War of the Wolf

War of the Wolf
pub. 2018 Bernard Cornwell
333 pages

Uhtred of Bebbanburg is called a priest-killer, a chief of devils. And yet when a distressed and scarred monk came to his gates and begged that he send help to Mercia, beset by civil war, the old warlord answered the call.  He once swore to protect a young man, then the son of his beloved friend Aetheflaed, Queen of Mercia. That young man is now an accomplished young prince, one of such potential that he might help realize King Alfred's dream: one England,  with one law, and one God.  That is a future Uhtred  does not want, for his own home is in the last pagan kingdom,  Northumbria -- the last to resist Edward, Anglorum Saxonum Rex.    And yet Uhtred is a man of oaths, and so true to his word he rides forth to rescue a man who one day by be his undoing.  When he arrives, however, he finds that the man,  though besieged by rebels,  is in no dire straights, and the monk who begged for his help is not what he seemed. Someone has lured Uhtred of Bebbanberg from his forbidding castle, but for what reason?  Although his pursuit of developments gives him greater reason to fear for the future than ever -- Edward is plainly dying, and his sons are all ambitious men who want to prove  and engorge themselves by attacking  Northumbria --  that kingdom has a more pressing enemy,   one who has already manipulated Uhtred and whose sorcerer draws men to his banner even as it frightensthose he stands against.  Though Uhtred can resist him with wiles and might, as he has taken countless enemies before, the aging war-prince also knows that fate is inexorable.   He can foil men, but not the gods.

The Saxon Stories are probably my favorite series of historical fiction to read, although after the first half-dozen the plots have gotten a little tiresome:  medieval Saxon politics punctuated with epic battles. It's great, but...people being as they are, even a diet of constant steak would grow tiresome.   In War of the Wolf, we appear to be approaching the endgame, as the poet who appeared early in the series putting Uhtred's life into verse appears here again,  complete with some borrowed Saxon poetry. Although Uhtred has an immediate enemy -- a young savage with a ferocious warband and a lust for power --  the political developments of this book also hint that the 'final battle' will be the defense of Northumbria against the south.   What made Uhtred so interesting from the start was that he was a Saxon princeling raised by the Danes, who much preferred the company of the latter but was compelled to fight against them to realize his dream of reclaiming his family land.  Uhtred in his youth was constantly torn between  his Christian countrymen of blood, and his Danish and Norse countrymen of heart. Old Uhtred has been a partially tamed wolf: one who is wild, but mostly cooperates with the king. If push comes to shove, however,  and Christian England invades Northumbria, it's almost certain that  the wolf will run wild again. 

The Birth of Britain

History of the English Speaking Peoples, Vol 1: The Birth of Britain
521 pages
© 1956 Sir Winston Churchill

I've been reading from Sir Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples the last few Read of Englands, but didn't previously have access to the first volume in the series.   The Birth of Britain covers the most storied aspect of British and English history, beginning with the invasion of the island by Rome and continuing to the end of the Hundred Years War.  We begin, then, with an island at the "end of the world" being invaded and connected to continental civilization, and developing through until at the end of the long conflict with France, England is again its own sceptered isle,  left to chart its own course. Although Celtic, Roman,  and Anglo-Saxon Britain all receive full attention here, most of the really memorable characters appear after the arrival of William the Bastard, the Duke of Normandy whose conquest of England would create a loosely bound cross-channel  empire -- later made greater by one of the Bastard's progeny marrying a French princess and creating the Angevin Empire. More than once, however, Churchhill comments that the Angevin realm was not a coherent state at all, but a loose collection of several with their own laws. The evolution of English law, and particularly the common law and the conviction that no one was above the law -- not tven the king --  is an important theme of Churchill's work,  and along with it is the rise of Parliament.  Not surprising given that Churchhill researched and wrote this amid the anticipation and then memory of World War 2, antagonism toward England's favorite enemy, France, is minimal, and Joan of Arc is celebrated just as Boudica is.   Churchill's skillful oratory still translates into historic narrative here.

The English Resistance

The English Resistance: the Underground War Against the Romans
© 2006 Peter Rex

I was scandalized to learn, in seventh grade, that once ages ago, England was conquered. Already I had acquired the mythic conception of England as an indomitable island redoubt, safe from whatever Continental mischief was carrying on. But there, in my book, in 1066, William of Normandy lands, kills the Witan-endorsed successor to the English throne, and installs himself as monarch, with a line that officially lives on today. Peter Rex argues in The English Resistance that William's assault at Hastings accomplished less than is popularly believed, only giving him the title of king and command of southern England, and that historians have heretofore been too pro-Norman to give the feisty Saxons their due.

