Medieval 5: Elgar 7 Second Chances, part 3 of 4

March 27, 2024February 11, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Athelbald died from his mysterious disease in July of 860 and the kingdom passed to his brother Athelberht of Kent. Once the way back to the capital was clear, Judith returned to Winchester, packed her bags, and went home to her father in West Francia. She was not about to be married again to yet another brother. Athelberht, like Athelbald had not married and had no children, so he was eligible to fall into Judith’s web, but Judith was done with that, and done with Wessex. In her mind, the whole kingdom was stupid and stubborn, and she would never be allowed to rule or gather all the power to herself. Even so, despite her bad attitude, she had matured over the years and now felt she could handle her father’s court and look for a more reasonable solution to meeting her desires.

Alfred was thirteen by then, and he corresponded with Elgar. Elgar got him books to read. Athelred was seventeen, so still too young to rule anywhere. The result was Athelberht moved to Winchester but took the throne of Kent with him. He integrated the nine shires for the first time and ruled the whole as the kingdom of Wessex. As it turned out, he had four years to rebuild Winchester and sew the pieces of the kingdom together.

For Berkshire, he selected a thegan who carried his father’s name, Ethelwulf. The man had Mercian roots, but Berkshire had been under the Mercian thumb for a time so the rest of the king’s men in the shire raised no objections. Besides, since the army of Wessex helped Mercia keep the Welsh in line, Mercia had come to accept Wessex as something of an overlord, so a man of Mercian background seemed no problem.

For Hampshire, Athelberht looked to Osric in Dorset. Osric straddled the fence when Athelbald and his father Athelwulf argued about the Wessex throne, but Athelberht took it as his position. Athelberht refused to take sides. In truth, Osric kept switching sides based on what was most advantageous to him. In any case, Athelberht appointed Osric as ealdorman of Hampshire and let Osric’s son, Osweald take Dorset. Besides, Athelberht’s mother was Osric’s sister, so Athelberht imagined Uncle Osric would do right by him.

Elgar talked to Eanwulf and Bishop Ealhstan of Sherborne and asked them to support, encourage, and teach young Osweald to do a good job in Dorset. Eanwulf did nothing. Ealhstan figured Osweald was like Athelbald, easy to manipulate. Nothing Elgar could do about that. At least Osric did not abandon his son.

Athelberht succeeded in his tasks over the years he ruled. The eastern shires of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex were fully integrated into the larger kingdom of Wessex. Winchester and the whole land of Hampshire were rebuilt and strengthened against the Danes. Everything was settled by 864 when the east coast of Kent became ravaged by the Danes, almost a repeat of what happened fourteen years earlier in 850. Dover, Canterbury, Rochester, and London were raided, and everything east and north of Watling Street fell to Danish hands. This was a year before the landing in East Anglia by what modern scholars call the Great Heathen Army. Some might suggest the actual invasion of England started in 864.

Two other things of note happened in 864. First, the Flesh Eater fighters and three person bombers strafed the major population centers in Wessex, from Kingston on Thames to Carhampton in Somerset. Some buildings burned, some collapsed, and some people died. It was not devastating, but like warning shots to not resist or fight back without suffering consequences. Second, Athelberht was wounded in one fly-over. He limped for a number of months, well into the new year, before he lost his leg. He seemed to do well enough after that for a one legged man, but six months or so down the road the leg got infected. Gangrene. He died sometime at the end of August, early September of 865, and was buried in Sherborne next to Athelbald. That left twenty-two-year-old Athelred to be king.

By the grace of God, as Elgar’s priest said, the Viking Great Army first turned north in 866 after they got settled and got their bearings. The death of Ragnar Lodbrok being thrown into a snake pit needed to be answered. The Danes devastated Northumbria and installed a puppet king in York. Then they turned on Mercia and ravaged eastern Mercia, wintering in 867-868 in Nottingham. In 869 they returned to conquer East Anglia and killed King Edmund who held the line against them when they first arrived. This left Wessex isolated with only western Mercia free and still in the hands of Athelred’s and Alfred’s sister whose husband, King Burgred of Mercia, still had some say over the land. With all that, the Danes were not ready to try Wessex again until late in 870. Thus far, the Danes had not been successful in Wessex. That gave Athelred time to reach out to his thegans and ealdormen and settle matters in the kingdom while gathering his forces. It also gave Elgar time to act.

When the Flesh Eater fighter ship flew over Watchet, Elgar knew he had to do something. The fighter dive bombed the town several times but did little damage before it moved on down the coast. The fortress, which was Elgar’s home, and the church were untouched. That allowed him the opportunity to speak with the priest again before he acted foolishly. He found things changed a bit.

“I am having a hard time holding on to Mercy and Forgiveness,” the priest admitted. “Two of the church widows were caught in the open and burned. How these creatures can fly and rain fire from the sky is beyond my understanding, but with such great power there is supposed to be great responsibility.”

“People,” Elgar said. “They are not human people like us, but they are people, not creatures. And you make me afraid to act at all.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I am one of those great powers that must act with great responsibility,” Elgar said plainly.

“Yes, I understand that much,” the priest responded. “But you have given these strange people sufficient chances, have you not?” Elgar nodded, so the priest concluded. “In Christ we have forgiveness of sin and the promise of Heaven. He will not hold our actions against us in eternity. But in the here and now, that does not leave us off being responsible for our actions, and often we must suffer the consequences.”

Elgar nodded again. “The law says for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. To put it in Biblical terms, as you sew, so shall you reap.”

“I would think so,” the priest said.

As soon as the Vikings began to land in East Anglia where they cowed King Edmund and gathered horses and equipment for their invasion, Elgar moved. He asked Lady Alice of Avalon to reach out into space. She found three Ape ships in a patrol group not that many light years away. She fed them the coordinates and informed them of the Flesh Eater ship located on the Genesis moon where they did not belong. Those Ape ships started out right away, but it would be well over a year before they arrived.

In place of his brother Eanwulf, who was ill, Elgar went with King Athelred, and twenty-five hundred men of Wessex to help King Burgred of Mercia route the Danish army that wintered in Nottingham. They intended to drive the Danes from Mercia altogether and thus liberate the eastern half of the land. Sadly, Burgred was not a military man and Athelred knew nothing about how to lay a successful siege. The two king together could not force the Danes to budge. It seemed to Elgar that the Danes were laughing at them. Elgar was twice Athelred’s age, but somehow they were back to the days where they did not listen to anything Elgar had to say. Burgred’s wife, Athelswith, Athelred’s older sister painted Elgar as the baby of the family. That is how Burgred saw him, so Athelred agreed with his sister. In the end, King Burgred paid the Dane to leave and stay away. The Danes waited until the weather cleared before they pulled out and headed back to York.

Only one thing of note happened at that time. Ealhstan, Bishop of Sherborne died in a skirmish with the Danes. No one knew how he managed to be in the area when the Danes came out to forage for food. He was generally a person who ran away when the fighting started, but he got himself killed and a man named Heahmund, a bit of a militant bishop, so quite the opposite of the coward took over.

Just as well, Elgar thought. He had his hands full with what was happening in space. The three Ape ships arrived and immediately engaged with the Flesh Eater ship somewhere out toward Mars. The battle was not so swift. The ships maneuvered all over space to get a clean shot on their enemy. Two Ape ships prevented the Flesh Eater ship from escaping into the asteroid belt. one of the Ape ships was destroyed, but the Flesh Eater ship had its screens taken down. It tried to escape, but the third Ape ship caught it and it exploded, spreading dead Flesh Eaters all across that section of space. One Ape ship was gone. One Ape ship was seriously damaged, but the third ship survived well enough to where they could guide their damaged ship to a place where they could repair.

Unfortunately, the Apes did not see the Flesh Eater shuttle head for Earth, escorted by two fighter ships and a three person fighter-bomber. Double unfortunately, someone else did see that shuttle. At first it headed toward the coast of Norway, but at the last minute it skirted across the North Sea like flying under the radar and headed toward the Scottish highlands. The shuttle had all thirteen fertile females and several litters of infants. As promised, once they left earth their fertility was restored, even if they only went as far as the moon.

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MONDAY

The Kairos confronts Abraxas and cleans up the last of the Flesh Eater mess. After that, things with the Danish army begin to heat up. Until then, Happy Reading

Medieval 5: Elgar 7 Second Chances, part 2 of 4

March 26, 2024February 11, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

While King Athelwulf, Eanwulf, and Osric were off helping the Mercians beat down the Welsh, the king’s wife, Osburh caught a cold. As sometimes happened in those days, she died before Athelwulf got home. The king went into a time of seclusion. For some months, they could hardly get a word out of him. Eventually, he would only speak to the priests and so perhaps it was no surprise when after two years he decided to make the pilgrimage to Rome. He took his younger sons, Athelred and Alfred with him.

Athelwulf’s eldest surviving son, Athelbald took the reins of the kingdom, though he was not the sharpest knife. Athelwulf made his next eldest son, Athelberht, subking over Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, though Athelbald did not allow Athelberht the same grace to rule that his father allowed him. Eanwulf and Osric liked having Athelbald in charge. He was easy to manipulate. And they supported Athelbald when Athelwulf returned and found his throne occupied.

