Discover Untold Stories of Valor

No one can deny that Norman knights were extremely effective on the battlefield, but the challenge before me was more subtle…

How exactly was I supposed to write believable battles while keeping the focus of the story centered on Roger? And how even did Roger attain this battle prowess so highly lauded by his autobiographer? The very first mention of Roger in Malaterra’s Deeds of Count Roger states “…he was a most handsome young man, tall and well-made, a most fluent speaker, shrewd in counsel, far-sighted in the planning of things to be done, cheerful and pleasant to everyone, strong and valiant, fierce in battle.” This is high praise for a teenager, but definitely something I captured and used in my process for building Roger’s character. But maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves. It might be more useful to have that glorious context of how Nomans fought so we can better understand just how “fierce in battle” Roger truly was.