Wessex Tales: "For Viviana's Wedding" (Story 16)

By Robert Fripp

Viviana de Eskelling was the last in the family line of the Norman Schelins. Her family had held Okeford for 200 years. A single woman (a woman sole) was disadvantaged in law. So around 1287 Viviana married Bartholomew Turberville, taking Okeford into the Turberville estates. (Thomas Hardy tweaked 'Turberville' into 'D'Urberville'.) In Okeford, villagers prepare for their lady’s wedding.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Fripp
• Release date: Jan 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9780991857548

Robert Fripp

Nature, wildlife and public affairs television, earth sciences, gothic vaults and liturgy: Robert Fripp’s fiction and non-fiction share many slices of life. § Here, Fripp introduces his 38 “Wessex Tales” stories. Thomas Hardy used that title over a century ago. Fripp moves it forward with a new collection of “Wessex Tales” covering “Eight thousand years in the life of an English village.” § First come Stone Age hunters. Then villagers discover a new “stone,” bronze. Locals build Stonehenge. A Roman mosaic depicts Jesus. We advance: from Viking raiders to potions for maidens, a medieval wedding, civil war, smugglers, and the second battle of the Somme. § Smashwords releases several stories, here. Read them—free, for a time—choosing a format for your Kindle, Nook, iPad, Mac, PC, iPhone (via Stanza), Sony, Kobo and Androids. All 38 “Wessex Tales” stories will come alive in paperback within two years.

Book preview

This is one among 38 stories in the collection...

~ WESSEX TALES ~

Eight thousand years in the life of an English village

‘For Viviana's Wedding’

(Story 16 of 38)

Robert Fripp

Copyright Robert Fripp 2013

Smashwords Edition

‘For Viviana's Wedding’ ISBN 978-0-9918575-4-8

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading my e-story. It will be listed as free for several months. However, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, Robert Fripp, who reserves all rights. This e-story may not be reproduced, copied or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoy it, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they will find more of Fripp’s stories.

To help you locate my e-stories,

search the Web for Wessex Tales:Fripp

Thank you for supporting me.

Thank you for reading my e-story from WESSEX TALES.

Please find more of my stories on Smashwords.com ,

online retailers or eBook sellers.

My full story list is at the end of this file.

Thank you for your support.

Books by Robert Fripp (Robert S. P. Fripp) and reviews

are shown on the author’s website,

http://robertfripp.ca/

or through online book retailers.

Cover image

The Peasant Wedding,

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1566-’69.

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

PD-Art. Wikimedia Commons.

Cover design: The Design Unit, www.thedesignunit.com

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Endnotes

The Author’s Note

Books by Robert Fripp

Reach me Online

A List of my Stories

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

WESSEX TALES

‘For Viviana’s Wedding’

(Story 16 of 38)

Chapter 1

The time: a breath of God or so before the year of our Lord 1286,

being the first decade of King Edward I

How to sum up the day? The manor of Okford (Adford / Acford / Ockford / Okeford / Okford Schelin, et al) had descended through the male line of a single family since the Conquest—or the Flood, for so it seemed. Two hundred and almost twenty years. Why, that amounted to ten or eleven generations. Now old Okford was passing, through marriage: the last of her line, Viviana de Eskelling was marrying a Turberville. A Turberville! Was a sturdy body to grieve at this news or shout Hurray? They weren’t bad lords, as they came; though, mind you, they were foreigners and their seat was far away, a summer day’s trudge up over the Downs, Bere Regis way.

 ’Twill be the death on Okford, Ralph, you mind what I do say. Old John wagged a finger at his brother-in-law.

Keep yr wind in, Granfer, replied the younger man.  ’Tis not the crack o’ doom.

"You’m