"Hereward, the Last of the English" by Charles Kingsley tells the story of Hereward, a historical Anglo-Saxon figure who led resistance against the Normans from a base in Ely surrounded by fen land. He is introduced as an eighteen-year-old "bully and the ruffian of the fens" who is outlawed by Edward the Confessor at the request of his father. He sets off to see the world, considering such options as the Vikings of the northern seas, the Irish Danes or service with the Varangian Guard in Constantinople. He is accompanied by Martin Lightfoot, a devoted but eccentric servant.
