"SEAGULL CRIES" "This programme contains scenes of violence." "Many long years ago, a great tumult came to the world of men." "The kings of Middle Earth fell into battle." "Great warriors of the English, the Vikings and the Normen were cut down." "Not just in the fields beyond Hastings, but in three almighty battles." "And our land," "England, would never be the same again." "These terrible events of the year 1066 were woven into a tapestry fit for a king." "But these threads speak only of conquest through the voice of a conqueror." "If you look more closely, you will see a different story." "Not of the highborn, but of the ordinary men of our shire." "SHOUTING" "Theirs is the story of all Englishmen who laid witness to the darkest year of our times." "This programme contains scenes of violence." "DISTANT CHEERING" "CHEERING GETS LOUDER" "HOOTING" "IN ANGLO-SAXON:" "Childru!" "Giev me thinn sho." "Nim minere hand." "Ve sind handfeste." "Ve sind vere and veef." "Kiss her hie!" "Hie!" "Kiss her, then." "CHEERING AND HOOTING" "Love to your spirit." "Ordgar, is it you?" "It is, Leofric." "Welcome home." "(Ordgar) You know me and you know why I come." "Lord..." "Lord..." "Today is the day." "I can't help what you've chosen to do with it." "The weaponed-men shall line up here." "The wife-men shall sit." "The wife-men shall sit!" "Today, the war-band turns over." "But the weaponed-men I took last time will not be coming back." "These fresh men I must take to join them." "You." "You, you." "You." "Go to your homes, collect your shield and your spear." "And you, you." "You sit down." "You." "Those who have none, those who are young, will be given new weapons." "Why do you keep the men?" "Why do you take more?" "Where will we get our grain when the hunger comes at Easter time?" "If I do not take these men at this time, you shall none of you have stomachs to feel hunger." "Sit down." "You two, go to your home." "There are some moments before we move on." "Where is that Leofric gone?" "Leofric!" "Weak-heart!" "Come here." "Ordgar, I'm just a farmer!" "Well, now you are to be a soldier." "No, no." "I'm no soldier." "I have had you not on my war-band before." "You would have been better off, had I caught you last time." "Really?" "How so?" "There will be work this time." "As we are taught and bidden, friends." "I swear before this company... (Men join in) ..that I shall fight to the death for my King." "If my King or my Lord shall die," "I shall take his place and fight as he would have fought." "If any men here see me taken with weak-heart and run away, he shall remind me of this pledge made here before my kin." "It's time." "Oh, my lover!" "Come back safe." "What matters you, child?" "What do you see?" "The warrior sea king is coming west to fill England's graveyards." "Black birds of carrion follow." "Death comes." "Move on and march!" "It was always custom for a handful of our weaponed-men to be called for the war-band." "But this late summer was different." "The huscarls of the King took what seemed like every farmer, every drover, every beekeeper from all over the forests of our shire." "This new King, whom they called Harold, must surely have heard the portents of doom as we had done." "They say a long-tailed star blazed across the sky when first he came to the throne." "They spoke of his enemies across the whale-road, who meant to invade our lands and unseat him." "DISTANT HUBBUB" "HAMMERING" "Christ almighty!" "You take this solemnly, then?" "They're coming." "When the wind is right for them, the Normen will come under cover of dark." "And in the dawn, there'll be nothing but ash." "Oh, pity us and our blessed isle." "This was a year like no other before it or since." "Invaders indeed were coming to fill England's graveyards." "Our England found herselfa vulnerable kingdom in this year, 1066." "The old King Edward, known as Confessor, had promised England to many cousins around the Empire of the North Sea in exchange for a peaceful death." "Harold, of no royal blood, stood closest to the death bed and took the crown for himself." "We feared that jealous armies forged their weapons and waited for the wind to blow them across the whale-road." "From Normandy, from Flandres, from Danmark." "But the greatest danger of all came from the warriors brave men feared the most - the Vikingr, from the land of the fjords." "MEN SPEAK IN OLD NORSE" "Much was told us about the lands of the Vikingr, where the soil was poor and the air was cold." "Little wonder that its hardened warriorslooked upon England as a land of plentyand willingly answered any call to arms." "HE SHOUTS AND MEN RESPOND" "SHOUTING" "HE GASPS" "Was it a dream?" "No." "I do not dream." "I was laid on stony earth, that's all." "I must lead them to the boats." "You make sure he comes back, brother." "I will." "You make sure." "I will!" "Make sure!" "And use your shield as a weapon." "Smash them in the face with it." "Go under at his legs or cut down on him." "It was not the first time England had readied itself to face this Northern terror." "And remember, hold fast next to your brother." "Go." "The Vikingr had long ago come in wolf-packs from every crevice of their coast, and they had wreaked a whirlwind of destruction that did not bode well for the unready men of our shires." "In their journey that summer, the Vikingr rowed 300 miles across open sea." "200 ships cut past Shetland and Orkney, gathering more ships as they sped." "Past the land of the Scots, whose king had lately