While in Rome, Athelred and Alfred were tutored under the watchful eye of the pope. Alfred took to the learning and reading like the proverbial duck to water, in particular the histories, though he was only nine years old. He became fascinated to learn how Rome built such a mighty empire and organized itself to last a thousand years. He read about the saints and martyrs who struggled and sacrificed so much for the gospel and to convert the heathen. He read and received instruction about many things, and even at that young age, he recognized how the people of Wessex and the church in Wessex were hampered by the inability to read and the lack of books worth reading. He took a vow against his enemy, ignorance.

Athelred, by contrast, had little interest in the lessons. It is not that he was lazy, but his interests went more toward the martial arts. He did not mind learning about Caesar and hearing all about the battles. His was more of a romantic view of empire, of battles and conquest, not necessarily ruling. All the same, their father Athelwulf had both young boys invested in a way that proved their worthiness to rule. Athelwulf figured when he died, the older boys could not shave the younger one’s heads and stick them in a monastery somewhere to be forgotten.

When they left Rome after a year, they returned to the Carolingian court of Charles the Bald. Alfred, now ten, brought his trunk full of books. Athelred, fourteen, carried a sword with which his father hoped he would not cut himself.

Charles the Bald spent those days building alliances with outside kings and rulers as a balance against his own nobility that did not like him very much. Athelwulf, king of Wessex, certainly fit the bill. No one can say how Charles’ twelve-year-old daughter Judith came into the negotiations except to say Judith was a witch who had no intention of becoming a nun. She was beginning to chaff under the strict rules of her parents and wanted out. At her young age she had no business considering marriage, but it was all she could think of to escape. Besides, she figured the old man would not give her any trouble. He still loved his first wife, Osburh, and he would not live that long. She prepared herself to make sure of that.

When the family returned to Wessex, they found the throne taken and Athelbald would not be giving it up. Much to Athelwulf’s disappointment, his old friends Eanwulf of Somerset with Ealhstan, Bishop of Sherborne supported Athelbald, while Osric of Dorset sat on the fence between the two. Athelwulf, who was already not feeling well, was reluctant to start a civil war. He had the support of Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Berkshire, so he made a deal with his son. Athelbald took the western provinces of Somerset, Dorset, and Devon where Eanwulf’s friend Odda took the reins after his other friend Ceorle died in the 851 battle against the Danes. Athelwulf kept the central shires under his hand. Basically, Athelbald got the bishop of Sherborne while Athelwulf kept the bishop of Winchester. Athelberht in Kent, who refused to take sides, kept the bishop of Canterbury while the bishop of London was still technically claimed by Mercia, and by the Danes.

The agreement only lasted about a year. Athelwulf got sick and died just after the new year, 858, in Sussex, where he was buried. Athelbald moved back to Winchester and to the throne of Wessex. Then he did one thing that Elgar, Eanwulf, Osric, and the Bishop of Sherborne all agreed and advised against. He married Judith, now fifteen, his father’s widow. He did not know she was a witch.

It certainly was not Judith’s intention to be saddled with the son, but she saw no other way to power. At one time, she imagined after she got rid of the old man she might take the crown for herself, but that would never fly with these rude and ignorant Saxons. They called her queen, but in Saxon terms, the queen was no more than the king’s wife. Judith ruled through Athelbald for two and a half years, but it soon became too taxing to continue. The man was terminally stupid, and stubborn once he got a thought in his head. She controlled things well enough to get what she wanted, but he got on her every nerve. Athelbald was already sick with the same mysterious disease that killed his father when the Vikings under Weland burned Winchester. That happened in 860.

Charles the Bald originally contracted with the Viking Weland to drive out some other Norsemen that were threatening Paris from the north shore of Francia. Weland sort of succeeded. He gathered his army and put those Norsemen under siege until they paid him an ungodly amount of gold to go away. He thought this was a good thing. He heard about Athelwulf in Rome, how he lavished gold everywhere he went. He thought Wessex was just across the Channel. He imagined if he brought his army there, they might also pay him off to go away.

To his credit, Weland got all the way to the walls of Winchester before the army of Wessex gathered. He burned parts of the town, but he did not take the town before three times his numbers came from outside the city to confront him. Weland could not run fast enough. They fought, and Weland lost badly before he made it to his ships and escaped. The people of Wessex did not pay him off. They just got mad, and it was a mistake that got echoed in the halls of Denmark and Norway. The Vikings lost badly at the Parrett River. They lost again in 851 near Kingston in Surrey. Now, Weland had to tuck his tail and run. The message was don’t mess with Wessex.

Without knowing it, Weland did three things that might have proved troublesome in the future. His army managed to kill two ealdormen, the leaders in Berkshire and Hampshire. Poor Wulfheard of Hampshire was the father of Eanwulf’s wife, so he was family in a sense. And he had no sons, so the position stayed vacant for a while. For the hat trick, Weland’s army drove Athelbald from the city and nearly caught him in a skirmish outside the city walls. Athelbald received a cut in his arm which was not life threatening, but he was already weak from being sick.

Athelbald ran to Sherborne, to where he imagined his friends lived. The Bishop, Ealhstan, received him as the king, but he did not show any great friendship. Eanwulf did not even bother to visit. Instead, he sent Elgar.

Elgar spent the last seven years at home where his wife finally gave him a son to go with his four daughters. He felt it was about time since he turned forty in 860. In those seven years, he only drove off two Viking raids, and he figured one landed on his shore by accident. He guessed they were headed toward Glywysing in Wales and got turned around in the storm. It would have been nice to think he spent those years in peace and quiet, but no such luck.

Some of that time got spent receiving reports about the would-be god Abraxas. The god settled in Northumbria, on the opposite side of the island from where Elgar was located in Somerset. Marsham the elf and Pinoak’s fairy sister, Heath, both moved into the area where they could watch the god closely. Both married into the local elf tribe and fairy troop and settled in to do their duty. Abraxas seemed to be moving quietly around the area, though he brought in more Danes and Norsemen than Elgar imagined was healthy. Elgar guessed Abraxas wanted the pagan Vikings and English Christians to clash in their culture and faith and cause uncertainty in many minds. Elgar concluded that Abraxas could take advantage of that uncertainty. He would have to watch it.

The rest of the time, he kept one eye on the Flesh Eaters who abandoned the Earth only to land on the moon. From there, they regularly sent shuttles back to earth to pick up whole herds of animals, sometimes including cattle and sheep, and the occasional farmer and rancher. More concerning was the three-person bombers being used as scout ships and to deliver Flesh Eater counselors to the Danish throne.

Elgar’s elf spies suspected the Flesh Eaters were using their mind control devices on certain chiefs, counselors, and elders throughout Scandinavia. It was impossible to tell, or prove, because the elves knew nothing about that level of advanced technology, and the men behaved perfectly normally, as far as the elves could tell, even if their instructions came from the moon.

Elgar hoped the Flesh Eaters left Earth and were only hiding out on the moon until things settled down in deep space. Once the battles between the Apes and Flesh Eaters quieted down out among the stars, Elgar hoped these local Flesh Eaters would leave the solar system altogether. He was willing to let them visit and gather food as long as that food consisted of deer, cattle, sheep and the like. He was not happy about the occasional rancher or farmer they took with the herds, but at least they stopped eating the Geats on a regular basis.

Elgar talked to Reed, his house elf, the one who gathered all the information brought in by the elf and fairy spy networks. “Hopefully, when the fireworks in deep space settle down, these Flesh Eaters will leave altogether.”

“Hopefully,” Reed agreed, but all they could do was watch and wait. “It has been fifteen or sixteen years. How long will this war in space continue?”

“Eighteen years since the Apes found the Flesh Eater home world,” Elgar said and shook his head. He thought to explain what he could. “It takes a week, or two with bad winds, to travel from Denmark to England. But in space, the stars they travel to are not necessarily next to each other. To sail from Copenhagen all the way around to the Mediterranean to raid in Provence, Italy, or get to Constantinople takes months, maybe a year or two. In space, the distances are vast. Even at faster than light speed, it can take months or years just to get to an Ape colony or Flesh Eater colony. The actual fighting does not last long. It is the travel to get to the battlefield that takes forever. It is not much different on Earth. Armies gather, and most of the time is spent just getting there.”

Reed nodded that he understood.

Medieval 5: Elgar 5 The Parrett River, part 2 of 2

March 19, 2024February 11, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Eanwulf and Osric had no more questions, but the Bishop of Sherborne had one. “Why don’t we just put all our men in the line and crush them?”

“We tried that twice,” Elgar responded. “It doesn’t work.”

In the morning, fourteen hundred Danes lined up against fifteen hundred Saxon and British troops. Lodbrok kept four hundred men in the earthen works. He planned to have a hundred hold the works for a fallback position while he used the other three hundred in reserve to throw into the line as needed. Eanwulf and Osric kept back their two hundred, but the men looked antsy. When the fighting started, it would take some real effort to keep them from running forward to join the melee.

Elgar took his hundred and twenty horsemen to the ridge where they could look down on the fight. They picked up twenty men who came with Osric and Eanwulf and wanted in on the action. The Bishop also came with a few men on horseback, but they were mostly monks and priests and looked ready to run away if things went badly. Elgar found Pinoak and thirty fairies on the rise. They kindly appeared full sized, dressed in hunter green, and they studied the Danes as they came out to line up for the battle.

“The line is four thick with spears in the second and third rows. They appear to be very good at making a shield wall. Our side will find it difficult to penetrate that wall, but I don’t think the Danes will have as much trouble with ours. Our soldiers are not as practiced, and any openings they leave will be exploited by the Danes. Also, see? We are forming a line five men thick, so our line is not as long as theirs. They may be able to curl around our line on both ends and push in from our flank.

