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Dear Bernard Cornwell,

Reading your Last Kingdom books again.  Just brilliant and thank you.

I was very interested to read of your link with Uhtred via your family surname of Oughtred.  I think I can make a similar link with Hering son of King Hussa of Bernicia.  Surnames as we know them did not exist then, but personal names did.  Hussa ruled from 596 – 603 and then Aethelfrith of Northumbria took Bernicia and Hering was forced to flee to the Scots.  He sought help from  Aedan of Dalriata and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us that “Hering  son of Hussa led a raiding army there”  Hering and Aedan fought and lost the Battle of Degsastan in 603 and “after that, no king of the Scots dared lead a raiding army into this nation”.  So what happened to Hering?  There is a story here!

The personal name of Hering does occur in Icelandic sagas such as that of Grettir the Strong where he is a skilled rock climber and “Easterner”.  The name is also found in place names such as Herringby in Norfolk where the earliest form is shown as  Haeringr-by.  It is also possibly the origin of Harringay in London.

I know Benfleet and Essex well and searched for your holed stone at Thundersley.  I only found a small stone shaped like a skull, but there is a large holed standing stone at nearby Hockley.  perhaps it has been moved there.

Best wishes,

Peter herring

PS another link – i was born just ten days before you in February 1944!