Hild

By C.S. Woolley

Step back in time to the age of King Penda, when the kingdom of Mercia was born.

Life in Anglo-Saxon England is far from fair. There are strict classes that all people fall into. At the top there are the kings, then the thanes. After the thanes come the warriors, then the ceorls, and at the very bottom are the slaves. Women are not equal to men; and then there are the prisoners.

War is upon them as the kings gather their war bands to raid and pillage. In Snotingham, the effects of the war are about to fall the hardest on Snot, Cynewise and Ravinger. Eorl, oldest son of Snot, sent to Eoforwīc to spy on the Nordanhymbrians, is murdered. Justice is demanded and blood must be met with blood. The war band of Snotingham rides north, leaving the Snotingas in the care of Calder.

With war raging on, the prisoners in Snotingham are more than a little restless. But only Nyle seems to be set on escape. Morven has become distracted by the news that Luella is to be married and Kipp is determined to find a way to assassinate Snot. With matters of the heart, burning rage, blinding pride and fragile allegiances governing the fates of all there has never been a more dangerous time to be counted as one of the Children of Snotingas.

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.S. Woolley
• Release date: Nov 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370486823

C.S. Woolley

C.S. Woolley (Caroline Sarah Woolley) was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire and raised in the nearby town of Wilmslow. From an early age she discovered she had a flair and passion for writing. This was fuelled by winning local poetry and short story competitions during her years at Mottram St. Andrews Primary School. During high school, she continued to write and found her time split between acting, writing and her studies. At 14 she began writing novels. University did nothing to change her love of writing. C.S. spent a year reading Law at Manchester Metropolitan University before changing her mind and moving to read English at Hull University. After graduating she moved to Nottingham where she stayed for the cricket at Trent Bridge. She currently lives with her partner, Matt, and their two cats in Christchurch, New Zealand. In 2010, C.S published her first novel, Nicolette Mace – The Raven Siren: The Kevin Metis Saga. Since 2010 she has published books in five series – The Chronicles of Celadmore, The Mysteries of Stickleback Hollow, The Children of Ribe, The Children of Snotingas and Nicolette Mace: The Raven Siren - as well as a series of adapted classics for Foxton Books and a series of modernised Shakespeare and workbooks to help with GCSEs. Her upcoming series include Alpha Sigma, The Children of Danelaw, Dark Hearts,The Children of Ribe Story Books, The Children of Ribe: Tales from Ribe, The Children of Ribe: Ancestors, Yngvar and Reinholdt, Finestra, and The Children of Ribe: Legends. More recently C.S has taken part in charity projects that include producing content for charity books such as Standing by the Watchtower: Volume 1. C.S has also acted in several plays and films including Weekend (2011). Hobbies: horse riding, including show jumping and cross country, Formula 1, tennis, free climbing, singing, boxing, dancing, playing guitar, cricket and is also an avid PC and console gamer. Favourite movies: The Muppet Christmas Carol, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Chisum. Favourite books: Sharpe’s Prey, Silverthorn and the Three Musketeers. Favourite bands: Thin Lizzy, the Darkness and McBusted. For more information please visit: http://www.mightierthanthesworduk.com

Book preview

The Children of Snotingas: HILD

Hild

HILD

The Children of Snotingas

By C.S. Woolley

Mightier Than the Sword UK Publications

©2017

The Children of Snotingas:

HILD

By C. S. Woolley

Cover design by C. S. Woolley

Illustrations by Davy Ross

Map by Inkarnate

A Mightier Than the Sword UK Publication

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © c. s. woolley 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publishers.

To prevent unauthorised copies of this book being made a number of intentional errors have been included.