1066 was a brutal year for Anglo-Saxon England, with no less than three battles culling its stock of leaders.  The depletion of ranks went a long way towards making southern England putty in William's hands, especially as he burned down villages that resisted. Bearing as he did a banner blessed by the Pope, the church hierarchy in England favored his cause as well...and considering their lands and knights, the bishops were no small allies. (The lower levels of the church, like the abbeys, were far more resistant to the Norman intrusion.)      In the north, however, the barons were unscathed, and several rebellions against William would erupt from it directly or with its support.  Intriguingly, one of the rebellions had the intent of routing William and establishing an Anglo-Danish state, with an English client-king.  The same death-and-fire approach William used to intimidate the south was leveled against the north with greater ferocity after the Bastard* concluded a siege of the rebels' marshy stronghold. Much of the north was 'wasted', the fields ruined for cultivation.

The English Resistance has more spell in its title than it its execution, because Rex assembles the book in a very odd way.  It opens with commentary on the long-term consequences of the resistance,  leading William to abandon his pretense of an Anglo-Norman state with continuity to the old line, devotes a few chapters to different rebellions mixed with extensive discussion of one rebel's genealogy, and then to end...introduces the characters of the drama?  Reverse order would seem more appropriate, with the many pages devoted to Hereward. the Wake's forefathers and descendants left to the book Rex has written on Hereward the Wake. The book tends toward the scholarly, with much discussion of source interpretation,  but there are pockets of drama. I might read one more book by Rex to see how it compares: he has written biographies of Edwin the Confessor, Harold Godwinson, Hereward the Wake, and other figures associated with the conquest. That sort of devoted study promises insights to be had.

Related:
The Fall of Saxon England, Richard Humble
Daily Life in Anglo-Saxon England, Sally Crawford


* A far more entertaining title than "William the Conqueror", and much less pompous.

Warriors of the Storm

Warriors of the Storm
© 2016 Bernard Cornwell
320 pages

"May God strike me dead this moment if I lie!"
I drew Serpent-Breath, her blade scraping loud and fast on her scabbard's throat.
"Lord Uhtred!" Æthelflaed called out in alarm. "No!"

Uhtred of Bebbanburg is a lord of war, a Saxon prince raised by conquering Danes, a pagan who nontheless serves the sole remaining Christian kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia.  He is a man loyal not to tribes nor institutions, but to his friends, and for love of a woman -- Æthelflaed, Queen of Mercia --  he patiently waits for an opportunity to invade Dane-held Northumbria and return to his ancestral home. It has been a quest long frustrated by the constant scheming of both Danish and Saxon politics, but now....now, the Danes are quarreling, the Saxons are united ,and NOW is the time to seize Northumbria.  So naturally,  the Irish invade.

It's not really the Irish, of course, just a few hundred mercenaries accompanying an even larger horde of Danes who have recently quit Ireland in favor of easier takings and better fields in Britain.  Warriors of the Storm opens with an invasion and will see Uhtred again taking to the field despite his age, somehow wresting defeat from death by refusing to play his enemies' games and attacking them when it is plainly suicidal. But Uhtred isn't just lucky, he's long-seasoned.  He can see weaknesses in a shield wall or a political alliance hidden from everyone else, and he's daring enough to exploit them.  So when an Irish-Danish horde invades  Mercia, by the gods he invades them right back!

I didn't expect Warriors of the Storm. In the last novel,  The Empty Throne, Uhtred was withering away from age, gravely wounded on his deathbed, seeing shades of long-dead friends beckoning him to join them in the beyond to an eternity of sacking and feasting, and leaving his son Uhtred to do some of the narration. But now...he's back! He's grey, sure, but he's not weak, and the only long-gone friends showing up are those quite alive who have just been missing a good long while.  This series is plainly tacking toward the home port, however,  featuring the dispatch of old enemies and the re-appearances of both Uhtred's oldest son, who he disowned for becoming a priest;  and his first lover and companion, Brida. Another sign of the end,  is a bit of poetry as Uhtred rescues a boy who charges into battle to save his dying father.  The circle is now complete.  

Need I give the usual praise? Dramatic prose of thunder flashing as armies trudge through the mud to meet destiny,  quick wits amusing each other in conversation, bombastic speeches and a few sly jokes.  All the usual Cornwell strengths are here, though it's a quick book so they're over more quickly. The twists and turns aren't as sharp here, possibly because once the reader has marched with Uhtred for so long, one gets used to his sudden bolts of inspiration, like paying a visit to the Irish. The book ends poised for the conclusion, however, and unlike the old man standing on death's door from last book, Uhtred appears to be going into it strong and fierce. As much as I'll miss him, it is high time he went home.

Next stop, BEBBANBURG!

One by one

In the past few days I’ve knocked out several categories for the 2015 Reading Challenge, including:

A Book Older than 100 Years:  Beowulf,   the story of a hero from another land who conquers a monster,  his mother , and his own fear of death against a horde-guarding dragon.  I used Seamus Heaney’s translation, which seemed to be the best judging by reviews, and found it far shorter than I expected.

