M J Porter – Page 16

Kings of War, has a number of main characters. Meet Constantin, the king of the Scots.

My new book, Kings of War, is a multi-viewpoint novel telling the story of events in Britain from 925-934. I thought it would be good to share details of the historical people my character are based on.

My portrayal of Constantin, the king of the Scots, is of course fictional in King of Kings, but he is based on a historical individual, Constantin (e) II, so who exactly was he?

Constantin is a fascinating character. Again, and as with Athelstan, his exact date of birth is unknown, but it must have been, at the latest, by 877/8, when his short-reigned father died.

By 900, Constantin was the king of the Scots (we think – there is some confusion about this). This wasn’t yet quite Scotland, but it was getting there. The ancient kingdoms of Cait, Fortriu, Atholl and Dal Riata, were ruled by one king, Constantin. But, he hadn’t succeeded his father, Aed, but rather a man named Domnall II, his cousin. At this time there were two rival dynasties and they strictly alternated the kingship.

Affairs in the kingdom of the Scots often intermingled with those of the independent kingdom of Bamburgh, Strathclyde, and of course, the Norse, or Viking raiders, if you will. Indeed, the entry recording Constantin’s death in the Annals of Ulster, reads as though there was often strife.

‘Constantinus son of Ed held the kingdom for xl years in whose third year the Northmen plundered Dunkeld and all Albania. In the following year the Northmen were slain in Strath Erenn…And the battle of Tinemore happened in his xviii year between Constantin and Ragnall and the Scotti had the victory. And the battle of Dun Brunde in his xxxiiii year.’ (Alex Woolf, From Pictland to Scotland, 789-1070,p.126)

Constantin, ruling for decades, and I mean decades, seems to have brought much needed stability to the kingdom, as affairs there very much mirrored the emerging ‘England’ to the south.

‘Constantin’s reign has increasingly come to be see as one of the most significant in the history of Scotland. Not only was it very long, at least forty years, but it was also the period during which conflict and diplomatic relations between a kingdom recognisably ancestral to Scotland and one recognisably ancestral to England first occurred.’ (Alex Woolf, From Pictland to Scotland, 789-1070, p.128)

Constantin allied with the rulers of Bamburgh, and York, and also, on occasion, both Æthelflæd of Mercia and Edward the Elder, after her death. But, he seems to have been quite flexible in his thinking, and was prepared to pick and choice as he saw fit.

By the beginning of King of Kings, Constantin would have been in his mid-forties, and he was still to rule for many years to come, and he was certainly a more than adequate counterpart to Athelstan, king of the English, no doubt helped by his sons and grandsons, as his reign continued.

books2read.com/kingsofwar

Meet Athelstan, the king of the English

Meet Hywel, the king of the West Welsh

Meet Ealdred, the king of Bamburgh

Meet Lady Eadgifu, queen of the Anglo-Saxons

Meet Owain, the king of Strathclyde

Kings of War, has a number of main characters. Meet Athelstan, the King of the English.

Athelstan is one of the main characters in my new book, Kings of War, a multiple point of view story, recounting affairs in Britain from 925-934. Here’s a post about Athelstan I wrote for the release of King of Kings.

Based on a historical person, my portrayal of him, is of course, fictitious, but there are many details known about him. However, we don’t know for sure who his mother was, it’s believed she might have been called Ecgwynn, and we don’t know, for certain, the name of his sister, but it’s believed she might have been named Edith. What is known is that his father was Edward, the son of King Alfred, and known to us today as Edward the Elder. Athelstan is also rare in that he is one of only two Saxon kings for who a contemporary image is available. (The other is Edgar, who would have been his step-nephew)

Edward the Elder
**Edward the Elder – MS Royal 14 B VI.jpg**
Miniature d’Édouard l’Ancien dans une généalogie royale du XIVe siècle. WikiCommons

It must be supposed that Athelstan was born sometime in the late 890s. And according to a later source, that written by William of Malmesbury in the 1100s (so over two hundred years later), Athelstan was raised at the court of his aunt, Æthelflæd of Mercia. David Dumville has questioned the truth of this, but to many, this has simply become accepted as fact.

