Cerdic the Wolf and the Crown of Kings
In the shadow of the gloom, within the sealed Saxon Tomb,
Lies the King of Kent, his life all but spent,
His battles lost, his ambitions tossed, and his life forgotten.
But unearth the stories in the tomb, deep beneath England’s Womb
And learn of the Wolf and his conquest, lest his curse he shall profess.
In a village in the land, the land of the Saxon men, the Queen of Kent gave birth to Cerdic, son of Hengist, son of Aethelfrith, son of Radwulf, the Aetheling of Kent. And to this boy he gave the task of revealing Britannia behind the mask, He shall become a King he said, and he shall rule after I am dead, and all the Kings shall lower head, to Cerdic, Bretwald, King of Aenglaland. When I fall, before you are crowned, you, Cerdic, my son, must journey to the land of Ice and Snow, the Harsh land of the Nords, and to the great ice tomb, and claim the Crown of Kings, only then shall the lords of these lands bow to you and will you become the true king of our people.
And he did, for when the good King Hengist died 20 summers later, Cerdic set out for the land of Ice and Snow, destined to find the Crown of Kings. The son of Hengist took only 4 of his warriors, close Huscarls, with him to the land of the Nords, and would return alone.
The boat arrived on the ice flow shore, ready for what was in store. The men and Cerdic stepped off the boat, and felt the cold wind flow. The snow crunched beneath boot as Hengist’s son and his warriors ventured into the land of snow and ice, to find that Ornate Circlet that was said to be the power of kings.
The son of Hengist and his men arrived at the cave of ice, marked by several runestones, and entered the scornful maw of the cave. Within, they saw many jewels, crowns, ornaments, scepters, and other paraphernalia of even nations that Hengist’s Folk had never heard of, but Cerdic could tell that none of these strange ornaments were the Coronating Glory he had desired. He saw, on an icy pedestal, an old bone-carved crown, for that should be the crown of the Kings. The Aetheling of Kent took the Crown in his hands, and soundly placed it on his head. Then the cave rumbled, and Cerdic and his men looked up, to see a large, brooding Frost Giant arrayed against them. The men of Cerdic attempted to slay this beast, to be bashed by the monster’s massive club, their bones crunching and their limp and lifeless bodies falling to the ground. The King of Kent, newly proclaimed, took into his hands his sword, Grunmar, and struck the beast, in a long and frenzied fight, where the beast smashed icicles larger than a man and was dodged by the limber Cerdic. The son of Hengist slew the beast finally, leaping to its head and stabbing out its eye. The beast of olden time fell to the ground and slept its final slumber, and Cerdic parted, alone, back through the iced wastelands, back to his vessel.
And so Cerdic, son of Hengist, King of Kent, bearer of the Crown of Kings, put up mast and sailed for Kent. However, all was not right, a storm grasped the sea between the Ice Lands and Kent with a choke hold, making the angry waves only an angered god could make, throwing and thrashing the New King’s boat back and forth, until he crashed on a small island.
The next segment of the tale, "The Isle of Goat-Men" is a work in progress right now and I'll put it up when I'm finished.
02 Apr 2014, 9:12 pm
