Judith Arnopp: Goodness, it is a long time since I wrote Peaceweaver, and it took me about four years to get it right. At the time I began it, I was really into the Anglo-Saxon era and madly in love with Harold, which is very apparent in the book. I wanted to tell the story of events leading up to the battle, which were wholly and entirely different to those in the recent debacle on the television, King and Conqueror, but I also wanted to tell it from a female perspective.
At the time of writing (2004) women were still largely underrepresented in historical fiction and Eadgyth, about whom so little was recorded, deserved to be heard. I don’t think anything changed during the years I spent writing it but it is difficult to remember. It is a lot more fictional than my later books simply because there was so little known about her and I felt free to let my imagination loose. It is still heavily based on what we know, or what we knew in the early 2000s.
Mary Anne: How did you decide on Eadgyth as the centre of the story, rather than telling this history through a different lens?
Judith Arnopp: I had only recently graduated from university where women’s history played a large part of my studies. Indignant that despite women playing a huge historical role, they were almost invisible in the record, I was determined to put that right -lol.
So little is known about Eadgyth and women of her ilk because the chroniclers didn’t feel it necessary to record her impact. Even if she didn’t wield a sword, she still played a part, she was still married to the Welsh leader and then queen to the King of England, Harold II. So little is known that historians are still divided on whether or not she and Eadgyth Swanneck were two different women or not. In my story they are separate women with equally important roles – Harold’s wife and Harold’s mistress. They might not have been politically active but the role of women as hearth keepers and child bearers were, of course, vitally important to the human race.
Mary Anne: What was the hardest scene for you to write in this book, emotionally or technically?
Judith Arnopp: Oh, there were so many emotionally difficult scenes. They were brutal times so I have very little need to embellish anything. Eadgyth’s life was harsh from start to finish, traded in marriage when little more than a child, Eadgyth’s role was to cement a treaty between her father and Gruffydd ap Llewelyn, the Welsh leader. She was taken into Wales, away from everything familiar to her. Wales really was a foreign country then with different traditions, not to mention language.
Whether she liked him or not, Eadgyth fulfilled the bargain but giving birth to Gruffydd’s children, and her treatment at the hands of her husband takes up much of the first part of the story. Then Harold of Wessex raided Rhuddlan castle where many of her friends were killed, her children taken into the hills by their father. Eadgyth was then taken hostage by Harold and taken to the court of Edward the Confessor.
There is one grisly scene shortly after her arrival at the English court when Gruffydd’s severed head is delivered to King Edward I as proof of his death – that is particularly gruesome but it was fun to write. But all that horror falls into insignificance when we reach the scenes at the battle of Hastings, the ferocity of the action, the death of the king and the bereft women searching through the bodies of the dead for his remains.
Because women didn’t fight doesn’t mean they weren’t battling for their very survival – their weapons were just not as sharp. Hastings was the end of everything for them, their single remaining task to protect their children from the usurping King William. So, to answer the question, much of the book was harrowing to write but don’t worry, I made sure to add light hearted moments, and scenes of joy to leaven the horror and the ending, I hope, is thought provoking and poignant.
Mary Anne: How did you work to give Eadgyth a voice that feels both true to her time and engaging for modern readers?
Judith Arnopp: I am often asked this but I’m afraid I just don’t know the answer. It seems to come quite naturally. I carry out research wearing my Judith Arnopp hat but once I am at my computer, I take that off and put on the headwear of whomever I am writing about.
For the duration of the writing period the characters are like a shadow, interrupting anything else I attempt to do. While I am weeding the garden or restoring an antique dolls house I am consciously thinking of the next chapter, or aspects of the character, or enacting imaginary scenes in my head.
They used to tell aspiring authors to write what they know but I’ve never experienced anything like the events in my novels – thank goodness. I must’ve just gleaned a lot from sixty odd years of reading. When I am done with the research I put the academic books away and just write. I am a pantster (write from the seat of my pants) – apart from the historical timeline I have few notes and no complicated system. I can visualise the characters in my head and the story just grows somehow.
Mary Anne: Was there a point during writing when the direction of the story shifted in a way you didn’t expect?
Judith Arnopp: As I recall, I wasn’t sure when I began writing that Eadgyth and Harold would fall in love. They had to marry obviously as that is recorded historically but I was pretty determined it would be a political match – it was that but affection crept in. I can’t remember when I personally fell in love with Harold but it was a long time ago, long before I wrote Peaceweaver. Because of the soft spot I have for him I suppose it was inevitable that Eadgyth would love him too.
