Edith Fair as a Swan

Tales of Bowdyn 3

These are the tales of Bowdyn the Gleeman. This, the third of his stories moves from the Dark Ages to the time following the greatest tragedy to afflict the English peoples; the disastrous defeat at Hastings by William, Duke of Normandy. He tells of the flight of Edith Swannescals murdered Harold's true love and handfast wife with Harold's daughter, Gytha. Edith carries the secret of Harold's final burial place and also the arm ring of Wessex, ancient jewel of the kings of England; both urgently sought by William. The evil, cruel Hugh, servant to Geoffrey, Bishop of Coustance pursues her. His orders from William are to catch her, rack her secrets from her, destroy her by burning and strangle Gytha. She runs before the genocidal Harrowing of the North; she is protected by stalwarts of the English resistance; by Eadric the Wild, by Swein Icgson, by Hereward. She escapes the slaughter after the failed siege of Montacute castle, she escapes the fall of Ely; she endures the hardships of the Varangian Way seeking safety for herself and the secrets she carries and Gytha . She travels protected by Edmund of the Gewissae a refugee from the murder of the Shire of Somerset, by Asgar the Staller, tricked into betraying his country by William Duke of Normandy and devoted Anglo-Norman friend William Malet who helps her steal Harold's body from the bloody ridge of Hastings. These together with Wilda, grief stricken victim of Hand Hewer Hugh, accompany her, from the fall of Ely into exile, pursued by Hugh and William's hired assassins.