The Warwick Ring by Anne Scotcher
I Athelstan, King of the Anglo-Saxons, have four sisters. All of these I have wedded to great rulers.Four white petals surrounded by a sea. That is what Conrad, the emissary of Prince Otto, fancifully
called them when he crossed over the German Ocean to choose one for his master. For Otto had
heard the fame of their beauty and that they did not wish to be parted.
He sent a ring to encapsulate these sentiments. The ring was given to Edith, a serious-minded
girl, and not the fairest. She departed from Wessex, the land of her ancestors, and she took with
her a fair handmaiden.
I Edith am Abbess of St. Osburg in Mercia. The great Alfred caused my brother, Athelstan, to be
reared in Mercia, now part of the kingdom. My beloved sisters played in the cloisters of this abbey.
I do not see them any longer, but I feel their presence.
I am too feeble to rise from my bed. I command thee, Ethweyn, to take this ring and bury it in the
field by the stream. No plough shall unearth its secrets. It was fashioned in the dark forests of
Thuringaria. Let it remain hidden. Let my secret go with me to the grave.
It is to be regretted that Otto should found his dynasty on a Saxon peasant. But then my brother,
Athelstan, was always said to be base-born. And he was a great king.
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