Hereward the Wake | |
|---|---|
 Hereward fighting Normans from Cassell's Illustrated History of England (1865) | |
| Born | c. 1035 Lincolnshire, England |
| Died | c. 1072 (aged 36–37) |
| Other names | Hereward the Outlaw and Hereward the Exile |
| Movement | English resistance to Norman Conquest |
Hereward the Wake (Traditional pronunciation /ˈhɛ.rɛ.ward/,[1] modern pronunciation /ˈhɛ.rɪ.wəd/[2]) (c. 1035 – c. 1072) (also known as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile) was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman and a leader of local resistance to the Norman Conquest of England. His base when he led the rebellion against the Norman rulers was the Isle of Ely, in eastern England. According to legend, he roamed the Fens, which covers parts of the modern counties of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk, and led popular opposition to William the Conqueror.
Hereward is an Old English name, composed of the elements here, "army", and ward "guard" (cognate with the Old High German name Heriwart).[3] The epithet "the Wake", first recorded in the 14th century, may mean "the watchful" or derive from the Anglo-Norman Wake family, which later claimed descent from him.
- ^ Lass, Roger (1994). Old English: A historical linguistic companion.
- ^ Stein, Gabriele (21 September 2017). "Typography in sixteenth-century English dictionaries". Oxford Scholarship Online. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198807377.003.0001.
- ^ Room, Adrian (1992) Brewer's Names, London: Cassell, ISBN 0-304-34077-4