The Scourge of God by C R May
"Vidar, son of Woden,
Fenris bane: god of vengeance. Here, another man's son proclaims that he too is
keen to avenge his father."
The late Roman Empire was an altogether different beast from
the heydays of imperium. Riven by internal strife and civil war, since 395AD
the empire had been split into the Western and Eastern Empires, centred on Rome
and Constantinople. This was also the period of migration, a domino effect far
to the east and sent tribes and peoples migrating west. Peoples saw the
relative comfort of the Roman empire, with its trappings of civilisation and
its established farmlands, and coveted them.
For many years it had been Roman policy to keep the
barbarians beyond their borders fighting each other, as well as using their
services as mercenaries. With the pressures of the migration period, securing
the borders was proving an impossible task for the declining empire, both
militarily and financially. The empire cut its losses and abandoned the
province of Britannia, while adopting a policy to accommodate invading tribes
within the empire, as semi-autonomous regions to act both as buffer states and
police rebellious regions of the empire. After all, these tribes didn’t wish to
destroy the empire; they wished to enjoy the fine living that civilisation had
to offer. It was from these peoples that settled that formed the nations of
Europe, their memory retained in the names of countries and regions.
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| Barbarian Invasions - Wikipedia |
Some peoples never reached an accommodation with the empire,
hence the modern meaning of the word vandal; the Germanic Vandals were never
accepted and migrated through Gaul (modern France), through modern Spain, to
settle in North Africa, ironically the area that once was Carthage. From there
they adopted naval tactics to pillage Italy and the coasts of the Mediterranean.
At the same time a major military power had exploded on the
scene, whose name became synonymous with barbarity; the Huns. The Huns were a
confederation of nomadic tribes, originally from the Central Asian Steppes. Renowned
horse warriors armed with javelins, lassoes and bows they rode westward carving
out an empire in Eastern and Central Europe, with tactics very different to the
traditional warfare of infantry and cavalry armed with lance. The subjugated
the Ostrogoths, the Alans and numerous Germanic tribes such as the Gepids.
After devastating the Eastern Roman empire and exhausting the area of tribute,
their king, Attila, turned his attention westward. The western empire had heard
dread reports of this Scourge of God, surely this was the coming
apocalypse, the battle to end all battles. Such a battle was that of the
Catalaunian Fields, also known as the Battle of Chalons, which took place in mid-summer
451AD.
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| Hun Warrior |
Drawing upon a similar, rich vein as in his King’s Bane
series, C R May racks up the tension as his characters face taking part in,
arguably, one of the greatest battles in history. We experience the
conflagration through the eyes of Halga Hunding, a young Jutish nobleman, who
narrowly escapes a treacherous attack that claims his father and hearth troop.
With his elder brother long disappeared, responsibility hangs on Halga’s
shoulders. Swearing vengeance, and arming himself with his grand-fathers sword,
he escapes south with a small band of followers, seeking exile with his foster
father Hengist of the Angles. He finds Hengist overseas serving in Britannia,
however the Angle’s brother, Horsa, takes the young Jute under his wing. Horsa
advises Halga that he needs wealth and fame to draw to him the strength to take
back what was his. Such an opportunity can be found to the south where Horsa’s
military service has been requested by his liege lord, the king of the Sea
Franks. Halga agrees but must first mount a daring raid in the depths of winter,
during Yuletide. to free one of his father’s retainers, the female Hun archer
Arekan.
Travelling with Horsa, Halga meets and offers his service to
the Frankish king Merovech. King Merovech accepts his service and gifts him a
fine saex, naming it Long Knife. The Franks as members of the Foederati have
been summoned to serve the Roman Magistar Militiae, General Flavius Aetius.
Aetius is gathering a huge coalition army composed of Romans, Visigoths, Alans, Franks and Burgundians of the
Germanic Foederati to push Attila out of Gaul. Aetius himself had personal knowledge of the Huns and their tactics, having once been a Roman hostage in the court of the Huns, and even has them in his own retinue.
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| Germanic Foederati - Angus McBride |
Halga must learn quickly the art of leadership, how he must
inspire the men around him by his actions, but with their companionship comes
the shouldering of responsibility. He learns this bitterly when a tavern fracas
crosses the bounds into seriousness and ends with the death of one of the
combatants.
Eager to regain the favour of the Frankish king, Halga acquits
himself admirably in a skirmish between the Franks and the Gepid rear-guard, the
night before the great battle. Here Halga earns the name Long Knife and Merovech,
impressed by the Angles and Halga’s small Jutish band, he rewards them well
with mail, helms, shields and swords. Halga is now able to arm his comitatus as
a lord should.
Then dawns the day of the battle itself as the vast
coalition gathers to face the Hunnish horde. You stare in wonder, through the
eyes of Halga at the armoured Alan horseman and the fierce warriors of
different nations, desperately throwing up your shield as the Hunnic archers
wheel and shoot arrows, again and again. It’s a relief when they withdraw, to
let their subject Germanic warriors crash into the shield wall. Here Halga and
his comitatus fight in their traditional manner as the complexity of differing
loyalties of each coalition is exposed with Frank fighting Frank, kinsman
versus kinsman, as the armies clash in a titanic struggle.
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| Aetius with Burgundian Bodyguard - Medieval Warlords Blandford Press |
Of course, this great battle is merely honing the qualities
of Halga, beyond the coalition’s victory, the fall of night and the distant
horizon, there lies the need or vengeance, to fulfil his oath to Woden. As Horsa knew, the campaign has been the making of Halga, as we watch him mature from youth into a skilled leader of men.
“The past is a foreign country”, so the saying goes, but not
to this author. Ever the wordsmith, C R May effortlessly recreates this heroic
world. Being of the era prior to the migration of the peoples who would become
the English: the Jutes, Angles and Saxons, the author angelizes the place names
of what is now Denmark. This creates a pleasant familiarity with the described
landscape for the reader. There is a closeness too with beliefs of the
characters. What is now myth and folklore is accepted reality in the
character’s mindsets, we are privy to. The gods are ever at our shoulders, our
actions felt beyond the confines of Middle-Earth. When Halga rescues Arekan, he
recognises that she has suffered, both mentally and physically, during her
captivity. Realising that she required healing, Halga takes her (and a captive
traitor) to see the Angle witches. What bloody deeds were done to accomplish the
healing remains a mystery, but only Arekan returned…
Unusually for C R May, Scourge of God is (at time of
writing) a stand alone novel, but it fits in perfectly with the author’s anthology dealing with this fascinating, early medieval period, such as the previously mentioned
King’s Bane, and also the Sword of Woden series. Scourge of God
is a well-researched novel, the battlefield, armaments and tactics described in
detail. Above all the development of Halga's character is a joy to read. This novel is a rollicking read; an action packed tale that will grace anyone's bookshelf.
Scourge of God is available now at Amazon as paperback and kindle.
