The Wake

It's true that you get used to the shadow language fairly quickly and this does add a unique dimension to the novel that transports you away to an old and lost England. I enjoyed the first half of the novel and felt the genocide of the Norman Conquest really brought to life. Later on I realised that nothing was really happening though, there is minimal plot, minimal suspense, and a terrible rendering of female characters. I almost gave up. And the brief appearance of women there are, they are poorly characterised, nothing more than disempowered victims caught up in a war with no hopes of survival. This would be OK if the male characters were likeable, and most of them are. Unfortunately the protagonist is quite unlikeable, and definitely not the hero of this story. I'm not quite sure what the author was trying to achieve here, but I do respect the ambition to capture the enormity of what happened in 1066 and how this transformed and destroyed much of England forever. I would have liked to have seen stronger appearances from women (because there would have been women outlaws and strong female survivors and heroines back then, we weren't useless and totally disenfranchised thanks, a while ago we even found the will of an Anglo Saxon woman so we know they owned property and had agency). I'm aware Mark Rylance has bought the adaptation rights to this novel. It needs significant tweaking to work on the screen and feel relatable beyond it being one man's long and drawn-out tantrum and/or psychosis episode. This is a book worth reading but could have been so much more if it had a likeable protagonist and a rounder characterisation of women. It feels very isolated and heavy on the soul. Ironically, towards the end a Norman Bishop is introduced, and his characterisation is so powerful that you almost end up agreeing with the Normans. I liked the complexity this brought, but I'm not sure it was intentional on the part of the writer. If you look into the biography of William the Bastard, he was really quite something, so it would make sense that he surrounded himself with other larger-than-life men of the era.

This is a novel about how the events of 1066 affected one man living in the fen-lands of England, his reaction to these events and his own personal fight for England. The overwhelming characteristic of this novel is the style of language the author, Paul Kingsnorth, has used. This language in turn bemused, exhausted and enriched me. The main character is not Hereward the Wake but Buccmaster of Holland (Lincolnshire). He is a flawed man, not a hero. This is an interesting book and I would recommend it, but only if the reader can handle the language.EXAMPLE: The following is taken from the near the start of the novel on page 9: "a great blaec fugol it was not of these lands it flown slow ofer the ham one daeg at the time of first ploughan. its necc was long its eages afyr and on the end of its fethra was a mans fingors all this I seen clere this was a fugol of doefuls. in stillness it cum and slow so none may miss it or what it had for us. This was eosturmonth in the year when all was broc" I presume that this means that a comet was seen in the sky. A great black bird (fugol) flew slowly over the village one day in the early morning at the time of the first ploughing. Its neck was long and its eyes afire and on the end of its feathers were a man's fingers. I saw all this clearly and this was the devil's bird. It came slowly so no one would miss it. This was in the Easter month (April).This is not an exceptional quote; this is the style and language of the whole book. At first I found it incomprehensible. I missed much of the story because I was concentrating on the language. It did seem to be more understandable as I continued reading, but this was because I got used to the language, not because the language got any easier.EXAMPLE: The following is taken from near the end of the novel on page 324: "well he is frenc and this is a frenc biscop and he has been gifen the abbodrice of petersburh as his. this was not one month ago and all of the fenns is specan of it for when hereweard hierde that the abbodrice was to go to a frenc biscop he gan in and he threw out all the muncs and toc all the gold and all things from the abbodrice to say to the frenc that this place can nefer be theirs". I think this means that a French bishop (biscop is pronounced bishop) had been given the monastery of Peterborough a month ago and everyone in the Fens was talking about it. When Hereward heard about it he went there and threw out all the monks and took all the gold and other things from the monastery, saying that this place would never be theirs.The language and the story are both down-to-earth, but I was surprised to find many F-words and some C-words, especially as these would have been unknown words in Old English. However, this is not Old English but a special language designed to give the atmosphere of the time.EXAMPLE: The following is taken from page 141. It describes an encounter between a child and his new Norman master. "frenc fuccer calls the cilde thu cwelled my father and I will cwell thu and all the hores thu calls thy folc and the bastard thu calls thy cyng. Go home frenc c-word or thu will die. At this the cilde then tacs dawn his breces and teorns his bare arse at the thegn". I would render this into modern English as: French f-worder, calls the child. You killed my father and I will kill you and all the whores you call your people and the bastard you call your king. Go home, French c-word, or you will die. At this the child takes down his breaches and turns his bare arse at the lord.It helps in understanding this language to whisper it as you read rather than staying silent in the modern fashion. In fact, this book may be better as an audio book. This is all a long way from Charles Kingsley's best-selling Victorian novel  Hereward the Wake  with its easy English and its romantic re-writing of history.THIS NOVEL is 344 pages long. There are no chapters but the text is divided into three sections named 1066, 1067 and 1068. The novel is followed by "A partial glossary" (4 pages), "A note on language" (4 pages), "A note on history" (4 pages), "Sources" (4 pages), "Subscribers" (6 pages) and "A note about the typeface" (1 page). I suggest reading the glossary and then the note on language before reading the novel itself.