#Godwin of Wessex

[behindfairytales]

DAVID OAKES as Earl Godwin Vikings: Valhalla, Greenland (3.05)

[borgialucrezia]

DAVID OAKES as EARL GODWIN HENESSI SCHMIDT as GYTHA VIKINGS: VALHALLA - season 3

[ariadnethedragon]

LAURA BERLIN as EMMA OF NORMANDY

Vikings: Valhalla (2022-) 2.06

[muse-oleum]

ALSO Vikings: Valhalla s3 i am BLESSED today. time for the return of the sluttiest, foxiest Earl to ever strut the earth.

[emma-ofnormandy]

[cheapcakeripper]

If there's one thing TLK and VV can agree on...

[jens-holland]

Wrote a thing inspired by Vikings Valhalla S3E7 when Knut gathers all his potential successors into one room! The tension is rife and the meta historical foreboding was insane.

[mercurygray]

hi hello friend it’s me feeding the Godwin/Edith muse yet again because ✨reasons✨ but could I request something for them for ‘22. blood’ from your latest prompt reblog? 🧡

Sorry this took so long, friend! More 1920s Peaky Blinders AU -how could I not, with a prompt like this?

"Aren't you going to ask?"

Edith took a long, deep breath, her eyes fixed on the task at hand. "It's not my job to ask questions."

"And you're not at all curious?"

"It may surprise you to know that bloodstains are a somewhat regular occurrence in this house, Mr. Saxon-West. I stopped being curious a long time ago."

But she was curious, just a little, to know how exactly her employer's lawyer had come to be covered in blood, though she could fill in the gaps, a little, if she squinted long enough.

A car had squealed up the drive at nearly midnight, rain pelting the windshield, and several men had gotten out, banging down the door and bundling someone inside as they shouted for bandages and a doctor and heaven only knows what else, and waking up the entire house while they did it. Edith was quickly out on the landing in her dressing gown, joined almost immediately by Emma, looking around to see what was wrong. "Mama?" Two bleary-eyed boys emerged from the nursery.

"Hush, my darlings, there's nothing to worry about," Emma said, picking the younger up and walking back to the nursery. She turned around to Edith and her eyes gestured downstairs. Go and see.

Edith tightened the belt of her dressing gown and took a deep breath. If her lady wanted answers, then answers she would get.

Lord Edmund had been shot. The details hardly mattered to Edith - at a club, or a bar, or his mistress' house made no difference whatsoever. He was presently laid on the dining room table, wounds staunched with dishtowels and being seen to by the doctor, and some of the minders he'd had with him were in his stepfather's study letting their clothes dry, helping themselves to Canute's whiskey and - perhaps, in one instance - the charms of one of the parlor maids, who'd been summoned to lay a fire for them.

Edith did not know yet why Godwin had been there, though she had some ideas. He and the young lord had been very close lately, hatching plans for his inheritance. Edmund liked to live larger than his funds sometimes allowed, and some disreputable friends often helped him do it. Since his stepmother's marriage to Canute he'd delighted in joining his stepfather's bullyboys for their jaunts around town, and they, in turn, delighted in his foolish ability to spend money.

But that still didn't explain the lawyer - who had quietly removed himself from the group in the study and joined Edith in the hall. "Miss Eden, I wonder if you might help me with my shirt."

Which was how they had come to be in the first floor butler's pantry, Godwin currently leaning, shirtless, against the counter while Edith blotted the blood out of his shirtfront with cold water and salt.

"I'm also not sure why you think I would care, Mr. Saxon-West." The silence had been bothering her, and she felt it needed to be said. I'm a secretary at best and lady's maid at worst.

"Because you're Lady Emma's creature, and she never met a piece of information she couldn't use."

A creature, am I? See how you like me, then. "And you never met someone you couldn't blackmail, sir."

He chuckled at that. "So you're not afraid of being found with me in your dressing gown?"

"You don't appear to be afraid of being found fucking the help." A thread of laughter stumbled through the slightly open door. "Although if that's really what you're after, sir, I'm sure what's in the study is more to your taste."

