Hereward The Wake - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

Folktales and fiction

• Some of the legends about Hereward were incorporated into later legends about Robin Hood.
• Thomas Bulfinch wrote about Hereward the Wake in his work: The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes (1855) .
• Charles Kingsley's novel Hereward the Wake: "last of the English" (London: Macmillan, 1866) is a highly romanticised account of Hereward's exploits, and makes him the son of Earl Leofric of Mercia and the ancestor of the family of Wake.
• Jack Trevor Story wrote a long dramatised life of Hereward for one of Tom Boardman's boys' annuals.
• Cold Heart, Cruel Hand: a novel of Hereward the Wake (2004) is a novel by Laurence J. Brown.
• Hereward the Wake makes a significant appearance in Keeper of the Crystal Spring (1998) by Naomi & Deborah Baltuck, a historical romance/adventure set in a predominantly Saxon community 20 years after the Battle of Hastings.
• An Endless Exile (2004), by Mary Lancaster, is a historical novel based on Hereward's life.
• Hereward is portrayed as a prototype Robin Hood, but also a drug-taking, psychopathic arsonist, in Mike Ripley's novel The Legend of Hereward the Wake (2007).
• Henry Treece's children's novel Man with a Sword was published by the Bodley Head, London, in 1962: Hereward is the hero of the story, in the first episode he is the champion of the Empress Gunhilda of Germany and at the end his life extends past the death of William I.
• Marcus Pitcaithly's epic Hereward trilogy (Hereward: Sons of the White Dragon (2008), Hereward: The Fury of the Northmen (2009), and Hereward: Doom of Battle (2012)) incorporates legendary figures from the same region such as Tom Hickathrift, the Toadmen of Wisbech, Black Shuck, and the phantom knight of Wandlebury.
• Conquest by Stewart Binns (2011) is a historical novel covering Hereward's life in dramatic and bloody detail. It takes significant dramatic liberties, projecting that Hereward later took the alias 'Godwin of Ely' and worked his way to the Head of Emperor Alexius's Byzantine forces; before heading off on the First Crusade, to become a lead strategist of the Princes' Crusade and advisor of Bohemond of Taranto.
• Hereward by James Wilde (2011), a "brutal novel of revenge", first in a projected trilogy, with the next two titles, The Devil's Army and End of Days to be published in the future.
• The 1985 Doctor Who Annual included a short story entitled "The Real Hereward". The premise of this story is that Hereward was an alias adopted by King Harold after surviving the Battle of Hastings.

Film and television

• The BBC made a 16-episode TV series in 1965 entitled Hereward the Wake, based on Kingsley's novel: Hereward was portrayed by actor Alfred Lynch. However, not one episode of this BBC series has survived, according to the archive records.
• Hancock's Half Hour - Sid James claims Hereward stayed at Hancock's house as a ploy to get the house renovated by the National Trust.
• Brian Blessed portrayed Hereward in the TV drama Blood Royal: William the Conqueror (1990).
• BBC TV Series "Horrible Histories", series 4, episode 10, features the Siege of Ely including the deployment of a witch as a weapon against the Saxons.

Music

• Progressive rock band Pink Floyd referred to Hereward in the track "Let There Be More Light" (1968), in which a psychedelic vision at Mildenhall reveals the 'living soul of Hereward the Wake'. Lyrics by Roger Waters.
• He appears in the lyrics of the 1970 track "Darkness" by progressive group Van der Graaf Generator from their album The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other. Lyrics by Peter Hammill.
• Hereward is the subject of the track "Rebel of the Marshlands" by metal band Forefather, in their 2005 album Ours Is the Kingdom.

Hereward is now also a common boys' name