The Song of Hild

Vibeke Vasbo, Gaye Kynoch

• Publisher: Sacristy Press
• ISBN:
  9781910519882
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Historical Fiction
• Index: Literature

Abbess Hild of Whitby was an extraordinary woman living in extraordinary times. In this exquisite translation of the #1 Danish bestselling novel Hildas sang, we are drawn into a world of dark dealings, powerful patriarchy and religious wrangling.

In the political and religious upheavals of the seventh-century British Isles, tensions between the Danish-German invaders and native Celts mirror power struggles masquerading as religious struggles that reverberate internationally today. In The Song of Hild we are brought face-to-face withthe political manoeuvres of conflicting religions, the building of a double monastery, and the power exercised by the Church of Rome.

This is a gritty, powerful story about the prominent role women played in the spread of Christianity in seventh-century Britain.

"a bestseller of great literary quality"
Ekstra Bladet (from a review of the original Danish edition)

Table of contents

• A Map
• Rather a live dog than a dead lion
• Star the cow and the good-luck snakes
• Hounds, hares and lions
• The longest tale
• Plagued by demons
• The sparrow through the king’s hall
• The bell in Dolwyddelan
• Cædwalla’s calling
• A red-haired daughter
• The Lord gave . . . the Lord took away . . .
• Penda’s buckle
• ‘There was a little mouse . . . ’
• Capture the foxes, those little foxes!
• Joy and disgust
• Gold gladly given . . .
• Before seven summers have passed
• Under the wide open skies
• Nine times around the burial mound
• Hild’s mare and Thunor’s power
• War and peace
• Merewald and the filament
• Oswald’s head
• Lark song
• One wife too many
• A blessed place
• The vixen in the trap
• The hunger for action
• Seven gold rings for Eadfrid
• Latin for ‘a fly’
• Elephants and apricot trees
• After the Fall
• ‘ . . . but the way of the ungodly shall perish.’
• At the ends of the earth
• In the service of the Lord
• Luminous blue eyes
• A seamless tunic
• The deaf ear
• Twelve wild geese migrate southwards
• Young Wilfrid
• ‘Awake, awake, valiant warriors . . . ’
• Sacrificed for peace
• God seeks that which is past
• What the Lord joins together
• Maiden and mother
• Light of the world
• Heads without hair
• Plague
• The kingdom, the power and the glory
• Eostre’s lilies
• Cædmon and the light
• Illustrations