The second kingdom
The second kingdom is a historical novel by Rebecca Gablé from the year 2000 .
content
The young Englishman Cædmon was seriously injured during a Danish pirate attack in 1064 and has been limping ever since. When Harold Godwinson , the powerful Earl of Wessex , is on his way to Normandy to bring a message from the English King, Edward the Confessor , to Duke William there , he stops in Helmsby and asks his friend, Cædmon's father, for him to provide a mediator whom he can trust and who speaks English and Norman, so as not to have to rely on the accompanying monks as translators.
Cædmon's father sends Cædmon to Normandy for this task , as his mother is also Normandy and taught her children Norman and is loyal to Harold Godwinson. On the crossing, the Earl of Wessex and his entourage are shipwrecked and are captured by a rogue vassal of Williams, Guy de Ponthieu . After some time, Cædmon manages to escape to William, who then sends a message to his vassal asking him to free his prisoners and to go to William's court himself. Cædmon reluctantly gets into the role of a mediator between the English nobles and the Norman Duke William.
In 1066 he returns with William, whom England calls William the Conqueror. After the Battle of Hastings , Cædmon is once again a mediator, this time between the Norman conqueror and his own people. In this way he creates many enemies, but is in the favor of the king, who was cruel even for the time. Often torn between loyalty to his king and his people, he often jeopardizes them when he stands up for his people in front of William. He ends up in prison a few times, is banished or falls in the favor of the king. When it turns out that Cædmon loves Aliesa, the wife of his best friend Etienne and sister of his arch enemy Lucien de Ponthieu, the king casts him away for this indecent activity. Once again, however, Cædmon succeeds in regaining his favor and narrowing the gap between the two peoples.
Cædmon's story runs parallel to that of his large family, such as his father, who was killed in the battle of Hastings, his mother, a Norman healer, his brother Dunstan, an eternal rebel against William, his sister Hyld, who married the Danish pirate who Cædmon injured etc. Other important characters are William's brother Odo von Bayeux , a bishop, as well as Wulfnoth Godwinson , the brother of Harold Godwinsons, and the monk Oswald. The story is told from Cædmon's perspective, but with an authorial narrative style.
Remarks
The story about the main character is fictitious, but this plot is integrated into the actual historical process. For this novel, Rebecca Gablé, who is a trained mediaevalist , went on research trips to England. The book was published by Lübbe and is now also available as a paperback edition.
expenditure
- Rebecca Gablé, "The Second Kingdom , ISBN 3-404-14808-8
radio play
Dhv der Hörverlag, ISBN 3-86717-093-2 , 6 CDs, playing time approx. 340 minutes, u. a. with Matthias Koeberlin , Udo Schenk , Volker Lechtenbrink .