A Book You Were Supposed to Read in High School:  Grendel is a mid-20^th century retelling of Beowulf through the eyes of the fearsome beast our doughty Geat  rendered ‘armless.  This was assigned to me in 12^th grade English, though we never read it because the teacher was a Guardsman and we were taught by a series of substitutes.  I never gave away the book, though, because I paid $12 for it, and when a book is assigned to me reading it becomes a point of honor. Anyhoo, Grendel was a curious choice for my teacher. As it turns out the fearsome beast is a teenager:   clumsy, chronically mired in an existential crisis, and fairly miserable on the whole.  Aside from a few philosophical conversations with the dragon, Grendel spends the book crashing through the woods, spying on the Danes, feeling sorry for himself, and occasionally screaming at the heavens. Though I endured this in the hope that Beowulf would show up and put him out of his misery, I must say the ending line did make me feel…almost sorry for him. Almost.

A Book Based on a Television Show: Star Trek: Foul Deeds Will Rise,  based heavily on “The Conscience of the King” and touching on another though to name it would give away  the whodunit.

A Book By an Author Who You Love, But Which You Haven’t Read:   Zebra Derby, Max Shulman. Yes, despite saying “anything by Asimov or Wendell Berry” for months now,  last night I spotted my copy of Max Shulman’s Large Economy Size and realized – hey, I’m awfully fond of Shulman, and I haven’t read the third novel in that collection, so why not?  It’s a short bit of postwar satire in which a returning soldier struggles to find his place in the new world. Through his misadventures Shulman pokes fun at door-to-door salesmen, Communists,   psychologists, bureaucrats, and entrepreneurs . It’s not nearly as funny as the soldier’s previous misadventures (Barefoot Boy With Cheek), erring as it does on the side of randomness, but I still like Shulman. 

What's next? Probably either Book on the Bottom of Your To-Read List,  for which I have a nonfiction contender I've been meaning to read for several years now, but have never actually picked up, or A Book with Magic, as I'm  plodding through The Two Towers.   Sure, I could use a Narnia book for the magic, but scavenger hunts are no fun when there's no challenge.

Sword of the Angles

Leofric: Sword of the Angles
© 2015 S. J. Arnott
412 pages

The days are dark for Angeln. Surrounded by enemies and increasingly depopulated as her people flee to more peaceful fields in Britain, her king has seen fit to enlist one-time enemies as allies against the Danes.  The outlook for Leofric is especially grim; his father is missing on campaign,  and himself so sickly that his grave has already been dug.  When the entire folk gathers at the king's city as a show of force to convince the Danes to keep their distance, matters grow far worse. A personal  grudge leads to a bloodfeud, and Leofric finds himself kinless, destitute, and declared outlaw. His village burned, he must flee to the wilderness and find refuge among others left for dead. In time the sickly boy will find the courage and strength needed to claim vengeance for his murdered uncle and restore his family's lands. 

Leofric: Sword of the Angles is a hero's-journey story set in dark-age Europe, at a time when Rome is dead but not buried, an age where the woods are dark and deep and home to monsters that require Beowulfs to slay them.  War looms, though the combat of Leofric is almost strictly personal, limited to Leofric and a companion or two fleeing, fighting, or ambushing those who will not be happy until the young man is dead.  Although the author acknowledges in his notes section that information on the Angles prior to their arrival in Britain is hard to come by, gaps are readily filled in by borrowing cultural references to the Franks and other Germanic tribes, and what details are available are worked in craftily; there is no awkward lecturing here, only a man pursuing his fate against a host of trouble. Some pieces of narrative are particularly mesmerizing, like the moment when Leofric's "dragon" awakes. This is his blood-heat, a surge of adrenaline and battle rage that allows him evade death and turn it on his enemies.  Although he triumphs in part by the end, some unfinished business --an enemy who escaped to Britain  -- begs for a sequel, and so do I. Considering that Bernard Cornwell's Uhtred is on death's door these days (hovering about in the doorframe, actually),  I would welcome more Leofric! 

Related:
Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories, especially #3, Lords of the North

The Fall of Saxon England

The Fall of Saxon England
© 1975 Richard Humble
242 pages

History never rests. In the middle of the first millennium, the great tide of the Roman Empire began at last to recede. Its legions stationed in distant reaches of the realm, like those in Britain, were removed to better protect the heart of Rome from its many enemies.  The Britons were left to their own devices,  and into the vacuum left by Rome swept a multitude of European immigrants: Angles, Saxons, Picts, and Jutes.   Latin was an unknown tongue to them, but they came, they saw, and they conquered. Establishing their own kingdoms the tribes reigned supreme for a few centuries -- but then came the Vikings.  Beginning in the late 8th century, the Saxon lands became the object of attention of the Danes, and for two centuries invaders, raiders, and aggressive settlers would pummel the island. Isolated raids gave way to massive armies that broke several of the Saxon kingdoms, while the rest fell under the lead of one man -- Alfred the Great -- creating a patchy but unified English resistance. His brilliant successes would be undermined by less able successors, however, pitted against wilier foes.  The Fall of Saxon England is a blow-by-blow account of the Viking siege of England, ending with the invasion of William the Bastard.   Hailing from Normandy, itself a Viking-taken area of France, 1066 put an end to Saxon self-rule.  This storied military and political history of an England between Rome and Normandy has a sad end, but many of the actors are brilliant. Of special interest is a section on King Arthur, who the author speculates might have been inspired by Ambrosius Aurelianus.  Highly readable,  Humble delivers an education into how the great Saxon kingdoms, later earldoms, emerged and evolved until the Norman conquest.

