Rowena & Harold: A Romance in Rhyme of an Olden Time, of Hastyngs and Normanhurst

In Short

William Stephen Pryer’s Victorian historical poem tells the story of Rowena, daughter of the relentless Norman knight Sir Guy de Warre, and her lover, the noble Saxon Sir Harold Wynn. When Sir Guy rejects Harold’s suit and tries to force Rowena to marry his nephew, Harold joins King Richard’s Crusade to prove his worth. Meanwhile, Rowena escapes her father’s tyranny to seek refuge in a convent, protected by her loyal page Eric. Through shipwrecks, dungeon torture, false beacons, and secret identities, the lovers endure trial after trial before achieving royal pardon, family reconciliation, and double wedding bliss.

The Story

The tale opens at Ragnor’s Tower near Hastings, where the fierce Norman knight Sir Guy de Warre rules with an iron hand. He demands that his daughter, Rowena, marry his nephew, Sir Ralph of Normanhurst. Rowena refuses, having pledged her heart to the Saxon knight Sir Harold Wynn. Outraged that a "Saxon churl" should seek his daughter’s hand, Sir Guy banishes Harold. Despairing of gaining Sir Guy's consent through peace, Sir Harold vows to win renown in the Crusades. Before setting sail with King Richard the Lion-heart, Harold meets Rowena one last time at a hidden cliffside eyrie with the help of her faithful page, Eric.

While Harold lies near death on the plains of Acre, Rowena maintains a nightly beacon in her turret tower to guide sailors and pray for her knight’s return. At Acre, a Saracen maiden named Ruth nurses Harold back to health. She reveals that Sir Ralph—the very man Sir Guy wished Rowena to wed—was the traitorous assassin who wounded Harold before falling in battle himself. Harold rescues the orphan Ruth from slavery and smuggles her aboard his return ship, where the crew pledges to protect her.

Back in England, tragedy strikes when Rowena’s mother dies. Fleeing her father’s increasing madness and pressure to marry, Rowena escapes into a blizzard and takes refuge at St. Hilda’s convent. Consumed by rage and believing Rowena has drowned, Sir Guy turns into a vengeful wrecker, extinguishing Rowena’s beacon and replacing it with a false light on Hell Rock. He captures the page Eric, imprisoning and torturing him in Ragnor’s subterranean dungeons to extract Rowena's location. Eric heroically refuses to betray his mistress, carves a escape route through the sandstone rock, and eventually escapes with the aid of a friendly smuggler named Michael.

When Sir Harold’s ship, the Holy Cross, nears the Sussex coast, Sir Guy’s false beacon lures it onto the rocks. Harold survives the wreck and saves Ruth, but news of the catastrophe throws Rowena into a near-fatal fever. Eric reaches her just in time; his familiar voice breaks her delirium, and she slowly recovers her health.

Wracked by guilt over the destruction of the ship, Sir Guy suffers a total mental breakdown and visualizes Harold’s ghost. Upon learning that Harold and the crew actually survived, the old knight's spirit breaks; he repents of his cruelties, begs forgiveness, and welcomes Rowena and Harold back to Ragnor’s Tower. King Richard himself arrives, grants Sir Guy a royal pardon, bestows the lands of Hastings and Normanhurst upon Sir Harold, and later knights the brave page Eric. The poem closes with feasting, the double marriage of Harold to Rowena and Eric to Ruth, and the birth of knightly heirs.

How It Unfolds

The forbidden union Sir Guy de Warre refuses to let his daughter Rowena wed the Saxon knight Sir Harold Wynn, insisting she marry his Norman nephew Sir Ralph. Supported by her mother, Rowena insists her heart belongs to God and her chosen love.

The secret farewell Aided by the page Eric, Harold and Rowena meet at a secluded eagle’s nest on the topmost cliffs of Hastings. They swear eternal fidelity before Harold departs for the Holy Land with King Richard.

The Saracen maiden's rescue Wounded at the siege of Acre, Harold is tended in secret by a Saracen orphan named Ruth. After learning that Sir Ralph dealt his near-fatal wound before dying, Harold rescues Ruth from captivity and stows her aboard his home-bound vessel.

Flight to the sanctuary Following her mother’s death, Rowena flees Ragnor’s Tower during a winter snowstorm to escape her father's wrath. She finds sanctuary at St. Hilda’s convent, though the emotional strain leaves her dangerously ill.

