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    Hard Hero Hengest
    Hard Hero Hengest
    Hard Hero Hengest
    Ebook59 pages57 minutes

    Hard Hero Hengest

    By Geoff Boxell

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    About this ebook

    When Wimbledon schoolboy Jamie goes on holiday to Ramsgate in Kent, the last thing he expects is to meet up again with the dishevelled old man Grimm who had told him the tale of the Anglo-Saxon hero Beowulf.
    They meet up again just as a group of Anglo-Saxon enthusiasts lay a wreath at the replica longship 'Huggin' to commemorate the landing of Hengest, the man who founded the first of the English kingdoms in England.
    Grimm tells the boy the rather complex and bloody reasons why Hengest had needed to leave his homeland and come to Britain with three ships full of warriors. Although the old man is unable to continue when he becomes 'indisposed', the pair meet later at a village in Kent. There, despite the interruptions of two talkative starlings, a Hooden Horse and a side of Morris Men, Grimm tells how Hengest wrested Kent from the Welsh through both battle and treachery. As before, Grimm claims to not only have been there at the time, but to have influenced events as they had happened.
    Although Grimm's version of who Hengest was and what he did is not quite the same as that told in the Chronicles or the poems, he claims that his version is all true, well almost true.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGeoff Boxell
    Release dateJul 22, 2015
    ISBN9780473332099
    Hard Hero Hengest
    Author

    Geoff Boxell

    G'day,At the age of seven I asked my mother about King Richard the Lion Heart. Her response was to give me an historical text book she was reading on the subject and tell him to find out for myself! From then on I have been addicted to English history. After leaving school, where the history topics I studied were dictated by my need to pass exams, I concentrated my efforts on the 17th century, with especial interest in the Civil War and Cromwell's Protectorate. However, in the mid '90's I changed direction and began studying Anglo-Saxon history. Since then the Hundred Years War, in particular the events in the reigns of Edward III and Richard II have caught my interest. As a result of this I am now involved with the SCA Canton of Cluain, Barony of Ildhafn, Kingdom of Lochac. I have more than one persona, but my usual one is that of a yeoman archer in the retinue of Sir Allan de Buxhall, KG, Constable of the Tower of London. I run my own Household within the Barony - The Wulfings.Until Government cut backs I regularly acted as a guest lecturer for the Waikato University covering English history topics from the coming of the English to the Restoration.Whilst I spent most of my early career in telecommunications, I later joined the University of Waikato running an experimental ‘virtual’ unit providing education in technology management and innovation. After leaving the University I worked on various technology related contracts but am now retired.I am active Christian and attend the Te Awamutu Bible Chapel. For many years I have been involved in youth work for the church.Born in England, my wife and I moved to New Zealand in 1969. We have three sons and five grandchildren. We live on a large section with lots of trees and flowers and spend a lot of our time working in the garden. Naturally, as an archer, I have an archery butt at the bottom of the grounds.

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      Book preview

      Hard Hero Hengest - Geoff Boxell

      Hard Hero Hengest

      (an almost true story)

      by

      Geoff Boxell

      Hard Hero Hengest

      A Wendlewulf Productions Book

      ISBN: 0-473-33209-9

      Published by Wendlewulf Productions at Smashwords 2015

      PRINTING HISTORY

      Wendlewulf Productions 2002

      Copyright GR Boxell 2002

      Cover by John Clark (johnclark@artist33.freeserve.co.uk)

      Condition of Sale: This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, or hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the purchaser.

      Smashwords Edition Licence Notes

      This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person please buy an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Dedication

      To the men and maids of Kent who claim that, because of Hengest, they are the real English!

      To my fellow members of Ða Engliscan Gesiðas, an historical and cultural society exclusively devoted to Anglo-Saxon history. I admire its aims to bridge the gaps between scholars and non-experts, and to bring together all those with an interest in the Anglo-Saxon period, its language, culture and traditions. If that sounds as if it might interest you then visit:

      http://www.kami.demon.co.uk/gesithas

      or write to:

      Membership Secretary, Ða Engliscan Gesiðas, BM Box 4336, London, WC1N 3XX, ENGLAND

      Foreword

      When we read 'primary sources' we find that the Chronicler Bede, the writers of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Welsh writer Nennius all say that the first of the English to arrive and then forcibly take land from the Britons were led by a man named Hengest. The area Hengest and his band took over was Kent and Bede tells us that this area was settled predominantly by the Jutes who came from what is now Denmark. Was Hengest a Jute? Well maybe he was and maybe he wasn't. That great scholar JRR Tolkien thought that there was a good case for Hengest being an Angle, and therein lies a tale which this book attempts to tell.

      In addition to the primary sources, Hengest is mentioned in the poem 'Beowulf' and in another poem that we only have a part of and is known as 'The Finnsburg Fragment'. In his time Hengest was obviously toasted in the mead halls of northern Europe as a hard-hitting hero.

      As in the first story of the series, 'Big Bold Beowulf', I have refused to avoid long or old words. I have also deliberately used three old English letters and their pronunciation is as follows:

      Æ æ: Asc - flat 'a' as in Alfred.

      Ð ð: Eth - 'th' with tongue behind the teeth as in teeth.

      Þ þ: Thorn - 'th' with tongue between teeth as in 'thorn'.

      Chapter 1: The Long Ship

      Jamie felt the tug on his hand as his whippet Dhoo stopped to investigate the odorous visiting cards of previous stoppers at the lamp-post. The boy let the dog's lead go slack and, rather than face the embarrassment of the stares of passers by, looked up at the leaden grey sky where the clouds looked like thickly curled smoke. A tinkle of the dog's chain made him glance down at Dhoo, but the hound was just moving round to sniff at an interesting message that had been left by another dog on a thin blade of grass that had struggled to survive at the base of the lamp-post. Jamie's eyes drifted over the sea and saw how the surface changed as it entered Pegwell Bay, the waves becoming tamer and the surface moving like thick oil, the colour as grey as the sky. Despite the chill and greyness of the June day, Ramsgate was not unbeautiful, at least from a distance.

      Dhoo's chain gave another tinkle as at last the whippet added his contribution to the messages the lamp-post contained for visiting dogs. Jamie looked down at Dhoo. 'Finally done have we?' the boy asked. The coal black hound winked a coal black eye. Jamie shook the lead and the pair walked up Sandwich Road towards the grassed picnic area that gave a view across the bay from Cliffsend to Ramsgate.

      A group of people, who were wrapped up against the chill, had gathered around the rather sad looking Viking ship that resided at the picnic

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