killed Macbeth." "For the Vikingr, prize lay further south." "The greatest bounty in all Middle Earth." "I thought I heard a keel on the whale-road." "I thought I saw a lantern on the water." "Oh, God." "The Northmen, are they not men like ourselves?" "They are not men like ourselves." "Poor farmers of Crowhurst, how could you have known?" "As you stood guard in the south expecting a Norman invasion, the Vikingr made surprise landfall hundreds of miles to the north." "WOMAN SCREAMING" "SCREAMING" "And do not attack us." "We want merely to trade." "The Vikingr are learning to trade." "SHOUTING" "You must listen to us, Engalisch." "You must listen to us, Engalisch." "We are learning to trade." "But some of us are rather slow." "While the Vikingr brutalised the unguarded settlements of the Northern shores, the south coast basked in the safe knowledge that the Normans had dared not come." "Perhaps they were afraid of our brave weaponed-men." "Perhaps they were simply not favouredby the sailing winds." "In any case, fighting season was almost over and the harvest was due." "The time had come to stand the farmers down." "SIGHING" "I will not be on the war-band again for another year." "You will be home before nightfall." "Indeed." "He to a lufsom bride, and I to a honeymoon in the hand." "Is there still the great circle of oak trees in the forest by Crowhurst where the children climb?" "There is." "I should like to climb those trees again." "Huscarls!" "Don't worry about it, just little boys charging around." "Tell you what, I'd like to see him try and climb a tree, yeah, with an head big as that." "Halt!" "Your wives and your harvest will have to wait." "Take up your weapons again." "And so our new King faced a terrible choice." "Should he leave the southern shores unprotected from an enemy that might yet arrive with a change of wind?" "With fighting season over, the King chose the invader already on our shores over the one that may never come." "It was a choice that would seal the fate of Crowhurst and of all the villages of England." "After ravaging the settlements of the northern coast, the Vikingr took to their boats again." "If only they were setting a northerly path home." "But no, they turned inland, heading upriver into the dark interior,where the great vale of Jorvik lay." "The sagas record that Hardraada's Vikingrmet their first resistance atFulford," "on the Wednesday before the feast of St Matthew." "The brave seafarers have sent me, gifted with foreign language as I am to tell you" "that they will let you give silver and animals in exchange for peace." "I believe it is better for you to buy off our raid in tribute than we should cut you down." "We do not wish to fight." "We just want to make a bargain." "A bargain?" "We will give you tribute." "Our swords and spears." "And a thin smile of the war axe." "I have two great earls with me with their men." "Tribute!" "They will defend this land to the last ditch." "Now pick up your dead animal and go." "I'm so sad to hear that." "Cattle die, kindred die, every man is mortal." "But I know one thing that never dies, and that is the glory of the dead!" "With God's help, what is it that we want?" "(All shouting) To fight!" "To what?" "To fight!" "SHOUTING IN ANGLO-SAXON" "The soldiers and farmers gathered by the Northern Earls did not lack for courage." "They could have shivered behind the walls of York, but they chose to take arms and face the strong invader across a ditch." "To defend the honour of their wife-men, and the freedom of their children, they risked life and limb." "An Englishman does not yield to bounty hunters." "Thus insults and spears were slung, the men of York probing for weakness in the Viking shield wall." "Once the name-calling could be borne no longer, the real battle would surely follow." "The Battle of Fulford was the first of three battles in that fateful year." "The English strategy was simple and brave - to pierce, if they could, the Vikingr line in the centre, and thus cause panic and a fracturing of their ranks." "But the Vikingr were the best-trained warriors in the known world." "Fighting in small deadly bands, driving the poor farmers like sheep to their slaughter." "Again and again, the fearless English hurled themselves at the foreign giants, until they broke the Vikingr line." "Sadly, this only favoured the Vikingr." "They were merciless killers, whose strength grew in the madness of the battle." "They knew too well how to go "berserk"." "BIRD SCREECHES" "Aaaargh!" "(HE SHOUTS)" "Many of those who dreamt of their death were to fall that day." "But not the Vikingr." "Death belonged to the men of York... ..because they had been lured into a trap, conceived by the Norse king Hardraada." "He had drawn the poor, unwitting English into his middle..." "..so he could cut them down, from behind their backs." "The Vikingr have come, greybeard." "You should have paid with something less dear." "News of the agony of Fulford had spread throughout England." "Now the men of Crowhurst knew what awaited them." "Covering 200 miles in only four days," "King Harold's trained huscarls, and untrained farmers, closed the ground on the invaders in the north." "Harold was a famed warrior." "As an Earl, he had wreaked destruction on the Welsh three years before." "But as King, this was his first great test, and so much would depend on this army of the south, now strung across the forests of middle England as they headed up country." "Seriously, my legs are going to fall