Hereward Hardcover - 1995

Stroud, United Kingdom: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1995. Book has 182 pages with illustrations. In the year 1070, four years after the Battle of Hastings, Saxon England lay prostrate under the heel of William the Conqueror. In the enveloping gloom of Norman oppression only one last centre of resistance remained - the Isle of Ely in the Fens of East Anglia. From this refuge emerged a leader destined to struggle against enormous odds in his defiance of Norman attacks; a man whose achievements cast him in the heroic mould, yet whose very existence remains a mystery. Much has been written about Hereward as a character of fiction or myth, but few attempts have been made to delve beneath the legend and discover why an apparently obscure Saxon thane became the embodiment of resistance to the Norman invader. This book attempts to fill the gaps and brings Hereward out of shadowy legend into the light of reality. It presents the evidence in a clear and concise manner, discusses the various versions and interpretations of his story and explains the enduring fascination that made Hereward the progenitor of Robin Hood and a figure of significance to literature and folklore. The tale of Hereward and his descendants is woven so firmly into the story of England that it brings together characters as disparate as the Conqueror himself, Lady Godiva, the Black Prince and the Fair Maid of Kent. Intriguingly, one genealogist carries the Hereward story across the Atlantic to Massachusetts, where a supposed descendant, John Harvard of Southwark, settled in the seventeenth century and there founded Harvard University. . First Edition. Hard Cover/Boards. Near Fine/Near Fine. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall.