The Norman Conquest

A Balanced, Entertaining, and Informative History

Marc Morris' The Norman Conquest: The Battle of Hastings and the Fall of Anglo-Saxon England (2012) is an absorbing book, demonstrating how the "new set of [Norman] attitudes and morals, which impinged on everything from warfare to politics to religion to law, . . . altered what it meant to be English." Morris begins with a concise overview of Anglo-Saxon history in England and of Norman history in Normandy up to the time of the conquest, introducing key cultural factors (including English ships, earls, and political murders, Norman castles, counts, and religious reforms, and chaotic succession conflicts in both lands) and figures (including AEthelred the Ill-Advised, King Canute, Emma, wife to both kings, Earl Godwine, Edward the Confessor, Robert Duke of Normandy, and his son William the Bastard). Morris sets up the context of William's conquest (including fraught matters like whether Edward had really named him his heir and whether Harold had really later confirmed it), then depicts the famous battle (including fraught matters like whether the Normans fled in route or in ruse, pulling the English out of their impregnable shield wall to chase them, and whether Harold was killed by a chance arrow to the eye or hacked apart by a death squad). He then covers the aftermath of the battle, when William struggled to solidify and legitimize his reign in the face of numerous rebellions and invasions, and the aftermath of the conquest, balancing the positive actions and effects of Norman rule (the end of the slave trade and political murder system and the dawn of a new age of architecture, etc.) with the negative ones (the removal of the "middle class," the Harrying of the North, and the consolidation of land in the hands of a small and powerful aristocracy, etc.). Finally, although the Anglo-Saxon tree of England fell, its deep roots never died, and the tree survived by becoming a hybrid with rising Anglo-Norman sap, as exemplified by modern English.

Throughout, Morris is open about the many insoluble questions caused by the limited, compromised, contradictory, and biased sources (one of which is "a horrendous Frankenstein's monster of a text, stitched together from bits and pieces of other chronicles, wrenched from their original texts"). Indeed, his book is nearly as much about the writing as the making of history, for he effectively works into it his historical sources, letting us know where the old quasi-historians were coming from when they wrote their chronicles. He does interesting things with the Bayeux Tapestry, more a long embroidered picture book than a tapestry, positing a likely candidate for its commission, marveling at its miraculous survival through the centuries, demonstrating the ambiguity of its images and words, and using it to supplement information from other sources. In short, he discloses the biases and limitations of each of his sources, sets them up against one another, and explains why one version is more likely than another, or how we may usefully combine two versions to get a composite "truth," and so on, as when he concludes a "debate" with the following sharp comment: "For once, William of Poitiers appears to have given us the unvarnished truth."

The book is never dull. Everywhere Morris conveys his enthusiasm for his material: "Against such nonsense we also have the magnificent testimony of the Bayeux Tapestry, almost certainly commissioned by Odo himself, which shows the bellicose bishop charging into battle on a black horse, rallying the Normans at the crucial moment. Whatever reservations others may have had about his behaviour, Odo clearly had no problems with the dual nature of his role."

Morris' chapters on the post-battle era of painful adjustment, as Normans steadily replaced Anglo-Saxons in nearly all positions of power, tried to reshape English culture in their own Norman image, replaced English with Latin as the language for official documents, and officially recognized their radical redistribution of land via the Domesday Book, are fascinating. And throughout Morris sprinkles "juicy bits," information that illuminates and stimulates, like the nickname William gave his eldest son Robert (with whom he literally came to blows in internecine battles for Normandy), translated into English as "Shorty-Pants." And like William's funeral, when his body was so fat and bloated that as it was being jammed into his stone sarcophagus, his bowels burst, and "No amount of frankincense and spices could hide the resultant stench, and the clergy therefore raced through the rest of the funeral rite before rushing back to their houses." Ah, indeed, as William's biographer Orderic Vitalis put it, "death deals with rich and poor alike."

About the reader, Frazer Douglas, I do sympathize with the reviewer who gave him two stars and said, "He has a pleasing enough voice but he reads the entire book in the same monotone sing-song." Douglas does tend to insert his own brief pauses so as to emphasize certain words, nearly making a rhythm that's not always in Morris' text: "Our [brief pause] first instinct might be to [brief pause] believe [brief pause] Poitiers." But once you get used to his manner, he's quite pleasing to listen to, and I really like his reading of quotations from Morris' old sources, because he enjoys imbuing the old historians with a dusty and biased enthusiasm, as when he reads this line from The Life of King Edward: "He lived in the squalor of the world like an angel."

