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The Words of Bernfrieda
When an author provides both maps and a genealogical table, the reader senses a reading experience of family intrigue and fascinating locale, which is the case in Gabriella Brooke’s first novel, The Words of Bernfrieda, (EWU Press) a family saga of Eleventh Century France and Italy.
Featuring the House of Tancred of Hauteville, the story is told through the voice of Bernfrieda, bastard daughter of Mauger and older half-sister and lady-in-waiting to The Lady Fredesenda, who is given as bride to Tancred of Hauteville on the windswept coast of Normandy.
Because of Bernfrieda’s close relationship with The Lady Fredesenda, she has the privilege of illuminating manuscripts in the scriptorium, which allows her to write the chronicle of her life at a time when few men, and fewer women, could write.
"Even now, that in spite of my sex I have learned to write as well as any monk, I interrupt my work and stare when Brother Gaufredus begins a new manuscript…"
While working in the scriptorium, Bernfrieda discovers that Brother Amatus, a noted scribe, has arrived to write a chronicle of Fredesenda’s son, Robert of Guiscard, Norman conqueror of Apulia in Italy. Bernfrieda reveals her excitement about Brother Amatus’s visit with Brother Gaufredus, her mentor, who while kind, reflects the general attitude of the time toward women.
"Your penmanship is so good that at times I forget that you are a woman. Why should the implications of his visit interest you? Like most women you only care about simple things."
When Bernfrieda questions if Brother Amatus will be able to tell the complete truth from only one side of Robert’s story, Brother Gaufredus ridicules her question.
"This proves once more that women should leave the written word alone. For what good are reading and writing without a mind capable of discerning what is important from what isn’t?"
Despite Brother Gaufredus’s criticism, Bernfrieda decides to write her chronicle in secret. She says of Brother Gaufredus, "He loves writing but he would not understand. I can almost hear his mocking words: ‘You? Write a chronicle? Oh, that would be perfect, Bernfrieda! Why don’t you write a Chanson instead?’ He’d roar with laughter and then he would scold me. ‘If God intended women to write he would have set up the world differently. Don’t forget God made you from a rib, Bernfrieda, not exactly the site of a man’s intellectual gift!’
"My goal will be modest, " she muses, "to tell what happened so that Senda’s children’s children may know what will be left out by Amatus and the other chroniclers."
The lowly lot of women is a primary focus of this chronicle, and the very act of Bernfrieda’s writing illustrates the contribution women would have made early, had the men of the Western world been more secure in themselves, and more astute in recognizing the value of their women.
When Tancred of Hauteville visits Mauger’s keep at Granville on the north coast of Normandy in November of 1014, he requests that Mauger provide a replacement for his deceased wife, Muriella.
"…Hauteville is empty without Muriella—but she has been buried four months, Mauger, and I have two young boys still at home and a baby now who needs a mother—it is the reason I came—you are my Lord and my friend. Help me find a wife. I was married for too long to be celibate again."
Mauger offers his daughter as bride, with simple finality, "Fredesenda, you are to marry Tancred." Despite the fact of Fredesenda’s burgeoning love for Gillaume, Tancred’s son, she has no say in the matter, no power over her own fate. The wedding will take place within days, with Gillaume, who dearly loves his father’s bride, as attendant.
In terms illustrating the humiliating subjugation of women, no incident in the novel is more powerful than Fredesenda’s wedding night.
Mauger, Fredesenda’s father, hands her over to the far older Tancred in a simple ceremony. "I give you my daughter, Tancred. Honor and cherish her as your wife."
Immediately following on the heels of the wedding dinner, during which Tancred offers to feed Fredesenda bits of meat from his knife, custom demands the couple sit naked to be inspected by the wedding guests to assure that neither has undesirable physical flaws. Tancred’s readiness to mate with his bride is evident to everyone present, and Fredesenda’s embarrassment almost incapacitates her. After the examination, the guests exit the drapery enclosed wedding bed, allowing the couple to consummate their marriage while guests continue to eat, drink and tell ribald stories within hearing of the newlyweds.
As if it weren’t enough for women to be dominated by men, conflicts among women exacerbated their situation. Sisters, daughters-in-law, nieces, and female servants all competed for the attentions of the lord of the keep. Spiteful rivalries hatched like mayflies, filling the air with constant threat. For while the Lady of the keep never held power over her husband, she held what could be merciless power over the other women.
And, of course, no woman was safe from men single or married, and rape was a common experience few servant girls or women escaped; and half-brothers and sisters rounded out the family of every lord.
Unlike Brother Amatus’s account, Bernfrieda’s secret chronicle presents the complete story of Tancred’s family, chronicling the events of both the men and the women.
Rivalry challenged the men as well, for they earned their status only through military conquest and land acquired. Family relationships mattered not, and it was inevitable that brother contended against brother.
Robert Guiscard, Fredisenda’s oldest son, fights as a Norman in Italy where he gains both honor and land. His brothers and half-brothers are offered opportunities to fight in his behalf gaining the opportunity of earning title and land of their own. Robert and his youngest brother, Rogier, risk everything in a declared war with one another, with only the Lady Fredesenda to face the challenge of bringing about reconciliation between her struggling sons.
Gabriela Brooke’s, The Words of Bernfrieda, presents a poignant, authentic, and suspenseful account of life in the Eleventh Century. Romantic in the best sense, her novel also incorporates the common unromantic realities of the time. The pervading smell of dung and urine within castle walls keeps the reader grounded in reality. Sudden and unexpected death hovers in the damp air. Rape and incest become common companions of all who enter the walls of a lord’s keep, and betrayal remains the dominant force in the lives of the men and women of the age.
Gabriella Brooke’s narrative style measures up to other great narratives of literature, both ancient and modern, from Great Expectations, to Ahab’s Wife. The Words of Bernfrieda, a powerful story of family intrigue and personal struggle, is a remarkable book, which captures both the sound and the sense of life in 11th Century Europe.
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