Where Hereward Doesn't Give Up

Hereward the Wake, Volume 2 by Charles Kingsley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

(this review is for both volumes.)

This is a well-researched, informative, entertaining biography of a time I know little about.

Hereward was an English knight of Danish ancestry who lived north of London (and later on the continent) before, during, and after the Norman invasion. Kingsley has it that he is the daughter of Lady Godiva, which is pretty cool, although sources I've peeked at (I am NO expert) say that is unlikely. In the book it's true, though, and I'll take the fictionalized version, thank you. It's way cooler. (Lady Godiva doesn't know what to do with her badly behaved son.)

Hereward is a bit out of control and gets outlawed for robbing a priest. He ends up in Flanders after a period of time fighting in Ireland and Scotland. Then, after he marries, England is invaded by William the Conqueror (they didn't call him that yet) and he wants to do something about it. He returns to his family lands, and from that point on this is the story of his resistance and guerrilla fighting with all the English and Danish-English and Danish-Irish he can gather to his banner.

Though many stories I've encountered touch somewhat on the Norman invasion, I realize I have very little context for the whole deal, and this book fills in a ton. Things make more sense. I'm astonished as I read it how much contact there is between France and Norway and Denmark and Ireland and Cornwall and Flanders, and farther-flung places like the Baltic and Constantinople. Half of the characters are descended from Vikings and are able to just sail away and become raiders or pirates or guards for kings, and that interaction between nations is much more extensive than I ever imagined for that time period.

Related to that thought is how complex and extensive I found the characters and their relationships across every nationality; the main characters and most important secondary characters are pretty easy to keep straight, but there's a cast of thousands after that--real people from real life--and I don't really know why I didn't realize that history at this time was so dense. Nothing simple about it at all.

I loved the multicultural aspect of it, the way the characters could have feelings for half a dozen nations and embrace a complex identity. It reminds me that the melting pot--or nutty fruitcake, or whatever America has become metaphorically--is not really new. It's a story that's been repeated all over the world, and has been driven by invasions of all sorts.

Hereward and his wife Torfrida are complex, round characters, and I liked following them. But as this is more or less a true story, it includes (sorry!) their inevitable defeat. I always thought the defeat came in 1066, but it turns out people fought back and rebelled and hid in the fens for years afterwards, and Hereward didn't die until something like 1072 when his enemies finally got him, which seems much more realistic than how I imagined it before. (I still don't understand how an invading force could defeat the whole island, but I ordered a non-fiction book to help me with that. This story--historical romance--gives me a lot more to work with, though.) I guess history always works that way when you look at it closer.

The author talks to the reader occasionally here, kinda like Hugo does in Les Mis, explaining what's going on and what the place looks like, and I'll allow it. If he leans a little toward the didactic here and there, and a bit toward the religious throughout, it's pretty balanced by some excellent violence. (Kingsley clearly has a soft spot for Viking ancestors and their heathen ways, his churchiness notwithstanding.) It's a fun read.

Recommended for those who unironically enjoy Sir Walter Scott, Alexandre Dumas, or William Harrison Ainsworth.

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