The Empty Throne

The Empty Throne
© 2015 Bernard Cornwell
320 pages

Uhtred of Bebbanburg is an impossible man. A Saxon prince raised by Danes,  he  has nonethelessbeen the architect of a great redoubt against them, the defender of Wessex a hundred times over.  A lone wolf in a court of civilized dogs, Uhtred is despised by the court, but admired by its warriors.  In his life, Uhtred has wrestled victory from the jaws of ruin a dozen times; he has presided over the ruin of armies that threatened devestation. In a country increasing ruled by religion and law, Uhtred is a pagan;  he is primal, a man loyal to blood and oaths, a man who lives life lustily. Time and again, Uhtred's irrational allegiances to people have gotten him into trouble, but they have led him to greatness. Now,after a life of strife, of love and war, he is aged, battle-worn, and sick -- but fate tasks him still.

The Empty Throne sees Uhtred struggling valiantly to defend his friends and innocents yet again, fighting not only against the energetic scheming of men now far younger than him, but against his own mortality. His body carries many wounds, some fresh, and one which refuses to hill. But the chief of Mercia has just died, and if the schemers get their way the kingdom could fall into Danish hands, and a woman Uhtred loves (always the women with Uhtred and Sharpe!)  relegated to a fate worse than death: a nunnery.  So he and his own must gird themselves up one more time and fight the good fight -- scheming, fighting, sailing -- even if it takes them into the great unknown: Wales. 

The battles in Empty Throne are more like brawls,  much smaller in scale (aside from a fleet being set on fire); the book is a prelude to the great climax of the Saxon-Norse struggles. What volume follows this will presumably see the end of Uhtred's career, too, given the many premonitions of death featured here, from Uhtred's son becoming a narrator to visions of long-dispatched foes and friends inviting Uhtred to dine with them in the beyond.  Unlike Uhtred, Cornwell's skills haven't diminished in writing:  his flair for the dramatic seems especially pronounced in these Saxon books, perhaps given the cultures'  devotion to oratory, or the sheer fun of writing Vikings.  Uhred spends most of this book wearily trying to sort schemes  while fighting pain, but even so there's humor -- witness his schooling his son in the fine art of backhanding priests.  (Uhtred has bearishly swatted clerics in virtually every book of this series; surely Cornwell's made a running joke out of it.)   Despite the contemplation of death,  there is the promise of life:  not only does his daughter Stiorra has a will of iron, like the blade she uses to dispatch a would-be assailant, but like her father she has embraced the old ways of heathenry. She's a genuine shield-maiden, and I hope she appears in the finale.)   Even once he goes to rest his bones in the hollowed ground of his forefathers (as yet unrecaptured), that spirit of Uhtred, that fierce strength, that awesome wildness -- will live on.





[2015 Reading Challenge: A Book Published This Year COMPLETED 1/52]

The Vikings

The Vikings: A History
© 2010 Robert Ferguson
464 pages
UK title: The Hammer and the Cross: A History of the Vikings

            VIKINGS!  For students of western civilization, the word has quite the mystique. Invaders from the frozen north, flying across the seas on dragons-head ships, wreaking havoc on seaboards and penetrating deep into Europe’s heartland to cause even more. Kings and priests feared them;  behind them, cities were cast into smoke. For decades they were the unholy dread of Christendom, but theirs is a history not limited to battle and chaos. The Vikings is a history of the turn of the second millennium in Europe, of not only the northern clans but of the civilizations they altered; the English, Russian, Norman, Italian, and even Arabic.  As the last of Europe’s pagans roamed far and side, from Constantinople to North America, so to does Ferguson explore not only their military and political strivings, but their religious culture as well.  Although Vikings is a weighty work, dense with information, it's presented as-such; there's no  overall idea to  tie each section together, and because their wanderings were so broad the reader is thrown from place to place in every other chapter. There's no want of detail;  Carolingian politics, variations in the Heathen religion, and even home sites at archaeological digs are given extensive consideration.  For those interested in the Vikings, and their impact on European history at this time, The Vikings will be a worthy source of information; for the  only slightly curious, however, its density may be intimidating. 