‘he [Alfred] arranged for the boy’s education at the court of his daughter, Æthelflæd and Æthelred his son in law, where he was brought up with great care by his aunt and the eminent ealdorman for the throne that seemed to await him.’^[i]

^[i] Mynors, R.A.B. ed and trans, completed by Thomson, R.M. and Winterbottom, M. Gesta Regvm Anglorvm, The History of the English Kings, William of Malmesbury, (Clarendon Press, 1998), p.211 Book II.133

Æthelflæd image
Æthelflæd as depicted in the cartulary of Abingdon Abbey (British Library Cotton MS Claudius B VI, f.14).
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Æthelflæd_as_depicted_in_the_cartulary_of_Abingdon_Abbey.png
AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Why then might this have happened? Edward became king on the death of his father, Alfred, and either remarried at that time, or just before. Edward’s second wife (if indeed, he was actually married to Athelstan’s mother, which again, some doubt), Lady Ælfflæd is believed to have been the daughter of an ealdorman and produced a hefty number of children for Edward. Perhaps then, Athelstan and his unnamed sister, were an unwelcome reminder of the king’s first wife, or perhaps, as has been suggested, Alfred intended for Athelstan to succeed in Mercia after the death of Æthelflæd, and her husband, Æthelred, for that union produced one child, a daughter named Ælfwynn.

There is an acknowledged dearth of information surrounding King Edward the Elder’s rule of Wessex. He’s acknowledged as the king of the Anglo-Saxons. His father had been the king of Wessex. Historians normally use the surviving charters to unpick the political machinations of the Saxon kings, but for Edward, there’s a twenty year gap between the beginning and end of his reign, where almost no known genuine charters have survived. What isn’t known for sure, is how much control, if any, he had in Mercia. Was Mercia subservient to Wessex or was it ruled independently? It’s impossible to tell. And this makes it difficult to determine what Athelstan might have been doing, and also what his father’s intentions were towards him.

Frontispiece of Bede’s *Life of St Cuthbert*, showing King Æthelstan (924–39) presenting a copy of the book to the saint himself. 29.2 x 20cm (11 1/2 x 7 7/8″). Originally from MS 183, f.1v at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. (Wikimedia Commons)

What is known is that following the death of King Edward in 924, Athelstan was acknowledged as the king of Mercia; his stepbrother, Ælfweard was proclaimed king in Wessex. As with all events at this time, it shouldn’t be assumed that just because this is what happened, this is what was always intended.

‘Here King Edward died at Farndon in Mercia; and very soon, 16 days after, his son Ælfweard died at Oxford; and their bodies lie at Winchester. And Athelstan was chosen as king by the Mercians and consecrated at Kingston.’^[i]

^[i] Swanton, M. trans and edit The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, (Orion Publishing Group, 2000), D text p.105

But, if Athelstan was raised in Mercia, it’s highly likely he was a warrior from a young age, helping the Mercians defeat the Viking raiders who still had control of the Danish Five Boroughs of Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Nottingham and Leicester.

And the events of 924 are where King of Kings begins, and so I will leave him there. By now, he would have been perhaps thirty years old, give or take a few years. What sort of man was he? What sort of king might he be? Do please read King of Kings to find out. And, if this intrigues you, then do please have a look at Sarah Foot’s wonderful monograph on him, Athelstan, from Yale Publishing.

books2read.com/kingsofwar

Meet Hywel, king of the West Welsh

Meet Constantin, king of the Scots

Meet Lady Eadgifu, queen of the Anglo-Saxons

Meet Ealdred, king of Bamburgh

Meet Owain, king of Strathclyde

Meet Olaf Gothfrithson, king of Dublin

Meet the new characters in Kings of War, Edmund, Ætheling of the English

There are a few new characters in Kings of War, the sequel to King of Kings. Here I’ll explain who the historical individuals probably were, and what’s known about them, if anything. That said, Edmund did feature in King of Kings, but I’ve not shared his information before.

Edmund, of the House of Wessex, is the second-youngest halfbrother of the king, Athelstan. His date of birth is not known for sure, but it’s believed to have been in about 921, as he’s said to have been 18 when he became king on Athelstan’s death. His mother is Lady Eadgifu, the third wife of Edward the Elder. He has a full brother, Eadred, even younger than him.

