireland, from the earliest times to the present day. her critically acclaimed novels, both of history and of mythology, have been translated into many languages. She is an Irish citizen and lives in Dublin.

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

HASTINGS

WHEN THE WIND blows from the Channel, it carries to us the smell of rotting flesh on Senlac Ridge. For days the Bastard’s men have been burying the Norman dead, cursing as they work in the October sun and covering their faces with cloths against the stench.

Many of Harold’s men still lie where they fell. Swollen and grotesque, they guard in death that awful piece of ground they could not hold in life. At night, when the Normans have gone back to their camp, the Saxon women creep onto the field of battle to find their men. It is difficult. The battle was daylong and savage; it took much butchery to kill the brave English. Angle and Saxon together, in death they have become the English. Mutilated beyond recognition, they sleep open-eyed on bloodstiff grass, and the keening of their womenfolk is piteous to hear.

We don’t speak of that sound. We lie close together on the earth floor of the hut and pull our blankets over our heads, but still that cry comes through. Sometimes I think it will never stop, that I must walk all my days to the music of mourning.

Perhaps tomorrow the invaders will be done with their burying and march on to murder elsewhere. Then it will be safe for us to escape this place. As long as the Bastard and his men are in the area I dare not move or show myself. I can only huddle here with my children like a vixen gone to earth, waiting for the hounds to leave.

I am certain William of Normandy would give much to find me, doubly so with Harold’s child in my belly. Surely he must know of it already; his spies are everywhere. There is no safety anywhere anymore. But was there? Ever?

At any rate, if my unborn child is a boy he is Harold’s legitimate heir, the Atheling, for his father and I were truly wed in York Minster. The Norman Bastard would not want Harold’s heir to live, to avenge his father someday and lay claim to the stolen throne of all England!

But for all William knows I am in safekeeping with my brother’s household in Mercia; even all his spies cannot tell him I lie hidden within sight of his camp.

That was not my strategy, but Griffith’s. Griffith, my lord and my love, dead these three years, yet I still see with your eyes and think with your thoughts. In Wales you once told me, “The safest place to hide is at your enemy’s back.” That is where I am, in a woodcutter’s filthy hut with a tiny remnant of the King’s household. Here I have much time to think, and to remember.

Remember the long and anxious journey to this place, fleeing through the haunted Andredsweald, knowing that doom lay ahead and yet driven by a compulsion to see it for myself.

Remember the day I knew I carried within my body the child of my loved one’s killer.

Remember the awe and splendor of the wedding at York Minster, when I was married to King Harold of England, while his son by the woman he loved watched us in silence.

Remember the day of my Lord Griffith’s murder, when I saw his head lifted dripping from his shoulders and brandished before my unbelieving eyes … No! I will not think of that!

Better to remember the quiet green and silver fens of East Anglia, the dawn light gilding my parent’s home, the childhood of Edyth the Saxon. The little girl I once was, who lived in ignorance and dreamed of marrying a prince.

Copyright © 1978 by Morgan Llywelyn

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Buccaneer Books (November 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568496133
• ISBN-13: 978-1568496139
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A well researched historical novel, June 22, 2000

By 

Fred Camfield (Vicksburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wind From Hastings (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one of the earlier historical novels by the author, the copyright date being 1978. This novel is based on the life of Edyth, a grand-daughter of Lady Godiva and the wife of King Harold II, and is written in a narrative text, i.e., a story as told by Edyth. The writing style may not appeal to all readers. It is written from a woman's viewpoint (example text - "Brothers are intended by God as a sort of plague, like floods and locusts"), and is consistent with the position of women in society at that time. It was a time when women were used as bargaining chips to arrange alliances. A woman could be sent into a marriage with a man she had never seen, and had to hope for the best. If she was lucky, she might get a husband who was young and handsome. But he might be old, ugly, and battle-scarred. This was also a time when people did not bathe on a regular basis, and many people had rotten teeth. Edyth enters into her first marriage with Welsh Prince Griffith (Gruffydd) ap Llywelyn, neither having seen the other, hoping for the best. After Griffith's betrayal and death at the hands of the Saxon English in 1063, she becomes part of the spoils and is forced into a marriage with King Harold II, a short-lived marriage as he was killed at Hastings in 1066. The book seems historically accurate. It includes details of Welsh Law and customs, and contrasts that with the Saxons. The author ends the book immediately after the battle of Hastings and does not provide an afterward to indicate what happened to the various people who survived (it is known that Edyth's daughter, Nest, later married Osbern fitz Richard; that a daughter of Harold II and his mistress, Edith Swan-Neck, later married Grand Prince Vladimir II of Kiev; and that Edyth's brother, Edwin, married a half-sister of Griffith and obtained a Welsh title in her right). For a novel concerning later generations of Welsh princes, see "Circle of Stones."
Readers might also be interested in the novel "Katherine" by Anya Seton.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful! Bravo!, June 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Wind From Hastings (Mass Market Paperback)

This is just a fabulous book. When I first saw how short the novel is, I thought that it would be an inaccurate love story or something. Nothing further from the truth. Harold II is portrayed in a very harsh and realistic light--not at all glamorized as he usually is in other books. He is seen as both ruthless and kind, hardened but human. The author has done a brilliant, fantastic job!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A captivating story of a queen of two kingdoms, August 11, 2003

By 

Steve "metsfansince1962" (Ithaca, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wind from Hastings (Paperback)

This short historical novel was great summer reading! It held my interest most of the time, and also informed me about life in the British Isles one thousand years ago.

The monumental account of the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and the events leading up to it, was quite well done and moving. I was actually upset when the Anglo-Saxon soldiers "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory!"

The novel seemed fairly accurate and brought the main characters (Edyth, Harold, and Griffith) to life. I enjoyed this novel by Morgan Llywelyn as much as her Lion of Ireland, and more than Bard and 1916 (although all of these books are worthwhile).