Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer's Reviews > The Wake

Outstanding novel about a landowner in Lincolnshire – Buccmaster of Holland – set in the years 1066-1068. Buccmaster, even before the Norman invasion, is apart from his fellow fen dwellers, still, like his grandfather but not his father, a follower of the Old Gods and a rejecter of the Church; also someone convinced he has through his Grandfather been chosen and marked out by the legendary blacksmith Weland (whose sword he believes he owns).

At the start of 1066 he believes he sees various ill omens – he refuses to participate in the fights against either the Danish or Norman invasion, his children do fight and are killed in the second and shortly after (as reprisals for not paying taxes to the French and while Buccmaster is absent) his farm is burned down and his wife killed. He escapes to the woods, joining up with a servant and then a young boy – initially avoiding the French, the boy’s hero worship challenges him into killing a French knight (leading to vicious reprisals on the village) and in turn gathering a small band of outlaws around him. His band kills various Frenchmen over time, but Buccmaster is clearly reluctant to commit actions to match his words and even his self-image, he is challenged verbally by his band (keener to join up with Hereward the Wake) and in his head by conversations with Weland Smith. As the book draws to a close the gap between Buccmaster and his followers grows, particularly when his embrace of the old Gods lead to try to carry out a ritualistic killing on a French knight – we also find out (as do his followers) that after having been expelled by his father for attempting a pagan style bural for his Grandfather, he returned several years later and likely murdered his father and sister in an “accidental” fire.

The book is written in a “shadow tongue” – a version of Olde English updated to be readable but respecting many of the rules of that language. Crucially this adds seeming authenticity to Buccmaster’s first person tale and it’s clear that the constraints of the language force the author to more closely imagine the actual thoughts and attitudes that Buccmaster may hold. This relates to a wider theme which its clear Kingsnorth feels strongly about and which he puts into Buccmaster’s mouth, that the true soul of a country is completely bound up in its land, its farming, its language, its ways and the interactions between those – Buccmaster often states that the foreign ways and names for things which change England for ever, that Christianity is destroying the uniqueness and essence of Englishness (themes similar to the author’s non-fictional polemics around the commercialisation of English town centres and villages).

What is perhaps most interesting about it is that Buccmaster himself, despite representing the author’s views, is a self-obsessed and delusional character.

I am not sure if is self-aware or self-delusional that a character who clearly represents the author’s views is themselves self-delusional.

A clue may be that a self-proclaimed English nationalist and follower of traditional pre-Christian English rituals actually lives in the West of Ireland and says he is a Zen Buddhist.