Being a record by Ifor of Gwent of his journey through the Welsh March
with the Sheriff of Blackwater and others, illustrated by the author.
Concerning our Journey through Wales
In the year of the Society XVII, Robert fitz John, the Sheriff of Blackwater, conceived of a journey to the Welsh March, there to survey the castles built by his fellow Normans during their holding of the land, and other notable places. As I, who have often served as his scribe, am a native of Gwent, I was commissioned to act as his guide, to which I readily agreed, not only because I desired to visit my homeland once again, but also because payment was offered, which I took not for myself, but instead that I might put it toward the building of the Abbey at Barwell-in-the-Fens. With Robert and myself travelled Elizabeth Fitzjohn, the household's young heir Michael, and the heathen Helga Badgerslayer, of whom I shall say nothing more.
©1994, 1998 by Trevor Barker.
This article originally appeared in Far Horizons, Volume 7, Number 4, (Winter 1994).