Elgar understood and answered for all the men who were listening. “We need to strike where they curl and push them toward the river.”

While his men got in position to attack, the lines met. Eanwulf and Osric had the numbers, but they did not line up in a way that took advantage of that. In fact, it became clear to Elgar why the Saxons lost twice at Carhampton.

It took Lodbrok a few minutes after the lines met before he threw in his three hundred where they could take advantage of what he saw. One hundred went to reinforce the center of the Danish line, but he divided his other two hundred and sent them to take advantage of the curl. He also knew about the battles at Carhampton and did not think much of the Saxon foot soldiers.

When the Danish three hundred arrived, the Saxon line held, but barely. Elgar had Pinoak message Pinewood and Deerrunner to send the two hundred reserve Saxons to attack the end of the line by the river while he got his horsemen to attack the near end. Even Eanwulf and Osric understood once it was pointed out to them.

Meanwhile, Elgar noted what was happening in the Danish earth works. Marsham and his elves and mostly the men from Combwich came out behind the works and used their hunting arrows to great effect. The Danes had nothing to hide behind as the makeshift mud and stone wall stood at their backs. Then Elgar could not worry about that as his cavalry charged down the slight rise, spears pointed toward the backs of the Danes.

The Danes at the back of the line tried to turn their shields against the horsemen, but being on horseback allowed the Saxons and British to ride around the sloppy shield wall and still hit the unprotected Danes in the rear. It did not take long before the Danes on that end began to pull back. The impact of the Saxon reserves on the other end was not as dramatic, but the two hundred men stopped the one hundred Danes from pushing in on that flank, and in fact began to push in on the Danish end where the Danish shield wall petered out.

Where the horsemen struck, the Danes began to pull back from the fighting. It took a little longer, but on the other side one bright Danish commander recognized that they were out maneuvered. They also began to pull back. Lodbrok recognized that these Saxons were smarter than the ones at Carhampton. He tried to push the center forward with the hope of splitting the Saxon line in two, but all he got was killed for his effort. Once Lodbrok was dead, the Danes abandoned the line. Even there, they showed discipline and order which was not a Saxon trait. Some stayed and sacrificed themselves to hold the Saxons back while most escaped. They quickly recognized their earth works had been abandoned by the men who were left to hold it, so they had nowhere to go but back to their ships.

When the ships began to sail, Elgar slipped from the horsemen and headed toward the Danish earthworks. He picked up Marsham who grabbed a horse and Pinoak who appeared full sized and on a horse, though it was only a glamour. They rode carefully up the hill and through the trees to where the Flesh Eater shuttle parked. They did not expect what they found.

Pieces of Flesh Eaters were scattered all around the area. A hag-beast was on its hairy knees, a sign of worship, in front of a young man with a black goatee, slick black hair, and pitch black eyes. Elgar shouted the young man’s name, and it was not kindly spoken.

“Abraxas! What did you do? Dealing with space aliens is not your job. You do not belong here.”

Abraxas shouted back. “This is the only place I have left to me.” He calmed himself. “I am shaping my place to my liking. It does not serve my purposes to have Flesh Eaters in my front yard.”

Elgar also calmed his voice. “I don’t want them here either. But you need to let me decide how best to get them gone.” He repeated. “This is not your job.”

“My job is to decide and rule,” Abraxas responded, and Elgar saw the stubbornness in the god’s eyes. He felt it prudent to trade places with Danna, the mother goddess, and let her look into those eyes.

“Fire the hag,” Danna said. “I will toss it into the sea.”

Before Marsham and Pinoak could call up their magic, Abraxas vanished, and he took his hag with him. Danna groused and waved her hand. The shuttle weapons were disabled, and the weapons and Flesh Eater equipment on the ground disappeared, to reappear on the appropriate island in the archipelago of Avalon. She waved again, and a twenty-foot deep hole appeared. All the flesh-eater pieces went in the hole and the hole got covered with one big rock and plenty of dirt, the top layer of which instantly grew grass, flowers, and a bush so it was indistinguishable from the rest of the clearing. She left the shuttle there, knowing the Flesh Eater mother ship would eventually be along to retrieve it.

Elgar came back and groused a bit. He turned his horse and carefully rode back down through the trees. As he rode toward Combwich, he heard his dwarfs doing some grousing of their own. Copperhand the dwarf chief complained. “Only three Danes braved the water of the ford. Three! That was hardly worth coming out from the Polden Hills.”

“Maybe next time,” Elgar answered. “We had no way of knowing. You might have faced a hundred or more and been overwhelmed. Thank you for taking care of the three.”

Copperhand mumbled some unrepeatable words and took his people back to the hills.

Marsham, Pinoak, Pinewood, and Deerrunner all vanished back into the wilderness when Eanwulf, Osric, and the bishop rode into Combwich to watch the last of the Danish sails slip into the bay and the Bristol Channel. The three men congratulated each other. Elgar, not in a good mood, put a damper on the celebration.

“We have wounded to tend and dead men to bury.”

Medieval 5: Elgar 5 The Parrett River, part 1 of 2

March 18, 2024February 11, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Osfirth and Gwyn had the men of the coastal watch, nearly three hundred, spread through the woods around the Danes where the Danes were building earthworks against the expected enemy. One hundred of the three hundred were on horseback so they could be moved rapidly to different sections of the line and hopefully appear like more than they really were. Their job, with Deerrunner and Pinewood and their people all dressed in hunter green, was to keep the eighteen-hundred Danes in forty-two longships bottled up in the Parrett River mouth where it ran to the bay in the Bristol Channel. The old Romano-British hamlet of Combwich was held by the Danes at the back of the Danish line, where they also controlled the ford they might use at low tide, if needed.

The Danes built an earthen work wall as a redoubt against the Saxons, especially if they came up with those men in green cloaks who were remarkable archers. The leader of the Danes was no fool. Lodbrok barely survived Hingston Down and lost nearly half his men. He respected the Saxons on horseback, as well as the men in green. He would strengthen his position and wait for the Saxon foot soldiers to come whom he did not respect at all.

Some believe the Danish invasion of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms began with the arrival of the Great Heathen Army in 865, and especially after the Great Summer Army reinforced them in 871, but most believe it started earlier, in 850 when the exaggerated number of 350 longboats arrived at the estuary of the Thames, and with the advent of Ragnar Lodbrok. But the truth is the landing on the Parrett River in 848 was the test case. The Danes, and Lodbrok’s son learned some things there and came away with respect at least for the army of Wessex, a lesson that got underlined in 851, in Surrey. That allowed King Alfred, years later, to pay off the Danes and negotiate a withdrawal from Wessex Territory which gave Alfred enough breathing room to eventually win the war. But that came later. In 848, about the time Alfred was born, the Heathen Danes came to the Parrett River, and something else came with them.

“Flesh Eaters,” Elgar named them.

“They are not even making an effort to hide,” Marsham said.

“They have an invisible shield around them, er, screens,” Reed explained. “I can sense them and the others who have been watching have mentioned it. It is strong enough to stop arrows and javelins and can even stop men and horses from getting at them.

Elgar pushed up to look from behind the bush. “You know, we had five years of peace and quiet. Too bad it could not last.”

“I understand your wife had another girl.” Pinoak, Pinewood’s son said.

Elgar rolled his eyes. “We had a son, but he died at two months when I was down in Carhampton checking on the fleet of longboats that eventually turned north toward Gwent and Cardiff. Nothing anyone could do.” Elgar sighed. “We had the girl after that. Alfflaed. So now I have four little Alfs. Wynn, Swip, Swith, and Flaed, that is Joy, Strong, Swift, and Beauty.”

Marsham interrupted with a thought. “They are an ugly people.” Elgar almost made a quip about Marsham insulting his daughters, but he knew what Marsham meant. He was talking about the Flesh Eaters.

Elgar examined the Flesh Eaters as well as he could from his distance and finally figured out what looked so wrong. “Their heads are too big for their bodies. Their bodies are skinny as an elf if you will pardon the expression. It is a wonder their little necks can hold up such big heads. And their mouths are too big for their big faces. They have almost no noses between the eyes. Just mouths.”

“And their tongues keep shooting out like a snake,” Pinoak added. “Why is that?”

“Smelling what is in the air,” Reed told him.

“Little noses,” Elgar thought to explain a bit. “Much of their sense of smell is in their tongues, as you said, like a snake. They can smell when there is blood nearby. They suck the blood first before they eat the flesh. I’m surprised they have not smelled me.”

“No, Lord,” Reed answered. “We are downwind.”

Elgar nodded as he said, “We should go before the Danes find us here behind their line.”

They returned to their horses that were tied in a small wood where they hopefully would not be found. They rode along a narrow path just over the rise in the land where the Danes would not see them, and got back to their own line without trouble, but Elgar had a thought.

“Pinoak. You need to keep your young fairies on the rise in case Lodbrok figures out we can get around behind his earth works and sends men to get around behind our line instead.”

“Lord,” Pinoak agreed and flew off to organize the watch. Marsham and Reed reported back to Deerrunner, but Reed shared a thought first.

“Copperhand and his dwarfs from the Polden Hills are not happy at being left out of the battle order.”

Elgar nodded but said, “I need them on the other side of the river so when we drive the Danes in that direction, they will be able to stop the Danes from escaping across the water. Copperhand and his people need to stay away from the longboats, but they can take any men foolish enough to try and swim the river.”

