This programme contains scenes of violence.
Many long years ago,
a great tumult came to the world of men.
Our Middle Earth was invaded not once
but twice in the same year.
The first war took the weaponed men
far from their wife-men and their homes...
SHOUTING
..to do battle against the Vikingr up in the North.
Much blood was shed before the English brought down the mighty Norsemen.
But then, before the victory cup could be tasted,
news came of a second enemy... to the south.
Halt! Up with you! We march again!
The Normans have come.
They've landed in Sussex.
Brave men of Sussex...
where were you when you were needed so keenly?
Now you would have to run the whole length of England
to fight a second war,
against the Normans,
and hold a hill near Hastings
from a duke who would be conqueror.
These terrible events of the year 1066 were woven into a tapestry
fit for a king.
But these threads speak only of conquest,
through the voice of a conqueror.
If you look more closely, you can see the little people of our shire
who fought against him and his killing breed.
THEY SHOUT
Theirs is the story of all Englishmen
who laid witness
to the darkest year of our times.
CHILD SCREAMS
Allez!
SCREAMING
THEY SPEAK FRENCH
WOMAN SCREAMS
MAN LAUGHS
BABY CRIES
Where are the fighting men? Where are the men?
In the north.
Why are the men north?
To fight the Vikingr.
All the weaponed-men are in the north.
Merci.
SCREAMS
SCREAMING
This...is punishment for the cheating ways of your King.
Of your huscarls...
and the men who deserted you...
They have gone to fight the Vikingr.
It is likely they have gone for good.
SCREAMING
Do like my English, mon baron?
SCREAMING CONTINUES
SHE SCREAMS
Have sorrow for the wife-men of Crowhurst.
But pity also their weaponed-men...
so far from fighting off the demons who possessed their village
..and now so few.
The army of King Harold was strung across the northern forests,
many taking leave of breath and falling from exhaustion.
So desperate for fighting men were the English
that they admitted into their war-band
any man willing to fight for food or silver,
no matter their previous allegiance.
We won't get south in time.
I ordered rest.
More Vikingr will come.
We need more than those. We need the winter to rest.
Where is your King?
I haven't heard these past two nights.
I hope he rides for more men.
You hope?
Ordgar, we've rested.
We cannot run as we ran north!
The road is turned harsh.
We must gather our strength.
And stop pestering me.
What of Crowhurst?
Crowhurst is a village of five families.
Engalond is a country.
At least let me go.
We shall not win this battle by allowing the few men we have
to go searching after their kin.
I'm sorry.
Leofric. Please...
We'll march on!
Walk on!
Come on! Move on!
You can do it!
Come on!
Come on! Come on...
Who was this enemy laying waste to our south lands?
They had come from across the whale-road,
from the dark shores of Normandy,
and gave us such night fears they were known to us as orcs.
Deep in their forests,
this dark curse had been many months in its casting.
A blessed crusade in the name of the Pope.
The bastard Duke William believed himself to be the rightful king of England,
promised thus by our noble Harold himself,
sworn over holy bones, so the Normans say.
When Harold took the crown for himself,
William commanded his shaven-headed knights to bring their horses to the sea.
Few had ever sailed before.
Most could not swim.
Horses and men would make bad seafellows.
HORSES WHINNYING
The wailing winds that have always defended this isle of Middle Earth
gave rough passage to the orca fleet.
If only those winds
had sent more ships to the bottom of the whale-road,
where they belonged.
But God, for reasons only He knows, chose to spare them.
One by one, the orc-ish vessels came over the horizon.
The pestilence had landed...
..scattered all along the undefended cliffs and dunes
of our blessed England.
And now you know what was to become of our little village of Crowhurst,
perched on the road from the sea to Hastings.
FLIES BUZZING
What is this?
Normen.
FLIES BUZZING
This is a message to your King, Ordgar.
I want this bodyshell of a wife-man seen by every weapon-man here.
This is what we must fight!
You go south, boy.
You go south and see to your village.
No.
This is cunning.
They have sent these wife-men here to anger you into battle
ahead of time.
Go south.
Take this horse with you.
