Feasts, hunting parties –and Faith

Katie Thamer Treherne reviews a new novel by Maria Waddelove

Most school children will have learned that it was King Alfred who united the Anglo Saxons Kingdoms into one, and stopped the Danes from taking over the British Isles. He reigned from 871 to 899. His compassion and wisdom endeared him to his people and his military tactics were brilliant to the point of genius. His family, his battles, and his governance have all been carefully recorded. But the year 859 when Alfred was ten years old has not.

In her novel, Young Aelfred, Maria Waddelove has woven a tale of just what might have happened in that year – and just what sort of circumstances could have been the proving ground for the boy who would become a king.

The story of Young Aelfred, starts, like his education, slowly. He did not know how to read until the age of twelve, so Waddelove uses his tenth year as the fermenting jar of the lessons he did master – and those he struggled with. His arrows missed, he annoyed his siblings, and he had to develop coping tactics just to survive living with a huge extended family in which all names seem to start with Ae!

Descriptions of royal feasts and hunting parties were interrupted by Aelfred’s quarrels with his brother, Athelred, as various older family members intervened. Historical figures slowly step across the page, leaving footprints of the careful research that went into the story. And what God-believing parent could fail to appreciate a depiction of faith as sustaining and ordinary? But would a young reader appreciate it?

Descriptions of royal feasts and hunting parties were interrupted by Aelfred’s quarrels with his brother, Athelred, as various older family members intervened. Historical figures slowly step across the page, leaving footprints of the careful research that went into the story. And what God-believing parent could fail to appreciate a depiction of faith as

And then unexpectedly the story dives into adventure; into a speedreading, page-turning, torchlightunder-the-bedcovers adventure. Perhaps Maria Waddelove wanted to lull her readers into thinking this was to be a cosy account of ordinary life of the kind to which most of us can relate; but no, just when we least expect it, we are swept into the wild. Wild, but not impossibly so.

Mad Danes, hamstringing, and ‘Blood Eagle Executions’ were all very real threats to the peaceful Anglo-Saxon life Aelfred’s family tried to protect.

Waddelove’s inventiveness and attention to detail makes those dark forests, swollen rivers, and creepy marshlands terrifyingly real, and you can practically smell the slaughtered animals and barrels of beer in the Viking camp. Imagined or not, who is to say that young Aelfred did not survive a fire, get kidnapped by Danes, or hide under floorboards stacked high with stolen treasure?

It is a wonder that Maria Waddelove wrote this book while homeschooling her five children. Oh, that all children could have a teacher who makes learning come alive. Young Aelfred certainly comes alive, exhibiting a bravery that not many of us would be capable of – but would certainly like to aim for! A bravery, Waddelove whispers, that comes about through faith in God: a faith that turned an unlikely prince into a pearl of a King.

Just think of the young readers who will know the real reason that Aelfred was the only English monarch to be called Great – and just what might happen in their own lives armed with such faith.

Young Aelfred by Maria Waddelove is available from Amazon, price £8.85.

Katie Thamer Treherne is an artist and writer who lives with her family among apple orchards in East Sussex. katiethamertreherne.com