off in a minute." "You have the choice." "Either shut up and save your breath...or drop dead." "You were ever a bully, Ordgar." "And you were ever a whining little shite." "It's wondering to me we share the same grandfather." "Aaaah.....ahhhh!" "Ahh, ahh!" "What have you done?" "I'm sorry." "Ah..." "I wasn't meant for marching." "Just leave me here." "I am bound to provide every man and boy of fighting body." "Can you stand?" "Ah." "Ah!" "Ah!" "Here, you collect his shield." "I hope you heal swiftly." "You shall all need your feet when we reach the north." "Yeah, if we ever reach the north, that is." "If we don't die on the way there." "We'll not die on the way!" "Why am I carrying all his stuff?" "The Vikingr conquered the north with such ease that Hardraada, their king, chose to split his army into parts." "One third would guard the ships at Rica-halh, while the remainder would camp for the winter near York, by Stamford Bridge." "All enjoying the spoils of war." "Hardraada instructs we divide our army." "Two out of every three stay here to await the hostages." "I will take some men and weapons back to guard the fleet." "That's no fate for a brave captain." "I will go." "Snorri the Skald gave me good herbs, but they must work their work." "You will...you will take the Hardraada's commands from now." "The Vikingr have won." "The North is falling." "This is the greatest campaign the Vikingr have ever fought." "We will flourish with England's riches!" "THEY CHEER" "Often and again, through God's grace, man and woman... (MEN) Ah!" "..usher children into the world." "..usher children into the world." "(MEN) Ah, yeah!" "They cherish them, and teach them as the seasons turn, until their young bones strengthen..." "..their young limbs slowly lengthen." "Now only God... ..only God knows how the coming years will use the growing children." "One will... die young, bringing grief to his family." "Hunger... hunger devour one." "Storm..." "Aaaargh!" "..storm shall dismast another." "One will be spear-slain..." "You, if you don't watch it!" "LAUGHTER" "DISTANT HOOTING" "Elves." "Don't say that." "Always in the woods there are elves." "What did I just say?" "They will steal your shadow and pour madness into your ears as you sleep." "your heart as well." "Reveal yourself, elf." "Reveal yourself!" "You..." "You are not elves neither." "Who are you?" "We are weapon-men of the west." "We heard the war-call." "We come to fight for the King against the invaders in the North." "How many are you?" "Wife-men who are not our wives." ""Wife-men who are not our wives."" "You hear?" "CHEERING" "Join us and rest." "Welcome." "We march hard." "Welcome." "Make room for our brothers." "Bring mead." "Welcome." "Welcome." "Here, let's have more of your poem and less talk of death." "I am Ealfrith." "Look you not fearsome." "Do you have some bread?" "Don't...know...yes!" "Yes, er..." "No...no, but I have a wife-man." "One child,  by God's grace,  will overcome all the hardship..." "CHEERING" "..the Devil with you..." "and achieve happiness." "In old age, he will receive riches... ..treasures, and the mead-cup..." "CHEERING" "..from his people as much as any man may own in his lifetime." "CHEERING" "I have something for you." "JEERING" "Tis bread!" "LAUGHTER" "Here's one." "So..." "I am a strange creature, for I satisfy women." "Yeah?" "I grow tall and erect in a bed." "And I'm all hairy underneath." "From time to time, a beautiful girl may dare to grip me by my reddish skin, pop me in her pantry and rob me of my head." "And all at once, I make her eyes water." "What could I be?" "An onion." "An onion." "Thank you, Ordgar." "Anybody here know these hills?" "I do." "These are my lands." "I know the lay of them." "You?" "The Vikingr are beyond Jorvik." "Well, then, the Derwent lies between us and them." "A fish-road?" "And what bridges are there?" "Stamford Bridge." "Small, wooden." "Over those hills." "After five days on the road, our small band of weapon-men came finally to the Derwent, a little downstream from the bridge at Stamford." "This was the crossing point where tribute in silver and slaves was to be brought to the greedy Vikingr by the ransomed people of York." "More fighting men came with every hour... ..and the word went round that King Harold planned to make a sudden dawn attack on the invaders." "The year 1066 was about to witness its second almighty battle." "ANIMAL CALLS OUT" "Hey..." "Hey, maybe we should go back." "No, no." "We swore an oath that if we were taken by weak-heart, we would remind each other of that oath." "And are you reminding me of it?" "I suppose so." "Do you wish me to remind you of it?" "Yes." "Fine, I remind you of your oath." "Shhh." "(Leofric) Christ Almighty, they're so close." "HE ROARS" "(Leofric) They look like dragons." "They're enormous." "But we are fleet." "Indeed." "Which is very helpful in running away." "Have to kill him." "Got to kill him or he'll bring the whole camp on us." " You do it." " You do it!" "Let us both do it." "I've just seen twoEnglisch in the forest." "Did you kill them?" "No." "Did they look like soldiers?" "Mostly they looked like farmers." "Then that's what they were." "You should have traded with them!" "HE CHUCKLES" "The sagas tell of a peaceful morning in the two Viking camps." "One in three basked on the shores of the Humber, guarding the fleet." "15 miles away, encamped around Stamford Bridge, two in three awaited further offers of tribute." "I want that horse." "To appease the Vikingr, the