Heirloom Audio Productions: Wulf the Saxon
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We have been learning more about The Battle of Hastings thanks to a copy of Wulf the Saxon on CD from Heirloom Audio Productions as part of the Homeschool Review Crew.
Our family has adored past releases from Heirloom Audio Productions. The actors and actresses do a phenomenal job bringing each of the stories to life. Beyond being entertained, you and the kids are likely to learn a bit more about history in the process.
About Wulf the Saxon
In Wulf the Saxon, you travel back to the year 1065.
Sitting on the throne as King of England is Edward the Confessor.
The protagonist of this story is Wulf, a young Saxon landholder. In particular, he is at the bottom rung of the nobility.
When you meet him, he is known to be quick to speak his mind. It is for that reason he is sent from London to the country where he is the new noble with the idea of getting to know those under his charge. At the end of a year ‘in exile’, he has begun to earn the respect of both those he serves and those who are under his charge.
Soon after he has returned to favor, Wulf finds himself shipwrecked on the shores of Normandy. This is not the place a noble from England wants to find himself as there are tensions between the Anglo-Saxons and Normans. He escapes the group’s captor to seek help from Duke William to free Earl Harold. Only William uses trickery to have Harold swear fidelity to him before allowing the group of Saxons to return to England.
After the group departs Normandy, a desperate struggle for the throne of England begins. Individuals dispute who has the right to be named king. And on a battlefield outside of Hastings, the very course of history is decided.
Battle of Hastings
For those who are unfamiliar with this particular struggle, this is the battle which saw William of Normandy seize control of England. The rulers went from Anglo-Saxon to Norman and the country was never the same as it had been before.
Edward the Confessor was childless when he died and William claimed to have been promised the throne upon Edward’s death. William and Edward were cousins. Instead, Harold II, the Earl of Wessex, was named the successor. He then struggled with other individuals bent on taking the crown, including his own brother!
The Battle of Hastings was a long all day affair with thousands of men dying, including Harold II. The location is in the SE quadrant of England, about 7 miles north of the coastal town of Hastings.
No one is certain who killed Harold, but they can all agree that the victory put William in place to take control once he arrived in London shortly afterward. He commissioned Battle Abbey to be built on the battle site with the church’s high altar placed at the site where Harold had died.
Our Thoughts on Wulf the Saxon
Like past selections, this one definitely caught my boys’ attention.
The actors were phenomenal as always. Brian Blessed returns as G. A. Henty. A few of the other actors were familiar from either past Heirloom Audio Productions or other shows we have seen.
My youngest loved listening to the scenes aboard the boats caught in the storm. As we were finishing the scene which ends in the shipwreck, he asked me if I was imagining what everything would look like.
THIS is why I adore Heirloom Audio Productions.
In a culture where video games reign and kids seem to miss the ability to imagine, it is audiobooks like these that are helping them to cultivate that skill.
The way the information is imparted is brilliant. Everything is wrapped into an engaging story that captures the listener’s attention. The beginning even had a quick overview of the royal hierarchy so the listener can understand where different individuals fall.
And there is no shortage of action-packed adventure with sound effects to help those imaginations along.
As a parent, I had something unique going through my head while listening to this story. I recognize that not having things in writing upon your death makes it hard to know who was the intended recipient of what. While I don’t have a kingship to pass on to my boys, I don’t like the thought that they might dispute inheritances.
Don’t just take my word for how we found this to be. Visit Heirloom Audio Productions post on the Homeschool Review Crew website to see what other homeschooling parents thought about this resource.
