It had been years, perhaps, since Edith had last seen such a helmet
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I mentioned mostly as a joke that I was writing a nyo England fic about her reminiscing over her youth whilst looking at the Sutton Hoo helmet, so here it is
Art used: Penitent Mary Magdalene, Circle of Guido Reni (detail)
Normandy had a crush on Scotland. It's not really historical as the Normans just respected the Scottish for their political stability, but I felt that in terms of their personalities, it was possible that Normandy had puppy-love feelings towards Scotland.
Never made up my mind if Scotland was ever aware of it and rejected it, or he was a bit dense to her feelings and just thought she was trying to be friends and thought "Not gonna happen, go away".
Scotland did not like Normandy. He had watched from afar her viciousness as a conqueror and resented her for invading and conquering England. This was a period where relations between England and Scotland were relatively alright, there wasn't too much bad blood, both sides just contented with remaining on their part of the island. Throughout the Norman conquest, Scotland received a lot of English refugees and the Scottish court even welcomed the last (not officially crowned) English king and his family, until the Normans pressured the Scottish into not harboring the English king anymore (the king ran off to Flanders to gather support to try and kick the Normans out, but that never went anywhere).
Scotland also felt pressured into welcoming the Normans to his lands to avoid being conquered as well. So for some time, he experienced some influx of Norman, French and Flemish settlers into his Lowlands. Not hugely destabilizing, but Scotland loathed trying to be diplomatic with Normandy as his king and the king's advisers thought that the Normans could decide to conquer Scotland and even succeed in their conquest, as Normans were more advanced in terms of weapons and tactics.
Normandy was taken with Scotland's "apparent" civility and politeness, and she also really loved seeing him smile and hearing him laugh. He rarely did these things around her, so it became a treat for her to catch glimpses of them whenever Scotland didn't realize she was present. She developed this whole infatuation for him and wrote a number of sappy love letters and poems she never had the courage to send to him. In any case, Normandy's feelings were never returned. There was no declaration of love, she never admitted to her feelings and Scotland never gave any indication that he would develop any feelings for her. The love eventually just wasted away, like a wilting flower. Normandy was left hurt and confused, not understanding why she had fallen in love and Scotland hadn't. Her heart broke when she realized that Scotland was developing a crush on France and was becoming properly infatuated with him.
Why not her? What had she done wrong? There were no answers to be had. Eventually she convinced herself that it was never meant to be.
