Æthelflæd as depicted in the cartulary of Abingdon Abbey
V. M. Whitworth’s The Bone Thief (Ebury, 2012), and it’s sequel The Traitor’s Pit (Ebury, 2013) are exemplary historical novels. The author is known, by another name, as a medieval historian. I read the first book merely out of curiosity, because I knew her scholarly work. But, after a few pages, I was hooked. The setting is England Before England Was, the reigns of Æthelred, King of Mercia and Edward of Wessex, who was soon to unify the two kingdoms and make considerable inroads on the Danelaw. The future England has long been split between Pagan and Christian kings, but the Norse Gods are fading as the Scandinavian conquerors are adopting Christianity (with varying degrees of sincerity), and the two cultures are merging. The action of the first book is inspired by an incident recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as occurring in the year 909. The fictional hero is Wulfgar, a young cleric in the service of historical Æthelflæd, who is one of the more interesting women known from the period. For years, Æthelred has been too ill to rule, and The Lady of the Mercians rules in his stead. In The Bone Thief, she sends Wulfgar on a secret mission into the Viking-controlled Five Burroughs, to obtain the bones of St. Oswald, which she hopes will rally people to the Mercian cause. The bones have been lost, but are buried anonymously behind Bardney Abbey (which in 2014 is nothing more than a few stony lumps in a field northwest of the village of Bardney — see image below). Wulfgar is a timid soul, and is soon overwhelmed by the conspiracies, treacheries, and brutality of royal power politics. He has been chosen for the task primarily because he speaks some Danish. No adventure-seeker, he has a naïve belief in most of the things he was taught, which others around him regard as useful fictions or disposable formalities. In the sequel, he is assigned yet another mission, while at the same time trying to prove the innocence of his elder brother, who has been charged with participating in an attempt on the life of Edward. This leads into even more convoluted politics, violence, and tragedy. In both books, Wulfgar is constantly menaced by his nemesis, a bullying and brutal half-brother, and constantly aided by a fierce and roguish Dano-English female adventurer. Read more »