‘And the Ætheling succeeded to the kingdom; and he was then 18 years old.’ (ASC A)

Edmund would only have been very young when his father, Edward the Elder, died in 924. It’s doubtful whether he had any memory of him at all. It’s long been believed that his mother, Lady Eadgifu, was responsible for raising him and his younger brother. What precisely Edmund was doing during the reign of his older half-brother isn’t known for sure. He is said to have fought beside him at the Battle of Brunanburh, but some cast doubt on this.

What is known is that Edmund had a sister (possibly two) and his sister, Eadburh, c.919-952, became a nun and was regarded as a saint.

William of Malmesbury in his Gesta Pontificum Anglorum tells the story of Edmund’s sister, Eadburh,^[i] being consigned to the Nunnaminster in infancy as she showed such signs of devotion.^[ii]

‘There had been a convent on this spot before, in which Eadburg, daughter of king Edward the Elder, had lived and died, but by then it was almost in ruins. When she was barely three, Eadburg had given a remarkable proof of her future holiness. Her father had wanted to find out whether his little girl would turn towards God or the world. He set out in the dining room the adornments of the different ways of life, on this side a chalice and the Gospels, on the other bangles and necklaces. The little girl was brought in by the nurse and sat on her father’s knees. He told her to choose which she wanted. With a fierce look she spat out the things of the world, and immediately crawling on hands and knees towards the Gospels and chalice adored them in girlish innocence…Her father honoured his offspring with more restrained kisses and said, ‘Go where heaven calls you, follow the bridegroom you have chosen and a blessing be upon your going.’…Countless miracles during her life and after her death bear witness to the devotion of her heart and the integrity of her body.’^[iii]

William later adds that, ‘Some of the bones of Eadburg the happy are buried,’^[iv] at Pershore.

Aside from the later William of Malmesbury (who wrote long after the Norman Conquest of 1066), Eadburh is the recipient of land in one charter, that of S446, dated to 939 and surviving in one manuscript. ‘King Athelstan to Eadburh, his sister; grant of 17 hides (mansae) at Droxford, Hants.’^[v] Other that, nothing is known of Eadburh with any certainty.

I won’t share more details of Edmund just yet as he has an important part to play in the Brunanburh Series.

You can read King of Kings for FREE for a very limited time on Amazon, Kobo and Apple Books in the UK, US, Australia and Canada. (3rd-10th July ’23)

books2read.com/King-of-Kings

Preorder Kings of War now

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Read about Olaf Gothfrithson

Check out all the historical characters from the Brunanburh Series by visiting the Brunanburh Series page on the blog.

^[i] Believed to be Eadburg (8) on PASE

^[ii] Foot, S Athelstan (Yale University Press, 2011), p.45 Priest, D trans, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, The Deeds of the Bishops of England, (The Boydell Press, 2002)

^[iii] Priest, D trans, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, The Deeds of the Bishops of England, (The Boydell Press, 2002), pp115-6

^[iv] Priest, D trans, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, The Deeds of the Bishops of England, (The Boydell Press, 2002), p.202

^[v] Sawyer, P. H. (Ed.), Anglo-Saxon charters: An annotated list and bibliography, rev. Kelly, S. E., Rushforth, R., (2022). http://www.esawyer.org.uk/ S446

Meet the new characters in Kings of War, Olaf Gothfrithson, King of Dublin

There are a few new characters in Kings of War, the sequel to King of Kings. Here I’ll explain who the historical individuals probably were, and what’s known about them, if anything.

Olaf Gothfrithson is the son of Gothfrith, who King Athelstan of the English, beat to the kingdom of York or Jorvik in King of Kings.

Olaf, perhaps a great-grandson of Ivarr the Boneless (it’s difficult to piece together the family connections, and indeed, in an initial draft I named Olaf’s brothers entirely incorrectly). Ivarr was the famous Viking raider who led part of the Great Heathen Army in the 860s before meeting his death in 870 or 873, depending on which contemporary source you read.

Olaf claimed Dublin following his father’s death, although not without some fighting. In Ireland, he had many enemies, including Olaf Cenncairech (Scabbyhead) of Limerick and Donnchad of the Southern Ui Neill.