unhappy people of Yorkshire brought their harvest, their livestock, even their children." "MEN ROARING" "Grab your armour!" "Assemble the rest of the army from the ships." "Retreat!" "Defend the bridge!" "Defend the bridge!" "Fall back off the bridge!" "Form a shield wall!" "Run back!" "Both sides of the bridge!" "Shield wall." "HE ROARS" "MEN SHOUTING AND BEATING SHIELDS" "What do we do now?" "Now?" "Now we stay very small." "I've killed deer." "I'm good at it." "But I've never done this before." "Have you?" "HORSES APPROACH" "INAUDIBLE" "We should not have divided the troops." "Shoulder your armours." "Shoulder your armours!" "Now!" "Now!" "Run!" "Run!" "Outnumbered by the English at Stamford Bridge, the Vikingr were desperate for reinforcements." "But their brothers would have to run 15 miles in full armour to play their part." "And yet all that effort might be in vain... ..if the two sides could agree to divide the kingdom." "What's he saying?" "I hope he's offering 'em land." "I hope he's leaving 'em the North entirely." "Many good Englishmen who cannot be reborn or regrown will die here today." "We need those men in the south." "You said fighting season was over." "That is what you said." "Does it look to you like it is over now?" "Yaaah!" "MEN SHOUT OUT" "Words between kings came to naught." "So Hardraada's army chose a champion to hold their foe at bay." "I will do it." "God be with you, friend." "We do not need God on a day like today." "We need Odin." "Gyrdir Skallagrimmson will harness the berserker in him!" "Cattle die." "Kindred die." "Every man is mortal." "But I know one thing that never dies, and that is the glory of the dead!" "With God's help, what is it that we want?" "(All) To fight!" "What?" " (All) To fight!" "(Ordgar) What's the matter?" "You afraid of him?" " Where's my spearman?" " Here." "CHEERING" "MEN CHANT" "HE CHEERS" "He is but a man." "Go!" "Stop pushing at the back!" "Stop pushing!" "For God's sake, stop..." "Come on!" "CHEERING" "Over the side!" "Over the side with you!" "GROANING" "Where my blood cousin?" "Here, you won't need that." "Down the river." "Health be with you." "I thought I'd have to go to the bridge." "You will have to go to the bridge." "You're crafty, I hear, and a good climber." "You do want me to go to the bridge?" "Aaaah!" "CHEERING" "I am bidden to offer terms to your Lords." "We will accept your surrender." "Skald!" "Do you understand?" "We wish no more death here." "I respect you, brave warrior." "I do not wish to kill you." "LAUGHTER" "Then, Engalisch... ..there is to be no end." "I am to keep this bridge!" "STAMPS FEET" "HE GASPS" "I respect you, brave Viking." "I am sorry for my stealth." "It does me no credit." "Go to your great gods." "Leofric!" "(All chant) Leofric!" "Leofric!" "Leofric!" "Leofric!" "Leofric!" "Leofric!" "Leofric!" "Leofric!" "Leofric!" "Oh, cunning men of England." "Now you had your prey in full sight." "But you would need to make your kill swiftly, because other Northmen came at speed towards you and towards the clash that would decide the fate of Middle Earth." "WEAPONS CLATTER" "The Battle of Stamford Bridge went far beyond the bridge itself." "All over the forest, skirmishes raged throughout the day." "Men of Crowhurst, now you would all need to taste the blood of your prey." "Halt!" "Now was not the time to be seized with weak-heart before the mighty Hardraada and his raven of doom." "Where's that small man who was married in Crowhurst?" "Here he is." "His name is Tofi." "Forward boar snout!" "Boar snout." "Boar snout advance!" "Shield wall." "I can't do this." "Do you wish your wife-man to meet her end like me?" "Put out onto the roadways to give comfort for bread?" "No." "Then run." "Run with all your heart." "Hold." "Hold." "Run!" "Archer!" "Loose arrow!" "Is that all there is?" "Yes, that's it." "Where are your men?" "Yes, that's it." "Where are your men?" "They're dead." "Dead, too." "Yaah!" "We'll just die fighting, then!" "MEN SHOUTING OUT" "(HE GASPS IN PAIN)" "No more slaughter!" "We are done." "He who dreamt of the spectre of death will die." "Go to your rest with your Lord." "I never thought to die in the flatlands of the west." "You have to go back to the fjords now." "I know." "I will, lead-man." "I will take you home." "I wish you to kiss my son for me." "He is born." "I can see him." "You must tell our saga to him." "And he will tell it to his sons." "They will...they will be Vikingr." "Of the 300 Viking ships that landed in England, only 24 returned." "We did not know it then, but the age of the Vikingr was over." "But at what cost?" "So many thousand brave men of England had fallen within a single week... ..to be remembered in our battle poems." "And he who has seen these noble ruins at the end of his dark life asks himself, where is horse?" "Where is man?" "Where the feast?" "Where the joy?" "Alas bright cup, alas proud prince, how time has passed as if it had not been." "And thus we mourned the brave men who could not be regrown or reborn for the greater war that might lie ahead." "A war that would threaten more than just the crown." "Sire!" "We march again." "Leofric, I promote you huscarl." "You may take your oath on the road." "What's the hurry?" "The Normans have come." "They have come out of fighting season." "They've landed in Sussex." "Sussex?" "Up with you." "We march now!" "Was it said where they've come?" "Which part of Sussex?" "WOMEN SCREAM" "These men of Crowhurst, my Crowhurst, would have to run back the way