The Battle of Hastings was fought in mid-October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold.
It took place approximately 7 miles north-west of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex.
Harold's death, caused by an arrow towards the end of the battle, brought about the defeat of his army and led to the Norman Conquest of England.
OCTOBER RAIN
An aspen in a Norman wood
supplied the shaft.
A craftsman’s patience
straightened, seasoned,
then perfected
something far removed from nature,
shaped the taper, sealed it,
gently carved the narrow nock.
Fingers, that might pluck a lute
on fair-days, set to fletching:
grey-goose feathers,
resin gum,
fine thread of linen.
These would aid trajectory,
ensure trueness of flight.
Lastly, a hand affixed with care
an arrowhead, the killing-piece,
fierce-furnace-forged
into a kind of bird-wing-shape
with pointed beak, as lethal as a battle-sword.
It would be one of many
that French archers took to English soil
to fly in flocks like starlings
over Hastings fields
and fall to earth like iron rain,
out of a grey October sky,
to pierce the fearful blue of Harold’s eye.
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