Leofric, remember you are a huscarl. Go with him.
Go!
If you find Crowhurst, and if any yet still live,
take the wife-men to the priory.
The Normen must respect the walls of solitude.
And find whichever men you can.
Tell them we come in great number, but we need more. Go.
I do not know which way Crowhurst lies. We will find it.
Take the road that brings the fish.
The one that rises up and falls down again before you smell the salt.
You will know your village by the smell of ash.
The cruel orcs had sent a message to all weaponed-men.
What were our brave warriors to do but fly in rage towards their homestead?
Little caring that the Normans lay, like wolves, in wait for their prey.
Come on, come.
Just leave it.
Come on, come on.
Tofi!
Tofi, just... Come on!
This was once my father.
Judith.
Judith!
I have sorrow for you.
How many days since I was handfasted?
Three weeks? I don't know.
Our lives are gone.
Our lives are gone!
They do this?
They do such things as this in the name of the Christ?
Bastards...
Bastards.
Bast...
Bastard orca!
Bastard!
RUSTLING
Who's there?
I am armed.
I am a weapon-man of this shire.
Show yourself.
I said, show yourself.
Oh, child.
Child... Merciful Lord.
Child, what didst thou hear?
Where are the wife-men?
Child, listen, I know you.
Your name is Aelf.
You were born ten days after the swallows flew back.
I know you.
I am your friend.
Tell me what happened here.
What did you see?
The warrior sea-king has come west to fill England's graveyards.
Black birds of carrion follow.
Death comes.
You are safe.
Now you are safe, keep warm.
I promise you...
no sword shall harm you.
No Normen will come for you.
I am a huscarl of this village and I swear...
..I will keep fear from you.
I swear.
I have not even anger. >
If I had anger, my soul would have strength of purpose.
I have no anger. >
Oh, I have anger.
I have enough anger for the two of us.
They took the wife-men.
They took the w... The wife-men live?
Where? Where did they go? Do you remember?
The forest road.
Now, just one day's march away,
the stragglers that formed King Harold's army
were gathering numbers every hour.
THUNDER RUMBLES
Spirits, they say, were strengthening.
More weaponed-men were promised every day, from Kent, from Anglia.
The sooner these orcs were found,
the sooner they could be driven back into the whale-road whence they came.
And so scouting parties were summoned to track the vermin down.
Ha! Good morning.
We're moving on.
Bring the wife-man. She has proven herself fit and well built.
Yes, she has.
We must find the Normen under cover of dark.
And what do we do when they are found?
Kill them while they sleep.
It is not honourable to kill them while they sleep.
We should cut them while they sleep...
so with their last blink of the eye, as you hold them by the hair...
slice off their balls
and feed them to the pigs.
Feed he to the pigs, dirty Vikingr bastard.
I'll feed he to the pigs.
BIRDSONG
There are men here.
What?
There are men here. I know this.
Hush! Lead-man.
(Ordgar, there are men in the trees.)
(The Normen have many sentries.)
Their sentries are posted in trees, are they?
Hiding their nuts like squirrels.
WHOOSHING
GASPING
WHOOSHING
GASPING
GROANING
Another one and I shall have you.
(Ordgar) Vikingr, move!
WHOOSHING
(Ordgar) Are there more?
That we shall find out from this one.
GROANING
GASPING
Tell. Speak.
MAN REPLIES QUIETLY
SLICING
There are greater of them than there were of the Vikingr.
He says they are building.
He says they mean to stay.
SHOUTING
Two weeks after landing in England,
the Norman orcs had pulled back from their village-burning
and were now fortifying a peninsula of our beloved Sussex.
Duke William had sent out orders to destroy the rest of their ships
so they could not return to their homeland.
They meant to stay, indeed.
And they meant to breed.
And they would destroy every creature of English birth
who would not accept them as overlords.
I have heard...
that far from here,
way over to the west,
there is a place without equal.
Rightly renowned.
Few men reach this remote corner of Middle Earth,
but the land there is so lovely,
endowed with delights.
Shhh! Shh.
QUIET SOBBING
She is too young!