they had come, to defend their homes from new, orc-ish invaders, to fight the third and greatest battle of them all," "in memory of which, to this day, is hard to bear." "Hastings." "This programme contains scenes of violence." "Many long years ago, a great tumult came to the world of men." "Our Middle Earth was invaded not once but twice in the same year." "The first war took the weaponed men far from their wife-men and their homes..." "SHOUTING" "..to do battle against the Vikingr up in the North." "Much blood was shed before the English brought down the mighty Norsemen." "But then, before the victory cup could be tasted, news came of a second enemy..." "to the south." "Halt!" "Up with you!" "We march again!" "The Normans have come." "They've landed in Sussex." "Brave men of Sussex... where were you when you were needed so keenly?" "Now you would have to run the whole length of England to fight a second war, against the Normans, and hold a hill near Hastings from a duke who would be conqueror." "These terrible events of the year 1066 were woven into a tapestry fit for a king." "But these threads speak only of conquest, through the voice of a conqueror." "If you look more closely, you can see the little people of our shire who fought against him and his killing breed." "THEY SHOUT" "Theirs is the story of all Englishmen who laid witness to the darkest year of our times." "CHILD SCREAMS" "Allez!" "SCREAMING" "THEY SPEAK FRENCH" "WOMAN SCREAMS" "MAN LAUGHS" "BABY CRIES" "Where are the fighting men?" "Where are the men?" "In the north." "Why are the men north?" "To fight the Vikingr." "All the weaponed-men are in the north." "Merci." "SCREAMS" "SCREAMING" "This...is punishment for the cheating ways of your King." "Of your huscarls... and the men who deserted you..." "They have gone to fight the Vikingr." "It is likely they have gone for good." "SCREAMING" "Do like my English, mon baron?" "SCREAMING CONTINUES" "SHE SCREAMS" "Have sorrow for the wife-men of Crowhurst." "But pity also their weaponed-men... so far from fighting off the demons who possessed their village" "..and now so few." "The army of King Harold was strung across the northern forests, many taking leave of breath and falling from exhaustion." "So desperate for fighting men were the English that they admitted into their war-band any man willing to fight for food or silver, no matter their previous allegiance." "We won't get south in time." "I ordered rest." "More Vikingr will come." "We need more than those." "We need the winter to rest." "Where is your King?" "I haven't heard these past two nights." "I hope he rides for more men." "You hope?" "Ordgar, we've rested." "We cannot run as we ran north!" "The road is turned harsh." "We must gather our strength." "And stop pestering me." "What of Crowhurst?" "Crowhurst is a village of five families." "Engalond is a country." "At least let me go." "We shall not win this battle by allowing the few men we have to go searching after their kin." "I'm sorry." "Leofric." "Please..." "We'll march on!" "Walk on!" "Come on!" "Move on!" "You can do it!" "Come on!" "Come on!" "Come on..." "Who was this enemy laying waste to our south lands?" "They had come from across the whale-road, from the dark shores of Normandy, and gave us such night fears they were known to us as orcs." "Deep in their forests, this dark curse had been many months in its casting." "A blessed crusade in the name of the Pope." "The bastard Duke William believed himself to be the rightful king of England, promised thus by our noble Harold himself, sworn over holy bones, so the Normans say." "When Harold took the crown for himself," "William commanded his shaven-headed knights to bring their horses to the sea." "Few had ever sailed before." "Most could not swim." "Horses and men would make bad seafellows." "HORSES WHINNYING" "The wailing winds that have always defended this isle of Middle Earth gave rough passage to the orca fleet." "If only those winds had sent more ships to the bottom of the whale-road, where they belonged." "But God, for reasons only He knows, chose to spare them." "One by one, the orc-ish vessels came over the horizon." "The pestilence had landed... ..scattered all along the undefended cliffs and dunes of our blessed England." "And now you know what was to become of our little village of Crowhurst, perched on the road from the sea to Hastings." "FLIES BUZZING" "What is this?" "Normen." "FLIES BUZZING" "This is a message to your King, Ordgar." "I want this bodyshell of a wife-man seen by every weapon-man here." "This is what we must fight!" "You go south, boy." "You go south and see to your village." "No." "This is cunning." "They have sent these wife-men here to anger you into battle ahead of time." "Go south." "Take this horse with you." "Leofric, remember you are a huscarl." "Go with him." "Go!" "If you find Crowhurst, and if any yet still live, take the wife-men to the priory." "The Normen must respect the walls of solitude." "And find whichever men you can." "Tell them we come in great number, but we need more." "Go." "I do not know which way Crowhurst lies." "We will find it." "Take the road that brings the fish." "The one that rises up and falls down again before you smell the salt." "You will know your village by the smell of ash." "The cruel orcs had sent a message to all weaponed-men." "What were our brave warriors to do but fly in rage towards their homestead?" "Little caring that the Normans lay, like wolves, in wait for their