Related:
Daily Life in Anglo-Saxon England , Sally Crawford

Daily Life in Anglo-Saxon England

Daily Life in Anglo-Saxon England
© 2008 Sally Crawford
224 pages

            Who were the Anglo-Saxons? For a people conquered in 1066, their culture seems strangely dominant;  the land the Normans conquered remains England, not Greater Normandy, and Norman French is only an influence on the more native English, never having displaced the old language.   Daily Life in Anglo-Saxon England examines the earthy details of the Anglo-Saxons’ lives; the construction of their homes, the styles of dress, the culture they practiced at home and in community with one another. Separate chapters address both the material, like tools and towns, and cultural (religion and governance).  While some sections are based on physical artifacts, other evidence is documentary, taken from older histories like Bede’s, or inferred from miscellaneous documents.  The assertion that the Anglo-Saxons valued family care is drawn both from the presence of an adult skeleton who was born missing an arm and various descriptions of personalities in histories and graves as doting kinsmen and the like.   The book has a somewhat slow start (save for readers who are utterly fascinated by the difference between sunken-earth homes and free-standing  houses as archaeological sites), but on the whole is quite engaging.  The main point of the author’s writing is to rescue the Saxons from the perception that they were filthy peasants, knuckle-dragging their way around mud huts until the arrival of Christianity and the Norman French.  Her survey of their social life certainly illustrates how rich a life their culture possessed, and how sympathetic they can be even to modern readers.

The Pagan Lord

The Pagan Lord
© 2014 Bernard Cornwell
320 pages

Uhtred of Bebbanberg is having a bad week. First his hall was burned by an old rival-enemy, Cnut Ranulfson, in retaliation for Uhtred kidnapping his children, which Uhtred did not do. Uhtred of Bebbanberg is many things, but he doesn't kidnap kids. After clearing that little mess up at Cnut's place, he returns home to find the rest of his estate burned down by the church in retaliation for his accidentally killing a priest who attacked him when he attempted to prevent his eldest son Uhtred from becoming a "Christian wizard". Uhtred didn't mean to kill the priest; he just has that effect on them, like carbon monoxide.  Driven from Christendom by an excommunicated mob and hated by the Danes,  there's really no place to go but up -- up into Dane-held Britain, to the fortress Bebbanburg, his ancestral home stolen long ago by a treacherous uncle.  It could be all so simple:  take the fortress with a little derring-do and turtle up, allowing his enemies to cut one another to pieces. Alas, Cnut Ranulfson has complicated schemes afoot, and to get out it and lead the Saxons to triumph will involve a ship,  borrowed children, and a dead priest on a stick. That's life in Anglo-Saxon Britain, and the tale of The Pagan Lord.

Cornwell's Saxon Stories series, featuring a warlord of divided loyalties -- a Saxon raised by Danes who served the Saxon king Alfred in his quest to defend Britain against Danish invasion - has so far consisted of superb odd-number books bridged by good even-numbered books. Pagan Lord is a bridge despite its odd-numbered status, but as solid as the Roman span Uhtred uses here while being pursued by an army five times his size. Pagan Lord is battle- and politics heavy, and consists largely of travel: Uhtred's first response is to buy a boat and go 'viking', but as he begins to put together the pieces of whatever diabolical scheme his Norse rivals are up to.  In younger years Uhtred might have abandoned the Christian Saxons altogether and taken his home fortress with  Danish help, but his lingering attachment to his 'own' people is magnified by his love for a Christian woman who stands to be treated badly if the Danes win.  So once again he kills men he admires and aides men who despise him, because of a woman; Cornwell's heroes tend to have that honorable flaw.  The Pagan Lord wasn't quite the novel I expected: happily, it's not the conclusion of the Saxon stories, even though Uhtred advances into the gates of his ancestral home.  The novel seems to move toward its conclusion in the middle before Uhtred's plan goes awry, and he has to retreat into the mouth of Chaos, where he and all of Saxon Britain engage in war against the schemes and horde-strong armies of the Danes.  The Pagan Lord is on the short side, but's a fine tale of adventure set during the Viking age.

Death of Kings

Death of Kings
© 2011 Bernard Cornwell
325 pages

Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings...

(Richard II, William Shakespeare)

Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, lays on his deathbed. Aged and long infirm,  he has created a legacy to be proud of.  He has united most of the  Saxons under his kingdom, and for decades defended Britain against the expansion of the Danes. But his work is not yet complete; many still live within the realm of the Danish conquerors, and even what unity he has achieved may be destroyed upon his death, as Danish armies use it as an opportunity to resume their expansion. Alfred alone unites the Saxons, but if he dies the various petty kingdoms that Wessex consumed in its rise may break apart again.  Alfred's son Edward does not command their respect the way Alfred did, however grudgingly, and a weak heir  would threaten  to reverse all of Alfred's accomplishments. But the dying king has a hope: he has...Uhtred of Bebbanberg, a Saxon prince raised by Danes who nonetheless serves Alfred, a true lord of war whose might and wit have been been the tools with which Alfred created and defended his kingdom. Now, in Alfred's final hours, he dispatches a final message to Uhtred, calling him to serve his court one more time.  And so Uhtred is called to fight in what may be Wessex' darkest hour,  and his battle provides another solid contribution to the Saxon stories series.