My Harold is strong, amusing and attractive, a big man with a big laugh, a great sense of humour and a natural leader and formidable warrior. If my Harold is anything like the real king (and he probably isn’t) he would have been a great king. I am still not over his death even after nearly a thousand years – lol.
Mary Anne: Which aspect of Eadgyth’s character do you feel you understand better now than when you first wrote her?
Judith Arnopp: The older I get, the younger Eadgyth becomes. She finds herself married, probably against her will, to an old man and she doesn’t go quietly. She rages like a teenager, and once her future is sealed she finds ways to bear it. Her life story contains so many adventures, so much trauma that I didn’t have to invent much.
It didn’t strike me until I was nearing the end of the book how young she was. When the battle of Hastings took place in 1066, Eadgyth was only twenty-one and by the end of the same year had given birth to five children and buried two husbands. She endured. Of course, in reality we don’t know how well she endured but she survived, disappearing into history after the battle, possibly to Ireland. I often think of continuing her story and her possible involvement in the resistance against the Normans but I haven’t got around to it yet. In my portrayal Eadgyth is a child thrust into a terrifying world who illustrates the pressures put upon women to adhere to preset expectations. Something as applicable now as it was then.
Mary Anne: Looking back now, what do you think this book taught you about pacing, structure, or long-form storytelling?
Judith Arnopp: Since it was my first published novel, it taught me everything and took far longer to write than my subsequent books. It taught me how to write long, how to sustain interest, create characters and ensure they grow throughout the plot, the importance of tension.
From instinct, I wrote it in the first person and most of my books are written in the same way, although now I tend to use present tense. For me it is all about immediacy. As I said previously, I step into the shoes of the character I am writing. It makes sense to use the here and now.
Mary Anne: How did writing Peaceweaver influence the direction of the novels you wrote afterwards?
Judith Arnopp: Directly after Peaceweaver, still obsessed with getting my own back on the Normans, I wrote The Forest Dwellers which is set just after the invasion. This time it is set in The New Forest, covering the trials set by the inhabitants of the forest and culminating in the mysterious death of William the Conqueror’s son, King William II. This one is wholly fictional but still heavy research was involved. I can’t help myself. Some of the placenames are still in use today but I had fun discovering the Anglo-Saxon names and the harsh rules put in place under the new regime.
The main character is Aelf but I can’t say much more for fear of spoilers. I‘ve always been very interested in perspective and how a story changes with different narrators. A hundred people witnessing the same event will all have a different report of what happened.
The Forest Dwellers is similar in theme to Peaceweaver but totally different in approach. It is about family, friendship, sacrifice and love but the narrative is interspersed with some fabulous twists and turns and romps. My direction as an author didn’t change until I’d written several more novels and then responded to constant requests to write something ‘Tudor’. My novels set in the late medieval and Tudor era are by far my best sellers but possibly not the most innovative.
Mary Anne: If you were introducing Peaceweaver to a new generation of readers today, what would you most want them to notice about it?
Judith Arnopp: I’d like them to notice Eadgyth’s manner. I find modern media representations of medieval women very difficult. They lived by different rules to us and were placed under social and physical restrictions that shouldn’t be held against them. I agree that early Hollywood representations of damsels in distress are old hat but I don’t like to see them replaced by sword wielding, rough tongued, bad ass women either. I think it is an insult to medieval women. Of course they were tough, weak people didn’t survive but they did in most cases have a different role to men.
Childbirth and hearth keeping are often scorned but they were essential roles if the family/settlement/bloodline were to prosper. Not everyone could wield a weapon but that doesn’t make them helpless. Eadgyth is strong, she withstands everything thrown at her yet she is not a bolshie gal with a sword arm as strong as Harold’s. She uses more subtle weapons. She relies on men to protect her – this does not make her pathetic and needy, it makes her sensible. Like it or not, times were different, there were things women could not do but there were also things men could not do. The sexes worked together to achieve a mutual goal – neither sex was stronger or better than the other, they were just different.
Mary Anne: Finally, when you think about this book in the context of your career, what role does Peaceweaver play in your development as a writer?
Judith Arnopp: I am very fond of Peaceweaver. If I were to write it now, it would probably be different. There would be less sex and more psychology because I have matured and altered as a person (or in other words, grown old). In my early career I wanted to write about Anglo Saxons, I wanted to write about Welsh history but I also needed to sell books to be able to continue. There is no doubt that after writing my first Tudor novel, The Winchester Goose, my career shifted to a much higher gear.
Readers love the Tudors; there is no getting away from that. I have twenty books now, only four (I think) are set in the early medieval period and their sales lag behind the others. They still sell steadily but usually because the reader has enjoyed all the Tudor titles and wants more of the same author.