prey." "Come on, come." "Just leave it." "Come on, come on." "Tofi!" "Tofi, just..." "Come on!" "This was once my father." "Judith." "Judith!" "Judith!" "I have sorrow for you." "How many days since I was handfasted?" "Three weeks?" "I don't know." "Our lives are gone." "Our lives are gone!" "They do this?" "They do such things as this in the name of the Christ?" "Bastards..." "Bastards." "Bast..." "Bastard orca!" "Bastard!" "RUSTLING" "Who's there?" "I am armed." "I am a weapon-man of this shire." "Show yourself." "I said, show yourself." "Oh, child." "Child..." "Merciful Lord." "Child, what didst thou hear?" "Where are the wife-men?" "Child, listen, I know you." "Your name is Aelf." "You were born ten days after the swallows flew back." "I know you." "I am your friend." "Tell me what happened here." "What did you see?" "The warrior sea-king has come west to fill England's graveyards." "Black birds of carrion follow." "Death comes." "You are safe." "Now you are safe, keep warm." "I promise you... no sword shall harm you." "No Normen will come for you." "I am a huscarl of this village and I swear... ..I will keep fear from you." "I swear." "I have not even anger." "If I had anger, my soul would have strength of purpose." "I have no anger." "Oh, I have anger." "I have enough anger for the two of us." "They took the wife-men." "They took the w..." "The wife-men live?" "Where?" "Where did they go?" "Do you remember?" "The forest road." "Now, just one day's march away, the stragglers that formed King Harold's army were gathering numbers every hour." "THUNDER RUMBLES" "Spirits, they say, were strengthening." "More weaponed-men were promised every day, from Kent, from Anglia." "The sooner these orcs were found, the sooner they could be driven back into the whale-road whence they came." "And so scouting parties were summoned to track the vermin down." "Ha!" "Good morning." "We're moving on." "Bring the wife-man." "She has proven herself fit and well built." "Yes, she has." "We must find the Normen under cover of dark." "And what do we do when they are found?" "Kill them while they sleep." "It is not honourable to kill them while they sleep." "We should cut them while they sleep... so with their last blink of the eye, as you hold them by the hair... slice off their balls and feed them to the pigs." "Feed he to the pigs, dirty Vikingr bastard." "I'll feed he to the pigs." "BIRDSONG" "There are men here." "What?" "What?" "There are men here." "I know this." "Hush!" "Lead-man." "(Ordgar, there are men in the trees.)" "(The Normen have many sentries.)" "Their sentries are posted in trees, are they?" "Hiding their nuts like squirrels." "WHOOSHING" "GASPING" "WHOOSHING" "GASPING" "GROANING" "Another one and I shall have you." "(Ordgar) Vikingr, move!" "WHOOSHING" "(Ordgar) Are there more?" "That we shall find out from this one." "GROANING" "GASPING" "Tell." "Speak." "MAN REPLIES QUIETLY" "SLICING" "There are greater of them than there were of the Vikingr." "He says they are building." "He says they mean to stay." "SHOUTING" "Two weeks after landing in England, the Norman orcs had pulled back from their village-burning and were now fortifying a peninsula of our beloved Sussex." "Duke William had sent out orders to destroy the rest of their ships so they could not return to their homeland." "They meant to stay, indeed." "And they meant to breed." "And they would destroy every creature of English birth who would not accept them as overlords." "I have heard... that far from here, way over to the west, there is a place without equal." "Rightly renowned." "Few men reach this remote corner of Middle Earth, but the land there is so lovely, endowed with delights." "Shhh!" "Shh." "QUIET SOBBING" "She is too young!" "PRISONER GASPING" "English bitch." "Who else wants to spit on me?" "I do." "Husband!" "Husband!" "GASPING" "(Woman) Husband!" "GROANING" "(Woman) Husband!" "Husband, please!" "Judith..." "Please..." "Please, please..." "Please." "(Leofric) Wife-men, listen." "SHE SOBS" "(Leofric) Wife-men!" "Wife-men, listen!" "We take thee to the priory, to the brothers of solitude." "You will be safe there." "I give you my word." "WOMAN SHOUTS" "Is she of your kin?" "(Judith) She is a wife of a Norman who sat by and watched it." "Please, kill her!" "Ozouf!" "Kill her!" "Ozouf!" "(Leofric) Run!" "Let's go!" "Run!" "Run!" "Run!" "Let's split up!" "Children, come on!" "Children, over the river, go, go!" "Come on!" "Come on!" "Forgive me, I must save the child." "Go!" "That way, go!" "(Man) No!" "I told you, we should not have kept the women alive." "It was a good plan." "It kept the men from mutiny." "It was against orders." "(Woman) Oh, no!" "WOMAN SCREAMING" "Your lust for blood makes me sick." "Agh!" "WOMAN SCREAMS" "SILENCE" "Come on, come on!" "WOMAN SCREAMS" "Out!" "Come on!" "I know they're going to kill me." "No!" "They will not kill you." "While I breathe, they will not." "Now, come on, run!" "(Leofric) Come on, run!" "Aelf!" "Aelf!" "Wait, wait." "Aelf!" "Now!" "AELF SCREAMS" "(Leofric) Wait." "He's but a child." "A child." "Take me." "Not the child." "PANTING" "Go." "Go!" "I have ached for you in my heart in the empty night, and in the fear." "I have ached for you." "Silver and gold may make us bold" "And bind our jewels together" "But love will stay until we are old" "And weary of endeavour." "What was done?" "Judith?" "I..." "I..." "I can't..." "MAN GASPING AND GRUNTING" "We must find Duke William and the rest of our army." "They will be south of