The First Wife's Name

Act I — What They Made Me Released Approx. 5:04

About this track

Spring 1002. A Norman girl of about seventeen, sister of Duke Richard II, crosses the Channel and is married to Æthelred of England — a king twice her age, with a hall full of sons her own age by his first wife. On arrival she is given an English name. It is Ælfgifu. It was the first wife’s name. From that day the English record never calls her Emma again.

The direction that governs the track is that she is learning the trade, not suffering it. A renamed teenage bride pulls hard toward lament, and the album’s register forbids it: claims, not pleas. So the song is about how fast she learned to answer. She knows every room of the name by supper; she watches her own hand write it on the king’s charter; she reads her brother’s letters, still addressed to Emma, alone. The claim is never they took — it is I answered. The bridge is the moment: the bishop gives the name to the room, and she turns her head the first time it is called, not the second time, the first.

Anglo-Danish symphonic metal at 138 BPM — a dry hammered dulcimer and a low cello drone under driving tremolo guitars, and the album’s second voice, a women’s Latin plainchant office, singing the words with her from the first chorus and rising over her on the last, where a low war-horn enters. The chorus stamp starts here — Once a queen — and the outro plants the whole album’s thesis before the book ever states it: His first one had his sons. I had his name for her. I kept it longer.

Track 01 of 11 Act I — What They Made Me Cadence Anglo-Danish symphonic metal at 138 BPM — hammered dulcimer and cello drone under tremolo guitars, low chest mezzo, a women’s Latin office singing the words with her, war-horn on the last chorus

Verse 1

Dulcimer and harp, no guitars. Two lines spoken, then sung.

They gave me a dead wife's name at the door,
and I knew every room of it by supper,
I came across the water with my brother's silver,
seventeen and taller than the men who met me,
a king with sons my age stood up to see me,
and not one mouth in England made the sound of Emma,

Pre-Chorus

Psaltery enters, tremolo guitars rising, cello lower.

The name was warm when they gave it to me,
somebody wore it before,

Chorus 1

Full band, drums driving. The Latin office sings the words with her in unison.

The first wife's name,
they put it on me like a ring,
I turned around the first time it was called,
and I wore it better,
Once a queen — and the name was hers,

Riff Break

Tremolo guitars and double-kick, the dulcimer underneath.

Verse 2

Sung and driving, psaltery and harp. The drums never stop.

His eldest stood to drink to me at the feast,
he was my age and he did not smile,
the clerks wrote her name beside the king's on the charter,
and I watched my own hand set it down,

Pre-Chorus 2

Cello lower, tremolo guitars, the harp gone.

My brother's letters still came for Emma,
and I read them in my room alone,

One word, spoken dry. No music.

Ælfgifu.

Chorus 2

Bigger and wider, the office with her.

The first wife's name,
they put it on me like a ring,
I turned around the first time it was called,
and I answered to it,
Once a queen — and the name was mine,

Guitar Solo

Twin harmonised lead guitars over double-kick.

Bridge

Half-tempo. Solo alto flute over cello, the mezzo low, the office silent.

The bishop turned and gave the name to the room,
and the room gave it back,
and I answered before it came round again,
not the second time, the first,
and that is all I needed England to teach me,

Final Chorus

Biggest. Drums driving, a low war-horn enters, and the Latin office rises over her.

The first wife's name,
they put it on me like a ring,
I turned around the first time it was called,
and I wore it longer,
Once a queen — and I outlived her in it,
and nobody calls her by it now,

Outro

The mezzo alone over harp, the office gone. Dry, then a hard cut.

His first one had his sons.
I had his name for her.
I kept it longer.

The history

Spring 1002 · Winchester · a Norman duke’s sister married to Æthelred II, and given the name of the wife before her

Source: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle s.a. 1002; royal charters witnessed by the queen as Ælfgifu regina; twelfth-century writers (Ailred of Rievaulx, Sulcard of Westminster) on Æthelred’s first marriage; Pauline Stafford, Queen Emma and Queen Edith

Named figures

Emma of Normandy About seventeen, daughter of Duke Richard I and sister of Duke Richard II. Married to Æthelred in 1002 and renamed Ælfgifu; she will be queen of England under two dynasties for forty years
Æthelred II King of England since 978, later called Unræd — “ill-counselled.” Around twice her age, with at least six sons by his first marriage
Ælfgifu, the first wife Mother of Æthelred’s elder children, including Æthelstan and Edmund Ironside. Never witnesses a charter as queen and never appears in the Chronicle; her name comes from later writers. Never shown on screen
Æthelstan Ætheling Æthelred’s eldest son, about Emma’s age — the one who “stood to drink to me at the feast”

What this song renders

The marriage was a treaty. In the 990s Viking fleets raiding England had been using Norman ports, and Æthelred and Richard II of Normandy had reason to close that door. Emma was the price and the seal. The Chronicle records only that in the spring of 1002 “the Lady, Richard’s daughter, came to this land.” She was consecrated queen, and from then on she witnesses the king’s charters as Ælfgifu regina. The name Emma survives only because Norman writers, and later her own commissioned book, kept using it.

The first wife is harder to see. Æthelred had married in the 980s and had a large family — six sons and several daughters — but his first wife left almost no trace in the documents of her own time. Twelfth-century writers name her Ælfgifu and disagree about her father. Modern historians generally accept the name, and if it is right, Emma was given the name of the woman whose place she was taking. Ælfgifu was a common royal name; whether it was coincidence or policy, nobody recorded.

Six months later her husband ordered the St Brice’s Day killings — that is the next track, The Feast of Saint Brice, and it has been deliberately kept out of this one. Here the album stays on the name and the household: the feast, the charter, the letters from Normandy, the bishop at the altar.

Verdict

The 1002 marriage, the Norman treaty behind it, and the English name Ælfgifu are documented. That Æthelred’s first wife was also called Ælfgifu comes from twelfth-century sources and is widely accepted rather than proven. Her height, the toast from his eldest son, the bishop calling the name, and her answering the first time are the song’s own staging. So is the reading of a teenage bride as someone learning the trade rather than suffering it.

See the full Truth, Saga & Legend entry →