214: A Most Convenient Arrow

Warm afternoon sunlight filtered through the canopy of oak leaves high above the forest floor, dappling patches of light across everything below.

The air was heavy and dense from the nearby streams evaporating in the early August heat, but down below the moist air turned cooler, allowing for crisp visibility up to 60 yards through the dense trees.

Wild boar could be heard rustling through the waist-high ferns and bracken, rooting for acorns and any lingering blackberries.

Moss-blanketed fallen, rotting logs, beech, ash, the sacred yew, and birch all competed for sunlight below towering oaks, all with ivy snaking up their trunks.

In the underbrush was a treasure trove of hazel, prized for their distinctive nuts.

In the various meadows sprinkling the king's forest were heather, foxgloves, and holly.

Before the Normans arrived, this was a simple forest used by all, though when a royal court was traipsing through on a hunt, it was best to make oneself scarce.

Anglo-Saxons in Wessex, since time immemorial, had called Eteni, which translated as Forest of the Jutes, Since 1079, William the Conqueror declared it Nova Foresta, which translates to New Hunting Grounds.

Since 1079, the new forest, along with many other newly established royal forests, was managed by royal foresters who had royal authority to royally mess up someone's day should they be found violating one of the many laws against lay intervention inside the boundaries of said forest.

No earl was in charge of maintaining the new forest, as it was deemed royal crown land, and therefore, beside the royal foresters, the only other person except the king to have any legal role there was Sheriff of Hampshire.

With such protections against public use, the red deer and the roe deer, the wild boar, foxes, badgers, pine martins, and wildcats, they all roamed the forest, and they all thrived.

Expanded under William Rufus, the new forest effectively cut off a crucial chunk of land in southern England from which to hunt, gather, fish, and harvest lumber.

By August of 1100, if one were caught hunting even one of the many native red squirrels, of all things, severe punishment was sure to follow.

As I said, the wildlife there swelled to great numbers.

For the avid hunters that were the Norman aristocracy, this had quickly become sacred land.

Riding through the dense forest, woodpeckers knocked overhead, ravens cawed from branches, buzzards circled high above those oak canopies.

Goshawks, nightjars, and owls prowled the night, while songbirds of infinite variety created a never-ending playlist while the sun was up.

Coming upon one of the many streams and bogs cutting through the forest, dragonflies hovered over shallow pools and careened through the alder and willow trees that preferred wetter ground, and the chorus of songbirds in their air added the sound of frogs as day turned to night.

There was a reason that Itini, New Forest, was a favorite hunting ground for English and Norman kings.

But it wasn't some walled-off paradise, some Eden.

It was still a dense wilderness with dangers around every corner.