People:
Hrothgar Barnikel: some as last chapter, no wife
Ralph S.:less intelligent brother, put in charge of tower
Henri S.:same as last chapter, extremely smart, had Hilda followed for years
Osric:wanted to be a carpenter but was stuck laboring over the tower in tunnels.
Came up with the plans for smuggling arms
Dorkes: Osric’s wife, had a crippled mother
Alfred: armourer, same as last chapter, had a family, hid weapons under his house
before they were moved
Leofric:father of Hilda, not a big part in the chapter
Gertha: was going to marry Ralph, told Ralph that she saw Barnikel Alfred and
Osric together.
Hilda: henri’s wife, loved Barnikel more, helped barnikel
Plot:
They were building a grey stone tower
Osric was a serf because he tripped the horse of one of the kings knight who then
broke his arm. they also slit his nose open as punishment
Ralph S. was the overseer for building the tower
Osric was a laborer over the tower who pulled stones up the hill to the tower but
he wanted to be a carpenter working on the tower so he showed Ralph
Silversleeves a small thing he made which was apparently remarkable
Ralph was considering making him a carpenter until Osric said that he thought he
could be a carpenter because his older brother was.
Ralph applied it to his own life and that he could not measure up to his older
brother so why should he let this young man
Barnikel and Alfred were supplying weapons to the rebels who were trying to
take back London. Secretly because they would be killed if someone found out
Alfred the armourer made the weapons
Hilda was married to Henri and her father was payed off as planned
Barnikel and Hilda met to talk a fair amount
Ralph the commanded Osric to go down a hole and dig until he found water
After Osric dug the hole Ralph told him that since he is good at working down
holes he will now work in the tunnel
Bishop Gundulf of Rochester came to the site and told Ralph that the plans have
been changed and his time reduced. He had to start all over on the southeast
corner(25 bargeloads of stone too)
The bishop played the card and told Ralph that he told the king just the other day
how well suited and great Ralph was for the task so Ralph caved in and did it
Osric tried again to become a carpenter by showing the bishop his work since he
had power over Ralph but the bishop gave the choice to ralph again and Ralph
was extremely angry
Alfred was walking around the tower to try to find a carpenter/craftsman and
found Osric’s work and reported that Osric would be good for the job because he
wants revenge
The job the Osric was given was to somehow hide the weapons in a huge wagon.
So Osric hollowed out the rafters and beams in it and hid them in there. Barnikel
thought this was genius and did not expect it from Osric
Hilda was told to work on a huge embroidery that was over 70 feet long so she
was angry when she came to talk to Barnikel
Ralph plans to outlive henri to get the money
Ralph also suspects that the rebels got their arms from London
Hilda told Barnikel about ralphs suspicions
And ralph was now put in charge of checking the carts leaving the city for arms
Ralph suspected a huge cart to be carrying arm but it turned out that Hilda was
driving it and it was full of wine. But it also had arms hidden in it
Osric saw dorkes and immediately loved her.
When it got too cold and the wet mortar cracks they cover the tower with warm
dung and straw
Osric would pick up little pieces of wood from the carpenters and craft toys out of
them and then people started calling him the little craftsman
When some drunken workers started harassing dorkes he threw himself upon the
man and knocked him to the ground then people always joked and asked him how
his girl was
When Osric was walking with dorkes they ran into Ralph who asked why she was
with Osric with his ugly cut up face and nose. Irony: his nose is huge and bad
looking too.
Dorkes did not want to love him because she didn’t think he couold support her
and he disabled mother with bad hands
But dorkes did love him
Osric was living with Alfred and alfreds wife was the touchy one who noticed the
sad change in Osric that day
Osric came home one day and was eating A LOT and nobody knew why but later
that night he lure Ralph into a spot by taking his whip and putting it in a place
under a window where Osric then took a huge dump right on ralphs head
Alfreds wife went to talk with dorkes and made a deal with her that if she were to
marry Osric that they would look after her mother and possible children and see
that they don’t starve
Osric and dorkes were not married but lived together and called each other
husband and wife
Leofric saw Barnikel out at night looking suspicious at the jewry
Turns out Barnikel is losing money and is getting money lent to him from the
jewry.