Olaf is known to have been one of four brothers. Halfdan, who died in 926, according to the Irish Annals, Blakari and Rognvaldr being the other two, who both play a role in future events.

Affairs in Ireland at this time were complex. Dublin was largely a Norse enclave, involved in almost constant warfare with the Irish clans. Claire Downham has written extensively on this period. ‘The rivalry between Limerick and Dublin marks an important chapter in the history of vikings in Ireland. The number of viking campaigns recorded in these years rivals any other period of Irish history. The influence of the vikings is reflected in the range of their campaigns across the island and in the involvement of Irish overkings in their wars.’ (Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ivarr to A.D. 1014, C. Downham, p. 41)

Affairs in Ireland fall far outside my expertise, but I hope I’ve correctly portrayed what events are known from this period and which concern Olaf Gothfrithson (you’ll find his name also written as Óláfr Gu∂rø∂sson and Amlaib), Olaf Cenncairech – Scabbyhead (a wonderful name for the man – again my thanks to C. Downham for including this in her work) – and Olaf’s brothers and sons.

In Kings of War, Olaf is staunchly determined to claim back ‘his’ lost kingdom of Jorvik.

Read King of Kings for FREE for a very limited time on Kindle, Kobo and Apple in the UK, US, Australia and Canada (3rd -10th July ’23).

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Preorder Kings of War now

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To find out about the characters who also appeared in King of Kings, please visit my The Brunanburh Series page to find the links.

Here’s why I love audiobooks #audiobooks #authorlife

As with all things kindle and ebooks related, I was not quick to adapt to audiobooks. In fact, I really struggled with them for some time. I was happy to have my books available as audiobooks, but I didn’t really like or understand the allure of it.

Until.

Well, there’s always an until.

I’d listened to a few audios on my daily walks before I hit upon how it really worked for me. They help me sleep. What? I know, it sounds rather counterproductive. So, I don’t listen to many ‘new’ audios, but I love to listen to an audiobook for a book I’ve already read, and then I listen to them at night, comfy in my bed, although some do question my headphones, which are big chunky things, but I can’t wear in-ear ones – I have a funny ear. Actually, I think it’s more to do with my spectacles – so many things trying to make use of my ears at one time. So, with my big chunky headphones, and my phone, I sleep better than I ever have, thanks to my audiobooks.

I know you want to know why. So here goes. My brain is always ‘on the go.’ It’s always thinking. Teasing out plot lines, thinking about stuff going on in my personal life. Thinking, thinking, thinking. It’s a pain. Do you know how hard it is to ‘think’ when you’re listening to an audiobook. You have to REALLY want to not be listening to what you’re being told.

It also helps that I listen to my ‘classics,’ the stories I love. Discworld – they’re all in the process of being rerecorded, and while I was a bit grumpy about this, I’m just grateful that I now have two versions to listen to. Anne McAffrey’s PERN books, and Katherine Kerr’s Deverry books are also up there. These are stories I know well, and I get to enjoy them all over again. And, by setting a timer on my audio, I know I don’t actually miss much when I fall asleep.

Now, not all books work. Some you need to listen to during the day – some narrators are a bit too excitable, but as an alternative way of enjoying my reading, audiobooks are fabulous. Why not give them a try?

Audiobooks are also great for driving, exercising and just chilling out without needing to engage with any other sense than my hearing. Mind – I recommend some noise cancelling headphones as well.

With my author head on, I also love hearing my characters brought to life, hearing them with all the inflexion I imagine in my mind when I’m writing them.

Listen to the fabulous Matt Coles bring King Athelstan of the English to life from King of Kings.

books2read.com/King-of-Kings

Æthelfest 2023 and a trip to Tamworth, in the heart of Mercia

The statue of Æthelflæd and a young Athelstan, the future king of England, at Tamworth Castle

It is possible that I couldn’t have picked a hotter weekend to venture from my coastal location to the heart of the former Mercian kingdom, but that didn’t stop the event from being fantastic.

Æthelfest, a celebration of all things Saxon, with an emphasis on Æthelflæd, the lady of Mercia, and the anniversary of her death, which occurred on 12th June 918, included author talks (of which I gave one), a reenactment camp, music in the bandstand, and even some ‘have a go archery’, of which I was brilliant – of course. I met Annie Whitehead, who also writes about Mercia, and managed to snag a place on one of her very popular talks.

