Something a bit different today - I thought it would be fun to interview the two main characters in The Anglo-Saxon Mystery Series by author Elizabeth Springer. They did not disappoint!
AW: Lord Edwin and Lady Molgifu (may I call you Molly?), welcome to my blog. I understand that you recently - well, recently to you, for it was in AD879 - got married. If I could ask you, first, Lord Edwin: Did anything unexpected happen at your wedding?
Edwin: Thank you. Yes, on the very first day of our wedding-feast a messenger arrived from King Alfred with an urgent summons. There was a crisis in Mercia, the rich and powerful country to the north of us. My older brother and I (he’s an ealdorman) were dispatched to serve as King Alfred’s envoys. The crisis was actually much worse than we realized, there were Vikings involved, but by God’s grace we made it back alive. King Ceolwulf of Mercia and many others were not so lucky. I came home with a much-appreciated new retainer, and Mercia has a new leader who is friendly to King Alfred.
Molly: What about that man who was accused of murder? You believed he was innocent and stood up for him at his trial.
Edwin: He had to submit to the ordeal of the hot iron, though.
Molly: Yes, but thanks to you he is now a free man, and you found out who really did it.
AW: And Lady Molly, did you spend the time that your husband was away just tending to the estate, or did anything else occur?
Molly: First of all we didn’t know Edwin was going all the way to Mercia or when he would be back. But I had no desire to stay at home with my parents and wait it out! I went ahead to the King’s estate at Wimborne in Dorset, where Edwin had been appointed as a royal reeve. What a state it was in! Wartime neglect, you know, and it turns out that one of the staff had been embezzling the King’s supplies on a significant scale. Thankfully I had some good help, and we got things sorted out. Once we had the hall in order, we had an unexpected royal visit—let’s just say I am less than impressed with King Alfred’s nephews and hope they never come to Wimborne again.
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| Elizabeth's own water colour portrait of Edwin and Molly |
AW: Lord Edwin, may I ask how you and your bride first met?
Edwin: Our families were neighbours in Wiltshire…
Molly: That’s no way to tell the story.
Edwin: You tell it, then.
Molly: I always wanted to marry you. I remember seeing you with your mother in church—
Edwin: I was ten when she died, which means you were how old? Six or seven?
Molly: I had my eye on you even then. But you were sent away after that…
Edwin: Yes, to my uncle’s school. He was the Bishop of Sherborne. I was educated to be a monk.
Molly: Then the great heathen army came. Your father and older brother were off fighting the Danes. You must have been about fifteen by that time. Just old enough to wield a sword.
Edwin: I couldn’t bear the thought they were out there risking their lives while I was sitting in Sherborne polishing my Latin. So I joined the army.
Molly: Edwin probably didn’t even remember that I existed till his first visit back home a few years later.
Edwin: What are you talking about? You were the only girl that has ever existed for me. I promised her that if I wasn’t killed, we could get married when peace was made.
Molly: I was afraid I might have to become a nun if you didn’t come back, since I didn’t want to marry anybody else. I would have made a terrible nun!
[AW: Yes, I'm beginning to understand that!] Lady Molly, I’ve heard that once you’d settled into married life you were very much looking forward to your first Christmas together. How did that go?
Molly: Ha! I was about to say that everything that could possibly go wrong, did go wrong, but that’s not entirely true. Some treasures went missing and we had to help find them, there was a fire at somebody’s farm (arson, I’m afraid), a skeleton was dug up, our musician was kidnapped, and of course there was the murder on Christmas Day that was done with a Viking sword. Finding out who did it was not at all straightforward. Edwin and his men had to ride up and down the country every day in the freezing weather dealing with one thing after another. But we also had some good times together, quite a large Yule log, and enough food to go round. For that I’m very thankful.
AW: Lord Edwin, do you feel that your author breathes life into your world for her readers and do you know how she goes about this? Does she have to do a lot of research?
Edwin: When I was in Mercia I cut my hand on a broken metal fitting (it was a clue, as it turns out). I was about to pull out a handkerchief to wrap around the wound, but I had to wait there on the page for several days while Elizabeth checked to see if I was allowed to have one. She found the word (we call it a swat-clath) in Bosworth and Toller’s Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. She has all sorts of books like that about what we consider quite normal, everyday things: food, clothing, medicines, arms and armour, place-names, laws. She also seems to spend a considerable time reading Old English poetry and staring into space.
Molly: A bit like you, dear.
Edwin: Really?
AW: Lady Molly, have you ever wondered how easy it is for your author to come up with ways to make your life more, shall we say, interesting? Do you know where she gets her ideas for the murder mysteries from?
Molly: We’re never safe from these mishaps, are we? It’s as if she asks herself, ‘What could go wrong in this situation?’ Or, ‘This person is a real character! What would his Anglo-Saxon counterpart do or say?’ As for the murder mysteries, I think she reads a lot—our chronicles, plus Norse sagas, detective novels, and the like. Human nature doesn’t change, you know. The trickier part is leaving the right kind of clues so that we can identify the culprit.
AW: Thank you both so much for talking to me. Would you like to tell readers where they can find out more about your lives and adventures, and do you know if your author will be visiting you again soon with more mysteries?
Molly: It’s spring, so that means…
Edwin: Floods—cattle thieves roaming about—and the threat of another Viking invasion.
Molly: I suppose it could mean those things, if everything bad happens at once.
Edwin: Which it often does.
Molly: You see what I have to contend with. I was going to say that it was about time we went back to visit my parents and inspect the water-mill Edwin gave me as my morning-gift. A little holiday wouldn’t go amiss for either of us.
Edwin: And if everything goes wrong at once?
Molly: Then we’ll just take the adventure we’re given and see it through, won’t we?
Both: Thank you for inviting us!
AW: It was a delight to 'talk' to these characters, and even though our conversation was brief, I really feel that their personalities shine through, and I suspect that's in no small part due to their author.
Please visit https://elizabethspringerauthor.com/my-books/ to find purchase links for Elizabeth Springer’s Anglo-Saxon mysteries.