For

PHOEBE

Contents

Characters

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Historical Note

Also by the same author

From left to right: Kipp, Morven and Nyle

The Characters

Ravinger

Youngest Son of Snot

Hawk

Son of a Thane of Mercna

Lyndon

Son of a Thane of Mercna

Brea

Daughter of a Thane of Mercna

Idina

Daughter of a Thane of Mercna

Luella

Daughter of a Thane of Mercna

Kipp

Son of a Thane of Nordanhymbria

Morven

Son of a Thane of Nordanhymbria

Nyle

Son of a Thane of Nordanhymbria

Fern

Daughter of a warrior of Mercna

Ransom

Son of a ceorl of Mercna

Seward

Son of a ceorl of Mercna

Tostig

Son of a ceorl of Mercna

Radella

Daughter of a ceorl of Mercna

Wayland

Son of a slave of Mercna

Halsey

Son of a slave of Mercna

Channing

Son of a slave of Mercna

Calder

A Thane of Mercna

Burne

A Thane of Mercna

Penda

King of Mercna

Snot

Thane of Snotingas

Cynewise

Wife of Snot

Parr

A warrior of Mercna

Mather

A ceorl of Mercna

Sherwood

A slave of Mercna

Borden

A Thane of Nordanhymbria

Arley

A Thane of Nordanhymbria

Eldon

A Thane of Nordanhymbria

Teller

A messenger of Mercna

Eorl

Eldest son of Snot

Prologue

Ransom, Seward, Tostig, Wayland, Halsey and Channing have passed the first trial of training to be warriors. The first of the ceorls and slaves that have been allowed to rise out of the caste they were born into, it is a sign that times are changing in Mercna.

The attitudes towards the slaves and ceorls in Snotingham are changing as well. Ravinger, the youngest son of Snot the war chief, was once more opposed than any other to training the sons of the lower order to be warriors. Now he was the strongest supporter of the idea.

He had trained the boys along with his friends, Lyndon and Hawk, and some help from Fern. Lyndon and Hawk were the sons of other thanes in Mercna. They had come to learn from Snot the war chief and Parr, his strongest warrior.

Fern was Parr’s daughter. She wasn’t a warrior, women weren’t allowed to fight like men in Snotingham, but Parr had trained her to fight since she had been old enough to stand.

She was a skilled fighter that was charged with protecting the Snotingas when the warriors were away fighting the Nordanhymbrians. It was clear to everyone that times were changing in Snotingham, not only were the children forging new futures for themselves, but all the people of Mercna were under the rule of King Penda.

Penda had taken the throne of Mercna from his cousin, Ceorl. Ceorl had been a weak king that had lived under the heel of King Eadwine of Nordanhymbria. But Penda was strong.

When he became king, Penda had named Snot as one of his war chiefs and declared war on the Nordanhymbrians. The first years of the war were nothing more than raids into the Nordanhymbrian lands, finding hostages and repelling raiders when the Nordanhymbrians came to rescue their kinsmen and take hostages of their own.

In Snot’s first raid, he took three prisoners, Kipp, Morven and Nyle, all sons of the thanes of Nordanhymbria. But their fathers didn’t come for them. Instead they plotted, planned and relied on their sons to find a way home.

Chapter 1

Ravinger stood outside the hall. A messenger had arrived not long before dawn to parley with Snot. The unexpected arrival of a messenger rarely brought good news. Snot had taken the messenger into the hall to talk to him away from prying eyes and ears along with Parr.

Parr had come out of the hall a few minutes later and went in search of Cynewise, Ravinger’s mother, Snot’s wife and matriarch of the Anglo-Saxons.

Ravinger had been sparring with Fern when Parr came in search of him. Though Fern wasn’t allowed to fight or train alongside the warriors of the Snotingas, Ravinger, Lyndon and Hawk had all started sparring with her to try and become better fighters before they went off to fight the Nordanhymbrians.

All of Ravinger’s older brothers had fought beside their father already. Two of them had died in battle, but he still had four brothers left. None of them were in Snotingham any longer. His oldest brother had been disguised as a slave and sent away to spy on their enemy. Two of his other brothers had gone to learn from other thanes in Mercna and his last brother was part of Penda’s war band.

Being part of the king’s war band and being a spy were the highest honours that the men of Mercna could aspire to, but they were also the most dangerous.

Ravinger had not given the safety of his brothers any thought until the messenger had arrived. When Parr had come in search