Regrettably, it was super toasty while I was there, and so I massively applaud the re-enactors who even managed to have a battle with all their equipment on.

Tamworth Castle currently houses some of the Staffordshire Hoard, and it was great to see it in all its shining glory, although I didn’t take any photos of it. But, I did get some snaps of the coins they have in the museum and also had an Athelstan coin struck by the re-enactors.

It’s to be hoped that the event proved popular and will be repeated.

While I was there, I also took the opportunity to visit the ‘strange little building’ close to where I grew up, and which has been so instrumental in my desire to write about Saxon England, and particularly Mercia.

While I’ve not written about Lady Æthelflæd (yet), I have written about her daughter and the events immediately after her mother’s death, when Lady Ælfwynn succeeded to the kingdom of Mercia, but only for a short amount of time, in The Lady of Mercia’s Daughter and A Conspiracy of Kings – which feature on my bookmark below:)

If you fancy checking out the books, you can find The Lady of Mercia’s Daughter here.

A huge thank you to Tamworth Castle for inviting me to the event. And if I met you there, do please say hello.

The King’s Brother Research book dump

I always like to share my research with my readers. Here’s a small pile of the books that I’ve specifically used in the last few weeks while finalising the little details in The King’s Brother.

As always, there are resources not shown here. The two primary online resources that I will NEVER tire of sharing are

PASE https://pase.ac.uk

Electronic Sawyer https://esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk/about/index.html

My two versions of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle not shown here have also proved invaluable, my preferred version by Michael Swanton, and the version found in English Historical Documents Vol. 1 by Dorothy Whitlock, although I’ve discovered I have a first edition, and there was a subsequent second edition, which is the one most often used – mind my first edition was substantially cheaper than a second edition. (I dare you to click on the link and see how much it costs:))

Of course, I would never have started this mad, crazy journey of chronicling the lives of the earls of Mercia without the work of Stephen Baxter, The Earls of Mercia, Lordship and Power in Late Anglo-Saxon England.

Some of these books are more academic than others. For those looking for an introduction to the period, I highly recommend The Death of Anglo-Saxon England by Nick Higham which is stuffed with images and can be found quite cheaply second-hand.

books2read.com/TheKingsBrother

The families of the Earls of Mercia series

I thought a little refresh might be in order with the release of The King’s Brother, so I’m resharing some genealogy tables I put together when working on The English King and Lady Estrid. These will, hopefully, point you in the right direction for the somewhat complex family dynamics in The King’s Brother.

The House of Leofwine

The family of King Æthelred II.

The children of Lady Emma, twice England’s queen.

The House of Godwine.

The family of Gytha, wife of Earl Godwine

I hope that helps. You can click on the tables to increase their size.

Don’t forget to check out The King’s Brother and also visit The Earls of Mercia page on my blog.

Posts

Pagan Warrior went on blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club in May 2023 #blogtour – check out the posts #GodsAndKings #TheSevethCentury

Pagan Warrior is the story of the battle of Hædfeld, fought in the seventh century between the Northumbrians, and you got it, the Mercians – or rather, Cadwallon of Gwynedd but with Penda of Mercia as his firm ally. You can find more details here.

A quick shout out to thank all the blog hosts and Cathie at The Coffee Pot Book Club for organising.

Check out a review for Pagan Warrior on

Linnea Tanner’s Official Blog

and a guest post about Mercia’s legacy over on

The Coffee Pot Book Club

Check out

The Book Delight

An excerpt on

The Celtic Lady Reviews

Check out the review on

Stuart Rudge’s Official Blog

And a guest post on who King Edwin of Northumbria was over on

When Angels Fly

Check out a post about Penda of Mercia.

The Magic of Word(l)ds

Read an excerpt featuring Eowa, Penda’s brother on

Judith Arnopp’s Official Blog

And, read an excerpt featuring Penda on

Carolyn Hughes Official Blog

I answered Paul Walker’s questions on his blog

Paul Walker’s Official Blog

There’s an except over on Wendy J Dunn’s Official Blog featuring King Edwin

Wendy J Dunn’s Official Blog

And a fabulous review on Ruins and Readings

Ruins and Readings

Read a guest post about how we know, what we know, about the seventh century.

