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.
MJ Porter 