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THE DREAM WEAVERS
Barbara Erskine
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2021
Copyright © Barbara Erskine 2021
Cover design by Caroline Young © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2021
Cover photographs © Christophe Dessaigne/Trevllion Images (central image); Shutterstock.com (birds and border)
Barbara Erskine asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008195861
Ebook Edition © March 2021 ISBN: 9780008195885
Version: 2021-04-20
For Sue
wisewoman and house healer
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Map
A note on Anglo-Saxon names
Glossary
The Story Starts
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Author Note
Keep Reading …
About the Author
Also by Barbara Erskine
About the Publisher
These have been transcribed in so many ways from the original script which contained letters unfamiliar to us that there are almost as many variations in spelling as there are authors who write about them. I have selected what I personally consider to be the simplest choice.
The main Anglo-Saxon characters in this book are:
Offa (King of Mercia from AD 757–796)
Cynefryth, Offa’s wife, Queen of Mercia
The daughters of Offa:
Ethelfled, in my story is the eldest
Alfrida is the middle daughter
Eadburh (pronounced Edber) is the youngest
Other historical characters in the story:
King Charles of the Franks, who in AD 800 was crowned as Emperor by the Pope and is better known to us as Charlemagne
Beorhtric, King of Wessex AD 786–802
Ethelbert, King of East Anglia d. AD 794
Ethelred I, King of Northumbria, d. AD 796