The Wake is certainly the most unusual book I have read in a very long time, if not ever, and the first thing you notice about it is the language. As I began it, I was reminded of those Facebook memes where the words are written backwards, or using numbers for certain letters, and purport to show what a strong mind you’ve got because you can still read them. The Wake is written in what author Paul Kingsnorth calls a “shadow tongue, a pseudo-language intended to convey the feeling of the old language by combining some of its vocabulary and syntax with the English we speak today.” (p 353) In other words, it’s a version of Old English updated just enough to be understandable to the modern reader. Here is a sample from the second page of the novel: all is open lic a wound unhealan and grene the world open and grene all men apart from the heorte, deofuls in, the heofon all men with sweord when they sceolde be with plough the ground full not of seed but of my folc. Why did he write in this language? Kingsnorth argues in an afterword that the way we speak grounds us in a specific time and place, and all that we are shows through in the words that we use. Therefore, he says, to put 21st-century sentences into the mouths of 11th-century characters would be the equivalent of giving them iPads and cappuccinos. (p.355) And he’s got a good point. Although when I read the first page, it took me a while and my heart sort of sank, I have to say that within 10-15 pages of it I was reading at close to my normal pace, and the slight slowing gave me time to appreciate the language. Because first and foremost, Kingsnorth is a poet, and his prose sings through with strong rhythms and beautiful imagery, of a land and time and place that is gone and all but forgotten.
Buccmaster of Holland is an English man who has just lived through the Norman invasion of 1066, a time when England was turned completely upside down, in what Kingsnorth calls “probably the most catastrophic single event in this nation’s history.” (p 357) He is a proud landowner of “3 oxgangs” (easy enough to figure out, although there is a helpful glossary which states that an oxgang was around 20 acres). He is a very proud man who will not tolerate any slight real or imagined, a character trait that becomes more and more pronounced as the book goes on. His grandfather was a hold-out to the old gods, Woden and Thor in particular, and Buccmaster believes in them too and is very anti-Christian in his philosophy, although the only reason he states for this is that Christ is “foreign” and the other gods local. He beats his wife and sons if he even thinks they are not showing him proper respect, and he views anyone not his social equal as having absolutely nothing to offer him except work and honour.
The story opens with the appearance of a big black “fugol” (bird) which seems to be carrying a message to Buccmaster, followed by a comet, or “haeric star,” which seems to be a portent of great doom. Sure enough, England is invaded in the north by the Danes. King Harald successfully holds them off, only to be captured and killed shortly afterwards by William the Conqueror and his French knights, who traverse the countryside raping, pillaging, and burning.
Buccmaster’s 2 sons go to fight both times, and neither returns from the French invasion. Buccmaster himself refuses to go, and refuses to let his oldest son take the family sword, which was supposedly given to his grandfather by the mythic Weland Smith (a character from a folk tale). He claims to be needed on the land, but is out catching eels when the French come, demand money, and when it’s not given, set fire to the entire hamlet. Buccmaster returns to find the smoldering remains of his house and his wife’s ravaged body. Still voices call to him, telling him he is chosen, not to be weak.
Buccmaster is gradually joined by others, but he always insists on being the leader, and is ready to kill anyway who even questions him. He and his followers become a part of the “grene men,” a rag tag group of freedom fighters against the French (who really existed). But more and more, Buccmaster becomes obsessed with his dark visions.
The Wake is a fascinating book about a dark time in history, with a desperately flawed anti-hero who longs for freedom but struggles to know how to attain it, when it seems gone from his land forever.