Elgar and the men of the watch kept the Danes in Combwich for three days before Eanwulf and Osric showed up with the army. Eanwulf and Osric brought six hundred men each and plenty of wagons to supply the men. The Bishop of Sherborne came along with an additional three hundred men, and mostly soldiers this time, not just monks and priests. With Elgar’s men from the coast, they matched the Danish numbers, but no more. Only Elgar’s nearly two hundred men in green gave the Saxon side the advantage, but Eanwulf and Osric knew them as men from the wilderness, excellent hunters with a bow, but not inclined to go face to face with the Danes.

It was late in the afternoon and the Bishop wanted to attack right away. Fortunately, common sense prevailed when Elgar spoke. “Your men are tired. They need a good night’s rest and good food in the morning so they have the strength to fight for as long as it takes. The heathen men will not attack until they send out scouts and spies to get an estimate of our numbers. They will wait the night and prepare for an attack in the morning.” Then Elgar put his brother on the spot. “Have you found men willing to hold back in reserve when the lines first meet?”

Eanwulf frowned and looked at Osric who added his frown. “We have each ordered a hundred men to wait. That is two hundred and the best we can do. You know, it is unnatural for good men to wait when the fighting begins.”

Elgar understood. “But twice we have seen it is what the Danes will do, and twice at Carhampton they have broken our line with their fresh men. Unless we have men to strengthen our line when the Danes send in their reserves, we will just find our line broken a third time.”

“I understand,” Osric said. “And how many of your three hundred will you be holding back?”

Elgar had to think how to say it. “My men know their homes and families are in the most immediate danger if the Danes gain a foothold in this place. They will not hold back but will fight like berserkers, but then, I have something special in mind. They know the land and have spotted a weakness in the Danish formation. I plan to take the hundred men on horse along the ridge above the Danes and fall on their flank—their side and back corner at the right time, much like we did at Hingston Down. I also have some men in green, hunters, who have agreed to drive the Heathen men from Combwich, and with whatever men they can get from the village come up behind the Danes with their arrows.

“That will still leave the river as a way of escape,” Eanwulf was thinking.

Elgar shook his head. “Any who swim the river will not survive on the other side. Trust me on that. Their only hope will be to go back to their ships and leave this land. Assuming everything goes to plan. Your job will be to hold the line. If our line collapses before we are in position to attack, this won’t work. Let Lodbrok throw his reserves in first and wait. That will be the most difficult time but keep the line. Deerrunner and Pinewood both have a good sense of how this works having seen it work in many battles. Wait and push in on the river side with the reserves when we are ready.”

“On the river side?” Osric asked. “Won’t that make the other side weak, especially if they are ready to pull back.”

“It will,” Elgar said. “But that is the side where we will hit them with our cavalry. Hopefully the Danes will be thrown into confusion and that should encourage our men to hold. That is the plan, anyway.”

Medieval 5: Elgar 4 Carhampton, the Sequel, part 2 of 2

March 13, 2024February 10, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Alfpryd had twin girls she named Alfswip and Alfswith, she said to honor her friends, Athelswith and Elgar’s sister, Eadswip. Elgar complained with the thought Doctor Mishka put in his head, though he was very glad the doctor had been there to help. Twins were not easy.

“I’ll never be able to tell them apart,” he said before he came up with his own complaint. “And about the names…”

“Now, we agreed,” Alfpryd interrupted. “I name the girls and you name the boys. Besides, Reed and Violet like the names.”

“I’m not surprised,” he said. They were elves and probably inclined to like any name that began with the word Elf, or Alf. Violet served as Alfpryd’s maid, and her husband, Reed, kept Elgar updated on the progress of the Flesh Eaters. “What does Poppy think?” Poppy was the local fairy Elgar sometimes mistakenly called Edelweiss.

“Poppy loves Alfwynn, and says she loves Alfswip and Alfswith already, and they are just babies.”

Elgar nodded. “You are such a lucky woman.”

“I know. I love my husband so much.”

“I meant, that you are loved by so many. Even the very spirits of the earth love you.” he gave her a kiss and left the room so she could rest. He found Reed waiting for him.

“What news?” he asked, and Reed understood his mood and skipped the niceties.

“The Flesh Eaters appear to have completed their survey of the earth and the civilizations presently that cover the globe. I feared briefly that they might settle in northern Tang, but the Tang have become like the Eastern Romans, past their prime. Likewise, the Hoy Romans and the Caliphate are falling apart due to internal squabbles. The Flesh Eaters have chosen the place where the warrior culture has become paramount even though unity has not yet been achieved.”

“The Danes,” Elgar understood. “My friends in the future, or whoever is controlling my rebirths, tends to put me where I am most needed.”

Reed nodded. “They hope to unify Danish and Norwegian lands very soon. Then they can work on uniting with the Swedish and Finish lands, and eventually the Baltic and Rus lands. That would make a substantial, young, vital, and ambitious empire that might conquer the world.”

“You think they are after world domination?”

“That has been much discussed among those who are watching. They have only one mothership and nothing in the way of support vessels. They do not have the resources to conquer the lands themselves and do not appear to have access to more ships and more Flesh Eaters. They may be renegades of some sort. Coming to a planet clearly marked Do Not Go suggests that possibility, though many say the Flesh Eaters would not care about that. But they are either renegades or their fleets and Flesh Eating people are occupied elsewhere and unable to help.”

Elgar shook his head and relayed what once he heard from Alice of Avalon. “Their home planet has been discovered by the Apes. There is a massive war going on in space right now.”

“As some suspected,” Reed said. “In any case, the Flesh Eaters here appear to have settled on the Danes as their servant intermediaries. Once the world is under control, without the Flesh Eaters having to fight and risk their own lives, then the Flesh Eaters can rule over all from behind the curtain and feast on human flesh for many, many centuries to come without fear of the humans rising up and rebelling against them. They are beginning to experiment with mind control devices but are several years, maybe a couple of decades from being ready.”

“Keep me informed,” Elgar said, with his thanks. “I suspect the reason I was born here is because England will be the test case. I imagine the Danes will first invade this island with the idea of conquest before they invade the continent. I think that will be the case even if Denmark and Germany share an easy land border.”

“First, the divided kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons. Then the more powerful Franks and Germans. Then third, the Eastern Romans and divided Muslims. Then I don’t see anyone stopping them.” Reed concluded.

“Unless the Turks and Mongols miraculously pull themselves together a couple of hundred years ahead of schedule.”

“Turks and Mongols?” Reed asked.

Elgar waved him off. “Forget I said that.”

Reed nodded.

843 was a busy year. First the twins were born. Then Wulfrun reached her last month and everyone seemed happy when they got interrupted. Odda sent word from the Devon coast that a large number of Danish ships were seen sailing for Carhampton. Riders were sent out, but Wulfrun delivered a boy before the army gathered. Athelwulf hurried with four hundred men from Hampshire. He only had fifty on horseback, however, because he decided the expense of a full hundred was not worth it. Osric brought six hundred from Dorset, this time some coming from the north and from Sherborne. Eanwulf had his six hundred, but most came from the north where he rode. Few came from the west side of the Parrett, or from the Devon border area. Eanwulf was disappointed with his brother. Elgar simply complained.

“At this rate, the Danes will not only burn down the churches, they will have time to build big pagan shrines in their place.”

The king, Eanwulf, and Osric ignored the young man, as usual. When they arrived at Carhampton and camped in the same place King Ecgbert camped seven years earlier, they found a surprise waiting for them. A hundred and fifty men gathered from the coastal towns and another fifty from in and around Exmoor jointed them. They said what they were told was correct. If the Danes got a foothold on the coast, their homes would be the next to be burned. Apart from the two hundred men from Somerset, they also found a hundred brought by Odda from the coast of Saxon Devon.

“We have to stick together,” Odda told Eanwulf. “Otherwise, Devon may be next.”

Those three hundred men kept the sixteen hundred Danes in Carhampton bottled up for a month while they waited for the army to arrive.

“We have the numbers,” King Athelwulf thought, and proceeded to make the same mistake his father made. He threw his full force of roughly eighteen hundred foot soldiers, mostly farmers and tradesmen at the Danish line of twelve hundred. The Danes fought bravely and held the line for a long time, but when cracks began to appear in the Danish line, the Danish commander threw his fresh four hundred reserves in and that was enough to cause the exhausted Saxons to crumble. The Saxons had nothing in reserve.

Elgar looked around the camp. They had about a hundred and thirty men on horseback at most, and some of those were monks and priests surrounding the Bishop of Sherborne. They did not have enough men to attack the enemy. About all they could do was stand about and look mean to prevent the retreat of the Saxons from turning into a rout.

The Saxons fell back to their camp. They would fight again if they had to in order to prevent the Danes from breaking out of the town and into Somerset, but unless they needed to fight, they preferred to lick their wounds. The Danes, for their part, probably decided it was not worth the sacrifice to push inland. Instead, they gathered what treasures they stole and headed back out to sea.

Elgar yelled at his brother, and Osric was there to hear. Fortunately, the king was not there. “You have twice seen how the Heathens fight. You have seen how they hold some men back from the fight and when our men are exhausted, even if they are winning, the Danes throw their fresh men into the line and twice they have broken us. Twice we have come without horsemen, and twice we have been lucky the Danes have had no men on horseback. If they had, our men would have run for their lives and been cut down one after another. You saw how affective it was when our horsemen charged the Danes at Hingston Downs, and when we circled around and came up behind the Celts, we forced them to surrender and they had nowhere to run. Twice now at Carhampton we have handed the victory to the enemy by our foolish tactics. Learn something, for God’s sake.”

