What a task! After completing what I considered to be a large amount of research whereby I could plan the plotline for this novel, I started to map out my plan of attack and realized that I needed to carry out further research on the complex interrelationships between the tribes of Skandia. The further I delved into the history of the Scandinavian people, the more complex the personalities and hatreds of the period seemed to become. These complications were compounded by the inaccuracies and limited information available to researchers from the period between the fifth and eleventh centuries.
As an example of this, I had always believed the Black Death came to Europe only in the medieval period. I was therefore amazed to discover all the details of an earlier, equally destructive plague called Justinian’s disease that is virtually the same as the medieval version, except for the gangrene that attacked the nose, the lips, and all the digits. Evidence from bodies of those who had suffered from Justinian’s disease and the Black Death has been compared by experts who have determined the two diseases were related and both were spread by lice that lived on rats.
The pandemic spread along the trade routes from Constantinople about AD 542. Some experts suggest that the collapse of the British resistance to the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes was so sudden because they suffered huge losses during the passage of the plague. The Britons traded with the East, whereas their invaders, the Saxons, had fewer trading links with Constantinople.
Likewise, the disease gradually spread throughout northern Europe. The loss of life in the Frank kingdoms was significant as the disease spread all the way to the Dene, Geat, Swedish, and Norwegian lands in the north. Once again, some experts postulate that the Viking advances of the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries into Britain, the North Atlantic, Russia, and the Mediterranean—and all the lands between them—would have occurred earlier had the pressures on an expanding population not been abruptly and fatally solved.
My research into the Dene people was far more complicated than I ever expected, and I was surprised to discover that source material from the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries was relatively limited in scope and was often vague in content.
When I became engrossed in my research for this novel, I was greatly amused to encounter references to a forest called Mirk Wood, and rulers with exotic names such as Frodhi, Frodo, Healfdene, Beowulf, and other romantic names from the pages of literature. My respect for J. R. R. Tolkien grew immensely once I became aware of the research he must have carried out to gain his insights into the northern cultures.
Likewise, I had never realized the complexities of the cultures that existed in the northern lands. To most readers, Vikings are all rather like Hagar the Horrible of cartoon fame, but the Dene, Geats, Saxons, Jutes, Angles, and Norwegians possessed vastly different customs and cultures despite living in relatively close proximity to one another.
As a novice researcher, I was forced to scramble over many hurdles on my own journey with Arthur, Gareth, Germanus, and Lorcan. At times, the sheer scope of their adventures left me feeling bemused. But, along the way, I came to realize the great spirit and abilities of those migrants who came from the Skandian lands to settle in the lands of the Franks and the Britons.
Of one thing I will always be certain, these heroes from the north will always remain close to my heart and will remain mysterious, godlike, and alien.
M. K. Hume
March 2014