Winter's Blossom: The Seasons of Arthur

Chapter 32

There was something magical about that land north of the wall. Gododdin and those lands north and west of it seemed like something from the myths and legends if old, those that had frightened the Romans. The sky seemed to be either a colourless grey, or else a crisp blue. It rained a lot. The rain would come in sideways upon the grassy slopes.

If Elmet had been flat, Gododdin certainly wasn't. the ground was undulating all the time, rolling up across the countryside and creating steep valleys that rivers and streams ran through. The further north we went the steeper and craggier those hills. The waters ran clear and fast and were thick with big fish.

Further north, the mountains rose into the mist shrouded sky that wrapped around their peaks like dark crowns. Their mountains were a mixture of beautiful and foreboding and I could well believe the old myths that dragons hid in those mountains, just as monsters were said to still inhabit the great lakes, or lochs as they called them that lay within the deep valleys of those mountain fastnesses.

The northern Roman wall could barely justify the name. It was little more than a deep ditch and turf wall upon it's southern side, on which the remnant s of a rotten fence was mostly collapsed but still stubbornly stood in some places. The eastern end of the wall was a little to the north of Din Eidyn, and it was where Agravaine had his seat.

I had not realised before that Agravaine was already the effective ruler of the kingdom. His father, King Ban, was old and growingly senile, who had taken residence. Though many petitioners still sort the justice of the king, they were directed towards the king's councillors who were men put in place by the prince. Agravaine had only a younger half brother, much too young to take responsibility. Those issues that were seemed too important for the fragile mind of the king were directed towards Agravaine.

It was the only place I had been on my travels where the women seemed to desperately outnumber the men. More often than not the women were tilling the fields, shearing the sheep as even in the growing winter the men were still arrayed along the borders to stop the incursions from the Caledonians, who would raid as much in the winter as they would in the summer.

As such, the forces in the north of the country were vast. Nearly two hundred Votadini spearmen were arrayed in varying positions throughout the north and the west of the country, but quite a significant part of the Votadini war bands were tied into the west to hold back the spread of the Scots. The Scotti were tribesmen who had come across the narrow sea between our land and the untamed, misty wilderness they called Hibernia and who had invaded the western kingdom of Strathclyde and were ever trying to expand their borders east into Gododdin, all while viciously raiding the land they called Rheged. With the onset of autumn slowing the Scotti's push, and the western Votadini spearmen doing little more than deterring a future threat. Thus Agravaine stayed in Din Eidyn with a small war band, where he could oversee the war and react against the immediate threat.

The northern Caledonian tribes had caused mayhem for the Romans, coming south and raiding over the walls, and were the traditional enemy for the Votadini in Goddodin, and especially Lothian since the western borders had been backed towards the east by the surrounding Scots and Caledonians. Having helped to force Rome back over their walls, they had become an ally of Rome in keeping the Caledonian tribes away. However, with their Roman allies gone, Goddodin had found herself fighting a war on numerous fronts, defending against this Scottish invasion, sending troops to the aid of the High King, and trying to defend against the raids.

The Caledonians lived in misty mountainsides that seemed to permanently rain swept or snow covered, and after mere days in the north I had no cause to wonder why my ancestors had decided to come south, nor why the Caledonian raiders were so keen also.