The Amber Treasure
by
Richard Denning
Written by Richard Denning
© Copyright 2009 Richard Denning
Publisher website:
https://www.merciabooks.co.uk
Copy–editing and proof reading by Jo Field.
[email protected] Author website:
https://www.richarddenning.co.uk
For John, Margaret, Jean and Jane
Table of Contents
Start of Book
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Historical Note
Excerpt from Book Two
The Author
Richard Denning was born in Ilkeston in Derbyshire and lives in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, where he works as a General Practitioner.
He is married and has two children. He has always been fascinated by historical settings as well as horror and fantasy. Other than writing, his main interests are games of all types. He is the designer of a board game based on the Great Fire of London.
Author website:
https://www.richarddenning.co.uk
Also by the author
Northern Crown Series
(Historical fiction)
1.The Amber Treasure
2.Child of Loki (Coming 2011)
Hourglass Institute Series
(Young Adult Science Fiction)
1.Tomorrow’s Guardian
2. Yesterday's Treasures
3. Today's Sacrifice (Coming 2012)
The Praesidium Series
(Historical Fantasy)
The Last Seal
Northern Britain AD 597
Names of nations, cities and towns
The Amber Treasure is historical fiction. As such, I have taken one or two liberties with names in order to make the book more accessible to the modern reader who is here, after all, to enjoy a story.
However, in this book I have tried − wherever possible − to use real place names as well as the names of the real historical characters who existed at the time. All this is difficult, given the scarcity of records for this period − the ‘darkest’ years of the dark ages. If you are interested, the historical note at the end of the book goes into the evidence about this period in a bit more detail.
Meanwhile, to satisfy those who like to see the use of historical names in fiction and so that you can identify what these places are called today, here is a glossary of the main names:
Bernicia − Anglo-Saxon Kingdom in Northumbria
Calcaria − Tadcaster
'The Villa'/'The Village' − Holme-on-Spalding-Moor
Catraeth − Catterick
Deira − Anglo-Saxon Kingdom north of the Humber
Elmet − Welsh/British Kingdom around the modern day city of Leeds
Eboracum and Eoforwic − York
Godnundingham − Site of Deiran Royal Palace. Possibly modern day Pocklington
Loidis − Leeds
Manau Goddodin − Welsh/British Kingdom around what is now Edinburgh
Rheged − Welsh/British Kingdom in what is now Cumbria
Salebeia − Selsby
Wicstun − Market Weighton
A note about the Welsh and English
If settlement and country names are confusing, the names of the racial groups are even more so.
Historians might call the people left in Britain after the Romans departed, ‘Romano-British’ or ‘Britons’. The invading Anglo-Saxons became the English. I felt that calling the Romano-British ‘British’ and ‘Britons’ in this book was going to be confusing to some readers, especially as a lot of the book involves the English fighting the British.
So, I decided to refer to the Romano-British as Welsh, which is what the English invaders called the Britons (originally this was Waelisc − meaning foreigners). The Welsh would probably talk of themselves as Cymry (meaning compatriots).
Likewise the 'English' of this book would probably not have called themselvs that. The Anglo Saxon invaders of the mid 5th century were made up of Jutes, Saxons and Angles. Whilst the Jutes and Saxons settled in the South of England, the Angles colonised East Anglia and Northumbria. In time the word Angles mutated via such words as Anglii, Englisc to English and the country became England. Although this process took some time I felt it was easier to just use the term English.
So for the sake of readability, I decided to simplify these terms and I beg the tolerance of readers.
List of names characters