Elgar stomped off to his tent and did not wait for a response.

One result of the second battle of Carhampton was Elgar got promoted by his brother, and he was forced to move. “From the Parrett river north to the Severn Estuary, most of the coast is marshland and not suitable to bring many ships to shore,” Eanwulf said. “I surveyed the area in this last year when we went about. But from the Parrett River to the border of Devon, even on the coast of Exmoor, there are many places to land, especially the long, skinny, shallow draft ships of the Danes. I am making you the Dux of the coast from the Parrett River to the border with Devon to five miles inland so you will have the towns and villages there to watch the coast. I expect you to keep the heathens out of Somerset. Maybe you should live at Carhampton since the Danes seem to like that place.”

Elgar shook his head and hardly had to think about it. “Watchet,” he said. “The old Celtic fort there needs work since Grandfather Edgar tore it down, but it is near the center of the coast. From there, we can hold the Danes in check until you can get there with the army. We can set up a coastal watch like Odda has set in North Devon, and we can drive off simple raiding parties. But any substantial landing, you better back me up with the army or this won’t work.”

Eanwulf did not like to have to be bothered with that, but he agreed because he knew his little brother was right. “And maybe Osric and the men of Dorset can help. I think Osric’s uncle was right. The king does not need to be disturbed with every Danish landing. That is what he expects us to take care of to keep the kingdom safe.”

Great in theory, Elgar thought, but if the Saxons don’t learn anything, they will lose every time on the battlefield. They need cavalry, and to keep some fresh men in reserve to reinforce the line where it may be weakening. Saxon brute force might have been enough against the Welsh, but not against the Danes.

************************

MONDAY

The Danes come in force to the Parrett River, as predicted, and the Flesh Eaters come to watch. Until Monday, Happy Reading.

Medieval 5: Elgar 3 Hingston Downs, part 3 of 3

March 11, 2024February 10, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Early the next morning, Elgar met with Deerrunner and a dozen elves who agreed to lead the army through the moors. “I looked at the map last night,” Elgar said. “I figure the Celts are about a day ahead of us.”

“About that,” Deerrunner said.

“Secret elf paths are fine,” Elgar continued. Such paths could take people from here to there in less time than humanly possible. “But I want to catch up, not get ahead of them. If we catch them in the downs on the other side of the moors, well before the Tamar River, that would be fine. Men in this world often have to fight, but better they have solid ground under their feet.”

Deerrunner said, “I understand, catch but not surpass.” and he added, “Pinewood and his people will be keeping an eye on the Celtic army. They can slow them down a bit if necessary, like finding an unexpected marshy area where they have to backtrack and go around. He will keep us apprised of their progress so they will not get too far ahead of us and we will not get ahead of them.”

“Good. Don’t forget we have wagons full of supplies so we need a solid route level enough to bring them through,” Elgar said. Deerrunner understood, so Elgar went to saddle his horse while Eanwulf, Osric, and Athelwulf showed up to cross-examine the elves one more time. Elgar was not worried. Eanwulf already met Deerrunner and would vouch that he was one of the three that came to tell them about the Celts and Danes in the first place. That spoke much in Deerrunner’s favor. Deerrunner would reassure them for the rest of it and introduce his “cousins” who were all disguised to look like grubby men who lived in the wild and who would not say much more than yes sir and no sir.

It took only two days to cross Dartmoor. They never had to backtrack, and there always seemed a safe way for the wagons and horses. They had to work some to get up and down the granite hills, but that was expected. It would have been suspicious if the elf guides made it too easy.

In the early morning, the West Saxons arrived in the Tamar River valley. They came out from Dartmoor at the Tavy River where it was wide and shallow and easy to cross. King Mordaf and the Celts stopped there for the night and were still there for some reason. In fact, Lodbrok the Dane caught up with the king and they were in a heated argument about the man being paid for nothing.

Lodbrok easily overran Plymouth and Saltash in a day, left half of his men there and traveled upriver with four or five hundred men searching for the elusive abbey where he hoped to find gold and silver and precious relics of the saints that the people might pay to safeguard. He got to the hamlet of Tavistoke and found Mordaf instead of a payday. Lodbrok just agreed to abandon his quest for the non-existent abbey and return to Saltash. He agreed to leave Cornwall alone but he did not tell the king that he planned to go back down the river to ravage Saltash and Plymouth for everything he could get before he left. All of that became moot when the West Saxons arrived.

The army of Dumnonia hastily formed ranks. Mordaf had some good officers even if all he could do was complain. “How can they be here? How can they possibly be here?”

Lodbrok hurried back to his men who were camped well below the hamlet, out of sight, and closer to the Tamar River. He considered staying out of it, but then he considered if he helped the Celts in the right way, he might get the two armies to ruin each other. That would make the coasts of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Dorset, and possibly even Hampshire accessible to raiding, and the kings might not have the manpower to stop him.

King Ecgbert and his son Athelwulf got the ealdormen to set their men in battle order. Eanwulf stayed close to his father and made Osric of Dorset, his brother-in-law fight beside him. Wulfheard of Hampshire took the other end of the line where he readied his men and the men from Berkshire and Wiltshire. It was twenty-three hundred from Wessex against eighteen hundred from mostly Cornwall. The outcome was not in doubt, especially since King Ecgbert had an additional three hundred men in his so-called cavalry.

Lodbrok the Dane waited for the two armies to meet in the middle before he hoped to hit the Saxons on their flank and totally disrupt their line. He thought his men were hidden well enough to be a complete surprise. He did not fool the little ones.

The Danes stood up to charge and immediately they began to fall to elf and fairy arrows. The Danes stopped before they started and tried to form a shield wall against the deadly projectiles. Elgar’s eyes were drawn to the area. He grabbed a spear, shouted, and began to ride in that direction with his friends and a few of the guards that rode with him.

Eanwulf saw and yelled, “Where are you going?” Then he, Osric, and Athelwulf all saw the Danes, and in no time, the big half of Ecgbert’s cavalry were headed in the same direction. Elgar was concerned that some of his little ones might be hurt or even killed. Eanwulf, Osric, and Athelwulf knew what four hundred plus men crashing into the side of an army could do. They might collapse the whole line.

When the Danes got the shield wall up against the archers, the gnomes and dwarfs popped out of the grass both directly in front and behind the Danes. They were much better at hiding in the grass than the Danes could ever hope to be, and the little ones had their bows, long knives, and axes ready and sharpened. The shield wall quickly fell apart and the Danes began to run back toward the river. By the time the cavalry arrived, that battle was already over. Elgar knew the dwarfs and some others would chase the Danes all the way to the water. They would catch some, and pity on the ones they caught. But meanwhile, Eanwulf and then Athelwulf had the same idea.

“Circle around to hit the Celts in the rear,” they shouted, and the men followed them, though they did not have to hit the rear very hard. Mordaf was already beginning the surrender. What most of the cavalry ended up doing was chasing those Celts who imagined they could race to the Tamar River and swim to safety on the banks of the Cornwall side. A few succeeded, but most were caught or killed before they reached the water.

King Ecgbert brought King Mordaf to a table he had set up in the field and King Mordaf explained. “These are the Hingston Downs, though the village of that name is some distance from here.”

“Lovely land,” King Ecgbert said. “You can keep it, and Dartmoor with the big mosquitoes.” He had little patience in his old age. He called for a map that showed the western end of Somerset, Devon without too many details, and almost nothing of Cornwall. “Here is the new border,” he said and started at Pilton, and making sure the city was on his side of the line, he drew a line down the Taw river, cut across the land to the Exe, again making sure that he got both Crediton and Exeter, and ended the line at the Exe River delta. “I get the north and east of Devon for my trouble. You can keep the west and south.”

“And the big mosquitoes,” King Mordaf mumbled.

“By all means. keep as many of them as you want.” King Ecgbert smiled and King Mordaf recognized that he had no choice. King Ecgbert softened a little. “I was reminded just recently that there is no reason why two Christian kings should not sit down and peacefully work out their differences. So, let’s talk about compensation.”

King Mordaf did find some backbone and raised some objections when the amount and frequency of the payments came up, but they eventually worked it out when King Ecgbert reminded the man that he ought to pay at least as much as he paid those heathen men to fight for him. “Unbecoming of a Christian king,” King Ecgbert concluded.

When they got back to Exeter, the king found that Godric had things well in hand. the king congratulated the man and right then made him Ealdorman of Devon, handed hm the map, and went home because he was tired. Elgar figured Godric would not live long, but neither would the king, or his own father for that matter. They were of the generation that was dying out. Oslac of Dorset was already on his deathbed. Eanwulf, Osric, probably Ceorle, and King Athelwulf would soon be taking over. That reminded Elgar of something, and he asked Deerrunner.

“So, where is your son, Marsham?”

“He is over in Northumbria tracking the Flesh Eater ship. The Flesh Eaters have been watching the humans fight each other. They may have been involved in triggering the civil wars in Francia. They also sent a shuttle across the sea to Danish lands. They are most certainly planning something.”

“Thanks,” Elgar said with all the sarcasm he could muster. “I had forgotten about them.” Deerrunner let out the kind of elf grin that would cause humans to be frightened and wonder what the elf might be thinking. It just made Elgar frown and change his thoughts. He would much rather think about Osfirth’s sister, Alfpryd.

