Saxon Heroines: A Northumbrian Novel by Sandra Wagner-Wright

Sandra Wagner-Wright’s Saxon Heroines: A Northumbrian Novel is a story rich in the history of many centuries ago. During a time of constant shifts in power across Northumbria and what would later become England, Christianity is only just becoming embedded as the religion of choice in the region. Kings are renouncing Woden and embracing their divine right to rule.

Part of a series that tells the stories of lesser-known women in history, Saxon Heroines focuses on the stories of four women in seventh century Northumbria. Split into three parts, the book focuses in each on a different woman of early Saxon history. First is Ethelberga of Kent, who becomes the new Queen of Northumbria in 624, and tasked with converting the king to Christianity. Then the focuses shifts to Ethelberga’s daughter Enfleda in the second part, and Enfleda’s daughter Elfleda in the third. Throughout the entire book, the life of Hildeburg is told from her role in King Edwin’s court to her holy life as the Abbess of Streoneshalh. Each of these women lived and died long ago, but they had a profound effect on history.

Readers who love history will enjoy the exhilarating effect of being transported back several centuries to a much more changeling way of life. With few detailed historical records of seventh-century Northumbria, Wagner-Wright does the impossible task of filling in between the lines of history. She takes what these ancient historians have recorded about these four women tells their stories as accurately as possible. These women were, like Wagner-Wright writes, “present but not visible” so the few things recorded about them were their titles, who they married, and who their children were. With these few facts, Ethelberga, Enfleda, Elfleda, and Hildeburg have their own voices. Ones that have not been heard for many years in this way.

The front and back matter of the book are just as important as the body of the text and are just as much of the story as the story itself. A story like Saxon Heroines that is heavily based in history needs added material for readers to reference. Readers may get lost and confused as the story moves more rapidly through time in the latter two parts, and may need help to differentiate between similar name. In her author’s note, Wagner-Wright adds even more historical context to the events of the story and reveals what happens in the years following the last chapter.

Saxon Heroines: A Northumbian Novel is the perfect book for readers of history and of Christian fiction and non-fiction. Set is a time in which Christianity was taking hold across the region, the women of Saxon Heroines each play a pivotal role in the making of history.

Published version here