- Prologue: Northumbria, AD 866-7
"My name is Uhtred. I am the son of [ealdorman] Uhtred [and wife *], who was the son of Uhtred and his father was also called Uhtred" (3). He was originally named Osbert, but when his older bro Uhtred is killed by Vikings (Ragnar), he is renamed Uhtred by his father. Their fortress, Bebbanburg, was not far from Lindisfarne island, which had first been raided in 793. [Celt] Osbert was king of Northumbria, but [Angle] Aella was contesting that. Uhtred senior was #3 in the kingdom. "Bebba had been a queen in our land many years before (c557-69), and she had given her name to my home" (5). Bebba was wife of King Ethelfrith (L9 r593-604).
* Note: TPH p200 says Uhtred's mom is a sis of Aethelred (k871 at Battle of Reading, see below), an [Saxon] ealdorman [in the N] (who also has a son Aethelred, whom Uchtred doesn't much like).
- I: A Pagan Childhood (ch1-6)
[BN HT says 856-75 was 'main tide of Viking assaults on England, so Ragnar Lodbrok likely came in late 850s and was k. by [Angle ldr] Aelle, prompting 1st 2 of Ragnar's 3 sons [Ivarr the Boneless, Halfdan, Ubba] to return and take York in 866, k. Aelle in 867. Offa (r757-96 blt dyke v. Welsh, became 'king of all England' 779) d796, ending Mercian supremacy in England. Egbert K of Wessex r802-39, in 828 recognized as overlord of other English kings. Ethelwulf, son of Egbert, KoW r839-58. 843 Treaty of Verdun dividing Charlemagne's empire into 3. 844 Kenneth MacAlpin conquers Picts, unites Scotland. Ethelbald, son of Ethelwulf, KoW r858-60, then his bro Ethelbert K to 865. Rurik fnds Novgorod 862. Ethelred I (3rd son of Ethelwulf) KoW r865-71. 865-6 major Viking force conquers Northumbria, E Anglia, Mercia. 871 Danes attack Wessex, but are defeated by Ethelred at Ashdown (Aesc's Hill) in Berkshire, same yr Alfred the Grt (last son of Ethelwulf) becomes K r871-91 20yrs, defeats Danes decisively at Edington 878, Treaty of Wedmore gives Wessex to Alfred, Danelaw in N to Danes, 886 Alfred captures London from Danes. Edw Elder KoW r899-924. 911 Rollo given Normandy. 913 Edw recaptures Essex from Danes. Edw's son Athelstan KoW r924-39, annexes Northumbria 926, subdues Wales, Strathclyde, Picts, Scots, 937 Battle of Brunanburh defeats Scots, Celts, Danes, Vikings to become 'King of all Britain'. His bro Edmund KoE r939-46 ...]
Here we observe the Danes running riot across Britain (after having killed Aella, Osbert, Uhtred's father and many others and taken Uhtred captive at York), taking (after Northumbria) Mercia (by vassalizing King Burghred) then E Anglia (by killing Edmund), leaving only Wessex as 'the last [Saxon] kingdom.' We see that Uhtred comes to like the pagan Danish ways, seeing them as more effective than the 'wimpish' Christian Saxons. "They [Danes] worshipped the old gods, the same ones we had worshipped before the light of Christ came to bless us" (8). Uhtred's family was descended from "Woden, the ancient Saxon god of battles ... Christians, it seemed to me, were forever weeping and I did not think Woden's worshippers cried much" (9). His father saw Northumbrians as "the hardest men in England, much harder than the soft Mercians ... the coddled W Saxons [effete and overpious p56] ... [and worst] the E Anglians [who] live in marshes ... like frogs" (14, and had once attacked and defeated Northumbria, k. King Ethelfrith husband of Bebba, they'd also given horses and winter shelter to the Danes, 'treacherous frogs'). "Thor [was] a Danish god almost as important as Odin, as [the Danes] called Woden ... There were no priests among the Danes, which I liked, because priests were forever telling us not to do things or trying to teach us to read or demanding that we pray, and life w/o them was much more pleasant. The Danes, indeed, seemed very casual about their gods, yet almost every one wore Thor's hammer. I had torn mine from the neck of a boy who had fought me, and I have it to this day" (39-40). Uhtred's new 'father' was Earl Ragnar, "hugely popular, a jester and fighter who blew through fear as though it were a cobweb" (40-1). Ragnar thought Alfred a "weakling ... spends half his time [womanizing] and the other half praying to his god to forgive him for [womanizing]. How can a god disapprove of [womanizing]? ... In Denmark, our kings are the hard men, and if their sons are soft, then a man from another family becomes king, but in England they believe the throne passes through a woman's [womb]. So a feeble creature like Alfred could become king ... [we have] a dozen [kings in Denmark]. I could call myself king if I fancied, except Ivar and Ubba might not like it, and no man offends them lightly" (56). Uhtred accompanies Ragnar and his army to subdue Mercia, including the siege of Nottingham (Summer 868).
