Terrible martial beauty and Harffy's novels

 Salvete Omnes,

a short post - 

firstly, I am on the last, the 8th, volume of the Anglo-Saxon saga woven by Matthew Harffy - listened  to all but one of them via audiobook libraries. 

The stories of the heroic young Kentish upstart named Beobrand , who is an AngloSaxon pagan and will become the hero - a hero in a traditional sense of a travails, suffering and superhuman obstacles to surmount in order become one - take place in Northumbria, the kingdom of Bernicia, Mercia, Diera, Pictland, Frankish coast, with warriors, kings and thralls from the Welsh statelets, and many monks and priest from Ireland  etc some 200 years before the adventures conjured by Bernand Cornwell in his stories already mentioned on my blog a while back. 

The stories are engaging  and captivating; they start circa 633AD and continue through the 651AD. The reader gets to meet king and Saint Oswald of Northumbria, and famous last pagan Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia, Penda of Mercia.  

 

Secondly, when I am thinking about early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the British Isles  then Satton-Hoo comes to mind immediately , so let me attach some of the finidngs to illustrate the post about Beobrands' saga (although from time to time other persons are also heard from within, especially one brave horseman from Wales and one beautiful and strong young queen).

The martial finds from these mounds are amazing - beautiful and terrible at the same time - and closely related with the Vendel period of Scandinavia. Curator's corner, British Museum, presentation here.

Children oriented video on how the Anglo-Saxon warrior lived - here. 

the helmet 

shields

swords

 reenactment

there are  other Anglo-Saxon helmets unearthed in the British Isles - 

this Staffordshire helmet being the most spectacular

and the later , 8th century helmet -

Lastly,  long time ago British military books publisher , the famous Osprey Miltiary Publishing, published a book titled Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon Wars - I say it is a high time to do a complete overhaul of this book and a new edition, based on the findings, interpretation, research and reenactment is needed, with a new set of beautiful plates showing the early medieval warriors of the British Isles.

Valete