While on a research trip to the North, I finally had a chance to visit Ad Gefrin, a distillery and immersive museum exploring the 7th century "golden age" of Northumbria. You can find it in the town of Wooler, not too from from Bamburgh.
Gefrin was a royal court established at nearby Yeavering. Nothing remains of it above ground, but you can visit the site, and marvel at the wild northern scenery. It's of interest to me because one of the bard book's antagonists is Æthelfrith, whom the Britons called Flesaur ("Twister"). They also nicknamed his predecessor, Theodric, as Fflamddwyn (“Flame-bearing / Fiery”). Æthelfrith and his fellow Bernician kings clashed many times with the native British realms of yr Hen Ogledd (the Old North) during the 6th & 7th centuries. Gefrin would have seen several kings during this time, including the powerful Æthelfrith, who was first to unite the Anglian realms of Deira and Bernicia into a single kingdom.
There are some marvellous finds in the museum. Some were recovered locally, others are borrowed from further afield. I was especially thrilled at the bridge and tuning peg for an Anglo-Saxon lyre, since I’ve had to research ancient instruments for my new novel, which is called The Last Verse of the Harp Lord.
There's also a very cool recreation of the royal court and what it might have looked and sounded like - with a scop (the Saxon equivalent of a bard) singing of King Oswald’s virtue and heroism while the nobles feasted. Oswald ruled Northumbria during the early 7th century, and did much to foster Christianity in the north. If you’ve read my books - Sistersong and Song of the Huntress - you’ll know I love to explore the tension between incoming Christianity and established pagan traditions.
Ad Gefrin is a distillery too and though I'm not one for whiskey, I came away with a fine bottle of gin. If you're in the area, it’s a brilliant place to explore, especially if you team it with a visit to the original site at Yeavering. And if you do go, don't forget to stand on the circle in the antechamber - it magnifies your voice! It’s the perfect place from which a bard or scop may recite their ancient tales of battle, blood and glory.
Thanks for reading The Land Beneath the Wave! This post is public so feel free to share it.
p.s. We actually stayed in one of the towers of Bamburgh Castle: another place that features in my new novel back when it was called Din Guardi and was the stronghold of a native British king, Morcant. There has been an inhabited fortification on this site for more than fourteen hundred years.
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