About
Rosalind Y. Tompkins is the published author of the books, "As Long As There Is Breath In Your Body, There Is Hope", "Rare Anointing" and "You Are Beautiful". Ms. Tompkins' passion in life is to facilitate positive change and transformation in the lives of individuals, families, and communities. She is a spiritual life coach, senior pastor and a prophetic poet who resides in North Florida.
The Sons of Godwine: Part Two of The Last Great Saxon Earls
Description
<p>Emerging from the long shadow cast by his formidable father, Harold Godwineson showed himself to be a worthy successor to the Earldom of Wessex. In the following twelve years, he became the King's most trusted advisor, practically taking the reins of government into his own hands. And on Edward the Confessor's death, Harold Godwineson mounted the throne—the first king of England not of royal blood. Yet Harold was only a man, and his rise in fortune was not blameless. Like any person aspiring to power, he made choices he wasn't particularly proud of. Unfortunately, those closest to him sometimes paid the price of his fame.<br /><br />This is a story of Godwine's family as told from the viewpoint of Harold and his younger brothers. Queen Editha, known for her Vita Ædwardi Regis, originally commissioned a work to memorialize the deeds of her family, but after the Conquest historians tell us she abandoned this project and concentrated on her husband, the less dangerous subject. In THE SONS OF GODWINE and FATAL RIVALRY, I am telling the story as it might have survived had she collected and passed on the memoirs of her tragic brothers.<br /><br />This book is part two of The Last Great Saxon Earls series. Book one, GODWINE KINGMAKER, depicted the rise and fall of the first Earl of Wessex who came to power under Canute and rose to preeminence at the beginning of Edward the Confessor's reign. Unfortunately, Godwine's misguided efforts to champion his eldest son Swegn recoiled on the whole family, contributing to their outlawry and Queen Editha's disgrace. Their exile only lasted one year and they returned victorious to London, though it was obvious that Harold's career was just beginning as his father's journey was coming to an end.<br /><br />Harold's siblings were all overshadowed by their famous brother; in their memoirs we see remarks tinged sometimes with admiration, sometimes with skepticism, and in Tostig's case, with jealousy. We see a Harold who is ambitious, self-assured, sometimes egocentric, imperfect, yet heroic. His own story is all about Harold, but his brothers see things a little differently. Throughout, their observations are purely subjective, and witnessing events through their eyes gives us an insider’s perspective.<br /><br />Harold was his mother's favorite, confident enough to rise above petty sibling rivalry but Tostig, next in line, was not so lucky. Harold would have been surprised by Tostig's vindictiveness, if he had ever given his brother a second thought. And that was the problem. Tostig's love/hate relationship with Harold would eventually destroy everything they worked for, leaving the country open to foreign conquest. This subplot comes to a crisis in book three of the series, FATAL RIVALRY.</p>
Story Behind The Book
I was riding in the car several years ago with my then nineteen year old daughter, Janar, when she began to talk about youth and beauty. She shared how she felt as an upcoming sophomore in college. She stated that there would be younger and prettier girls coming onto campus and she and her friends were getting older and thus less attractive to the young men because they were no longer freshmen, or "fresh meat" so to speak. As she talked I kept sneaking side glances of my beautiful daughter who was maturing nicely into a young woman. It was at that moment that I remembered the truth of the saying that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." I assured my daughter that she was still very much a young, vibrant, beautiful young lady. After we left one another's presence, I wondered if she really heard me. "You Are Beautiful" is dedicated to women of all ages to know that no matter your size, color, hair texture, race, etc., you are beautiful because God made you and He doesn't make junk!
