Hereward the Wake
This talk gives a brief survey of our authentic sources of information about Hereward and the most recent research on his parentage and the status of his family in pre-Conquest England. This is followed by a narrative account of his life as evidenced by these sources illustrating how, in common with many heroic narratives, the surviving stories of his early life combine mythical and semi-magical incidents with authentic historical events. Then follows his banishment from England, his military career and marriage in Flanders, his return to England in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest and his resistance to the invaders with the involvement of Morcar, the Northern rebels and King Swein of Denmark, culminating with an account of his leadership of the last resistance to King William with the Isle of Ely as his base. The talk ends with a survey of current theories about Hereward’s subsequent survival and the manner of his death, and a consideration of what we are looking for in our heroes and why public awareness of them can rise and fall over time.
Speaker: Mike Lynch
Mike was born in Manchester and read English Language and Literature at Oxford University. He taught English for several years in schools and colleges and was subsequently called to the Bar at the Middle Temple, specialising as a consultant in Employment Law. He is married with two grown-up children and for many years lived in Staffordshire where he served as a County Councillor. Now retired, he lives in the Cambridge area and teaches courses on Dickens, Jane Austen and George Eliot at the University of the Third Age in Cambridge. He is a member of the Dickens Fellowship and a member of the Royal Society of Literature. He is currently working on a book of limericks. Since he came to live in the Cambridge area Mike has developed an interest in the life and achievements of one local hero, Hereward the Wake, and has delivered several lectures on this illustrious figure.
FREE for FRAG Members
Non-members welcome – £5 cash, payable on the night
(card payment not currently possible)
The Venue for FRAG Talks is:
University Centre Peterborough
Park Crescent
PE1 4DZ
What3words: https://w3w.co/grants.liner.slime
This is NOT the new university building in the centre of the city, but is on a shared campus with Peterborough College and is accessed from Park Crescent.
There is on-site parking available.
The lecture theatre is on the first floor; a lift is available.
