Free The Queen of the Elves by Steven Malone

THE QUEEN OF THE ELVES
    By Steven D. Malone
    www.stevenspen.com
    Copyright © 2016 Steven D. Malone
    All rights reserved.
     
    Alfnoth the deacon, servant to the children of God at Lydbury, to Henry, by the grace of God king of the English and duke of the Normans, sends greeting and eternal blessedness in Christ.
    I cannot render adequate thanks, as you have deserved, for the friendship of your brotherly love, which you often for the sake of God showed to me in my necessities. I pray Almighty God that he may recompense you in the high summit of the heavens with the reward of his favor eternally in the joy of the angels.
    It pleases me to reply to your request for my witness to the visit paid your blessed and loving father William, late king of the English and Duke of the Normans, by the rebel Edric of Shropeshire and his wife Godda, known as the queen of the Elves. However, I fear the wrath of God for keeping memory of such vanities and the displeasure of you, my king, for the false and deceived railings of this woman, a true daughter of Eve.
    I served faithfully as a soldier by your father’s side in all the years since, until full of the infirmities of age, I entered in service to Almighty God some six years ago.
    In this duty, I was present on the day traitorous Edric gave up his rebellion and swore fealty to William. To the lesser thegns like myself, the rebel was known as Wild Edric. The peasants on the fens taught us that name. He earned it in our eyes for he fought well and we lost many in the three years we faced him. We all marveled, your father not the least, at Wild Edric when he bowed down for his oath. He showed all the weight of his defeat in a haggard brow and tattered raiment but he stood proud and with arrogant eyes. It was I that whispered into the king’s ear the rumor that set us on the road of our separate dooms. Wild Edric is married to the queen of the Elves, I whispered.
    William marveled anew at Edric, immediately falling into conversation with the rebel. Wild Edric boasted of the truth of my assertion. Before all of the host, your good father required Wild Edric to wait upon the King’s court accompanied by his elfish wife at her earliest opportunity, for this was a wonder of the English their conqueror dearly wanted to see for himself. The tattered rebel bowed his assent.
    The herald of Wild Edric appeared at the burnt doors of York some weeks later, as your father drank in celebration of the ravaging of the northern shires. This unholy thegn dressed in Edric’s green raiment and decorated himself in the talismans and jewelry of the old gods’ Yule trappings. The fierce man’s horn sounded like Gabriel’s doom and his voice came like thunder. All of us cowered before him and your father also, God forgive me, such was his visage. The herald announced, without so much as a by-your-leave, that it pleased Godda, queen of the Elves, to appear before William on the day we call St. Cuthbert’s Day near Eastertide. The man’s great horse reared and neighed mightily and was gone leaving us staring of into a foggy twilight.
    There was talk of little else among William’s host amid the desolate North Country or along the road to Winchester castle where your father held Eastertide. Everyone from thrall to earl, in anticipation, doubled and redoubled their efforts in preparation for the event. All of the Norman and English churchmen, and as many London burghers as could get invited came for the night of marvels. Your father demanded the best food and drink brought in from all the surrounding lands. His craftsmen busied themselves preparing the gifts he required. Though all was prepared, few slept on St. Cuthbert’s Eve.
    After noon it was when we heard music and song coming from the west road. Wild Edric and his company arrived. Edric led wearing armor of leather and bronze and clothes of green wool. His levy of warriors followed behind with musicians and singers and thrallmen. Behind those came