Godwin was very close to her now, his shoulder close with hers. "I don't really go for shared goods," he said, voice supremely casual. "Or public pleasure, for that matter." He watched her closely, and she did not want to meet his eye. She knew Canute's men speculated about her - she could see their eyes following her as they came and went from the house. "That's where we were, before coming here. A club, you might call it. Now I daresay they're all in a bit of a mood."

She could see it now, the sort of place he meant - Edmund had been dressed for dinner and so was Godwin, so it somewhere for men with money, being lenient to let in Edmund's 'friends'. "And was Lord Edmund getting shot part of the mood?" She parried back. "Or an unfortunate consequence?"

But he did not answer her immediately - instead he kissed her, full on the lips, and she was so surprised she let him, his shirt slipping into the damp sink along with the brush. They had been in close quarters before, but never this close, while both were barely clothed. If you're going to taunt me, fine.

"Consequence," he said, finally, his eyes fixed on hers. "Are you sure I can't tempt you to something stronger, Miss Eden? Perhaps somewhere more private?"

"You'll have to forgive me, Mr. Saxon-West. My mistress needs me and creatures," she used his word with deliberate sharpness, "must go where they're called." She stepped away. "I believe your shirt is finished - it'll just need to dry."

She left him in the pantry and walked quickly across the hall, glancing in to the dining room to see both Emma and Canute, too, waiting in vigil over Edmund's still body, the doctor still somehow at work. There's a story there, for certain, she thought to herself. But I'd never get the truth about it from him.

[egocentered]

[grayjoy15]

Not that the show’s costume design isn’t on point, but the fashion of the period is also fantastic and worth representing 🥲

[behindfairytales]

DAVID OAKES as Earl Godwin Vikings: Valhalla, Honour and Dishonour (3.02)

[borgialucrezia]

"We filmed all 3 seasons of Vikings: Valhalla during the COVID-19 pandemic; all BTS shots will illustrate this with our wonderful crew and SAs clad in masks. This greatly complicated budgetary ambitions and time constraints, and yet we made 24 episodes of high-octane period drama. None of this would have been possible without the commitment and (real-world) sacrifices of our crew - both those on the sound stages and those in the offices. Thank you. I was also fortunate to be one of my profession allowed to work during the crisis - many actors were far less lucky. And yet even the lucky ones were often torn from family members (some newly born), or forced to make hard decisions. Now concluded, it’s hard not to view VV without contemplating the real-world context of the production, and for that, it’s an especially important landmark in my career and a credit to all who worked on it. I hope to return to my “Irish Viking Family” again in the future."

[ariadnethedragon]

HENESSI SCHMIDT as GYTHA THORKLSDÓTTIR

Vikings: Valhalla (2022-)

Gytha Thorkelsdóttir (Old English: Gȳða Þorkelsdōttir, c. 997 – c. 1069), was a Danish noblewoman. She was the wife of Godwin, Earl of Wessex and the mother of King Harold Godwinson and of Edith of Wessex, who was the queen consort of King Edward the Confessor

[gudvina]

The sea fig, ch. III, Godwin.

(third chapter, slightly shorter for now ;))

Fog crept in the towers as the city awakened. Godwin watched it slowly come to life below him, as he had done for many years since becoming AEthelred’s chief counsellor. Being there as the people roused and went about their day, almost like puppets in a play, reminded him of how different things can seem if viewed from a different perspective. Down there he’d be like them, indistinguishable in the crowds.

The centre of the town was the main object of his sight, though on the horizon he could easily distinguish the walls that protected Londinium. From up there he could see the exact place where Priest Cynleaf’s body was found, a brownish-coloured area of cobblestone where the blood couldn’t be properly washed as the only tell-tale sign of what had happened.

The first to find him had been a guard, followed by the victim’s wife. Her cries of despair had attracted the attention of the Alehouse clients, who had encircled the body. When Godwin showed up and was told of the victim’s identity, he rushed to the homestead, knowing that not a moment could be wasted.

He still remembered Queen Emma’s arrival at the scene, how her shoulders went rigid at the sight. He had been behind her, but could imagine her eyes widening as she looked at the butchered body. The Priest would have been unrecognisable had it not been for the necklace around his neck.

