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An epic poem set in seventh-century Northumbria on the eve of the Synod of Whitby. Brother Oswin (who first appeared in Beagrie’s Leásungspell) travels to Streanæshealh across a wild landscape steeped in magic and folklore. There he is shunned as a boggart, elf-king, merman and the cursed puck responsible for spreading the pandemic that rages through the kingdom. Meanwhile the politics of faith, fealty, liberty and power play out through the lives of the people he encounters. Written in a hybrid of Old English and Northern vernaculars, the book conjures a sense of place that runs deep into the collective imagination.
An epic poem set in seventh-century Northumbria on the eve of the Synod of Whitby. Brother Oswin (who first appeared in Beagrie’s Leásungspell) travels to Streanæshealh across a wild landscape steeped in magic and folklore. There he is shunned as a boggart, elf-king, merman and the cursed puck responsible for spreading the pandemic that rages through the kingdom. Meanwhile the politics of faith, fealty, liberty and power play out through the lives of the people he encounters. Written in a hybrid of Old English and Northern vernaculars, the book conjures a sense of place that runs deep into the collective imagination.