Deborah Swift’s Official Blog

And a fabulous author interview over on

The Writing Desk

Read an excerpt on

Elizabeth St John’s Official Blog

And read about warfare in the Saxon period on

Brook Allan’s Official Blog

Check out a fabulous review on

https://gwendalynbooks.wordpress.com/2023/03/28/pagan-warrior/

A guest post about Mercia in the later eighth century on the Historical Fiction Blog.

https://historicalfictionblog.com/pagan-warrior-guest-post/

And, the post that perhaps gave me the most fear to begin will but which was fun when I remembered all the little details, five fun facts about writing the trilogy.

maryannbernal.blogspot.com

Check out a post about two of the royal residences of Bernicia at the time, Bamburgh and Ad Gefrin (Yeavering). (There are lots of photos; thank you to Helen Hollick for uploading them all.)

Let Us Talk of Many Things

And a review from

Candlelight Reading

Check out my author interview over on Archaeolibrarian.

Archaeolibrarian

I’m sharing an excerpt over on The Historical Fiction Company.

The Historical Fiction Company

I’ve written a piece about the historical background on Pam Lecky’s official blog.

Pam Lecky’s Official Blog

Posts

Stay up to date with the latest from the blog.

The River Thames in the Saxon period #nonfiction #research #TheTalesOfMercia

In Eagle of Mercia, young Icel and his allies are busily guarding the River Thames against a potential Viking raider attack. The Viking raiders certainly made use of the many rivers running through England at the time (and throughout the British Isles), but the river was also significant as a very definitive and solid boundary between the Saxon kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, which to the west, where the River Thames doesn’t flow, was continued by the earthworks known as the Wansdyke.

London, now the capital of the United Kingdom, wasn’t always as important as we might assume, and indeed, it wasn’t ever the capital of Wessex or Mercia. These two kingdoms fought most fiercely over the settlement. It wasn’t even overly important to the Romans, either. And this is why I’ve perhaps been remiss in not truly considering its significance. As rivers have changed their course over the years, so has the River Thames. And what’s most fascinating about the River Thames is that, seemingly for long periods during the Saxon era, it wasn’t navigable, as we might expect it to have been.

Map of Early England by Flintlock Covers

‘During this period, as perhaps as other times, there may well have been a division between use of the Thames in its today reach and use of it above the tidal head. Paleoenvironmental evidence suggests that a relative drop in river levels during the Roman period meant that the tidal head was perhaps as low as Londinium itself, but that it (and thereby the range of easy navigability) generally moved upstream during the Anglo-Saxon period. This trend was not, however, uniform, and there were also brief periods (such as the late tenth to eleventh centuries) when the tidal reach shifted back downstream again.’ p. 271

It seems then, that when considering London, or Londinium/Lundenwic/Londonia, we also need to be mindful of the era in the Saxon period that we’re writing about. For the first Viking age,

‘A combination of the seasonal (and presumably climatic) unreliability of riverine travel and the need on many occasions to travel upstream cannot have made it easy for the Vikings to use the Thames for shock offensives… and there is no clear example of a Viking force travelling by water up the Thames further than Fulham.’ p.278

Clues to how passable the River Thames might have been can be traced.

‘Without the construction of bridges, the river would have been impassable except by ferry, from its estuary as far as the lowest fording point, perhaps as low as Halliford near Shepperton, and between the various fording points. Even where the middle and upper stretches could be forded, such crossings were not guaranteed to be easy. Lechlade and Cricklade, two potentially treacherous upper Thames crossings, severely affected by flooding in winter were named Old English (ge)lad ‘difficult river crossing.’ p.279

As with all things, we should be wary of assuming that current conditions would have been prevalent in the past. The River Thames certainly falls into that category. So while, yes, it was certainly a decisive boundary between the Saxon kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, on occasion, it wouldn’t have been as decisive as at others. This, I find fascinating, and just another of those ‘facts’ travellers to the Saxon era should be wary about. While we know (hopefully not a spoiler) that London was attacked in the 840s and 850s, prior to this, it might well have been impossible for the Viking raiders to attack in the way they were used to. This, perhaps, accounts for why they chose more coastal locations, such as the Isle of Sh.