An Enchanted Evening

In Courting Trouble a young warrior is eager to prove himself. He goes in search of conquest. Along the way, he is directed to an enchanted castle. His experience there foreshadows the way the rest of his quest will go. Here's the way his evening starts:

Then [my host] sent me off to my chamber with one of the beautiful maidens, saying it was the custom among his people, and I must not insult the girl by refusing her. The girl was beautiful, as they all were there, and I wouldn’t have insulted her for a king’s ransom.

At the Enchanted Castle

In Scene 14 of "Courting Trouble" Egbert tells of an adventure he had long ago. In search of a conquest worthy of his youthful vision of his ability, he goes to an enchanted castle. I'll let him tell you what he first encounters:

I entered a garden that was unlike any garden I had ever seen. Its herbs produced leaves big enough to hide a man and giant flowers that glowed white in the dark. They were as fragrant as honeysuckle on a summer’s night. In the distance I saw the largest and grandest palace I have ever seen. It gleamed golden in the black night as if its walls were on fire. When I knocked at the door it was opened by a beautiful maiden, and when I went inside I saw nineteen more. . . . 

I think Egbert is in trouble already; what do you think?

Fooling Around in the Dark Ages

  

Life at court included feasts and entertainment for the high born. This excerpt from Courting Trouble introduces the king's jester, also know as the fool. He was one of the very few who could get away with making fun of His Majesty.

As the evening wore on and more wine and mead were consumed, the talking and the laughter got louder. Suddenly, apparently from out of nowhere, a Fool appeared. He was very little—smaller even than Wermhere. He had short arms and a very big head and was dressed in a tiny warrior’s costume. He held a shield and a spear with a blown up pig’s bladder tied to one end.

He darted around the room helter skelter like a bumble bee in a hut, only stopping to pop unwary people with the bladder. “Who’s fool enough to think a contest with me would be fooling around?” he shouted in his high, squeaky voice. The warriors found this a good joke, and the older ones egged the younger ones on.

“Here’s your chance to prove your manhood. How about it, Oswulf?”

Oswulf’s friends began to push him toward the dwarf. Oswulf fought them off and gripped the bench with his arms and legs so he couldn’t be lifted.

“Oooh, he’s no fool, he’s scared to fight me,” taunted the Fool. He went over to the head table and bowed deeply to the king.

“Your Majesty, are you a fool?”

“No,” laughed the king, “you’re the fool.”

“How can you tell?” said the fool.

“You’re small like a fool, you boast like a fool, and you’ve got a fool’s balloon.”

“And by these reasonings, sire, you think I am a fool?”

“Yes.”

“With all due respect, you, sire, are the fool.”

“How is this, my little man?”

“A man who reasons with a fool must be a fool.”

Where Did the Bone Man Come From?

It seems a very odd idea--a man in a bone fortress who the warriors use for target practice after dinner by pitching their leftovers in his direction. Did I make this up? No, reader reader, to be honest I made up very little when writing Courting Trouble. Helmstan's story is part of the history / mythology that was circulating in 802 Wessex. As I researched the period I came up with many gems like this one, and I wove them into a tale grounded in the history of this place and time. Helmstan's plight was a way for me to get the idea of the depravity and barbarism of Beorhtric's court across to readers. Egbert's "rescue" of Helmstan also gave an interloper to Court a vehicle to show off how macho he is--or was he acting out of altruism? You'll have to decide that for yourself--

Were Women Warriors in the Dark Ages?

 There is archeological evidence that women warriors were not unknown in early medieval times. In Courting Trouble, set in 801, the heroine is an orphan; her mother died at the front.

My mother had been an elite archer who fought for Wulf, the last king in the Wessex bloodline. She had died at his side fighting the Mercians when I was a very small child.

The Chalice

Cynethrith, the heroine of Courting Trouble, is visiting the abbey her mother founded. As Christianity was taking root in Anglo Saxon England, rich patrons demonstrated their piety by establishing abbeys and furnishing them with treasures and relics. Cynethrith describes what she sees. 

The altar, covered with a gold-embroidered frontal, held a silver and gold chalice [my mother] had commissioned in East Anglia: around its rim fantastic birds interlaced so cleverly that you could hardly tell where one began and the other ended. Her father had bought the imposing altar cross of gold and precious stones from a Byzantine trader. In its center a tiny vial contained a drop of St. Etheldreda’s blood. My eye came back to the chancel arch—its grappling angels and demons carved by a sculptor my mother had brought in from Kent—then was pulled to the center of the choir where, in darkness beneath the floor, lay my mother.

The Abbey Chapel

A nunnery plays an important part in Courting Trouble. Buildings in early Anglo Saxon times were almost all made of wood, and windows were scarce. In this drawing from my sketchbook we see what the heroine sees as she waits for her friend in the chapel's dark interior.

Anticipation of the king’s visit and the activity it generated in Easton blocked out all other concerns for a while. . . . Then one night, too excited to sleep, the knowledge that the court was coming formed the backbone of a solution so simple that it seemed inevitable. I knew there were members of the old guard among the councilors and thanes, even during the current regime. I began to think, or rather, to be convinced, that if I could find a way to get into the palace I might, somehow, make a powerful friend or two who could help me hang on to my inheritance. There must be someone who remembered my mother. I would do this despite the current king, a despicable man if ever there was one.

These were my thoughts as I came to the Itchen road and turned off into the abbey. Within its gates, in contrast to my unsettled state, all was quiet. Figuring the sisters must be at Nones, I stabled my horse and went to the church, entering as inconspicuously as possible. I stood at the back of the tall timber building, dark as a tomb, my eye drawn to the distant altar candles sparkling on gold treasure.