Silversleeves is paying Barnikel back but not at a fast enough rate
Hilda asked her father to tell silversleeves that the debt repay was still on his mind
and to pay Barnikel back fully soon so leofric did as his daughter wished because
he was sorry that he made her marry henri.
Alfred had hidden enough weapons and armor under his house to arm 100 men
and Alfred was getting worried if they were found what would happen to his
family so he was getting scared and did not want to make many more weapons for
the uprising.
When Barnikel met up with Silversleeves to get his money, Silversleeves offered
him some land called deeping. Barnikel took it nit knowing that the land would
soon be under water and that he was getting ripped off
Osric and dorkes had a baby girl first
Ralph got a new task: to go around to every house and take up the weapons.
Barnikel hid his axe well so it was not taken but Alfred has a ton of weapons
hidden so it could be dangerous for him.
All the confiscated arms will be stored in the tower
Osric came up with the idea that he would dig into the tower and create a secret
room 5 by 8 to store the secret arms of Alfred and Barnikel in the cellar wall.
Osric was putting soo much rubbe down the well from the new room that he was
afraid he might clog it
While Osric was putting the wall to the secret room back up, Ralph could not
sleep and came down to survey his work so Osric acted like he got locked in the
cellar from the day work and nobody came down and found him
the Danish expedition had never come and there was no uprising
when banrikel realized that he was sold disappearing land he stayed in his bed for
3 weeks until Hilda made him broth and visited him
Alfred went to the city that he left as a child and it turns out that when the smith
had died he left some strips of land to Alfred
He visited his family and they were having problems paying rent
They could not make enough money to pay rent
When he was there a French clerk was there asking questions
The French clerk accidentally wrote Alfred down as a serf because his family
were serfs and he got him mixed up with them
William was a brutal king, harsh
Cattle disease broke out
Osric had a third kid which was finally a boy, he named him Alfred and hoped
that he would have better luck and become a carpenter
Ralph got met a girl and they were going to get married, her name was gertha
King William was dying and he gave London to William Rufus and money to
Henri, and Normandy to Robert
The king had a half-brother named Odo
Ralph wanted to impress the new king and find the arms distributors and stop
them then he would be rewarded
Robert would try to take the crown and Odo would support Robert
Ralph catured someone with a sword and the man talked after being tortured a bit
and said all he remembered was that the man who sold it to him had a red beard
Hilda went to Barnikel and told him that they were planning to raid his shop and
then follow him until they catch him
Barnikel said that there was nothing that they could find because it was all in the
tower
Barnikel said that Norman rule would weaken if Robert took over and they could
then beat him because robert was not the man his father was
Barnikel and Hilda mad love and Hilda left in the morning even though she was
married to henri she’d have rather married Barnikel or his son
Osric ran up to Barnikel and Alfred who were trying not to talk to eachother or it
would raise suspicion and told them that he had a son and they all were excited
and forgot about the followers
Gertha saw the three men hugging and told her to-be husband about it which
Ralph then concluded that they were working together
Then he concluded that he knew where the arms were hidden and he said he
would go there now. He knew that they were in the tower
Hilda tried to run to Barnikel to tell him but she was followed and jumped
because they were suspicious of her
But henri was clever so he told someone to go tell Barnikel anyways knowing that
he would go to the tower and either Barnikel or Ralph would die. Either outcome
would help henri because if his brother died he would get more money
Osric was getting the arms out of the tower to load onto a boat when Ralph came
and saw him. Ralph was going to kill him but Barnikel smashed through ralph’s
skull and cut him down to his torso in half with his large axe.
In the background of the fight there was a huge fire burning (great fire of 87)
The man that told Barnikel about what was happening said it was a message from
Hilda
10 years later Osric and Barnikel had passed and Hilda was reflecting her life.
Henri came up to her and told her he knew everything and what she was thinking
about.
And he told her that he planned for either her lover to be arrested or Ralph to die.
At the end, henri got a note from his father saying that the beckets of
Normandy(caen) were moving to London. Silversleeve family did not like the
beckets