Growing up in the fenlands of Mercia, Hereward, son of Earl Leofric, is cursed with a birthmark thought by the common folk to be the work of elves or goblins. A wild and defiant youth, he is wrongly banished by King Edward and shipwrecked off the Irish coast. He is saved by the enchantress Muirgheal, and his new, idyllic life with her tempts him to forsake his homeland for good.

Meanwhile, the weakness of the ailing and childless King Edward lays the country open to the ravages of intrigue, ambition and conquest. A power struggle ensues which pits brothers Harold and Tostig Godwinesson against each other, while Normans and Vikings covet England from without.

Lyrical, tragic and earthy in turns, The Changeling, the first book of The Saxon Tapestry, is a magical portrayal of life in Anglo-Saxon England. Sile Rice takes the fragments of medieval history, poetry and legend and transforms them into a historical fantasy of great beauty and power.