 First edition title page | |
| Author | Charles Kingsley |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Publication date | 1866 |
Hereward the Wake: Last of the English (also published as Hereward, the Last of the English) is an 1866 novel by Charles Kingsley. It tells the story of Hereward, a historical Anglo-Saxon figure who led resistance against the Normans from a base in Ely surrounded by fen land. Kingsley's last historical novel, it was instrumental in elevating Hereward into an English folk-hero. [1]
Hereward is in Kingsley's novel the son of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and Lady Godiva. He is introduced as an 18-year-old "bully and the ruffian of the fens", who is outlawed by Edward the Confessor at the request of his father. He sets off to see the world and considers such options as the Vikings of the northern seas, the Irish Danes or service with the Varangian Guard in Constantinople. He is accompanied by Martin Lightfoot, a devoted but eccentric servant.
At an early stage in his journey, Hereward defeats a caged polar bear in single combat in the north of England. He brawls his way through Cornwall and eventually arrives at the court of Baldwin of Flanders. Once there, he demonstrates his prowess against Baldwin's knights and wins the love of Torfrida, whom he marries. Three years after the Norman Conquest, Hereward returns to England and encounters the brutality of the new regime. Hereward takes revenge on the Normans who killed his brother. At a drunken feast he kills fifteen of them, with the assistance of Martin Lightfoot.
Hereward then musters a force of English rebels and takes up camp at Ely in the Fens. William of Normandy leads a host of mercenaries against Ely but is repulsed with heavy losses when the English set fire to the surrounding reeds. In spite of that victory, Hereward's resistance is worn down by the Norman invaders and the intrigues of the Countess Alftruda, who separates the hero from Torfrida. Hereward eventually swears loyalty to William and acknowledges that the Norman is indeed king of all England. Married to Alftruda, Lord of Bourne and in favour with the king, Hereward is still hated by the "French" (Norman) nobles, most of whom have lost kinsmen fighting against him, Finally Hereward's prime enemy, Ivo Taillebois, surprises him in his ancestral home. There, fighting almost alone, he is killed after a brutal struggle. [2]
The novel concerns the Anglo-Saxon (or, as Kingsley, preferred "Anglo-Danish") resistance to the Norman Conquest, which reflects Kingsley's own admiration of Germanic (or "Teutonic") vigour. [3] Kingsley admired Norman discipline and chivalry [3] but made it clear that primitive energies and virtues must never be entirely forsaken. [2]
The novel was first published in serial form in the monthly periodical Good Words from January to December 1865. [2] It was then published in two volumes in 1866. [2]
The novel had the effect of elevating Hereward into one of the most romantic figures of English mediaeval history. [1] It is believed to have been read and used as a source of inspiration by J. R. R. Tolkien; verbal echoes include the use of "horse-boy" and the verb "ruffling", as well as Kingsley's mention of "orcs" in a list of monsters. [4] [5]
things unspeakable,—dragons, giants, rocs, orcs, witch-whales, griffins, chimeras
Éomer is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. He appears in The Lord of the Rings as a leader of the Riders of Rohan who serve as cavalry to the army of Rohan, fighting against Mordor.
Rohan is a fictional kingdom of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy setting of Middle-earth. Known for its horsemen, the Rohirrim, Rohan provides its ally Gondor with cavalry. Its territory is mainly grassland. The Rohirrim call their land the Mark or the Riddermark, names recalling that of the historical kingdom of Mercia, the region of Western England where Tolkien lived.
The Norman Conquest was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, French, Flemish, and Breton troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conqueror.
Tostig Godwinson was an Anglo-Saxon Earl of Northumbria and brother of King Harold Godwinson. After being exiled by his brother, Tostig supported the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada's invasion of England, and was killed alongside Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066.
Hereward the Wake was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman and a leader of local resistance to the Norman Conquest of England. His base when he led the rebellion against the Norman rulers was the Isle of Ely, in eastern England. According to legend, he roamed the Fens, which covers parts of the modern counties of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk, and led popular opposition to William the Conqueror.
Charles Kingsley was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working men's college, and forming labour cooperatives, which failed, but encouraged later working reforms.
The Isle of Ely is a historic region around the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an administrative county.
The Battle of the Pelennor Fields, in J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, was the defence of the city of Minas Tirith by the forces of Gondor and the cavalry of its ally Rohan, against the forces of the Dark Lord Sauron from Mordor and its allies the Haradrim and the Easterlings. It was the largest battle in the War of the Ring. It took place at the end of the Third Age in the Pelennor Fields, the townlands and fields between Minas Tirith and the River Anduin.
The Norman yoke is a term denoting the oppressive aspects of feudalism in England, attributed to the impositions of William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England, his retainers and their descendants. The term was used in English nationalist and democratic discourse from the mid-17th century.
Leofric was an Earl of Mercia. He founded monasteries at Coventry and Much Wenlock and was a very powerful earl under King Cnut and his successors. Leofric was the husband of Lady Godiva.
Linguistic purism in English is the opposition to foreign influence in the English language. English has evolved with a great deal of borrowing from other languages, especially Old French, since the Norman conquest of England, and some of its native vocabulary and grammar have been supplanted by features of Latinate and Greek origin. Efforts to remove or consider the removal of foreign terms in English are often known as Anglish, a term coined by author and humorist Paul Jennings in 1966.
Bourne Abbey and the Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is a scheduled Grade I church in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. The building remains in parochial use, despite the 16th-century Dissolution, as the nave was used by the parish, probably from the time of the foundation of the abbey in 1138.
Ralph the Staller or Ralf the Englishman was a noble and landowner in both Anglo-Saxon and post-Conquest England. He first appears in charters from Brittany, where he was described as Ralph / Ralf the Englishman, and it was in Brittany that his son Ralph de Gaël held a large hereditary lordship.
The Children of Húrin is an epic fantasy novel which forms the completion of a tale by J. R. R. Tolkien. He wrote the original version of the story in the late 1910s, revising it several times later, but did not complete it before his death in 1973. His son, Christopher Tolkien, edited the manuscripts to form a consistent narrative, and published it in 2007 as an independent work. The book is illustrated by Alan Lee. The story is one of three "great tales" set in the First Age of Tolkien's Middle-earth, the other two being Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin.
Events from the 1070s in England.
William I of England has been depicted in a number of modern works.
The Wake Baronetcy, of Clevedon in the County of Somerset, is a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 5 December 1621 for Baldwin Wake. The sixth Baronet assumed the additional surname of Jones but died childless. The eighth Baronet sat as Member of Parliament for Bedford. The twelfth Baronet was High Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1879. The thirteenth Baronet was a Major-General in the British Army. Another member of the family to gain distinction was Charles Wake, second son of the tenth Baronet; he was an Admiral in the Royal Navy.
Siward Barn was an 11th-century English thegn and landowner-warrior. He appears in the extant sources in the period following the Norman Conquest of England, joining the northern resistance to William the Conqueror by the end of the 1060s. Siward's resistance continued until his capture on the Isle of Ely alongside Æthelwine, Bishop of Durham, Earl Morcar, and Hereward as cited in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Siward and his confiscated properties in central and northern England were mentioned in Domesday Book, and from this it is clear that he was one of the main antecessors of Henry de Ferrers, father of Robert de Ferrers, the first Earl of Derby.
Hereward the Wake was a British television series, which was produced by the BBC in 1965, and was broadcast weekly on BBC1. It was based on the 1866 novel by Charles Kingsley. Alfred Lynch played the title role. Due to the BBC's policy of erasing video tape for reuse in the 1960s and 1970s, the entire series is lost; no episodes survive in the BBC archive.