Medieval 5: Elgar 3 Hingston Downs, part 2 of 3

March 6, 2024February 10, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

An older man named Godric led a thousand West Saxons from Carhampton and crossed the Exmoor to preemptively invade Countisbury and north Devon before the Celts and Danes could invade the coast of Somerset. The old man would have taken his time and ruined the surprise attack if he did not have his two lieutenants, Ceorle and Odda pushing him. When they arrived outside the city of Countisbury, the Danes, who had just arrived, simply turned around and marched back to Pilton and their ships. The outnumbered Celts began the long trek to Crediton and Exeter where they expected to find the king.

Godric left enough men in Countisbury to make the city a Saxon controlled city while he and Ceorle led most of the army to follow after the Celts. They did not feel the need to catch the Celts as long as the Celts kept moving out of the area. Godric was not in a hurry, even when Ceorle figured out the Celts were going to link up with their king and his much bigger army. “We will be the smaller claw of the crab,” Godric said. “King Ecgbert will be the big claw and we will crush the Celts between us.” He was not going to hurry.

At that same time, King Ecgbert and the main force of Wessex moved two days down the road between Somerton and Exeter. He had about twenty-three hundred foot soldiers, an additional three hundred men on horseback that he called his cavalry, and a dozen wagons full of tents and the supplies they would need for a war. The king of Cornwall did not know they were coming.

When the twelve-hundred men of Cornwall and Devon were gathered, along with nine hundred Danes, they left Exeter with high hopes. One day down the road, and they saw what was coming to face them. King Mordaf stopped his men, and when he estimated the opposition, he started to turn the men around and put his men behind the Exeter city walls. To be fair, the king saw the elves, gnomes, dwarfs, and ogres along with the rest of the army, and he saw the little ones as men, so his count estimate was much higher than King Ecgbert and Eanwulf or Osric of Dorset knew about.

Lodbrok the Dane complained about turning around. “So, they are more than us. It will make it a good fight, but we can take them.” He knew about the fight at Carhampton and did not think much of the Saxons on the battlefield.

Mordaf did not listen. He led everyone back to Exeter and shut the gates. By noon, they brought in the last of the families from outside the gates who came with as much food as they could carry. The West Saxons arrived around four and set their camp on the east side of the Exe River. They did not try to surround the city on that day. The six hundred Celts from the north arrived by six that evening and claimed they were being followed by twice the number of West Saxons, and the Danes abandoned them and sailed off from Pilton.

The king began to panic, but it did not become acute until Lodbrok the Dane said he had no intention of getting trapped in a city where the enemy could just starve them out.

“But you have been paid to fight,” the king objected.

“Yes, but you won’t fight,” Lodbrok shouted back. “You just want to run and hide.” He took his nine hundred Danes and left by the back gate. They made a wide arc around the west side of the river to avoid contact with the Saxons and headed back to their ships in the Exe delta. At least they got paid first, though Lodbrok decided it was not enough. He figured while the king and his army were off fighting elsewhere, he might sail to the long delta of the Tamar and see what Plymouth and Saltash might have to offer to supplement his earnings. He might even sail up the Tamar a bit. He heard there was a great monastery at Hingston Down, and they were always good for gold and silver relics.

Poor Mordaf. He had eighteen hundred men and the city could only produce another three hundred worth anything. Altogether, he figured the Saxons outnumbered him two to one. Even with the Danes they would have been outnumbered, but they might have had a chance to defend the city walls. Without the Danes, however, King Mordaf of Cornwall knew he would eventually have to surrender. He decided his only option was to abandon the city, head out across the Dartmoor, and hope the Saxons would not try to follow him through that dangerous ground. They left about midnight and the city decided to surrender as soon as the king of Wessex came up to the gate.

Pinewood immediately found Elgar out behind the tent and told him that the Cornish were sneaking away in the night. Elgar paused for a time to stare at the fairy who hovered before him. When he spoke, it was neither what he nor Pinewood expected.

“You have gone gray,” he said. “Gerraint and Festuscato hardly recognized you.”

“It is with us as you know,” Pinewood responded. “We mature in our first hundred years or so, then we age very slowly, hardly noticeable over as much as eight hundred years, until the last hundred years or so. Then we age rapidly, and gray hair is often a sign of that.”

Elgar nodded. “I will miss you when you are gone, and Deerrunner.”

Pinewood smiled and looked down. “I only hope I have served well in my time here.”

Elgar nodded. “But now you need to get big and tell Father and the king about the Celts escaping the city.”

Pinewood got big, dressed in his hunters green, and Elgar led him to the main tents. When Pinewood relayed his information to the gathered lords of Wessex, everyone was happy except the king.

“If we let Mordaf escape with his army intact, he may just rethink and try again. We have Irish and Welsh pirates and pirates from Brittany. With civil wars in Francia, our trade is severely hampered. And now, we have Danes knocking on the door of our land. All these live across the sea and so far away, there is little we can do about them. Cornwall, old Dumnonia, on the other hand, is right next door. They are one threat we can deal with, but we must deal with them while we can. I want a solid border agreed to by both sides. Then, maybe we can focus on building a fleet of ships to protect the coasts.”

“That is what the people of Kent want,” Athelwulf said. “They are building ships.”

King Ecgbert nodded to his son and turned to Godric. “I want you and your men to hold Exeter in check. The army with me will chase Mordaf to the Tamar River, or all the way to land’s end if necessary.”

“But Lord,” Godric spoke up. “Mordaf is no fool. His men know Dartmoor and know the ways through. It is dangerous ground, full of bogs and marshes and difficult to traverse. An army could get lost in there, or anyway, take a long time to get through it when you don’t know what paths are safe to take.”

King Ecgbert paused to think before he turned to Elgar’s father. “Eanric. Your land is full of swamps and the like. You have men familiar with Exmoor. Might they be able to guide us through the swamps of Dartmoor?”

Eanric thought a moment before he looked at Eanwulf. Eanwulf did not think at all as he turned the stare on Elgar. Elgar did not feel surprised and spoke right up. “Your majesty. I believe my friend may be able to help with that problem.” He pointed to Pinewood who was also not surprised.

“Majesty,” Pinewood said with a slight bow. “Exmoor is like Dartmoor in some ways, but not in some ways. Even so, you still need to know which way to go to get through the unfamiliar ground. Fortunately, I have cousins who live in Dartmoor. They say the hunting is good because not many people live there. I am sure they would be glad to guide your troops safely through the moors rather than have you stumbling around disturbing their herds and hunting grounds.”

“And will you and your family fight for your king?” King Ecgbert asked.

Pinewood glanced at Elgar before he answered. “It is not our place to choose sides between two Christian kings. It is sad that Christian men cannot sit and make peace, but I will say this. If the Danes should show up, we can call up more fighters than you might think. We will fight the heathen men. We want no Danes ruining our land.”

The king thought for a minute before he said, “Fair enough. We leave first thing in the morning. Get some rest. Godric stay, and your lieutenant…”

“Ceorle,” Eanwulf named his friend.

“Sounds Frankish,” Athelwulf said to Eanwulf.

“Maybe Frisian,” Osric of Dorset suggested.

Eanwulf could only shrug.

************************

MONDAY

The army moves through Dartmoor. They surprise the Celts, and the Danes who happen to be there looking for loot. They fight. Until then, Happy Reading.

Medieval 5: Elgar 2 Things Worth Knowing, part 2 of 2

March 4, 2024February 10, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“Elgar,” Eanwulf came around the corner. “I should have guessed you would be here. Where is Gifu Two and her puppies?”

Elgar shrugged. “Out chasing rabbits?” He guessed as his eyes got suddenly captured by another sight. Two old men dressed in hunter green and one young man dressed in light armor, like a soldier or thegn might wear, walked lazily across the field toward the house. Elgar thought he recognized them, but he was not sure, never having seen the older ones with gray hair, and maybe never having seen the younger one at all. But he had a good guess. He thought to ask Eanwulf a different question. “How are Ceorle and Odda? Aren’t they living over by Carhampton, since the Danes tried us there, I mean. I thought Father put them there to watch the coast.”

“Fine,” Eanwulf said. Elgar looked at his brother while Eanwulf focused on the men in the distance, like he was also wondering who they were.

“So, why are they here?”

Eanwulf shook his head, like he did not know the men in the distance and turned for the moment to his younger brother. “How did you know they are here?”

“I saw them in town,” Elgar admitted as he took a moment to wipe the dirt from his hands. “They started in on the tease the baby brother routine. I gave them the slip.” In truth, he ran into the stables to retrieve his horse, but they followed him in. He had no choice but to trade places through time with Margueritte. He was thinking about Festuscato when Festuscato ran into the stables to escape the Visigoth prison. He remembered Margueritte came into his place and dressed as a washerwoman, a Roman-Celtic servant in the house. When Elgar went away, Margueritte came, and she came dressed as that servant in her best washerwoman outfit, just as he remembered her.

She was too young and pretty for Ceorle and Odda not to notice her. They asked her a question, and she responded in her Welsh-rooted language from Brittany as they spoke it roughly a hundred and forty years ago. It was not that she could not understand the question or answer it in their own language, which was Elgar’s native tongue, but she figured her response in the Gaelic tongue completed the disguise.

“Not that they would recognize me as a woman,” Elgar scoffed in her thoughts. “You don’t even look like me.”

The men smiled for Margueritte and she returned their smile, an automatic response, but then they left saying it was not worth rooting around in the hay to find the boy. The urge to tease Elgar had left them.