PRISONER GASPING
English bitch.
Who else wants to spit on me?
I do.
Husband! Husband!
GASPING
(Woman) Husband!
GROANING
(Woman) Husband! >
Husband, please! >
Judith...
Please...
Please, please...
Please.
(Leofric) Wife-men, listen.
SHE SOBS
(Leofric) Wife-men! Wife-men, listen!
We take thee to the priory, to the brothers of solitude.
You will be safe there.
I give you my word.
WOMAN SHOUTS
Is she of your kin?
(Judith) She is a wife of a Norman who sat by and watched it.
Please, kill her!
Ozouf!
Kill her!
Ozouf!
(Leofric) Run! Let's go!
Run! Run!
Run!
Let's split up!
Children, come on! Children, over the river, go, go!
Come on! Come on!
Forgive me, I must save the child. Go!
That way, go!
(Man) No!
I told you, we should not have kept the women alive.
It was a good plan. It kept the men from mutiny.
It was against orders.
(Woman) Oh, no!
WOMAN SCREAMING
Your lust for blood makes me sick.
Agh!
WOMAN SCREAMS
SILENCE
Come on, come on!
WOMAN SCREAMS
Out! Come on!
I know they're going to kill me.
No! They will not kill you. While I breathe, they will not.
Now, come on, run!
(Leofric) Come on, run!
Aelf! Aelf!
Wait, wait.
Aelf!
Now!
AELF SCREAMS
(Leofric) Wait.
He's but a child.
A child.
Take me. Not the child.
PANTING
Go. Go!
I have ached for you in my heart
in the empty night,
and in the fear.
I have ached for you.
Silver and gold may make us bold
And bind our jewels together
But love will stay until we are old
And weary of endeavour.
What was done?
Judith?
I...
I... I can't...
MAN GASPING AND GRUNTING
We must find Duke William and the rest of our army.
They will be south of here.
There will be battle at last.
Good.
I doubt you have the guts for it, mon baron.
You let a huscarl go, and a child.
You disobeyed.
Your child will pay the price of your disobedience....
As Drogo did...
for his father's.
Although the invaders were our cruellest enemies,
it should be known that not all of themwere cast in the same mould.
But then the orca were never only of one tribe.
SHOUTING
The Normans had pressed men of Brittany and other neighbours
into their holy war,
offering promises of land... and taking families hostage.
MAN SHOUTING
WOMEN SOBBING
I will call for you, my love.
There will be great forests in Englandto run through,
and great rivers to fish.
Your mama will cry,
but you must dry her tears for her.
Chevalier d'Ozouf!
You will see to it she is fed and served
as befits a Breton noblewoman. Duke William would wish it.
My Breton friend,
I do not take kindly to instruction.
(Leofric) Sister of solitude,
I bring this child to join the sisters and the wife-men.
Will you keep this child in your care?
I am sorry. We have too many here.
Sister, this is a child.
We have too many here already. I am sorry.
I am a huscarl of the Royal Guard. Now open this door!
We do not open our doors to instructions from soldiers.
That's why you brought your wife-men here.
You are right.
Accept my apologies. We will leave you in peace.
Wait! >
Come.
(Sister) Many of these women are noble.
Good women of the town.
Good wives...and daughters.
COUGHING
They have been arriving here every hour and every day for the last seven night.
We have seen things here
that we have never dreamt of seeing.
Men may do such things as women would never dream of.
What can be done?
We soothe them as we can.
Many will not take meat, and choose to die of hunger.
Many no longer speak.
Glad I am to see you.
Sshh!
INDISTINCT CHATTERING
WHISTLES LOUDLY
(What do you see?)
(Sentinels.)
CRUNCH!
MAN GASPS
SLICING
IN NORMAN:
Debout.
LAUGHTER
Chevalier.
Chevalier!
THEY SPEAK
KNOCKING
Anglais?
SHOUTING
Retreat!
I will not retreat from these Christ men! I will not retreat!
SHOUTING
NOISE OF FIGHTING CONTINUES
(Leofric) They say they are surrounding us.
If we don't go now, we'll be trapped.
Retreat!
