The Location of the Battle in Chapters I and II

Weolund River: The Old English name for the Welland River that borders the old kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia. The lands to the eastern side were marshy fenlands, traversed only by an old Roman road.

Talford Hill and the stone ford: The name ‘Talford Hill’ is fictional but the stone ford, modern day Stamford, and the geographic descriptions are not. Today, the ford is crossed by a footbridge. The water meadows (the flat open land on the west side of the river) still flood but are used as a public park and picnic area. A Saxon town began to grow around this ford in the 9th century and an early Norman castle was built in 1075 to defend the ford (Personal Experience, 2014, and Mahany and Roffe, 2016).

Talford Village: The name is fictional and it’s meaning will become clear as the story progresses. However, the fact that a village existed there is historically correct. Archeological digs in 1969 indicated the area had only rural, small village occupation from the Roman period until the middle of the 9th century when it began to grow into a town (Mahany and Roffe, 2016).

Old Roman Bridge over the Welland River: The Roman bridge no longer exists, but a historic plaque in the ‘water meadows’ of Stamford marks its location. It was on the Roman Road called Ermine Street – only a small bit of which remains near the site. Queen Boudicca chased the Roman 9th Legion over this bridge during her revolt in 61 AD. The bridge will take on renewed significance in Book Three (Personal Experience, 2014).

The ‘Round Ruins,’ ‘Heaven’s Gate,’ and ‘Sanctuary’: The reference combines three features into one. ‘Sanctuary’ and ‘Round Ruins’ are fictional but the location on the battlefield is not. The idea will be further explained in Books Three (Chapter: Modranicht) and four (Chapter: Sunset on Talford Hill), but will remain a mystery in Book One. Heaven’s Gate not only refers to the explanation below from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, but also is an SCA reference to the hill overlooking the battlefield at Pennsic War – “Mt. Eislinn, Heaven’s Gate.”

The hill, itself, is historic and is located in Stamford, Lincolnshire, and exists exactly as described in the story. It overlooks an ancient stone ford and flat, bottomland called a ‘water meadow’ which floods annually (Personal experience, 2014). Stamford was the most defensible spot along the Welland River, and was the location of an early church and enclosure dedicated to St. Peter – “St. Peter’s Enclosure” (Smith, n.d.). It was also the dowry property of the Queens of Mercia (called Queen Edith’s Fee), probably dating to the Middle Saxon period or earlier (Mahany & Roffe, 2016). The church was gone by the time of Alfred the Great. The White Hart uses both the defensible position and the symbolism of St. Peter as the guardian of Heaven’s Gate.

It is likely that “St. Peter’s Enclosure” at Stamford was the gift that King Wulfhere, son of Penda, gave to Abbot Seaxwulf in 656 AD. Part of the boundary is described: “…from Easton to Stamford, and from Stamford following the course of the stream [R. Welland] to the aforesaid Northborough. These are the lands and the fens which the king gave to St. Peter’s monastery” (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1962, pp. 31-33). Wulfhere, King of Mercia, placed a benediction and a curse upon the place that it should forever belong to St. Peter and none should rule over it save the abbot and monks of the monastery:

And I enjoin all my successors, be they my sons, be they my brothers, or kings that shall succeed me, that our benediction may stand, according as they desire to be partakers of the life everlasting and escape eternal punishment. Whosoever shall diminish our benediction or the benedictions of other good men, may the heavenly doorkeeper diminish him in the kingdom of heaven; and whosoever shall make it greater, may the heavenly doorkeeper make him greater in the kingdom of heaven. (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1962, pp. 31-33)

Three kings – Oswy, Sigehere and Sebbi – the King of Northumbria and the two co-rulers of Essex – affirmed it, as did two archbishops of Canterbury and Deusdedit, five bishops, and ten ealdormen [earls]. Even Pope Vitalian agreed to the benediction and added his own curse on anyone breaking it: “…I forbid any king or any man to have any authority there except the abbot alone…. If anyone violates this in any respect, may St. Peter destroy him with his sword: if anyone observes it [the benediction], may St. Peter with the key of heaven open to him the kingdom of heaven.” (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1962, pp. 31-33)

Hence the idea that Beornwulf and his army should be . . . would be destroyed while trying to take by force the ‘round ruins’ of Heaven’s Gate.