When they left, Margueritte sat down and asked, “Are you okay?”

She traded places back with Elgar and he answered, “I’m not sure.” This was the first time he ever traded places with a past life, or any life. This was also when he first really understood something about Avalon and Alice, and specifically how to call things from Avalon, like fairy weave washerwoman outfits, and that included calling the armor and weapons of the Kairos as needed. He looked up and saw a gnome working in the stables, making up for the poor work of the lazy stableboy. The gnome bowed.

“My Lord Kairos. It is most good to know you.”

Elgar grimaced and waved off the gnome with the words, “Don’t tell anyone,” but he knew it was too late. Every gnome would hear about it in almost no time, and soon every little one in Wessex would know. Sometimes he had to do things that were better done incognito. The little ones did not need to automatically know which human might be their god or goddess. It was better that way for as long as it lasted. They would mind themselves around the humans for fear that they might play a trick on exactly the wrong human.

“But we have never been able to keep that knowledge from the little ones for long.” Elgar heard from the Storyteller for the first time just that afternoon.

Elgar acknowledged he was probably right. He mounted his horse and rode home, thinking, what did he know about elves, dwarfs, and sprites of every shape and size. He would not think much of himself as a god, but then he figured a fallible, stumbling dolt who got killed once in a while was probably the only kind of god the little ones would accept, and put up with. He began to search through the lifetimes of the Kairos that he knew, not for information, but just to get to know them, to know himself. He stabled his horse when he got home, picked up a handful of pebbles and went to sit at the side of the barn where they could not see him from the house. He needed to think.

So now Eanwulf found him, and Eanwulf grinned while all these thoughts raced through Elgar’s mind. Ceorle was a couple of years older than Eanwulf, being around thirty-four. Odda was a couple of years younger, maybe not quite thirty. They were both part of Eanwulf’s gang, as Elgar thought of them. They were also married and had young children, like his brother. Eanwulf had two girls ages seven and three and a one-year-old boy. He had another boy between the seven and three-year-old, but that boy only lived two months.

“But what are Ceorle and Odda doing here?” Elgar could not contain his curiosity.

Eanwulf nodded like he did not mind answering that question. “They are concerned about the people moving into Devon. The pace has picked up since Carhampton got attacked. Devon is relatively good farmland. Somerset, especially around Exmoor, is full of fens, marshes, and floods. Even the dry land, the islands, and hills, while they may be fertile soil, they are full of rocks and hard to plow. So far, it has been mostly peaceful migrations into Devon. The West Welsh have made room all the way to the Taw River and down to Crediton, which I could show you on the map. But with the pace of families moving to Devon increasing, Ceorle and Odda are afraid hostilities may break out. They are going to need some guidance as to how to handle it. Personally, I think hostilities are inevitable.”

“And you would be right, young prince.” One old man spoke to Eanwulf. The two old men and the young soldier arrived without Eanwulf noticing. “There will be hostilities.”

The other old man spoke. “What your father is likely right now explaining to the two young lords from Carhampton is families have been moving into southeast Devon as well and filling the whole eastern portion right up to the River Exe and the city of Exeter. Most of them have not come from Somerset, but from Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire, and as far away as Berkshire. I believe some in Wiltshire and Berkshire have become tired of living on the Mercian border where the armies come and fight.”

The first old man spoke again. “That is what we have come to warn you about. The king in Cornwall has decided that now is the time to take back the ancient lands of Dumnonia. He is raising an army to push the Saxons out of Devon and all the way back to the Parrett River if he can.”

“King Ecgbert is old now and not likely to fight like a young man, and your father is not much younger,” the second one said.

“On his own, Mordaf of Cornwall would not have a great chance for success, but he has made an alliance with the Danes such as you faced at Carhampton. Lodbrok the Dane has thirty-five ships and fourteen hundred men. A thousand will land at the mouth of the Exe River below Exeter. The rest will sail to Pilton at the estuary of the Taw. Those men will nearly double the strength of the Celts.”

“Why would they divide their men?” Elgar asked, and Eanwulf looked at his little brother like Elgar asked a good question for once in his life.

The first old man continued. “The Danes and Dumnonians in the north will gather at Countisbury and attack the coast to the Parrett, beginning at Carhampton. They hope to sweep the coast clean before they push down into Somerset. King Mordaf of Cornwall and Lodbrok the Dane will meet in Exeter and follow the path of the old Roman road that was laid between Exeter and Caerleon. They also plan to stop at the Parrett ford where they hope to negotiate a treaty and set the Parrett as a boundary between Celtic and Saxon lands.”

“How do you know this is so?” Eanwulf asked the obvious question.

“Our people have fought for the British since the days of Gerraint in the time of Arthur, the Pendragon. But now that you Saxons have come to the faith and support the church, we have stayed out of the fighting. The Saxons and the Celts you call the West Welsh are now part of the same family, even if you don’t see yourselves that way. But the Danes are something different. They are heathen men who need to be driven back to their own place and made to know that they are not welcome here.”

“We know what the court of Dumnonia and Cornwall have planned. Trust us,” the second old man said, and Elgar thought he better introduce the men to his brother before they went any further.

“Deerrunner,” he said of the first old man and pointed to the young soldier. “His son, Marsham. Their people live in the wilds and marshes of Somerset, Dorset, and Devon. We have met before.” He turned to the other old man. “And Pinewood and his people are found in the woods as far away as Dartmoor and Selwood. They keep mostly to themselves. Only great trouble brings them from their place.”

“You have met?” Eanwulf asked, and Elgar nodded as Eanwulf, still not entirely trusting these men, asked for clarification. “So, tell me this. Why are you telling us this? Why would Mordaf come out of his place at this time, besides the pact with the Danes?”

“It is as we told you. Mordaf has even used the words now or never.” Deerrunner turned to Elgar as he spoke. “Your father is old, is he not?”

Elgar nodded again and said, “He yells a lot.”

“King Ecgbert is in his last days, and the ealdorman of Dorset has taken to his bed.” Deerrunner turned to Eanwulf. “Mordaf does not dare wait until young Athelwulf, Osric, and yourself bring in young blood and revitalize Wessex.”

“Besides,” Pinewood added. “We do not want the heathen Danes in our land any more than you. We will help you fight the Danes.”

Eanwulf finally nodded like his brother. He rubbed his beard and decided. “You need to come up to the house and tell father all that you have told me.”

They did that very thing, and in the morning, riders went out from Somerton to Dorset, to Wiltshire, and to the king in Hampshire at Winchester.

Medieval 5: Elgar 2 Things Worth Knowing, part 1 of 2

February 28, 2024February 10, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Two years later, Elgar and his friends turned eighteen and felt grown up, even if they were still kept back from the face to face fighting the men on foot engaged in. They were not kept back simply because of their ages, however. They were on horseback, and all the horsemen were kept back, including the King’s retinue which he had beefed up to a hundred men. The king learned all about the importance of cavalry during his time in exile at the court of Charlemagne. He did not think that would matter so much in his Anglo-Saxon kingdom given the fens and marshes, the number of thick forests, and the many hills and rock-strewn highlands. He got reminded at Carhampton how valuable horsemen could be, even given the obstacles. Thus, between his beefed-up retinue and his thegns (king’s men) including his ealdormen and their sons and guards, he had over three hundred men on horse that he kept back until he determined how best to deploy them.

The year was 838, and both the king and Father were getting rather old to be out fighting a war. Athelwulf, the king’s son came over from Kent, and Eanwulf led the men from the north, from Bath and around Wedmore. They were both in their early to mid-thirties and helped carry the load for the old men, but to be honest, they did not listen very well. They certainly did not listen to Elgar.

The Celtic king in Cornwall, who still held most of the authority in Devon, thought he had a chance to take back some land where the Saxon settlers had encroached on his territory. He thought if he made a pact with the Danes, together they could secure Devon and might even drive the West Saxons back to the Parrett River. It was a slim but real hope, provided that in the end the Danes did not turn on the Celts and bite the hand of Cornwall. It was a risk.

Of course, the West Saxons knew none of this before Elgar’s father sent out the call to arms, and that did not happen until after two strange events occurred on the same day. The first event was brief and brought Genevieve to mind.

Elgar sat quietly in his usual spot by the barn, only making sure first that he was not sitting in the mud. He learned that much. He had a pile of pebbles that he tossed one at a time into a small pool of water that had filled a depression a few yards away. He had much to think about, and he named them in his mind.

He thought about the Princess, the premier hunter and archer in her generation, and the Storyteller, who was always available to look things up concerning the history of Elgar’s time and place, what he could find of it. They go together for some reason, he thought, and threw one pebble into the pool.

Diogenes, the best warrior, cavalry commander, and chief of spies for Alexander the Great, seemed partnered in the same way with Doctor Mishka, the doctor who struggled through two world wars. He had not had any need to call on the good doctor thus far in his life, and hoped he never would, but that seemed unlikely given the culture he lived in and the advent of the Danes. He tossed another pebble to splash in the water.

He sighed, and heard Mishka speak through time and into his mind. “We go with our strengths,” she said, and Elgar nodded as he tossed another pebble.

For some reason, those four seemed to be available to every lifetime. He figured it was because the Storyteller was tasked with keeping track of his many lifetimes and the Princess was his partner in time. He did not know what else to call it. Partners in time. Likewise, Mishka and Diogenes were also partners and genetic reflections of the Princess and the Storyteller, so it was like they came with the package.

