Following Gytha to the Wild Field!
- Johnny Stonborough
- Jun 30
- 1 min read
After King Harold was killed at Hastings (1066), his 3 sons and one daughter Gytha of Wessex went on the run. Gytha ended up in what is now Ukraine. A little English girl from Bosham on the south coast dispatched to marry a Ruthenian war-lord called Volodymyr Monomakh – (Let me run that past you again.) Gytha was ‘trafficked’ over a 1000 miles, nearly a 1000 years ago! I wrote a novel about her called WILD FIELD*. Now, a charity called Convoy4Ukraine sends trucks and medical aid to Ukraine, and me and my mate Chris have signed up to drive there with them. 960 years after Gytha journeyed to Ukraine. We are raising £9000 each to buy a vehicle and fill it with humanitarian aid. Please give generously. Imagine 'you are fighting for your home and your family.'
(*Wild Field Дике поле is the historical name for the vast sparse Eurasian steppe. Today, the term is culturally tied to concepts of untamable freedom, history and the ancestral lands of the Ukrainians)
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