Preface
In writing a story of the Isle of Wight in the seventh century, which shall at the same time be suitable for young people as well as historically truthful, there are many difficulties. The authorities for this period are Bede and the Saxon Chronicle. The former obtained his information of the South Saxons and the Wihtwaras from Daniel, Bishop of Winchester, who was evidently well-informed of the state of the southern people during the later half of the seventh century. Eddius, Asser, Ethelweard, Florence of Worcester, and Henry of Huntingdon all supply information, more or less accurate, as they are nearer to or more remote from the time of which they treat; and the valuable remarks of the modern specialists Dr. Guest, Kemble, and Lappenberg, are useful in leading the student to a right judgment of the facts. The historians, Dr. Milman, Dr. Lingard, and Mr. Freeman are also important helps, especially the first-named writer. Neander’s “Memorials of Christian Life” and Montalembert’s “Monks of the West,” have been consulted, with a view to becoming acquainted with the theology and religious fervour of the times; and Mallet’s “Northern Antiquities” has been largely laid under contribution for a clue to the mythology of the period, although properly belonging to a later time, and to the Scandinavian form of Teutonic religion. The author has also had the learned assistance of the Rev. J. Boucher James, M.A., Vicar of Carisbrooke, and late Fellow and Tutor of Queen’s College, Oxford, whose antiquarian knowledge of the Isle of Wight is accurate and profound.
The scenes are all well known to the writer, who has many times threaded the channels at the entrance to Chichester Harbour, and climbed the steep slopes of Bembridge and Brading Downs.
As the story has been written for young people, sentiment has been entirely omitted, the ideas of the author differing from those of other writers who make their youthful heroes and heroines suffer the sentimental pangs of a Juliet and a Romeo.
The mode of spelling the Saxon names has been carefully thought over, and the most commonly received method has been generally adopted.
The name of the outlaw, West Saxon King, and enthusiastic convert to Christianity, Cædwalla, himself, has offered considerable difficulties, since there are many ways of writing his name, and probably not a few of pronouncing it. Cæadwalla, Cædwalla, Cadwalla, are the most common forms; while perhaps the most correct pronunciation would be represented by Kadwalla.*
His brother, Mollo, Wulf, or Mul, as he is indifferently called, is also a very ambiguous personage as regards nomenclature, and it has even been suggested that his name was “Mauler,” as though he were an awkward man to deal with in a personal encounter!
A few simple foot-notes have been appended; not that they were necessary to students of history, into whose hands the author hardly ventures to hope the little book will fall, but because it seemed some explanation was required for younger readers.
That the state of the south of England during the latter half of the seventh century was a very dismal one, is sufficiently clear from all contemporary evidence, and the author has not attempted to give a more couleur de rose view of it than his materials justified.
It is, however, quite evident from Bede and other authorities that the English or Saxons had already developed great intellectual powers, and where law and order were more firmly established than in the south of England, general culture and the arts of peace were making steady progress.
Such learning as that of Bede, such architecture as that introduced by St. Wilfrid at Ripon and Hexham, such artistic work as that of the Royal MS. preserved in the British Museum, which may have been the very one presented by Wilfrid to his church of York, show that the Saxons, who are so often described as mere jovial, hard fighting, hard drinking, blustering dullards, had in many instances reached a comparatively high standard of civilization.
Lisle Court, Wootton, I.W., July, 1887.
List of Illustrations
How they ran ashore on the Pole Sand at the Bar of Cissanceaster Haven... Front.
Cædwalla heweth a way out of the burning Palace of Edilwalch
How the Skald, the Yokel, and the Jackass strove for the Prize of Poesie
How they talked of many things as they mended the boat at Boseham
How Dicoll and Ædric saw the boat depart
How Deva, Malachi, and Wulfstan were surprised by the Wihtwaras
How Athelhune kept the Roman Ruins
How Corman and Ædric fled before Berchthune
How the South Saxon was held by the mud, and naught could save him
How Wilfrid goeth forth to meet Cædwalla, and biddeth him stay the Battle
How Wulf the Atheling waited for the onslaught of Arwald, and blenched not
How Cædwalla won Wihtea, and slew Arwald
Notes
* The name of Cædwalla bears a singular resemblance to that of Cadwalla, the British prince who made war upon Ædwin, king of Northumbria. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Cadwalla was succeeded by Cadwallader, who died at Rome AD. 689, the very place and date of Cædwalla’s death, according to Bede. Could Cædwalla have really been of British descent?