Beyond that, there were four others to complete the set. Alice of Avalon. She went with the Captain in the far future. Elgar thought, maybe Alice stood right beside him and infinitely far away at the same time. She lived in Avalon, in the Second Heavens, that dividing line between Earth and the Throne of God. Avalon was that mysterious island in the sea of eternity where the Kairos made a home for all the little spirits on the earth, a place where they could rest from their labors. He shook his head at the mystery of it all and considered Martok and Gallena. They were the last two. They were two alien lifetimes he did not like to think about. They lived so far in the future he could hardly imagine it.

Elgar pulled his thoughts back to his own time. He wondered who his partner in time might be. He decided it had to be Genevieve of Breisach, Margravine of Provence, his immediate past life. He smiled at a couple of memories before he found himself drawn back a bit earlier when there were several in the most recent past with only a couple of gaps in his memory between the boys and the girls. The boys that he lived back-to-back were Festuscato, the last senator of Rome, and he called himself. He was the one who put the sword in the stone. And Gerraint, son of Erbin, King of Cornwall, who was there when Arthur pulled the sword out of the stone. He threw another pebble into the water, but this one did not make much of a splash.

The girls were Greta, a healer in her own way, from the mysterious land of Dacia, a place where haunted forests were the rule, and Margueritte, a friend of Charles Martel. Genevieve came immediately after Margueritte, and she was a friend of Le Martel’s grandson, Charlemagne. Genevieve was more than just a friend of Charlemagne, but Elgar did not want to think about that. He much preferred to think of his friend Osfirth’s little sister, Alfpryd, even if she was just fourteen and hardly old enough to think of in that way. But she was nice. She was developing nicely, and in a couple of years she might be the kind of girl he might like to marry. He smiled again and then backtracked with another pebble in the water. Not that he planned on getting married any time soon. Maybe when she is sixteen, he thought, and his eighteen-year-old imagination ran away with him.

“Ha!” Genevieve’s laugh echoed in his head. “You have no business giving me a hard time. At least I was seventeen.”

“Do you mind?” He snapped at her. “I would appreciate some privacy when I’m thinking my sinful and utterly human thoughts.”

“I am sure,” she responded.

Elgar picked up the last few pebbles and planned to throw them all at once, but something in the sky caught his eye. He squinted, before the thing zoomed up close and stopped to hover close enough to read some symbols on the outside of the craft, and he thought, Please be Apes. He thought about the visitors in Genevieve’s day, and repeated, Please be Apes. The Apes were kind and friendly and cooperative and vegetarian.

He heard a voice in his head, probably Alice of Avalon. “They are not apes.”

“Then maybe some other species, some new and different people, one not given to conquest or wanting to eat the human race…”

“Flesh Eaters,” Alice named them.

“Damn!” Elgar cursed with several words and threw his handful of pebbles at the craft, though it was impossibly far away. He thought, at least the Danes don’t want to eat us. The Flesh Eater ship flew off rapidly to the east before Elgar heard his brother’s call.

************************

MONDAY

Eanwulf, Elgar’s brother catches up with him and they watch men coming from the distance. They bring bad news. Until Monday,

Medieval 5: Elgar 1 Baby of the Family, part 2 of 2

February 27, 2024February 4, 2024M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Edgar and his young son Eanric succeeded in overcoming the last Welsh stronghold in Somerset, the fortress of Watchet. King Beorhtric made Edgar ealdorman of an undefined Somerset because he was already doing the job of defining and defending the border with Hwicce to the north and Devon to the south. Beorhtric spent all of his time trying to hold on to his crown in the face of Mercian aggression. He honestly had little time to spend worrying about the western frontier.

When King Beorhtric died and Ecgbert returned from Gaul and the court of Charlemagne to take the crown of Wessex, his attention was all against Mercia and focused east on Kent where his father Ealhmund used to be king. He readily confirmed Beorhtric’s charters making the bishop of Sherborne responsible for the faith west of the Selwood, Oslac as ealdorman of Dorset, and Edgar as ealdorman of the still loosely defined Somerset shire. Edgar did not live long after that, but Ecgbert confirmed the son, Eanric, Elgar’s father, and made it, or at least suggested that the title might be hereditary as long as the family gave good service on what was considered the frontier.

When Elgar turned five, his older brother Eanwulf accompanied father who joined his men of the marshes to the army of the king. King Ecgbert crushed the Mercians at that time and Eanwulf got to know the slightly older son of the king, Athelwulf. They got along and became friends. The following year, Athelwulf led the army into Kent where he threw out the Mercian appointed king and took the crown. Athelwulf became the subking under his father Ecgbert and ruled in the east, in Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.

Most Saxons in Somerset were freemen and most owned a bit of property, which they farmed. That was fine in times of peace, but to be clear, Anglo-Saxon culture was a warrior culture. The men learned and knew how to fight, and they taught their sons to follow after them, and to be sure, the British people who were still free and still owned their land followed the Saxons in learning the art of war even as they followed the Saxons in battle. When the Danes came to Anglo-Saxon land in the 800s, they came to fight, raid, and eventually to invade and conquer. Some think the Anglo-Saxon kings and ealdormen fought at a disadvantage because their armies were full of conscripted farmers and tradesmen, but in truth, when the Saxons got to the battlefield and it was time to fight, they knew the business and fought like warriors. They could go just as berserk as any Viking on the field. It would be years, another century or two before the Anglo-Saxon warriors became full time Anglo-Saxon farmers.

With the power of Mercia broken, King Ecgbert and his son, Athelwulf got the kingdom of East Anglia, or at least Essex and the kingdom of Northumbria to acknowledge Ecgbert’s status as overlord of all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms but apparently, that did not translate into the larger world because certainly the Danes saw England as a land divided among several squabbling kingdoms who did not have the unity to stand against being raided and eventually invaded. That was one of the things Elgar had to face when he came of age. In fact, it began when he turned sixteen.

“Father. Where are we going?” Sixteen-year-old Elgar rode behind his father, beside his two friends from Somerton. Osfirth, the Saxon was just fifteen. Gwyn, the Brit would turn seventeen first. They all wanted to know where they were headed because they rode to the northwest, toward the coast and Exmoor, the wilds of the shire, a direction Elgar and his friends never went. There were stories about strange things that happened in the wilds of Exmoor.

Eanwulf, who rode beside father, turned his head back to answer them. “Carhampton. It is a nice town. I’ve visited once when Father had me run the border and check on the defenses there. It is where my friend Odda lives. You remember Odda?”

Elgar nodded. Odda was one of the younger ones in Eanwulf’s gang. He must have married and moved to the border, or Father moved him to watch the border. Elgar had more questions. “But why are we and the king and this whole army going there? Have the Welsh broken the border?”

“Danes,” he said. “Danes have landed there and taken the town. We need to take it back and push them out of our land.”

That was all the boys were going to get out of their elders. They had to wait until they got there, but when they arrived, they were not permitted anywhere near the actual battle for the town. They were kept back with the king’s company where they could not see much, but what they could see allowed Elgar to give color commentary.

“You can see there are more Danes present than were expected. This is not just a raiding party like we have heard about. No one expected them to come out from behind the stockade and face the army. But I can see the sides are about even. The king brought his personal retinue and picked up a few from Wiltshire and Hampshire, maybe Sherborne while on the way to Somerton, but most of the army is from Somerset and maybe Dorset, and many did come out, but they did not expect to face so many Danes.”

“Not so,” Osfirth objected to Elgar’s assessment. “I think we have more than they have.” He had his hand up and pointed with his finger like he was counting.

“No, look beyond the two lines.”

“Where?” Gwyn asked and craned his neck.

“There, by the gate,” Elgar answered. “There are about a hundred, maybe two hundred men there not in the line.”

“Why are they not in the line?” Osfirth asked. “Are they afraid to fight?”

Elgar looked at Osfirth like he went stupid. “They would not come all this way from Daneland unless they intended to fight. No. They are holding some men in reserve so when the lines begin to break and our line is all tired out, they will charge in, fresh troops anxious for the kill and it will probably be enough to completely break our line.”

All eyes turned to the battle as the lines met. The king’s men who listened in to what Elgar was saying paid close attention. One even said, “Now,” when the Danish line seemed to falter. The Danish commander waited a bit longer, until the Danish line straightened itself out again. He trusted his men. He had good men. Then he pressed in with the fresh troops, and as Elgar predicted, the West Saxon line fell apart.

The king and father Eanric were able to save plenty of their men. Unlike some such engagements, the Danes did not pursue their defeated foe. Elgar noted that they did not have the horses or horsemen to do that. Instead, they went back into the city while the king and Eanric set a camp two-days distance from the enemy and sent out riders to gather more men.

Elgar got called into the king’s camp to tell what he surmised about the battle. Some guardsmen overheard him and told the king. Father and Eanwulf were both there standing among the officials, looking stern, the same basic look on each of their faces. Elgar almost laughed to see it, but he kept his composure and stuck to what he saw and what he figured. He had not yet worked out the ideas of a coastal watch or strengthening of the ports and the walls around coastal cities and towns such as Genevieve did, or the idea of a rapid deployment force like the one Gerraint worked out with Percival and King Arthur. He stuck with what he perceived concerning the battle and felt glad his father and big brother did not say anything negative.

Elgar and his friends were sent home after that, but it did not matter. The Danes must have assumed the West Saxons would be back and in much greater numbers, so they collected their loot and returned to sea. There were other fish to fry.