At Nottingham, Ragner tells Uhtred: "Gods fight, and some win, some lose. The Christian god is losing ... [the Christians] weep rivers of tears for him, they pray to him, they give him their silver, and we come along and slaughter them! Their god is pathetic. If he had any real power then we wouldn't be here, would we?" (69). There Uhtred sneaks into the Saxon camp and overhears Alfred confessing to Beocca (76). Ragnar's father later says "Christianity is a soft religion, a woman's creed. It doesn't ennoble men, it makes them into worms" (84). Uhtred is conflicted: "To exchange Ragnar's freedom for Alfred's earnest piety seemed a miserable fate to me" (95-6). King Burghred of Mercia buckled during negotiations. "1rst Northumbria, then Mercia. In just 2 yrs half of England was gone and the Danes were only just beginning" (96, i.e. Uhtred is tempted to join them, since they seem like the inevitable winners). Their next target was E Anglia. Ubba would lead a seaborne force while Ivar led a land one. Another Viking lesson Uhtred learned was to "start your killers young, before their consciences are grown ... [then] they'll be lethal ... I'd been given a perfect childhood ... at least, to the ideas of a boy ... I was free ... ran wild ... encumbered by no laws ... troubled by no priests ... encouraged to violence ... rarely alone" (104). When Uhtred is impressed by a Roman villa in E Anglia, he asks his friend Brida "were the Romans Christians? ... the gods reward those they love, and it would be nice to know which gods had looked after the Romans" (106, hmmm, still debated today! Ragnar's father Ravn later answers "not always, they had their own gods once, but gave them up to become Christians and after that they knew nothing but defeat" 110, the view of Gibbon in DFRE). Edmund had given the Danes shelter during the winter before they'd attacked York (109), only insisting they not harm any churchmen. This deal was considered traitorous by the English and foolish by the Vikings. The Danes won a coastal battle that Edmund may have been able to turn into a slaughter, but chose not to (114).
Uhtred portrays the doomed King Edmund of E Anglia not as a saint (the Saxon view), but "a fool who talked himself into martyrdom" (123, by comparing himself w/St Sebastian, the Roman soldier who had miraculously survived arrows, but was later clubbed to death pp117-8, the Danes put that theory to the test on him!). When Dane-friendly Saxon Ricsig defends monasteries as "places of prayer, contemplation and learning ... [Ragnar counters] what use [are these] Does prayer grow rye? Does contemplation fill a fishing net? Does learning build a house or plow a field?" (126-7, hmmm, kind of like modern pagan liberal [and social gospel] focus on material well-being, to the detriment of the spiritual). A key passage is when the Saxon Ealdwulf flees Uhtred's evil Uncle Aelfric at Bebbanburg and opts to follow Uhtred instead. When Ealdwulf tells Uhtred he'd like to see the Danes gone, Uhtred is shocked and asks why (135). "Because this isn't [rightfully] their land, that's why. I want to walk w/o being afraid. I don't want to touch my forelock to a man just because he has a sword. There's one law for them [i.e. might makes right] and another for us [i.e. right should trump might]. Uhtred agrees that 'There's no law for them [the Danes].' Ealdwulf complains that the Danes have "no wergild [prince on a guilty man's head], no reeve [enforcer] to see, no lord to seek justice ... that whole careful [Saxon] system of justice had vanished since the Danes had come. There was no law now except what the Danes said it was, and that was what they wanted it to be, and I [Uhtred] knew that I reveled in that chaos, but then I was privileged. I was Ragnar's man, and [he] protected me, but w/o [him] I would be no better than an outlaw or a slave" (135). Here's where Uhtred begins to see the value of the Saxon rule of law, i.e. recognition of a higher law than simply will or might. See also note in br-tdr from Tom Palmer's piece in CATO Handbook on the roots of limited govt.
