Category: historical fiction

Storm of Mercia AKA ‘the one on the ship’

Every Saxon-era series needs a book where the primary location is a ship and Storm of Mercia sees Icel and some of his allies on board a Viking ship. And it’s not willingly done.

‘If these bastards think they’ve found strong men to row their ship for them, they might be right. If they think we’re going to be any good at it, they’re very, very wrong.’

As someone who doesn’t necessarily like boats/ships, this was a bit of a stretch for me. Not only did I have to ensure I knew which was my bæcbord (left) and which my steorbord (right) and why that might have been (which I did learn for the book and kept on a sticky note). I did have some fun with my characters trying to learn and explain this to one another.

‘I suspect you don’t know your stem from your stern, or your bæcbord from your steorbord.’

‘Why can’t they just use bloody right and left?’ Oswy complains loudly.

I also needed to draw on some of my less pleasant experiences on a boat. Last year I endured a ‘slightly’ rough crossing from Orkney to Mainland Scotland – which took me the whole road journey home to recover from (about 6 hours). But, perhaps my most hated memory is of a trip to the Norfolk Broads in 2024, not my idea of fun. Those long river craft are a nightmare to ‘park’ as it were, not helped by the fact I don’t know my left or my right when under pressure, let alone my bæcbord and steorbord. I can’t take directions, or indeed, provide them. (The bugs were also a nightmare, and that element of the experience made it into the Dark Age Chronicles). 

One of Icel’s comments about ‘parking’ his boat is taken directly from my ‘holiday.’ 

‘The ship’s once more been run aground. I’m starting to think there’s no skill at all to disembarking. Well, aside from trying not to hit something that pierces the ship’s wooden hull.’

That said, the storm which my characters endure isn’t based on my experiences at all but rather on those of a former fisherman turned artist I met in Orkney and whose paintings now adorn my walls. His depiction of the black/green of a terrible storm saw me through those scenes. While I would have been terrified, I suspect he was a little more used to them when he was younger. Go check out this beautiful picture to see how a former fisherman would visualise a terrible storm blowing in. 

https://www.seascape-art-orkney.co.uk/gallery/eye-of-the-storm/

Eye of the Storm

You can find a deleted scene from an early version of drafting for Storm of Mercia in Mercia: A Companion’s Guide to the Tales of Mercia.

Storm of Mercia is available in ebook, paperback, hardback and audio. Grab your copy now.

Listen to me talking about Storm of Mercia

Read a nerdy post about the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for AD836

Learn about the inspiration for Wynflæd

Wessex has never been Mercia’s ally, neither has it been her only enemy.

Wessex, AD836

The Viking raiders’ devastation has been halted once more by the shields of Mercia as opposed to Wessex. But their whereabouts are unknown.

King Wiglaf of Mercia is keen to ensure the Viking raiders are swept from his shared border with Wessex but these Viking ships are quick and difficult to track and Icel is once more deployed with Ealdorman Ælfstan warriors to do his King’s bidding. However, Icel’s quest is beset with many more obstacles and it’s not all about the seax and shield.

Worrying news from home overshadows Icel’s every deadly encounter. Will the storms of war keep him away or has he time to make one more desperate journey back to Tamworth?

With raging seas driving him ever further from Mercia’s shores, and the threat of a new conspiracy against the Mercian kingship will Icel overpower the sands of time, or will he be defeated by his deadliest nemesis yet?

https://amzn.to/4a3G1ed

Check out the Eagle of Mercia Chronicles series page

If you can’t get enough of young Icel, you need to try The Mercian Ninth Century Series where he appears as an older character

AND coming May 7th 2026, The Sundered Kingdom (for anyone who’s curious, many of the Easter eggs for Storm of Mercia will show up in The Eagle Will Rise which features an even older Icel).

Sign up to my Boldwood Books newsletter to keep up to date with all things Icel… https://bit.ly/MJPorterNews

Or, you can order a signed paperback copy directly from me. Check out my bookstore.

The inspiration behind Wynflæd in the Eagle of Mercia Chronicles

Young Icel is an orphan in the Eagle of Mercia Chronicles, his mother dying when he was born. He knows very little about her, but there are a number of mother-figures in his life. Lady Cynehild is one of them, and she’s the one to spill the beans about the identity of his father, but Wynflæd is perhaps more important, providing him with some stability and the opportunity to pursue his chosen path of becoming a healer, before he must cast it aside and become a warrior.

Wynflæd’s perhaps not the kindest of mother-figures but what she lacks in outright affection, she makes up for in supporting him in his endeavours. That she also knows the truth of his mother’s identity causes a ruction in their relationship, but also accounts for why she’s so involved in his life. The interplay between the two characters has provided moments of light relief throughout the series, but I don’t think it can be denied that the pair are fiercely fond of one another, even if neither of them is very good at showing it. The quote below perhaps best summarises their relationship, as voiced by Icel.

‘She was not my friend through the ties of family, but because she wished to be.’ 

I suspect Wynflæd’s character possesses a great deal of my grandmother’s fortitude. She was a slight woman (who only grew shorter as she aged) but crikey, she was stubborn, and incredibly skilled in needlecraft (I believe her mother was a milliner) as Wynflæd is in healing. She was also argumentative, she and my grandfather often arguing about politics, to which I was told ‘the ruling party always needs a strong opposition.’ And to her dying day, she stuck to a long-running and bickering relationship with one of her sisters-in-law, which even now we marvel at. She also insisted that Mother’s Day be correctly identified as Mothering Sunday, and it was always with relief that we could find a card with Mothering Sunday on it each year.