They're coming up. They've got it surrounded.
FOOTSTEPS APPROACH
Sss! Wake up.
I met a party of men from Anglia on the road.
We go to the hill at Hastings. Come. Your wife-man will be safe.
No. I have done my war work.
Look, you mind the days beyond the battle, new husband,
when you must tell your kin that you sat in a high tower
and watched England burn.
I will stay with my wife-man!
Go with him.
No.
The battle will be swift.
We will rebuild our house.
Don't be long.
♪ This Middle Earth
♪ Declines and falls
♪ One hath war destroyed
♪ Borne on their journey
♪ One the fowl hath borne o'er deepest oceans
♪ One the hoar-wolf by death has separated
♪ One in an earth-grave a man hath hidden
♪ The maker of men laid this shire to waste
♪ Till the old works of giants looked desolate
♪ And he who has seen these noble ruins
♪ At the end of his dark life asks himself... ♪
So, the English have the hill.
ENGLISH SOLDIERS SHOUTING
We have God.
♪ ..Where is horse? Where is man?
Thus, the battle lines had been ordered.
The Normans massed below the hill upon which the English stood proud.
♪ ..Our time has passed... ♪
And behind that hill called Senlac...
lay the Norman prize...
♪ ..As if it had not been ♪
..the green and bounteous fields of England.
SOLDIERS CHANTING
I swear before this company that...
(All) ..I will fight to the death for my King.
If my King or my lord shall die,
I shall take his place and fight as he would have fought.
If any men here see me taken with weak-heart, and run away,
he shall remind me of this pledge made here before my kin.
Archers, draw!
Loose arrows!
Shields above!
Archers, draw.
Loose arrows!
The third almighty battle clash of 1066 had begun.
The hail of arrows upon the shield wall failed to shatter its strength,
or draw the English down from the hill.
Now it was time for the weapon most feted
and most feared in the Norman armoury.
The one brought at such cost across the whale-road.
Cavalry...forward!
SHOUTING
They are coming.
SHOUTING AND SCREAMING
HORSES WHINNYING
Do they intend just to bore us to death?
Why do they stand on the hill? Why do they not fight?!
ENGLISH SOLDIERS CHANTING
We need a champion.
The duke will wish a challenger
to draw out the English in single combat.
Such a gesture of commitment will bring you rich reward.
Not me, mon baron.
Our champion must be a man of noble birth.
Why?
Make sure the duke knows who I was,
and who are my kin in France.
MEN GROANING
Un Anglais.
Un Anglais de nobilite!
A man of rank, he said.
That'd be me.
(All)Ordgar! Ordgar! Ordgar!
Ordgar! Ordgar! Ordgar!
ENGLISH SOLDIERS CONTINUE CHANTING
BARON PANTING
BARON ROARING
INAUDIBLE
CHANTING
Tu dois me laisser gagner.
Eh?
You must let me win, English.
Speak slower.
Or let me appear valiant.
My family will live...
..even if my soul will not.
BARON ROARING
Agh!
Normandie!
SHOUTING
It was an unexplained yet noble sacrifice
the Norman victor would make that morning.
Perhaps both men of rank shared a common goal.
Both, in different ways,
had died so that others could live.
Ordgar...you were the bravest of your shire.
Every Englishman who shared your oath vowed to avenge your untimely death.
Let the Norman orcs come,
as surely they would.
On horse, on foot...en masse.
SHOUTING
Wave after wave of Norman assault still could not take our hill.
The duke who would be conqueror,
they say was somewhere in the thickest of the fighting.
And then, such is the confusion of battle,
a rumour spread amongst the groans of the dying.
Their duke is dead. He's slain. Pass it on!
Their lead-man is dead. Pass it on.
Their duke is dead!
Oh, how sweet the taste of victory must have been.
How bitter for the Norman invaders.
Let's send them into the sea! For Ordgar!
No!
Come! They flee!
Do not break the wall!
The battle is done!
Do not trust the Normans. Do not break that wall!
Their duke is dead! He's dead.
What had seemed like a retreat
revealed itself to be a trick
to lure the English from the safety of the hill.