We also observe the 2nd sacking of Lindisfarne, just off the coast from Bebbanburg, as part of a quelling of an anti-Dane, pro-Saxon uprising in Northumbria (128-32). Uhtred's almost killer Weland is there (sent by Uncle Aelfric), having been wounded by Ealdwulf and driven away from Bebbanburg, but Uhtred finishes him off. Uhtred learns (from Ealdwulf) of his uncle (mother's bro) Ealdorman Aethelwulf in Wessex (136, hmmm, related to Alfred? Yes, p178, Uhtred's uncle is 1rst cousin of Mercian Ealdorman Aethelred, father of Alfred's wife Aelswith). Ragnar's son 'Ragnar the Younger' stays for the winter 866-7 then returns to Ireland. Ch4 ends: "It was late summer [870] before Serpent-Breath [his new sword, made by Ealdwulf] was finished and then, before autumn brought its sea-churning storms, we went south. It was time to obliterate England [i.e. Wessex, the last kingdom], so we sailed toward Wessex" (143).
"Ragnar now commanded the fleet. Ivar the Boneless had returned to ... Ireland ... while Ubba was ravaging Dalriada, the land N of Northumbria ... so the main assault on Wessex would be led by Halfdan, the 3rd brother, who was marching his land army out of E Anglia and would meet us somewhere on the [Thames], and Ragnar was not happy about the change of command. Halfdan, he muttered, was an impetuous fool, too hotheaded, but he cheered up when he remembered my tales of Alfred [whom Uhtred had earlier met] that confirmed that Wessex was led by men who put their hopes in the Christian god who had been shown to possess no power at all. We had Odin, we had Thor, we had our ships, we were warriors" (146).
Uhtred was very impressed w/London, where Wessex, Mercia and E Anglia met, especially the famous bridge. "The gods alone know how the Romans had built such a thing" (148). The city was 2 hills; the E one containing the remains of the ancient Roman stone buildings and the N end of the bridge, the W one more recent ones. The "Great Army" of the Danes was forming at Mercian London (Mercian King Burghred was its lord) in preparation for the attack on Wessex. As the leaders of the 2K-strong army meet just after New Years [872], we meet 'king' Bagseg, Earl Sidroc and 'king' Harald ("very fat" 152, Hmmm, perhaps Harald I Fairhair 872-930? cf Vikings) from Denmark, also Earls Fraena and Osbern from Ireland. Meanwhile, King Aethelred and his brother Alfred were gathering their army of 3K. Powerful Earl Guthrum 'the Unlucky' ("You could give [him] the world and he'd still believe you'd cheated him" 154) from Denmark then arrives at the Danes' meeting. Uhtred notes the strange Danish way that "men served in a campaign if they wished, or else they stayed home, and there was no single authority among [them]" (155).
There follows a battle at Readingum [Reading, Berkshire 871], where Uhtred's uncle and ealdorman Aethelwulf is killed by Ragnar, then at Aebbanduna [Abingdon, Berkshire 871], where their captive says the supplies are stored. "Take Aebbanduna and Aethelred's army would be short of food, Wessex would fall, England would vanish, and Odin would triumph" (164). Here the West Saxons won at nearby Aesc's Hill [Ashdown 871], killing many Danes including Harald, Bagseg, both Sidrocs, Osbern and Fraena. The Danes were driven back to Reading (169). Uhtred was 14yo [b856 so 15 later in 871]. King Aethelred was later killed at Wiltun [Wilton, Wiltshire 871], leaving as heir [aetheling] Aethelwold (172), but Alfred [the youngest of 6 bros, 173] was chosen by the witan instead [r871-91]. Shortly after, Alfred's daughter Aethelflaed was born [so she was 7yo in 878, yr of the famous Battle of Edington, where Alfred defeated the Danes].