I owe a lot to my early books, Peaceweaver, The Forest Dwellers, The Song of Heledd and The Book of Thornhold because during the course of writing them I learned to be a writer. The characters are mostly fictional; the settings are places I love so I think these early books have much more of me in them. Eadgyth certainly has many aspects of my character that I didn’t realise at the time. She thinks she is fat – who wouldn’t just love to be the size they were when they first thought they were fat? -lol. She is stubborn and slow to admit to being wrong. She is loyal but only where loyalty is due, she is passionate, often foolish and totally devoted to her children and the man she loves. And she also loves Harold!
Peaceweaver blurb
When Ælfgar of Mercia falls foul of the king and is exiled, his daughter Eadgyth is sold into marriage with Gruffydd ap Llewellyn, King of the Welsh, a man old enough to be her grandfather. In the years that follow Eadgyth finds herself accused of treason.
Alone in a foreign land, her life is forfeit until a surprise night attack destroys Gruffydd's palace, and Eadgyth is taken prisoner by Earl Harold of Wessex. At the Saxon court she infiltrates the sticky intrigues of the Godwin family, and on the eve of his accession to the English throne, she agrees to marry Harold Godwinson.
As William the Bastard assembles his fleet in the south, and Harald Hardrada prepares to invade from the North, their future is threatened, and Harold must fight to save his kingdom.
Eadgyth’s tale of betrayal, passion and war highlights the plight of women in feuding Anglo Saxon Britain.
We would like to thank Judith Arnopp for sharing her reflections on Peaceweaver and offering such thoughtful insight into the beginnings of her writing journey. Revisiting a first book is a special opportunity to see how an author’s voice and confidence take shape, and Judith’s reflections remind us just how important those early stories can be. We hope readers have enjoyed this glimpse back at the novel that started it all and will be inspired to discover — or rediscover — Peaceweaver and the remarkable body of work that followed.
Publication Date: 17th August 2011Publisher: Independently Published
Print Length: 274 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
When Ælfgar of Mercia falls foul of the king and is exiled, his daughter Eadgyth’s life is changed forever. Sold into a disastrous marriage with Gruffydd ap Llewellyn, King of the Welsh, a man old enough to be her grandfather, Eadgyth ultimately finds herself accused of fornication, incest and treason. Alone in a foreign land, her life is forfeit until a surprise night attack destroys Gruffydd's palace, and Eadgyth is taken prisoner by Earl Harold of Wessex. At the Saxon court she infiltrates the sticky intrigues of the Godwin family, and on the eve of his accession to the English throne, she agrees to marry Harold Godwinson. As William the Bastard assembles his fleet in the south, and Harald Hardrada prepares to invade from the North, their future is threatened, and the portentous date of October 14th 1066 looms. Eadgyth’s tale of betrayal, passion and war highlights the plight of women in feuding Anglo Saxon Britain.
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Judith Arnopp
A lifelong history enthusiast and avid reader, Judith holds a BA in English/Creative writing and an MA in Medieval Studies. She lives on the coast of West Wales where she writes both fiction and non-fiction. She is best known for her novels set in the Medieval and Tudor period, focusing on the perspective of historical women but recently she has been writing from the perspective of Henry VIII himself.
Judith is also a founder member of a re-enactment group called The Fyne Companye of Cambria which is when she began to experiment with sewing historical garments. She now makes clothes and accessories both for the group and others. She is not a professionally trained sewer but through trial, error and determination has learned how to make authentic looking, if not strictly historically accurate clothing. Her non-fiction book, How to Dress like a Tudor was published by Pen and Sword in 2023.
Her novels include:
A Song of Sixpence: the story of Elizabeth of York
The Beaufort Chronicle: the life of Lady Margaret Beaufort (three book series)
A Matter of Conscience: Henry VIII, the Aragon Years (Book One of The Henrician Chronicle)
A Matter of Faith: Henry VIII, the Days of the Phoenix (Book Two of The Henrician chronicle)
A Matter of Time: Henry VIII, the Dying of the Light (Book Three, Coming soon)
The Kiss of the Concubine: a story of Anne Boleyn
The Winchester Goose: at the court of Henry VIII
Intractable Heart: the story of Katheryn Parr
Sisters of Arden: on the Pilgrimage of Grace
The Heretic Wind: the life of Mary Tudor, Queen of England
Peaceweaver
The Forest Dwellers
The Song of Heledd
Previously published under the pen name – J M Ruddock.
The Book of Thornhold
A Daughter of Warwick: the story of Anne Neville, Queen of Richard III
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