In 1009 acting on Eadric’s advice King Ethelred cancels an attack on the Danish fleet when his fleet is partly destroyed by a renegade South Saxon pirate named Wulfnoth. Cnut destroyed a fleet of 30 ships of rebel vikings and in December Eadric Streona was killed by Cnut`s men because of his treachery. It was all going horribly wrong in terms of Viking aggression, Æthelred was very unwell and Ædric having a strong sense of self-preservation could see that if Edmund became king that his influence and power would be over, so he turned his coat and joined Cnut. Eadric appears to have acted as a go-between for Ethelred and the Danes, attempting to rescue Saint Alphege (Alfheah) in 1012 by collecting a ransom.

England was fragmenting, Lothian was being lost to the Scots and the old English Wergild system was breaking down. The Chronicler puts it thus “ the plan was then frustrated through Earl Eadric, as it ever is still”. I agree with you to the extent that ther’s definately something missing in our understanding of the events. Godwin chuckled as he walked back to the main path, his boots crashing carelessly through the underbrush. After an invasion of the Danes in 1009, Aethelred was prepared to retaliate with force but was persuaded by Eadric to take a different course.There, he assumes the heinous task of tattooing incoming Jewish prisoners with the dehumanizing numbers their SS captors use to identify them. It is simplistic, but good in that Woods explains roles and terms while telling her story without detracting from it. But Eadric had no desire to contemplate Godwin’s inner reasoning; he merely wanted to keep riding until he escaped this God-forsaken forest. If he must put a Viking king on the throne to gain a pleasurable life for himself and his true love, so be it. The armies separated without incident, and Eadric soon took forty ships from the royal fleet, fled to Cnut, and entered into his service.

Eadric does appear among the thegns in 1007 at St Albans Abbey, [5] in which year he was appointed Ealdorman of Mercia.He tried to further survey the area in the failing light and realized that he had not only ridden in a circle, but a very large circle; they had passed through this spot in the morning. Edmund was declared Aethelred’s successor and immediately set about to bring Wessex back to fold, so to speak. In this play, Edricus (as his name has been Latinized) is the bastard son of peasants who raises himself to the level of earl through lies and flattery. The novel follows Ingrid from age 3 through a carefree early childhood of endless small chores, simple pleasures, and unquestioned familial love into her more ambivalent adolescence attending school off the island and becoming aware of the outside world, then finally into young womanhood when she must make difficult choices.