Death of Kings begins on an unlikely note, with Uhtred being asked to negotiate a peace conference. A chance exists that a Saxon king allied to the Danes may be persuaded to change loyalties, or at the very least refrain from joining the Danes in war against Wessex, and Alfred's court believes only Uhtred is strong enough to ensure that the king sees reason. Even so, Uhtred is a questionable choice for diplomat; he once killed a priest for insulting his wife, and did so as casually with one blow as we might swat a fly. Tact is a word that Uhtred doesn't know the meaning of, in either his own Old English or in Danish. But as one might expect from Cornwell, peace is only the calm before the storm. Soon enough the king will die, and Edward will be forced to fight rebellion and outside invasion simultaneously. Worse yet, he may not find the courage to use his strong arm, Uhtred, given that the warlord is hated by the Christians of the royal court for his pride and irreverence. However much the court dislikes Uhtred, he's a fantastic narrator. That irreverence provides humor in spades, and he has a penchant for drama; his tradition of introducing himself with a speech is maintained in the Death of Kings.  Even more so than Richard Sharpe, Uhtred is earnest. He exults in the joy of life, even in battle.  He sees himself as an actor in a larger drama, but what that story is, he leaves to the fates. While he despises the piety of the priests who make his life at court miserable, Uhtred's own faith in destiny -- his motto, 'Fate is inexorable' -- give him courage to try fantastic feats in the face of overwhelming odds.   The result is a good read, often as funny as it is thrilling.

The Burning Land

The Burning Land
© 2009 Bernard Cornwell
336 pages

"I see all history as being -- and this is very simplistic -- a contest between puritans and cavaliers, and I'm instinctively on the side of the cavaliers. As far as Uhtred is concerned, the Danes are a helluva lot more fun." - Bernard Cornwell, interview.                           

Uhtred of Bebbanburg has just achieved his greatest triumph, the masterful routing of a vast Danish army intent on making Mercia and Wessex their own. He is King Alfred's Lord of War:  his greatest servant, albeit the least orthodox. Despite their mutual gains together, the peace in Uhtred's life is soon shattered when his beloved wife dies in childbirth and a vicious bishop denounces her as a whore. This attracts Uhtred's attention, the bishop loses the use of his neck in short order,  and soon our hero is faced with a choice: humiliation or exile.

Turning his back on his oath to Alfred and leaving his children in the care of a friend, Uhtred sails from Wessex  accompanied by his most loyal comrades-in-arms, intent on returning to his adopted Danish family where he will at last be free -- free of Alfred's ambitions, free of Alfred's mewling priests, free of Alfred's laws and constant disapproval. At Dunholm, with his Danish brothers at his side, Uhtred can finally plan his recapture of Bebbanburg, his family's ancestral land. Fate, though, has other plans:  the Danes have not lost their ambitions to destroy Wessex, and when Uhtred receives a desperate plea from a woman whom he's loved and protected all her life, he's forced to make another difficult decision. Either choice will brand him a traitor and send him headlong into destruction, but "fate is inexorable". 

The Burning Land is the fifth and latest book in Bernard Cornwell's unflaggingly strong Saxon series. Most of the book is populated by familiar characters, the only notable introduction being that of Skade, the ethereally beautiful and cruel warrior-priestess who I wasn't sure Uhtred would kill or marry. Emotional turmoil abounds, as does military action:  momentous battles bookend The Burning Land, and they're two of the more interesting (site-wise) I've yet read. Though the books in this series are increasingly introduced by an aged Uhtred looking back at the past (and scowling at how remiss the monks have been in recording his role in these battles),  I'm never certain as to where Cornwell (or the fates) are going to send the outcast Lord of Bebbanburg next. As is usual, the book's pace is furious: I deliberately had to stop reading last night to prevent my rapture from interfering in New Years' Eve plans.

It is with sorrow that I note the lack of a sixth book at present: I will be looking forward to Uhtred's continuing adventures. At least the recess is starting on a strong note -- I'd say this is the third best in the series, behind The Lords of the North and The Last Kingdom. That's no small prize, considering the stellar quality of this series as a whole. 

                                         

                                                                                                     

Sword Song

Sword Song: The Battle for London
© 2008 Bernard Cornwell
314 pages

When King Alfred assumed the throne of Wessex, his fragile nation stood alone against the rest of England, subdued and ruled by the Danes.  Through  Alfred's able administration and his reliance on stout warriors like Uthred of Bebbanburg, Wessex has broken the back of most of the Scandinavian usurpers. Those who've not fallen by Uhtred's sword have been turned into Alfred's allies (if not completely reliable), and the pious king's influence is expanding. Still, invaders keep coming -- like Sigifred and Erik, two legendary Norse brothers who have invaded southern England fresh from profitable journeys among the Franks. They have seized Lundene (known better as London) and intend to conquer both Mercia and Wessex. Though Alfred's forces are large enough to resist them successfully, he cannot allow the brothers to continue using Lundene to control the Thames river, Alfred's greatest source of supplies and trade. Thus, Uhtred and a few other chosen men are tasked with leading an army to Lundene and  restoring it to Saxon hands.

