Roderick: Difference between revisions
imported>Sol Pacificus When you revise writing, you need to be careful not add new info you're assuming based on your reading of the article. There's no indication the soldier arrested him "on the chance" no bounty hunter went after him as opposed to hunting for him himself. My citations were also specifically for the attempted assassinations, not his exile. / "Execution escort" implies the soldier was assigned to transport him as opposed to a guy who kidnapped him impulsively himself. |
imported>Sol Pacificus As I was just explaining to editors again, we don't always have to introduce protagonists in the exact same way. "Eivor Varinsdottir" is fine but I'm reverting this just to emphasize that point. I went with "Eivor of the Raven Clan" in the lede because that's how she always introduces herself to her allies, and the patronymic doesn't seem as essential an element in Viking culture. I used Eivor Varinsdottir further down. There's no hard and fast rule about it. |
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{{Quote|You have the wrong man! I've never heard of a Hunwald. I can't even properly say the name! Is it Hunwald or Honwald?|Roderick pleading to his captor, 870s|Assassin's Creed: Valhalla|The False Ealdormancy}} | {{Quote|You have the wrong man! I've never heard of a Hunwald. I can't even properly say the name! Is it Hunwald or Honwald?|Roderick pleading to his captor, 870s|Assassin's Creed: Valhalla|The False Ealdormancy}} | ||
'''Roderick''' was a man who lived in [[Lincolnshire|Lincolnscire]] in the latter 9th century. He physically resembled [[Hunwald]], the son of the shire's [[ealdorman]] [[Hundbeorht]], a fact that got him into trouble when Hunwald was being hunted by local authorities. After a [[Mercia]]n [[soldier]] misidentified and arrested him, Hunwald's ally [[Eivor Varinsdottir]] of the [[Raven Clan]] rescued him when she ran into the two of them on the road and decided to intervene. | '''Roderick''' was a man who lived in [[Lincolnshire|Lincolnscire]] in the latter 9th century. He physically resembled [[Hunwald]], the son of the shire's [[ealdorman]] [[Hundbeorht]], a fact that got him into trouble when Hunwald was being hunted by local authorities. After a [[Mercia]]n [[soldier]] misidentified and arrested him, Hunwald's ally [[Eivor Varinsdottir|Eivor]] of the [[Raven Clan]] rescued him when she ran into the two of them on the road and decided to intervene. | ||
==Biography== | ==Biography== | ||
Revision as of 02:58, 29 May 2024
Roderick was a man who lived in Lincolnscire in the latter 9th century. He physically resembled Hunwald, the son of the shire's ealdorman Hundbeorht, a fact that got him into trouble when Hunwald was being hunted by local authorities. After a Mercian soldier misidentified and arrested him, Hunwald's ally Eivor of the Raven Clan rescued him when she ran into the two of them on the road and decided to intervene.
Biography
An everyday local of Lincolnscire, Roderick had no relation to the political intrigues being waged on high by the nobles.[1] In the 870s, his ealdorman Hundbeorht fell ill and died,[2] but a secret group known as the Order of the Ancients conspired to keep his death hidden to secure the succession for one of their own, Bishop Herefrith.[3] To that end, they forced Hundbeorht's son Hunwald into exile while repeatedly sending soldiers to try to assassinate [4][5] They also placed a bounty on his head.[1]
If not for the unfortunate happenstance that he resembled Hunwald, none of this would have been pertinent to Roderick, who did not even know that Hunwald was the late ealdorman's son. He was shocked when a Mercian soldier misidentified him as Hunwald one day and arrested him, binding him in ropes and putting him on his horse. Roderick frantically protested that he was not Hunwald all along the trip to an execution site north of Lincoln. When his pleas fell on deaf ears, he began to cry out desperately for help.[1]
By chance, he and his captor encountered Eivor Varinsdottir on the road. The Viking shieldmaiden had allied herself with Hunwald and was then leaving Lincoln on instructions by Abbess Acha to find him at Ealdorman's Overlook, where he was likely to be mourning his father.[5] Eivor and Roderick's paths merged, and when she noticed his plight, she intervened by striking his captor off his horse. Listless to her assertion that his prisoner was not Hunwald, the soldier fought Eivor for a few bouts with his flail until she slew him. Following this, the Viking freed Roderick from his bounds. Deeply grateful for the rescue, he expressed his hope that he could someday repay the favour.[1]