here." "There will be battle at last." "Good." "I doubt you have the guts for it, mon baron." "You let a huscarl go, and a child." "You disobeyed." "Your child will pay the price of your disobedience...." "As Drogo did... for his father's." "Although the invaders were our cruellest enemies, it should be known that not all of themwere cast in the same mould." "But then the orca were never only of one tribe." "SHOUTING" "The Normans had pressed men of Brittany and other neighbours into their holy war, offering promises of land..." "and taking families hostage." "MAN SHOUTING" "WOMEN SOBBING" "I will call for you, my love." "There will be great forests in Englandto run through, and great rivers to fish." "Your mama will cry, but you must dry her tears for her." "Chevalier d'Ozouf!" "You will see to it she is fed and served as befits a Breton noblewoman." "Duke William would wish it." "My Breton friend," "I do not take kindly to instruction." "(Leofric) Sister of solitude," "I bring this child to join the sisters and the wife-men." "Will you keep this child in your care?" "I am sorry." "We have too many here." "Sister, this is a child." "We have too many here already." "I am sorry." "I am a huscarl of the Royal Guard." "Now open this door!" "We do not open our doors to instructions from soldiers." "That's why you brought your wife-men here." "You are right." "Accept my apologies." "We will leave you in peace." "Wait!" "Come." "(Sister) Many of these women are noble." "Good women of the town." "Good wives...and daughters." "COUGHING" "They have been arriving here every hour and every day for the last seven night." "We have seen things here that we have never dreamt of seeing." "Men may do such things as women would never dream of." "What can be done?" "We soothe them as we can." "Many will not take meat, and choose to die of hunger." "Many no longer speak." "Glad I am to see you." "Sshh!" "INDISTINCT CHATTERING" "WHISTLES LOUDLY" "(What do you see?" ")" "(Sentinels.)" "CRUNCH!" "MAN GASPS" "SLICING" "IN NORMAN:" "Debout." "LAUGHTER" "Chevalier." "Chevalier!" "THEY SPEAK" "KNOCKING" "Anglais?" "SHOUTING" "Retreat!" "I will not retreat from these Christ men!" "I will not retreat!" "SHOUTING" "NOISE OF FIGHTING CONTINUES" "(Leofric) They say they are surrounding us." "If we don't go now, we'll be trapped." "Retreat!" "They're coming up." "They've got it surrounded." "FOOTSTEPS APPROACH" "Sss!" "Wake up." "I met a party of men from Anglia on the road." "We go to the hill at Hastings." "Come." "Your wife-man will be safe." "No." "I have done my war work." "Look, you mind the days beyond the battle, new husband, when you must tell your kin that you sat in a high tower and watched England burn." "I will stay with my wife-man!" "Go with him." "No." "The battle will be swift." "We will rebuild our house." "Don't be long." "# This Middle Earth" "# This Middle Earth" "# Declines and falls" "# Declines and falls" "# One hath war destroyed" "# Borne on their journey" "# One the fowl hath borne o'er deepest oceans" "# One the hoar-wolf by death has separated" "# One in an earth-grave a man hath hidden" "# The maker of men laid this shire to waste" "# Till the old works of giants looked desolate" "# And he who has seen these noble ruins" "# At the end of his dark life asks himself... #" "So, the English have the hill." "ENGLISH SOLDIERS SHOUTING" "We have God." "# .." "Where is horse?" "Where is man?" "Thus, the battle lines had been ordered." "The Normans massed below the hill upon which the English stood proud." "# .." "Our time has passed... #" "And behind that hill called Senlac... lay the Norman prize... # .." "As if it had not been #" "..the green and bounteous fields of England." "SOLDIERS CHANTING" "I swear before this company that... (All) .." "I will fight to the death for my King." "If my King or my lord shall die," "I shall take his place and fight as he would have fought." "If any men here see me taken with weak-heart, and run away, he shall remind me of this pledge made here before my kin." "Archers, draw!" "Loose arrows!" "Shields above!" "Archers, draw." "Loose arrows!" "The third almighty battle clash of 1066 had begun." "The hail of arrows upon the shield wall failed to shatter its strength, or draw the English down from the hill." "Now it was time for the weapon most feted and most feared in the Norman armoury." "The one brought at such cost across the whale-road." "Cavalry...forward!" "SHOUTING" "They are coming." "SHOUTING AND SCREAMING" "HORSES WHINNYING" "Do they intend just to bore us to death?" "Why do they stand on the hill?" "Why do they not fight?" "!" "ENGLISH SOLDIERS CHANTING" "We need a champion." "The duke will wish a challenger to draw out the English in single combat." "Such a gesture of commitment will bring you rich reward." "Not me, mon baron." "Our champion must be a man of noble birth." "Why?" "Make sure the duke knows who I was, and who are my kin in France." "MEN GROANING" "Un Anglais." "Un Anglais de nobilite!" "A man of rank, he said." "That'd be me." "(All)Ordgar!" "Ordgar!" "Ordgar!" "Ordgar!" "Ordgar!" "Ordgar!" "ENGLISH SOLDIERS CONTINUE CHANTING" "BARON PANTING" "BARON ROARING" "INAUDIBLE" "CHANTING" "Tu dois me laisser gagner." "Eh?" "You must let me win, English." "Speak slower." "Or let me appear valiant." "My family will live... ..even if my soul will not." "BARON ROARING" "Agh!" "Normandie!" "SHOUTING" "It was an unexplained yet noble sacrifice the Norman victor would make that morning." "Perhaps