Uhtred is the most able of Alfred's servants, but not his most-honored: unlike most Saxons, he has not abandoned the old gods for the Hebrews', nor has his life made him a meek subordinate. Though Uhtred complies with Alfred's wishes, he does so to fulfill a personal sense of honor -- not because he likes or even respects the sickly would-be saint. He would rather burn in the Christian hell until the end of time than spend a moment with Alfred's crowd of pious legalists.  Thus, even though he follows Alfred's orders, he does so in his own way -- keeping his own counsel, often striking out on his own without Alfred's sanction or even notice.   Though the outcome of the book's titular battle was a foregone conclusion, the execution is interesting and the aftermath unpredictable -- giving Uhtred an opportunity to choose to defy Alfred's plans in order to effect his own. Most of the book's characters are old familiars, but the two Norse brothers were welcome arrivals; the younger, Erik, is a sympathetic a character as any.

In sum, Sword Song is yet another enjoyable volume in this series. I always enjoy stories of people who shun obedience and docility in favor of following their convictions, especially when they involve abusive priests and nobles stammering apologies as they back away from a gleaming sword held by the angry Lord of Bebbanburg.

Lords of the North

Lords of the North
© 2007 Bernard Cornwell
317 pages

"Where the tides of fortune take us, no man can know."

"They're tricky, those tides..."

(Sisko and Gowron, "By Inferno's Light". Deep Space Nine.)

Only months ago, Uthred Ragnarson followed Alfred, the defeated king of Wessex, into the swamps and stayed by his side for a year, defending a man he hated despite their mutual contempt of one another. Now Alfred has returned to power, a triumph engineered by Uthred -- but there is no place for a Saxon warrior with a Dane's soul in Alfred's Christian kingdom. Scorning the meager and worthless scrap of land he is offered in return for his services, Uthred departs Alfred's court to settle a blood feud with an old adversary -- Kjartan the Cruel, who destroyed Uthred's home, killed his beloved adoptive father, and stole his sister-in-spirit away in a forced marriage. Armed with his two swords (Serpent-Breath and Wasp-Sting), his wiles, and a penchant for the dramatic, Uthred sets into the wilderness of 9th-century England, navigating through kingdoms of competing Danish lords and Saxon madmen.

Lords of the North is a marked improvement over The Pale Horseman, not that Horseman was less than stellar. Uthred is at his best and most entertaining when allowed to act as his own man, a rogue element in the constant power struggles that dominant the land. He's a magnificent beast of a character, wild and free -- and his quest to destroy Kjartan excuses him from the side of the so-far unlikeable King Alfred. The hallmarks of this series are all present -- excellent characterization, a vivid setting,  and dramatic but effectively blunt writing --  -- but Uthred's fate is far less predictable. Throughout the series, Uthred references the Three Spinners, whose wheels plot out the fates of all men. Their work has everyone in their grasp, and they do as they please, prompting Uthred to mutter "Wyrd bið ful aræd -- fate is inexorable"  on more than one occasion. Cornwell shocked me repeatedly throughout the book, as triumphs are followed by betrayal and redemption from unlikely corners. Lords of the North offers the exhilarating literary equivalent of crashing through white-water rapids in a longboat.

Cornwell again captivates me in Lords, a great pleasure to read. Though the book is excellent, I'm also glad to see that Alfred is shaping up as a character. The series is about his rise to greatness, but so far he's seemed like nothing but an impediment to Uthred's story.

On Wednesday I intend to check out the audiobook of this tale, just so I can experience it all over again.

"It is the three spinners who make our lives. They sit at the foot of Yggdrasil and there they have their jests. It pleased them to make Guthred the slave into King Guthred, just as it pleased them to send me south again to Wessex. While at Bebbanburg, where the grey sea never ceases to beat upon the long pale sands and the cold wind frets the wolf's head flag above the hall, they dreaded my return. Because fate cannot be cheated, it governs us, and we are all its slaves."

(314)

The Pale Horseman

The Pale Horseman
© 2006 Bernard Cornwell
349 pages

Only the small kingdom of Wessex stands between the Danes and total control of England, and few are convinced that the sickly King Alfred is a man capable of leading the Saxons to freedom. He cares more for bishops and churches than warriors and fortifications, and many refugees in Wessex see his defeat as inevitable. Alfred is one of the few men who truly believes England can and will free herself, however, and his hope rallies men with a stake in freedom to his side.  Even Uhtred Ragnarson, who despises Alfred for his weak-willed piety,  has pledged to help Alfred prepare to drive the Norse away before the increasing waves of soldiers, women, slaves, and settlers make such a goal impossible to achieve. Alfred is still mulling over possible routes to victory when thee Danes launch a preemptive strike at the onset of winter: Wessex, the last hope, is lost. Fleeing into the swamps, Alfred and a few isolated followers prepare for the worst. The next fight could very well be their last.