Duke William was not dead,
and for the first time that day,
the Norman horsemen could harness their deadly advantage.
SILENCE
So many brave Englishmen met their doom below the hill,
none more beloved than the cowardly farmer who became a huscarl
and saved my life.
A Norman trick had taken too many from us,
leaving few weaponed-men to stand alone against the treacherous tide.
SOLDIERS CHANTING
So, finally,
the tale of the little people at the fateful Battle of Hastings
brings us to the plight of the King himself.
Harold now knew that his army was weakened,
and that every fighting man would be required to hold the hill.
That would include two of his brothers,
his son,
and perhaps even his lover, Edith Swan-Neck.
The Norman orcs kept coming,
little waves bent on probing the wall for weakness.
Stay behind this shield. Listen to me!
Stay behind this shield.
Watch him. I want no more charges.
Hour upon hour, the Normans threw themselves upon the shield wall
in what now became a battle of endurance.
But they kept on coming.
They kept seeking new approaches to the hill,
determined to bombard the English from all sides...
..and then, most decisively...
Crossbows!
Positions.
..from above and below in the same volley.
Archers...draw!
Loose!
ARROWS WHOOSHING
Draw!
Loose!
Crossbow...
Loose!
How in detail it came to pass
that the Normans prevailed on that day at Hastings
will for ever be shrouded in blood-mist.
But what is clear is that these orcs were truly demons, with no fear
and no pity.
Agh!
Sleep.
ARROWS RAINING DOWN
Dream of your land, your home and your woman.
Your fighting is done.
What is known for sure
is that, by dusk, the invaders
finally broke the shield wall for good and poured through.
And after defeating the mighty Vikingr
and running the length of our country,
not once but twice,
the exhausted farmers of England stood little chance.
The fate of our warrior King remains unclear to this day.
Some gaze upon the conqueror's famed cloth of Bayeux
and see him slain by an arrow to the eye.
"Harold the King is killed," it says.
But others say that he is this bloodied figure,
lain low by a horseman.
That four Norman knights,
crazed with bloodlust,
beset the body of the kingship,
disembowelled him...
..gelded him...
..and then beheaded him.
WOLVES HOWLING
GASPING
Have you seen my husband?
Have you seen mine?
Have you seen your King?
Please, please...
PIERCING SCREAM
SOBBING
WAILING
ANIMALS HOWLING
SOBBING
The bastard orca
left 5,000 Englishmen unburied upon Senlac Hill
for ten long years.
And within a lifetime,
not a single hide of Sussex had an English owner.
There is some pleasant land up where we came ashore.
Good fields.
Good rivers.
We can settle there.
How many sons do we have?
Six.
We will have land for another five.
Woman!
Harold alone was permitted a burial.
And, so the tribute goes,
you rest here, Harold that was a King,
that you still may guard the shore and sea.
We do not despise you, kingship...
..but we grieve and mourn for you.
♪ This Middle Earth... ♪
England was never the same again.
♪ ..This Middle Earth... ♪
The priories could not remain a refuge for ever,
and after more unkindnesses too cruel to be related,
the wife-men of the south were set
to making the story that would be told...
♪ ..Declines and falls...
..thus shining great light upon the duke who became William,
the conqueror of our precious piece of Middle Earth.
♪ ..One that fowl hath borne o'er deepest oceans
♪ One the hoar-wolf by death has separated
♪ One in an earth-grave... ♪
Now I've reached the end of the bitter song of my child days.
♪ ..The maker of men laid this shire to waste... ♪
Our village of Crowhurst
became the home of others who meant to stay.
♪ ..Till the old works of giants stood desolate
♪ And he who has seen these noble ruins... ♪
Our families would never again bring in the barley.
♪ ..And the end of his dark life asks himself... ♪
We set to wandering...
in search of a new home.
And it had once been told to me,
to soothe my child-fear, perhaps,
that away to the west
is a place rightly renowned,
a remote part of Middle Earth,
where the land is so lovely...
..endowed with delights,
and Earth's sweetest scents.
♪ ..Our time has passed as if it had not been... ♪