IT WAS HARD TO stay awake all night, Edgar found, even on the most important night of your life. He had spread his cloak over the reeds on the floor and now he lay on it, dressed in the knee-length brown wool tunic that was all he wore in summer, day and night. In winter he would wrap the cloak around him and lie near the fire. But now the weather was warm: Midsummer Day was a week away.
Edgar always knew dates. Most people had to ask priests, who kept calendars. Edgar's elder brother Erman had once said to him: How come you know when Easter is?' and he had replied: 'Because it's the first Sunday after the first full moon after the twenty-first day of March, obviously. It had been a mistake to add 'obviously', because Erman had punched him in the stomach for being sarcastic.