People:
Alfred: smith who ran away to London hoping to make money because his town
already had a smith, descendant of Julius and offa
Leofric: merchant, descendant of Cerdic, had a back back due to a fall off of a
horse, never broke his word, cautious, saxon
Silversleeves: big nose, Ralph, Henri, hates barnikel
Hrothgar barnikel: a HUGE dane with red hair and beard, got the name barnikel
because before each raid his descendant yelled “bairn ni kel” which meant don’t
kill the children
Hilda: Leofrics daughter
Plot:
There was a new church that was built called the Westminster Abby
King Edward died just after the church was built and he was buried in it
Barnikels were referred to as barnikel of billingsgate
Leofric owed barnikel a lot of money and leofrics daughter was to marry
barnikels son in a year
Leofric does not know at the time but barnikel plans to cancel the debt when the
wedding takes place. He told leofric’s daughter
2 ceturies ago the reign of king Alfred and England had almost been destroyed
due to Vikings(Danish)
both barnikel and leofric wanted the new king to be English
there were 3 choices for the new king (nephew of Edward: too young, Harold: not
royal but a famous noble and the Norman…) the duke of normandy’s son was
only in the running because king Edward supposedly promised the duke that he
would become king
Harold won and many thought that he would do good
As barnikel and leofric were leaving the service they ran into silversleeves(did not
know) and barnikel told him he was happy for an English king and for the man to
keep his big French nose out of it. Big mistake in later chapters. Leofric bowed
though.
Daughters were bargaining chips in all classes of society
Silversleeves lost his love to a becket
Silversleeves heard becket telling the girl he loved: how will you ever kiss him,
his nose is an impenetrable barrier, no member of that family has been kissed
since noahs flood.
Silversleeves was a merchant and when he came to London he became a valued
benefactor in st. paul’s cathedral.
One day silversleeves took an interest in the silversmiths and how they worked so
he was leaning over the table watching then work and when he was leaving they
called him silver sleeves cuz his sleeves were silver. He liked the name and since
it took no reference to his nose he took it
Silversleeves taught his son henri tactic in chess and life but Ralph could not
understand.
Henri was one day going to run the business but they will get equal shares of his
money when he dies
Alfred goes to London to try to make a living because he saw haley’s comet and
thought it good luck and his town had a smith already
Serfs: tied to land and subject to a lord. They could become free
Barnikel found Alfred by the London stone where he was starving and scrawny
Barnikel said he would feed him but then Alfred must go back to where he came
from. Alfred said he would leave after the meal but he would not go home and
that he would somehow make it in London.
Barnikel admired young Alfred because Alfred said he would never give up or
stop trying so Barnikel said he had the heart of a hero and gave him work.
Alfred was given apprenticeship to the local blacksmith in the armory
Alfred was best apprentice in the armory and the armourer knew it.
One time, Alfred was called to attempt to put rivets into a helmet after another
student tried and Alfred deliberately did not to it well at all. The armourer called
him aside because he knew that Alfred did it on purpose and wanted to know
why.
He said that he wanted the other student to think they were teaching him until
they became friends. And that he was only a smith, and he wanted to learn to
become an armourer.
Alfred like making chainmail but hated making the wire for the links
After normal hours he asked Alfred to stay behind and helped. For now he
performed menial tasks.
Alfred has to cool the hot links for mail in oil because if u did it in water they
would become brittle
Now Alfred was working on chainmail projects with the armourer and doing the
same things that he was doing
When the iron mail was done he put it with charcoal and into the forge when they
reacted and made steel
William of Normandy invaded by land from the top and Harold crushed the
invaders but now almost all of Harold’s army but 250 miles from where willaim’s
fleet was invading
Alfred now worked through the night to meet demands by their army.
Poor people could not afford real shields and weapons so used household items to
fight against Williams well trained army
Silversleeves was building a church so he was filthy rich. Henri wanted to marry
leofric’s daughter and silversleeves would pay off all of leofric’s debts not just
barnikels
The church was called st Lawrence silversleeves
Leofric ate with the silversleeves, they all ate proper except for Ralph so he hoped
that it was not Ralph who wanted to marry his Hilda
The duke of Normandy had killed king Harold at hastings and had now taken
over.
An arrow was said to have by chance flown straight into harolds eye
Leofric had tricked Barnikel into calling him a traitor and saying that his son will
not marry the daughter of a traitor so then leofric married his daughter to henri 3
days later and payed off his debts
When barnikel realized that he had been tricked he was vary angry but it was
already too late to change what had happened