King Alfred Daughter The Lady of the Mercians eBook Marjory Grieser
Download As PDF : King Alfred Daughter The Lady of the Mercians eBook Marjory Grieser 
In the eighth century, the Danes sailed the North Sea and landed on the Northumbrian coast of England. In less than a hundred years they ravaged everything in their path, and eventually captured the city of London. King Alfred the Great of Wessex fought back. A key role in this fight was played by Alfred's oldest child, Aethelflaed, known as the Lady of the Mercians by her own people.
This story is a fictionalized account of the life of Lady Aethelflaed. Her successful defense of the western border of English Mercia against the Scandinavian Vikings was a major factor in the success of the English campaigns. She was a warrior princess, a military tactician, and a treaty negotiator whose efforts, together with those of her husband, Ethelred, Overlord of Mercia, and her brother, Edward, eventually drove back the Viking invaders and united England under one crown.
Years ago I came across the name of Aethelflaed in my readings in early English history and was intrigued that this heroic woman, who played such an important military role in the making of the English nation, should have received so little mention. In the early 1970s, I started reading every record of Anglo-Saxon history I could find. Clearly, I needed to go to England to find out more about this woman's life. One trip turned into three, and when I came back to the States after these trips, I started writing about her life as I imagined it might have been. Because little is known about the lives of Aethelflaed and her contemporaries, this account of her life should be read primarily as a story told against the backdrop of ninth and tenth century Anglo-Saxon England. I trusted that recorded events might serve as a guide to the characters of these people.
King Alfred Daughter The Lady of the Mercians eBook Marjory Grieser
This is a good book for anyone interested in Lady Aethelflaed, the close of the reign of Alfred the Great, the reign of Edward, and the setting of the stage for the reign of Aethelstan. It is well researched and presented and recommended with one caveat relating to the publisher and not the writing itself. It is a very good treatment of the late 9th and early 10th century Anglo Saxon England. A very good book for those interested in the history of Mercia and Wesex. The novel starts out a tiny bit woodenly, but in all fairness Saxon names don't necessarily come easily to the mental tongue! It reads very much like a Thomas B. Costain fictionalized history, which I read a great deal of and enjoyed many years ago. I would have liked greater detail in places, but I doubt there is more than a skeleton of facts to work with and I think Ms. Grieser did a great job fleshing out the life if the Lady of Merica without going too far. Clearly she spent a lot of time researching before writing this book. I liked it quite a bit and Aethelflaed is a very powerful and interesting figure. I plan to read more about her! I highly recommend it to any person interested in the subject with the following caveat.Caveat Regarding Dog Ear Publishing: The book is one single chapter and has no chapter indexing at all. This is easily formatted for the Kindle and pure unadulterated laziness on the part of the publisher. If you hope to refer back to specific chapters of the book, as I did, you are out of luck. This slothful preparation in not acceptable and highly disappointing. Dog Ear Publishing should be ashamed at this level of unprofessional slothfulness. Again the content is good, but the lack of indexing is loathsome!
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King Alfred Daughter The Lady of the Mercians eBook Marjory Grieser Reviews
This is a historical novel built around the life and times of Aethelflaed, King Alfred's daughter, and her remarkable achievements as "Lady of the Mercians". Although not perfect, it seems to be very much one of a kind. More generally, there is very little published on Aethelflaed, despite her key role in holding Mercia together with her husband Aethelred on behalf and for her brother, Edward the Elder, son and successor of King Alfred.
The book itself is somewhat old but also original. Although published in 2009, it was mostly composed by the author in the 1970s. You do not therefore get the usual mix of very descriptive "sex and violence" that can nowadays be found in most historical novels. Instead, Marjory Grieser had come up with a tale that shows the solidarity, sense of duty and even the sense of sacrifice of Aethelflaed, Aethelred her husband and King Edward, with a strong focus on the psychology and feelings of the three characters (and a number of others along the way).
The book is in fact more about the second half of Alfred's reign, after the initial Viking onslaught had been beaten back, and that of the generation which succeeded him, continued his work and reconquered East Anglia and Mercia from the Scandinavians.
One of its usefulness, among many others, is to present an alternative version to the wonderful (but much made up) series of Bernard Cornwell and his fictional warlord Uther to whom just about all victories are ascribed in Cornwell's novels (which I happen to love, by the way). One merit of this book is to show Aethelred as a very competent warlord and Alfred's trusted right hand, rather than the cowardly knave that Cornwell has to make him into in order to promote his own hero. Another merit is depict Edward the Elder as a fierce and relentless "soldier's soldier", much more of a formidable warrior and much less prone to mercy and Christian feelings than his long time ailing father.
