The publicity poster for Guillermo del Toro's 2006 film Laberinto del Fauno or Pan's Labyrinth centres on the image of a huge dead tree trunk, split in two, which, as we later learn in the film, is the gateway to a deep cleft in the earth – a dark and strange underground world. Set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, del Toro's film is permeated with images of ruptured earth, splits in the ground, the land literally tearing itself apart to reveal dark and disturbing phenomena within. Whilst the film does include direct representations of violence and atrocity, del Toro's use of metaphor and the alienating, unsettling power of the fantastic offers a far more powerful and affecting evocation of the trauma of civil conflict. Writing civil war is a challenging and difficult project. Civil war is a traumatic experience for both individuals and communities, which resists simple narrative and exceeds the conventions of direct historiographical representation. Whilst direct accounts of the chaos and horror of civil war can be reductive and simplifying, the trauma of civil conflict is often displaced to emerge through metaphor and symbolism. The disturbing experience of civil war can even impact on language itself, affecting style, structure, and voice and leaving perhaps unexpected traces in textual memorials.

This paper will explore how Henry of Huntingdon writes civil war in the Historia Anglorum, with particular focus on book X, ‘De hoc presenti’ or ‘The Present Time’ and its account of the reign of Stephen.