Torture in the sea-caves Believing Rowena has drowned, Sir Guy turns his fury on Eric, locking him in rock-hewn dungeons beneath Ragnor's Tower. Despite threats of crucifixion, Eric refuses to reveal Rowena's location and carves a path through the cavern walls to escape.

The false beacon Sir Guy replaces Rowena's benevolent turret lamp with a deceptive light over Hell Rock, luring Harold’s returning ship, the Holy Cross, into shattering upon the reef. Harold miraculously survives, carrying Ruth safely to shore.

Repentance and royal favor Overcome by remorse for his ruinous acts, Sir Guy undergoes a profound change of heart and begs for his daughter's pardon. King Richard arrives at Hastings, pardons the aging knight, bestows new titles upon Harold, and oversees a grand celebration.

The People

• Rowena: The fair daughter of Sir Guy de Warre. Devout, resolute, and enduring, she refuses to sell her affection for family rank, choosing convent walls and physical breakdown over a loveless marriage to Sir Ralph. Her steadfast loyalty to Harold drives the moral center of the poem.
• Sir Harold Wynn: A brave, wealthy Saxon knight whose noble bloodline traces back to ancestral heroes. Driven from his home by Norman prejudice, he seeks honor in the Crusades, survives assassination and shipwreck, and ultimately triumphs through restraint, mercy, and martial lealty to King Richard.
• Sir Guy de Warre: Rowena’s fiery Norman father, whose dark countenance and uncontrollable rage terrorize his household. His obsession with lineage and control drives him to become a ruthless wrecker, yet his sudden collapse into remorse allows for late-stage redemption and family reconciliation.
• Eric: Rowena’s heroic page. Demanded by Sir Guy to betray his mistress's hiding spot under threat of the rack and crucifixion, Eric remains unshakably loyal, enduring the gloom of subterranean cells before making a dramatic escape.

In Its Own Voice

"No Saxon churl shall make / Rowena wife; and dare he woo her more, / Upon him, would Sir Guy a direful vengeance wreak."

Sir Guy’s fierce, prejudice-driven reaction upon learning that the Saxon knight Sir Harold has dared to ask for Rowena’s hand in marriage.

"To-night at nine, be at the eagle's lair; / Let Eric guide. Yours, aye, come woe, come weal."

The secret message delivered by the faithful page Eric, arranging the final romantic meeting between Rowena and Harold high on the Hastings cliffs.

"I fear not crucifixion, master mine, / As oath forsworn from fear / Of death."

Young Eric’s defiant refusal to give up Rowena's convent sanctuary, choosing to face Sir Guy's worst dungeon tortures instead.

What It's Really About

At its core, the work explores the victory of spiritual integrity over tyrannical compulsion. Pryer uses the backdrop of post-Conquest England to examine racial animosity between Norman conquerors and Saxon nobility, arguing that true nobility lies in character rather than lineage. The text poses heavy questions about parental authority, asking at what point a child's duty to God and conscience supersedes filial obedience. Through Sir Guy's dramatic downfall and eventual transformation, the narrative illustrates how unchecked anger rots the human soul into madness, while forgiveness and selfless fidelity—exemplified by Rowena and Eric—possess the power to heal deep-seated enmities and restore broken households.

Why Read It Today

This volume appeals to readers who enjoy Victorian narrative verse, melodrama, and local Sussex lore. Pryer’s rhyming stanzas move at a brisk, ballad-like pace, capturing the romanticized medievalism popular in late nineteenth-century literature. It offers a dramatic blend of high-seas adventure, gothic dungeon horrors, and chivalric honor.

Modern readers should be prepared for typical period stylistic choices: the language relies heavily on formal archaisms ("thy," "thee," "'tis"), sentimental poetic refrains, and dramatic, black-and-white moral characterizations. The plot relies on traditional Victorian plot devices like sudden swoons, miraculous recoveries, dynamic shipwrecks, and rapid deathbed conversions. Yet beneath the heightened melodrama lies a genuinely heartfelt tale of endurance. The vivid descriptions of the Hastings coastline, the claustrophobic dread of the sea-dungeon chapters, and the unyielding loyalty of the page Eric give the poem an enduring, rustic charm that lingers long after the final stanza.