The main merit of this book, however, is the focus on Aethelflaed, and her personal ordeal in accomplishing her duty, seeking to unite Angles and Saxons around the crown of Wessex and put an end to Viking raids and harrying. One feature that comes out strongly from the book is the sheer exhaustion that threatens to overcome all of the four main characters, and ultimately does overcome some of them, as they have to relentlessly campaign to push back the waves of Viking raids. Another emphasised feature is the key role played by Alfred's daughter in drawing Mercia closer to Wessex because only unification of the two kingdoms could ultimately ensure that they would not be conquered by the invaders.
Here, however, the exclusively altruistic motives which drive Alfred, Aethelred, Edward and Aethelflaed may not feel entirely convincing because ambition is also likely to have played a role. A couple of features that may be a little bit questionable are to present Alfred's nephew and Aethelflaed's daughter, who both rebelled and sided with the Vikings as having "betrayed" Edward. In a sense, they were traitors, but this was mainly because they did not accept the role that the more senior family members had assigned to them and tried to fight for what they believed was their birth rights. Here again, the paramount sense of duty assigned to Alfred and his two eldest children happens to be very convenient, although it still could have been perfectly genuine.
A further feature is to show to what extent brother and sister complemented each other and pursued their father's work. This is shown particularly well in their program of fortifying burghs in strategic locations across Mercia and East Anglia. Two other aspects of their struggle were to defend and rescue these strongpoints when these were under attack by Viking war bands seeking to transform them into major bases, with the defence of Chester-Deva which did so much for Aethelflaed's fame as a war leader being a prime example, and Edward's pushing into Scandinavian East Anglia and Mercia. Four strong stars.
Historical fiction is not what I usually read. Maybe it is time to rethink that. This book turned out to be a captivating story about interesting people living through fascinating times about which I knew little. All of this is presented in a way that respects the reader to get the point (war is hell; death happens; religion can help) without bashing him over the head. It has violence, intrigue and passion. There are significant historical events and touching personal moments. But in a deft and restrained manner the authour gets all this to play out in you mind rather than having it drip from the pages. She clearly has done a great deal of research, but she has not set out merely to impress the reader with her knowledge. Instead she supplies background that brings the people and period to life and informs the dialogue so that it rings true. This account could easily have been tedious (early medieval hisory) and preachy (woman as leaders). Grieser has made it anything but.
Very interesting a time in History that made women strong. Well written and very descriptive, enjoyed this book
From beginnng to end, this book gives excellent descriptions of what life was like in the days of King Alfred of Wessex and his daugher, Lady Aethelflaed. Ms Greiser used her research very well in developing a story about this family and their trials and tribulations. It makes you feel like you are right there experiencing the same! Historical fiction is something new to me. I enjoyed it and will look for more books like it. I highly recommend this book.
Anita J. Lange
This is a good book for anyone interested in Lady Aethelflaed, the close of the reign of Alfred the Great, the reign of Edward, and the setting of the stage for the reign of Aethelstan. It is well researched and presented and recommended with one caveat relating to the publisher and not the writing itself. It is a very good treatment of the late 9th and early 10th century Anglo Saxon England. A very good book for those interested in the history of Mercia and Wesex. The novel starts out a tiny bit woodenly, but in all fairness Saxon names don't necessarily come easily to the mental tongue! It reads very much like a Thomas B. Costain fictionalized history, which I read a great deal of and enjoyed many years ago. I would have liked greater detail in places, but I doubt there is more than a skeleton of facts to work with and I think Ms. Grieser did a great job fleshing out the life if the Lady of Merica without going too far. Clearly she spent a lot of time researching before writing this book. I liked it quite a bit and Aethelflaed is a very powerful and interesting figure. I plan to read more about her! I highly recommend it to any person interested in the subject with the following caveat.
Caveat Regarding Dog Ear Publishing The book is one single chapter and has no chapter indexing at all. This is easily formatted for the and pure unadulterated laziness on the part of the publisher. If you hope to refer back to specific chapters of the book, as I did, you are out of luck. This slothful preparation in not acceptable and highly disappointing. Dog Ear Publishing should be ashamed at this level of unprofessional slothfulness. Again the content is good, but the lack of indexing is loathsome!
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