The Pale Horseman follows The Last Kingdom in Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Chronicles  series,  being told by Uhtred Ragnarson, a Saxon prince-king turned Danish warrior who is  capable of supporting either side.  In every way but birth, he is a Dane -- but his ambition to  return to his family's ancestral domain of Babbanburg as its rightful lord keeps him  defending a man he hates. Fate gives him plenty of opportunities to reconsider the object of  his loyalties, and he proves himself time and again a 'rogue agent'.

Uhtred tells his story in a confident voice -- he is ruthless, strong, blunt, and often dramatic,  as befits his character. Cornwell uses his narrator's voice and a detailed, realistic background  to draw the reader into a setting of uncertainty, war, and competing forces. The armies of the  Saxons and Norse clash, but so do the values of the effete Alfred and those of his subjects,  whose worldviews are sometimes more influenced by the 'old ways' than imperial Christianity.  Cornwell is certainly evocative: he draws me into his stories like no one else. I could feel as though I was at Uthred's side, my feet slipping in the muck of the swamps, a sword at my side as the lightening flashed and the thunder rumbled above. I tend to read 'around' combat scenes in historical fiction, but that is not the case here -- the author keeps my attention even in the thick of battle.

The Pale Horseman is not quite as good as The Last Kingdom in my judgment (not as many fun-loving Danes, alas, and there's less mystery as to the end-page resolution),  but remain excellent historical fiction nonetheless featuring good writing, a lively atmosphere,  and compelling characters. This is an easy series to recommend, and I anticipate continuing in it.

The Last Kingdom

The Last Kingdom
© 2005 Bernard Cornwell
333 pages

My name is Uhtred. I am the son of Uhtred, who was the son of Uhtred and his father was also called Uhtred.[...]   I look at those parchments, which are deeds saying that Uhtred, son of Uhtred, is the lawful and sole owner of the lands that are carefully marked by stone and by dykes, by oaks and by ash, by marsh and by sea, and I dream of those lands, wave-beaten and wild beneath the wind-driven sky. I dream, and know that one day I will take back the land from those who stole it from me.

I picked The Last Kingdom up to read after lunch today, and it maintained my attention all through the afternoon as the sun sank into the horizon.  It was a pleasure. I've  read a couple of Cornwell novels before and have enjoyed them, but none so much as this!  The Last Kingdom is the story of Uhtred, a young Northumbrian boy captured in battle by a Danish war chief who took such delight in the sight of a ten-year-old boy charging him with a sword that he adopted him as a son. Uhtred grows up with the Vikings as they subdue one Anglo-Saxon kingdom after another, until at last only one stands against them: Wessex, led by the young King Alfred who assumed the throne after the death of his elders in battle.

Though Uhtred is a Northumbrian noble,  he grows to love the Danes who adopted him, and for good reason: dialogue and characterization convey the sense that the Danes are a people "unafraid of live",  ever wild  and exuberant.  Their unbound pleasure is infectious. Despite his adoration for his new father and brothers, Uhtred still feels in his bones a loyalty to his family's lands in Northumbria, and he intends on ruling there regardless of which side claims him as their own. When he fights, he does so for himself -- for the joy of the hunt, to avenge himself upon those who have wronged him, to prove himself a man and a lord of men. Judging from the book's inside cover I thought Uthred would simply make one decision to return to the side of Alfred, but Cornwell's tale is not so simplistic. Uthred is truly his own man, and I look forward to continuing in the series.

As mentioned before, Cornwell's use of language conveys the energy of the Danes: though 'villains', I enjoyed their every appearance. As I suspect is usual for Cornwell, the world is rich in detail, and quite immersive. England in the 800s is a land between cultures: Rome's legacy still stands, and the Anglo-Saxon warriors who seized Britain from the Celts following the Empire's departure are slowly growing into the notion of being a country ruled by law rather than swords. Alfred is the exemplar of this trend, possessed by the desire to bring order to the chaos and establish a single English state. The Danes laugh at the civilized virtues and at Alfred's 'womanly religion', preferring instead the starkness of a fight and the religion of their ancestors. They aren't alone, for more than a few Anglo-Saxons have not yet been Christianized and silently pay homage to Woden rather than Jesus. Uhtred is such a one.  Even so, they're not stock villains:  they pillage and raid, and they seek to conquer England and make it their home, but Alfred's ancestors did the same to the Celts and would receive the same in kind from the Normans in two hundred years.  (England is a dangerous place to live during the early medieval period...)

Rollicking good read --  I'll be continuing in this series and recommend Cornwall to historical fiction readers with gusto.