She also endured great sorrow, her first child dying at birth (and she never knew where the baby was buried as seems to have been the way these things were done in the 1940s (neither were we able to find any details later on)), and then losing another child (my mother) when my mother was in her 50s. Despite this, my grandmother showed her love through her actions and not through any monetary bribes such as pocket money. I believe it’s in this regard that she and Wynflæd are most alike, and so I hope she won’t mind that I was so heavily influenced by her in creating the crotchety character of Wynflæd. 

Wynflæd has her own short story in my new short story collection – Mercia: A Companion’s Guide to the Tales of Mercia. (There is also a deleted scene from an early version of drafting for Storm of Mercia).

Storm of Mercia is available in ebook, paperback, hardback and audio. Grab your copy now.

Listen to me talking about Storm of Mercia

Read a nerdy post about the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for AD836

Wessex has never been Mercia’s ally, neither has it been her only enemy.

Wessex, AD836

The Viking raiders’ devastation has been halted once more by the shields of Mercia as opposed to Wessex. But their whereabouts are unknown.

King Wiglaf of Mercia is keen to ensure the Viking raiders are swept from his shared border with Wessex but these Viking ships are quick and difficult to track and Icel is once more deployed with Ealdorman Ælfstan warriors to do his King’s bidding. However, Icel’s quest is beset with many more obstacles and it’s not all about the seax and shield.

Worrying news from home overshadows Icel’s every deadly encounter. Will the storms of war keep him away or has he time to make one more desperate journey back to Tamworth?

With raging seas driving him ever further from Mercia’s shores, and the threat of a new conspiracy against the Mercian kingship will Icel overpower the sands of time, or will he be defeated by his deadliest nemesis yet?

https://amzn.to/4a3G1ed

Check out the Eagle of Mercia Chronicles series page

If you can’t get enough of young Icel, you need to try The Mercian Ninth Century Series which features an older Icel.

AND coming May 7th 2026, The Sundered Kingdom (for anyone who’s curious, many of the Easter eggs for Storm of Mercia will show up in The Eagle Will Rise which features an even older Icel).

Sign up to my Boldwood Books newsletter to keep up to date with all things Icel… https://bit.ly/MJPorterNews

Or, you can order a signed paperback copy directly from me. Check out my bookstore.

A nerdy post about the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Who held what now? ‘had possession of the place of slaughter’ in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and what it might mean

We return to Icel in Storm of Mercia and the year is still AD836. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC) records for this year that ‘Here King Egbert fought against 25 (35 in the A Version of the text) ship-loads at Carhampton, and great slaughter was made there, and the Danish had possession of the place of slaughter.’

This turn of phrase ‘had possession of the place of slaughter’ crops up routinely in the ASC. Indeed, it appears only 4 years later under 840, although in the same record it states that one of the Wessex ealdormen ‘made great slaughter there and took the victory.’ Is this phrase ‘had possession of the place of slaughter’ just a way for the chroniclers to record when the enemy had a victory over the warriors of Wessex? (and yes, I do mean only Wessex).

I’ve had a brief glance through the ASC entries from 800 to 870 and there are 6 occasions that the phrase ‘had possession of the place of slaughter’ is used and only one of these isn’t a reference to the Danish being victorious. This is in 860 when Wessex defeated the Viking raiders attack on Winchester, during the reign of Æthelberht, one of Ecgberht’s grandsons who ruled from 860-865.

It’s quite notable to me that the phrase is almost exclusively used to describe a loss for the Wessex forces (aside from the one example). When the Wessex forces were victorious against the enemy, the ASC always clearly states it was a victory (I’ve checked as well. They used victory or victorious when this happened). I haven’t found an entry that states the outcome of a battle for Wessex was a ‘loss.’ Perhaps that was too much for the chronicler to admit to, and they could only write of victories or allude to losses in a different way.

Storm of Mercia is available from today in ebook, paperback, hardback and audio. Grab your copy now.

Wessex has never been Mercia’s ally, neither has it been her only enemy.

Wessex, AD836

The Viking raiders’ devastation has been halted once more by the shields of Mercia as opposed to Wessex. But their whereabouts are unknown.

King Wiglaf of Mercia is keen to ensure the Viking raiders are swept from his shared border with Wessex but these Viking ships are quick and difficult to track and Icel is once more deployed with Ealdorman Ælfstan warriors to do his King’s bidding. However, Icel’s quest is beset with many more obstacles and it’s not all about the seax and shield.

Worrying news from home overshadows Icel’s every deadly encounter. Will the storms of war keep him away or has he time to make one more desperate journey back to Tamworth?

With raging seas driving him ever further from Mercia’s shores, and the threat of a new conspiracy against the Mercian kingship will Icel overpower the sands of time, or will he be defeated by his deadliest nemesis yet?

https://amzn.to/4a3G1ed

Check out the Eagle of Mercia Chronicles series page

If you can’t get enough of young Icel, you need to try The Mercian Ninth Century Series

AND coming soon, The Sundered Kingdom (for anyone who’s curious, many of the Easter eggs for Storm of Mercia will show up in The Eagle Will Rise).

Sign up to my Boldwood Books newsletter to keep up to date with all things Icel… https://bit.ly/MJPorterNews

Or, you can order a signed paperback copy directly from me. Check out my bookstore.