Into Battle: a warrior's life in Anglo-Saxon England

Death wasn't just a part of life in Anglo-Saxon England - it was a way of life.

However, that doesn't mean that men ran headlong into battle without a thought about their own mortality. How we define courage is a fascinating theme for any author, and one that seems to be cropping up again and again in the latest novel I'm working on: THE BREAKING DAWN. 

To illustrate one man's view on battle, here's a conversation between the hero and heroine from THE BREAKING DAWN - Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn (Prince of Powys), and Merwenna, the young Mercian woman who he is reluctantly escorting home.

“What’s it like?”

“What’s what like?”

“To fight in a great battle… were you scared?”

Dylan stifled a groan at that. This line of questioning was even worse than her previous one. He almost wished she would return to interrogating him about her dead lover.

“It’s difficult to describe,” he hedged.

Merwenna did not reply and after a few moments he realized she was still awaiting his response. Eventually, the silence became so ponderous that Dylan threw aside caution and answered her honestly.

“Battle is your whole life, from birth to death, squeezed into one drawn out moment. Everything is sharper, brighter. It assaults your senses, and there’s no escape, except through death. There’s no future, no past, just a nightmare you can’t escape. There’s no time for fear – if you’re afraid you’ll soon be dead. So you fight. You kill. And you keeping killing till it’s over.”

Dylan’s voice trailed off, and he heard Merwenna’s sharply indrawn breath. He felt a pang of regret at that, for he had not meant the words to come out so harshly. He would have usually honeyed them for female ears. Yet, something in Merwenna’s voice had demanded the truth – and so he had given it to her, or at least his version of it.

“It sounds ugly,” she said finally, her voice subdued.

“It is.”

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Fate is everything - how the Anglo-Saxons saw the world

The Anglo-Saxons had a fatalistic view of the world. To them, it was fate - or wyrd - that dictated who would live, and who would die. 

This was a world dominated by blood feuds and battles. Read any of the literature of the time, The Wanderer or Beowulf, and you will notice just how dominant the role of fate is - the message is clear: whatever your doom is, you can't escape it.

As the famous quote from The Wanderer states: "Wyrd bið ful aræd" - Fate is everything. 

Death was something all people of the time were used to - although that doesn't mean they didn't grieve for their departed. They sang laments for the dead and created stories about them, preserving their memories for years to come. Usually, only the high-born were buried as most folk of the time were cremated. The Anglo-Saxon burial mounds that have been excavated have uncovered a wealth of treasures. The nobility of this era were buried with the items that were the most precious to them in life.

You can never write a story in isolation. Setting a novel in a world dominated by the idea that we have no control over our destinies, provides an interesting challenge. The age we live in now is one of self-determinism and independence; an age where most women are relatively free to pursue their lives as they wish. The trick when writing a historical romance set in the era, is to keep the story as true to the time as possible, without alienating a modern audience - a delicate balance indeed!

If wyrd was fundamental to the way Anglo-Saxons viewed the world then 'courage' came a close second. In fact, the only way a man might be able to 'cheat' fate, was through valor - as this quote from Beowulf hints: "Fate often saves an undoomed man when his courage is good".

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Sign up to Jayne's monthly newsletter and receive a FREE copy of NIGHT SHADOWS (PDF format). Newsletter subscribers will also get sneak previews of upcoming novels, behind the scenes 'extras', snippets about Anglo-Saxon England, and podcasts from Jayne!

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