elyinthe12thcentury - Tumblr blog

[elyinthe12thcentury]

Septimus Heap is set in my home town and if we ignore the authors intentions I can prove it

Some brief disclaimers, I know that technically the books are set in the far future, and with water levels rising could not possibly be set in my area, but death of the author and all that, there’s enough evidence that I have thought of Septimus Heap as local to me since I was maybe 13. Also its been years since I read these books so I may have forgotten some pieces of evidence or have some plot details wrong, but this has been on my mind for years at this point. What else, ah yes, not doing this on my main account because I don’t fancy giving out specific information on where I live, because yikes. Finally, while it may not be my home town specifically, I do certainly feel it is my local area ie the Fens in East Anglia (UK)

Septimus Heap is set in Ely in the 12th century. I have two main pieces of evidence for this, the geography and history of the area (shocking I know). I’ll try not to go into unnecessary levels of detail, but no promises.

I grew up (and currently live) in Littleport, a small town/large village just outside Ely in Cambridgeshire. The main geographical feature of the Ely area are the fens. I dont know how common a term fen is so you’ll forgive me if I explain, a fen is a great big wetland, or marsh, if you will. Now the fens were drained sometime in the 1600s, and before that most of the area was underwater. This is why, even though we’re around an hours drive from the sea, all the place names sound like they’re from a waterfront, LittlePORT, ISLE of Ely, WATERBEACH, and also why I don’t think its set in Ely specifically, but instead, close by, but I’ve got to have a catchy title you know. Growing up I always pictured the Marram Marshes as one of the surviving fens, namely Wicken Fen  or the Welney Wetland Centre (neither of which can I find good pictures of right now, why are people taking pictures of the walkable paths and not the views of the fens themselves) which we used to visit often when I was younger. Now I’ll admit that this isnt very strong evidence on its own, swamps aren’t an uncommon thing, and even the surviving fens are nowhere near as flooded as they used to be , so its easy to dismiss that they could be the marram marshes, and if it wasn’t for some of the local history I’d be inclined to agree with you that this is a bit of a reach.

Before jumping into the history I do just briefly want to say that the rest of the local geography also lines up, but where in the UK wouldn’t it. Lots of nearby farmland, and if you travel a little bit plenty of forests (there aren’t really any here specifically because as a consequence of being a fen we have very high quality soil for farming, so it is mostly fields until you get out of the fens specifically, but I don’t think that’s a big deal for my theory.

Now, Angie Sage doesn’t seem to pull from the areas history in general, but there are two characters who’s names either are, or are very close to, prominent figures in Ely’s early history, and its not like they’re common names either. Additionally the lifetimes of these two historical figures seem to line up with their book counterparts well enough for me to give the specific time period of the 12th century. I’ll go through and give a couple of details on each of them in the order in which they appear in the books (which is also reverse historical order, and if I remember correctly, the reverse of how significant they are as characters).

Up first we have everybody’s favourite ghost, Sir Hereward, and his real life counterpart, Hereward the Wake who died around 1072 according to Wikipedia, so important is Hereward to Ely that they even have a pub named after him (but don’t go thinking we’re cool, there is also a small museum dedicated to Oliver Cromwell). For those who didn’t take the Anglo-Saxon/Norman invasion unit of GCSE history, Hereward the Wake was an Anglo-Saxon who led a rebellion against William the Conqueror, the most successful one of them all in fact. The rebels took shelter in a monastery in Ely, or more accurately on Ely which was, at that point an island that only locals could navigate the fens to get to. Many a Norman died trying to cross the waters, until the monks eventually led them across safely. This rebellion is also where every web-toed fen dwellers favourite story comes from, that of William the Conqueror  getting a witch to cast a spell on the rebels, which involved her sticking her butt in the air, but I digress.

And then there’s Etheldredda, counterpart to Saint Æthelthryth or as I always heard her called, Etheldreda. I have no idea what she did in her life, but she was a resident of Ely and gained sainthood because she kept her vow of virginity even through marriage. She’s important enough to the history of Ely that my secondary school, Ely College, named a house after her, it may have been the shittest house house, but it was a house none the less. Anyway, she died around the year 679, again, according to Wikipedia, and 500 years later its the 12th century, and my understanding is Queen Etheldredda was born around 500 years before the book she appears in.

Anyway, thats my evidence, like I said, there might be more but its been a while since I read these books. I know the character’s histories and the histories of the real life people don’t really line up, but does anything else? Feel free to let me know what you think, am I insane or is there merit to this belief I’ve held since since I was 13?