On the surface, the city didn’t appear particularly affected by the gruesome event, but the tension between Christians and Pagans, Danes and English alike, was tangible. It was starting slowly, with a suspicious look and voices in the streets of how the Christians were betraying the Pagans, or that the Pagans killed each other without remorse. Both branches were asking the same question- Why trust them? - and he watched the play, curious about what the next act would bring.

Sounds of footsteps he didn’t recognise pulled him away from the scenery, and turning around he saw Lady Adela. Unlike the night before, when he had seen her in the company of Princess Gytha, the woman in front of him was the perfect picture of the proper lady. Not a hair out of place, not a braid falling off, her posture as impeccable as it had been when she first crossed the halls of the Queen’s throne.

She curtsied with a nod, walking silently to stand beside him.

“M’Lady, good morning”, he acknowledged her greeting.

“Not so good of a morning for your people, Lord. My Aunt and Agnarr await you”.

He didn’t respond. It wouldn’t have been wise, and he still wasn’t used to her scrutiny. He remembered when he had first been introduced to King Aethelred, after his father’s death. How hard he had found having to withstand the Queen’s piercing stare. At the time he was but a boy, but growing up had not helped his unease with people’s eyes. How dirty they made him feel. He kept looking at the city.

The woman sighed, her breath condensing into a little cloud because of the cold temperatures.

“Why are all eyes on you?”.

Her voice was edged with curiosity, and he smiled. Though he couldn’t see her, he was resolved to avoid her stare as much as he could, he imagined her hanging from whatever he would say next.

“What are you asking, exactly?”

“You are my aunt’s right hand. Why would she suspect you, of all people?”

“Why not? Am I not but a man still? Anything could sway any man to betray their vows, as long as it’s shinier than his King’s crown.”

“I don’t think anyone to be so easily swayed from riches, my Lord. Loyalty is what has kept and keeps Normandy alive. And in this case, the betrayal wasn’t only against a King. It was against a welcomed people.”

“A people welcomed by whom, exactly?”

He heard her chuckle, almost amused by his answer.

“Oh, that’s why. You are one of them”.

Godwin knew what she meant; the Saxon Lords would have done anything to keep the Danes away from their lands. And she wasn’t wrong, though Wessex was the least of his concerns. As the sky cleared up, leaving a small ray of sun and some blue pry through the clouds, he decided he couldn’t let the Queen and Agnarr wait any longer.

A morbid curiosity spread through him, turning to see what expression the woman’s features were morphing into. She seemed to be enjoying Londinium’s clearing sky, almost as if he wasn’t there. Being able to go unseen had saved his life more than once in the past, he was used to being invisible, yet at that moment he felt a pang of disappointment hitting him.

He excused himself bowing to the lady as he headed the way to the castle, when he heard her voice.

“I’m watching you, Lord Godwin”.

She had turned to him, her threatening words spelt with a neutral tone. And he knew they should have worried him, that he shouldn’t have taken them lightly. Because Queen Emma’s eyes on him were already enough to make up for the whole city. The whole Kingdom. Yet for once he didn’t let his past shrink him away from someone’s stare, leaving him feeling like a rat. Let her watch, he thought. And with a sick satisfaction, for what he did not know, he left the towers.

While he walked towards the homestead, through the archways and the guards keeping their watch, he could still sense Lady Adela’s gaze on his skin. He was mainly engaged in predicting what the Queen would ask of him, and how he should respond. But another part of him, a small one but present nonetheless, felt like for once in his life he wasn’t the only spectator of the play that animated everything around him.

Like he was joined by someone to watch the story develop before them, and all they had to do was keep silent and watch.

[emma-ofnormandy]

Emma gulping wine because she knows she may have made a bad call but then flat out lying to Godwin’s face because she will not admit an ounce of failure to him is the most relatable scene.

[sammygems]

i'm a history nerd with an interest in royal history, sooooo

i know that England & Scotland didn't became Great Britain/the United Kingdom till the end of the Stuart era, but i wanna focus on the houses of england and (except for house of denmark) only england