The King's Shadow

Published in 1995, Elizabeth Alder’s The King's Shadow is a historical novel aimed at an older middle school or younger high school readership. Set primarily during the last few years of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom (1063-66 AD), the novel follows the meteoric rise of a peasant teen who becomes the surrogate son of the real King Harold II, just before what is now England falls to the conquering Normans. Alder sticks closely to the events laid out in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the annals that recorded the history of the Anglo-Saxons from the ninth century through the twelfth. Quoting bits of the Chronicle for her chapter headings, Alder uses elevated and somewhat archaic language to match its Old English (words of which appear in italics throughout the text). Critics laud the novel for neither modernizing the thought processes or beliefs of its characters, nor holding them up for judgment or ridicule, but instead simply describing them to get across the sense of what it might have been like to be a person alive at the time.

The fictional thirteen-year-old Evyn is a serf in Wales whose dream is to become a storiawr, or a storyteller. His big moment seems to arrive when he is due to recite the epic poem The Song of Roland at the upcoming Eostre festival. Not even the arrival of his father’s twin brother, Morgan, a notorious troublemaker, can dampen his spirits. But, true to his reputation, Uncle Morgan gets drunk at the festival, and picking a fight with the sons of a powerful lord, kills one of them. In revenge, the lordlings come for Morgan but kill Evyn’s father in a case of mistaken identity. To keep Evyn quiet about what has happened, they cut out his tongue, mutilating him for life and leaving him mute.

Then things go from bad to worse. Not only is Uncle Morgan on the lam, he is also deep in debt. To pay off his creditors, he takes the now “useless” Evyn to the city of Exeter, selling him into slavery to the kindly Lady Ealdgyth Swanneck, the common-law mistress of Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex and future king of England. Lady Ealdgyth is a figure from history, although her role is a difficult one since Harold also has an official wife, Edith, sister of the earls Edwin and Morcar, who were important for a Welsh alliance.



Evyn’s luck now changes: his new owner takes an interest in the boy. Not knowing his name and unable to communicate with him, Lady Ealdgyth names him Shadow. When Evyn breaks his arm, she takes pity on him and sends him to a monastery to recuperate. There, he befriends Lewys, a monk who teaches him to read and write, and schools him about the demands of duty and honor.

When Evyn returns in 1064, Harold needs his help: he and his men are off to fight the rebellious real-life Gruffydd ap Llywelyn of Gwynedd, king of Wales (who in the book is also the man whose sons killed Evyn’s father). Because Evyn knows the area well, Harold takes him along as a guide. After the successful battle, the boy is freed from slavery and upgraded in status to Harold’s squire. Soon, he becomes Earl Harold’s personal companion, and the pair travel through the countryside growing close to each other. To Evyn, Harold is a father figure and a model of the chivalrous nobility he learned about from Lewys. He chronicles Harold’s adventures, from suppressing other Welsh rebellions, to being shipwrecked, to being held for ransom by Duke William of Normandy.

King Edward the Confessor dies in 1066, and the assembly of feudal lords known as the Witan sticks to the old man’s dying wish to select Harold to succeed as king. Taking the name Harold II, the new king immediately has to confront others who also wanted the throne. The primary challenge comes from his own brother Tostig, who has aligned himself with the fierce warrior king Harald Hardrada, the ruler of Norway. Evyn, now Harold II’s adopted son, witnesses the Battle of Fulford at which Norway is defeated and Tostig is killed.



However, Harold II’s reign is destined to be very short, as William of Normandy takes advantage of the fact that the English army has been weakened by its confrontation with Norway to attack. This culminates in the famous Battle of Hastings, which seals the fate of the Anglo-Saxons. Harold is killed during the fighting, as are his remaining brothers.

The novel ends as Evyn, grievously wounded on the battlefield, returns to the monastery where he had healed before and spends the rest of his life writing down the events of his time with King Harold.