Finally, Morris' material is of such great interest and is so tightly and spicily written that I bet that most people interested in the history of England and France would enjoy his book.

23 of 24 people found this review helpful

Great book! Narrator is unusual but good

I thought this was an excellent book. Many reviews comment on the narration. I had no problem with the narration. I thought that the narrator's style was a bit unusual but it was still enjoyable.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

A great book for anyone interested in this period

What made the experience of listening to The Norman Conquest the most enjoyable?

Just the right amount of detail. Enough so you walk away with a thorough knowledge of what happened, when it happened, and why it happened.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Non fiction, so no characters, just real historical figures.

What does Frazer Douglas bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The sound of his voice just matches the material.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, I couldn't put it down.

Any additional comments?

A great book for anyone interested in the history of Britrun from the time the Romans left to the time directly after the Norman conquest.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

History as It is Supposed to be Told

Audio histories are often chancey proposition. Often a history is only understood when it is READ and the author provides accompanying maps or charts to explain his/her points. Marc Morris's - The Norman Conquest is the exception. Morris takes this obscure history and provides the reader with an easily understood narrative. Frazer Douglas's narration turns it into an outstanding audio experience. Great book, great narration - hard to turn off.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Key Event In English History

The Norman invasion is one of the pivotal moments in English history. However, beyond knowing the date 1066 and the "fact" that Harold died with a arrow to the eye, I did not know a whole lot about it. This book covers the event in pretty exhaustive detail. As another review has noted, the narrator does make listening to the book a little hard going. He has a strange rat-a-tat delivery and reads as if he is using an auto-cue. However, in mitigation, he has a very clear voice and delivery. I cannot speak for whether the material presented is controversial in any great way. The writer does lapse into the slightly irritating style of academic texts such as prefacing an obscure fact or complete conjecture with "Of course .." and using words like "ostensibly" and "arguably". Having said all that, I listened to the finish and felt somewhat more enlightened. I would recommend the book if you are interested in history in general and that period in particular. If not, I would not choose it as a starting point as its style is somewhere between an academic text and a popular history and it may not grab you.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Excellent book and the narrator is also excellent

Would you listen to The Norman Conquest again? Why?

yes I will

What did you like best about this story?

it just is very interesting history and the writer is very descriptive and covers it very well.

Which character – as performed by Frazer Douglas – was your favorite?

not sure on that one

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

just found it interesting

Any additional comments?

I have read the negative reviews on the narrator , however I must add that he takes a bit of getting used to as his way of reading is unusual and "Different" . I also didn't care for it at first, but in fact the narration really grew on me and I now think the narrator's style is really perfect for the book.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great book if you can get past the narrator

If you could sum up The Norman Conquest in three words, what would they be?

Morris has really done his research here and presents a thoughtful, thorough and supremely interesting account of England before, during and after the Conquest. So the book itself is fantastic.
The narrator, however, is flat-out godawful. He has a pleasing enough voice but he reads the entire book in the same monotone sing-song. A really second-rate, poor job. I had to get past the narrator to finish the otherwise wonderful book.

What other book might you compare The Norman Conquest to and why?

Dan Jones' "The Plantagenets".

Would you be willing to try another one of Frazer Douglas’s performances?

No I would not listen to him again.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

One man changed history...The Conqueror

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Try this

Any additional comments?

Read this: The Battle of Hastings – The Fall of Anglo-Saxon England, By Harriet Harvey Wood. Still in print @ $8.66, Amazon

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Disappointing narration

Shatner is not a good model for the narration of a history. I like the book itself, a compelling narrative history of the Conquest and the conditions leading to it, but the narration is almost unlistenable. Think of something approaching a parody of WIlliam Shatner as Kirk

5 of 8 people found this review helpful

A Balanced Perspective!

I greatly enjoyed the balanced treatment of the Conquest and its effect on English society, and feel I have gained a better understanding of the topic by reading this book.