both men of rank shared a common goal." "Both, in different ways, had died so that others could live." "Ordgar...you were the bravest of your shire." "Every Englishman who shared your oath vowed to avenge your untimely death." "Let the Norman orcs come, as surely they would." "On horse, on foot...en masse." "SHOUTING" "Wave after wave of Norman assault still could not take our hill." "The duke who would be conqueror, they say was somewhere in the thickest of the fighting." "And then, such is the confusion of battle, a rumour spread amongst the groans of the dying." "Their duke is dead." "He's slain." "Pass it on!" "Their lead-man is dead." "Pass it on." "Their duke is dead!" "Oh, how sweet the taste of victory must have been." "How bitter for the Norman invaders." "Let's send them into the sea!" "For Ordgar!" "No!" "Come!" "They flee!" "Do not break the wall!" "The battle is done!" "Do not trust the Normans." "Do not break that wall!" "Their duke is dead!" "He's dead." "What had seemed like a retreat revealed itself to be a trick to lure the English from the safety of the hill." "Duke William was not dead, and for the first time that day, the Norman horsemen could harness their deadly advantage." "SILENCE" "So many brave Englishmen met their doom below the hill, none more beloved than the cowardly farmer who became a huscarl" "and saved my life." "A Norman trick had taken too many from us, leaving few weaponed-men to stand alone against the treacherous tide." "SOLDIERS CHANTING" "So, finally, the tale of the little people at the fateful Battle of Hastings brings us to the plight of the King himself." "Harold now knew that his army was weakened, and that every fighting man would be required to hold the hill." "That would include two of his brothers, his son, and perhaps even his lover, Edith Swan-Neck." "The Norman orcs kept coming, little waves bent on probing the wall for weakness." "Stay behind this shield." "Listen to me!" "Stay behind this shield." "Watch him." "I want no more charges." "Hour upon hour, the Normans threw themselves upon the shield wall in what now became a battle of endurance." "But they kept on coming." "They kept seeking new approaches to the hill, determined to bombard the English from all sides..." "..and then, most decisively..." "Crossbows!" "Positions." "..from above and below in the same volley." "Archers...draw!" "Loose!" "Loose!" "ARROWS WHOOSHING" "Draw!" "Loose!" "Crossbow..." "Loose!" "How in detail it came to pass that the Normans prevailed on that day at Hastings will for ever be shrouded in blood-mist." "But what is clear is that these orcs were truly demons, with no fear and no pity." "Agh!" "Sleep." "ARROWS RAINING DOWN" "Dream of your land, your home and your woman." "Your fighting is done." "What is known for sure is that, by dusk, the invaders finally broke the shield wall for good and poured through." "And after defeating the mighty Vikingr and running the length of our country, not once but twice, the exhausted farmers of England stood little chance." "The fate of our warrior King remains unclear to this day." "Some gaze upon the conqueror's famed cloth of Bayeux and see him slain by an arrow to the eye." ""Harold the King is killed," it says." "But others say that he is this bloodied figure, lain low by a horseman." "That four Norman knights, crazed with bloodlust, beset the body of the kingship, disembowelled him... ..gelded him... ..and then beheaded him." "WOLVES HOWLING" "GASPING" "Have you seen my husband?" "Have you seen mine?" "Have you seen your King?" "Please, please..." "PIERCING SCREAM" "SOBBING" "WAILING" "ANIMALS HOWLING" "SOBBING" "The bastard orca left 5,000 Englishmen unburied upon Senlac Hill" "for ten long years." "And within a lifetime, not a single hide of Sussex had an English owner." "There is some pleasant land up where we came ashore." "Good fields." "Good rivers." "We can settle there." "How many sons do we have?" "Six." "We will have land for another five." "Woman!" "Harold alone was permitted a burial." "And, so the tribute goes, you rest here, Harold that was a King, that you still may guard the shore and sea." "We do not despise you, kingship... ..but we grieve and mourn for you." "# This Middle Earth... #" "England was never the same again." "# .." "This Middle Earth... #" "The priories could not remain a refuge for ever, and after more unkindnesses too cruel to be related," "the wife-men of the south were set to making the story that would be told... # .." "Declines and falls... ..thus shining great light upon the duke who became William, the conqueror of our precious piece of Middle Earth." "# .." "One that fowl hath borne o'er deepest oceans" "# One the hoar-wolf by death has separated" "# One in an earth-grave... #" "Now I've reached the end of the bitter song of my child days." "# .." "The maker of men laid this shire to waste... #" "Our village of Crowhurst became the home of others who meant to stay." "# .." "Till the old works of giants stood desolate" "# And he who has seen these noble ruins... #" "Our families would never again bring in the barley." "# .." "And the end of his dark life asks himself... #" "We set to wandering... in search of a new home." "And it had once been told to me, to soothe my child-fear, perhaps, that away to the west is a place rightly renowned, a remote part of Middle Earth, where the land is so lovely..." "..endowed with delights, and Earth's sweetest scents." "# .." "Our time has passed as if it had not been... #"