The Circle of Ceridwen: Book One (excerpt from novel)

In early Fall when the woods ran with game, Cedd would mount his best and boldest horse and ride out at dawn with his ceorls, their horses stamping, bits jingling, and return at dusk laughing and shouting with stag or boar to fill the firepit. The men would join together in the timber hall, and place at rest against the wall their iron-tipped, barbed spears. The torches in their iron stands would blaze out, casting their light upon the gold rings and silver bracelets and arm-rings the men wore, and the light glit-tered also from bronze cup to cup. The hall would fill with the smells of smoke and the singeing of meat, and the sounds of the spitting fat flying into the coals. My kinsman, his ceorls about him, would tell of the hunt just run, and of the hunt before, and of the hunt of many seasons past. And tho' child as I was, I would sit blinking in the brilliant torch light and feel that the Gods had blest no place so much as this snug warm hall.

At other times Cedd would lift me up upon his saddle, and we would ride out to the trackway that bordered his lands, and skirt the grove and river marshes that made up the boundaries. These were my favourite times, sitting before him, gladsome and proud; his thick strong arm about me. Beyond his lands lie the village, and so came my first memory of it, seeing from over the horse's mane the round huts of willow wattle and daub with their bushy thatch.

In the village centre stood the stone preaching cross where the Prior spoke to the villagers. The cross was old, older than Cedd's memory, and had on both sides figures carved in the runes of our people. One side told stories of the Holy Book, of which I was yet ignorant. The other bore a tale of the hero We-land, weapon-smith of the Gods, which I knew well. Cedd would stop and point out the marks to me, and tell me again the tale of the great warrior, and in this way did I first learn the runes.

Beyond the village lay the Priory of the Black Monks, as we called the raven-clothed Benedic-tines. Sometimes on our ride we would come across the Prior himself. Cedd would call out to him, laughing, and in reply the grave thin-lipped Prior would turn and look up. He would sometimes speak to Cedd, gesturing to me as he did, but my father's brother would only laugh the more and turn our horse and trot off.

But the time came when Cedd did not ride out to hunt, and stayed in his hall. He walked about but little, and grasped at his chest and throat in pain. Came the day when he did not rise from his pallet, and his ceorls went to him and did not leave. For two days the hall was filled with his groans, and I was kept away. All grew quiet, and at noon I was at last brought to him. Tho' it was high Summer, the firepit was bright with flame, for the ceorls had brought Cedd's pallet before it, that he might be kept warm. There I looked upon the face of my kinsman for the last time. His breath came in gasping sighs, and his staring eyes looked far beyond the hall. His brow was damp, and his hand when I touched it, cold. Thus we sat, the ceorls and a serving woman and I, until the room grew still of Cedd's breathing; and as the dusk came on, the life left him. I was led away, dry-eyed but hollow within.

Then it was night, but there was no sleep in the house, for all through the dark hours I heard the voices of the ceorls and the movement of the serving people. At dawn the ceorls rode out to the grove, and cleared the very heart of it of trees, and with the help of the cottars rolled stones the size of sheep into a circle. Within this circle they laid a mass of charcoal, and then cut boughs from every tree which grew in the grove, save lady willow; from oak, beech, elder, and apple was the needfire built.

Then at dusk a wain was driven, pulled by a horse and carrying the body of Cedd. And the ceorls came after it, bearing torches which they thrust into the ground to make a circle of light against the dark-ening sky. They carried off the body of Cedd from the wain, and as they lifted the pallet I saw my kins-man wore his ring shirt and fine helmet, and that across his chest was placed his sword, for he had no son to wield it and learn its name and ways. The ceorls lay the pallet upon the pyre, and placed by my kins-man's side his round shield of alder wood, and his iron-tipped ash spear. They placed also at his side bronze drinking cups. I stood watching this with the serving women, and behind us were the slaves that were Cedd's, and beyond them the gathering cottars of the village.