Harriet was an Anglo-Saxon woman and the sister of Bishop Ealhferth of Winchester.
Biography[]
Harriet was born in rural Northern England, the sister of Ealhferth. They were orphaned in a Danish raid while they were young, and Harriet accompanied her brother to Winchester in Wessex after he was made bishop there. Harriet was naive about her brother's involvement with the Order of the Ancients, and was mostly unaware of his heretical views. In 877, she attended a funeral held in his honor as part of his plan to stage a "resurrection" at the Witan Hall, which Harriet believed would make the pious King Alfred the Great abdicate in Ealhferth's honor. At the funeral at St. Peter's Church, she was confronted by the Viking warrior Eivor, who talked with her and told her that her brother might live. Harriet, worried that Eivor was onto something, called for guards to help her, but Eivor killed them and then interrogated Harriet. She, again naively, bragged about her brother's plot and gave away the location of the assassination attempt, the Witan Hall, causing Eivor to call her stupid. Eivor then went to the hall and assassinated Ealhferth, saving Alfred's life. Harriet then ran in and cried, asking Eivor why he would kill a good man such as her brother, but Eivor told her of her brother's intentions and that he was part of the Order. Harriet then redirected her anger at the Order for leading her brother to his death, and she also gave Eivor the key to a cave beneath the Winchester Mithraeum, promising Eivor that what he found there would tell him more about the Order. There, Eivor would find several letters, including some from Fulke, regarding plans to kill Alfred.