Soon after, Alfred and Halfdan agreed to a truce (at Bath, Avon [Baðum, pron. 'Bathum']) by which the Danes would leave Wessex and Alfred would pay a huge sum of silver (the 'danegeld'). Meanwhile, Uhtred and Brida are kidnapped and brought to Alfred and Aelswith (178). Alfred wanted Uhtred to become a scholar, but he and Brida escape and rejoin the Danes at Reading. Rorik has died and Ragnar is devastated. Soon after, the Danes returned to York. Ragnar's group settled into farm life, w/Thyra planning to marry Anwend. But on the morning of Yule (? Dec 871), when the marriage was to take place, Kjartan attacks and burns Ragnar's hall, killing all but Uhtred and Brida, who are up the hill tending the charcoal fires. They later dug up his treasure and head South (201). Uhtred was 16yo (198, b856 so 872).
- II: The Last Kingdom (ch7-11)
They first settle for a time w/Uhtred's uncle in Mercia named Ealdorman Aethelred, "son of Aethelred, bro of Aethelwulf, father of Aethelred, and bro to another Aethelwulf who had been the father of Aelswith who was married to Alfred" (205). While helping his uncle fend off Welsh attacks on his land [they call England 'Lloegyr' or 'Lost Lands' 207], Uhtred experiences his first 'shield wall' battle, performing well. Later, he muses: "These days, I employ poets to sing my praises, but only because that is what a lord is supposed to do, though I often wonder why a man should get paid for mere words. These word-stringers make nothing, grow nothing, kill no enemies, catch no fish, and raise no cattle. They just take silver in exchange for words, which are free anyway. It is a clever trick, but in truth they are about as much use as priests" (212). Soon Uhtred gets a visit from Willibald the priest, sent by Alfred to fetch Uhtred back to his court (presumably to make him a warrior this time, not a scholar). Its now 2 yrs into Alfred's reign [so 873] and his son Edward has been born recently. Uhtred agrees [in 874] to serve Alfred for 1 year and works on the ships with Leofric. Alfred tells him Ivar the Boneless is dead, k. in Ireland, and that the rumor in York is that he [Uhtred] killed Ragnar (218). "Destiny is all. And now, looking back, I see the pattern of my life's journey. It began in Bebbanburg and took me south, ever southward, until I reached the farthest coast of England [i.e. at Southhampton shipyard] ... That was my childhood's journey. As a man I have gone the other way, ever northward, carrying sword [Serpent-Breath] and spear [seax Wasp-Sting] and ax to clear the path back to where I began" (225).
As a sailor he develops strong muscles and becomes a full-grown man and warrior. Alfred had meant for Leofric to break Uhtred like a horse, but Uhtred ended up liking Leofric and learning much from him (234). He meets Ragner the Younger during a battle and explains how Ragnar the Elder died (i.e. denying the rumor and explaining that Kjartan did it (244), also telling Ragnar his sister Thyra survived and was captured). Brida goes back w/the Danes, but Uhtred stays to finish his pledge to Alfred (a few more weeks). Soon after, Alfred offers to make Uhtred commander of his 12 ships (v. Danish 100s!, Leofric talks him into staying w/Saxons v. Danes to be free v. enslaved to a lord, 249), but Uhtred must learn to read and marry the Wessex-born Mildrith (since she was 16yo [c876 so b860, 4yrs his jr] and unmarried, he suspected she had a "face like a bag of maggots" 235, but turned out untrue; it was because of a family debt to Alfred!). Uhtred: "I like the Danes ... because they're not frightened of life ... [i.e.] they're not Christians" (248). Leofric reminds Uhtred that with the Danes, there's no real freedom, only servitude to a lord (249). It turns out Leofric can't read and therefore can't be a leader under Alfred (which drives him nuts), so Uhtred (because he can read) agrees to become a leader of men for Alfred and allow Leofric to be his advisor (250). There were 9 shires in Wessex, each with an ealdorman and a reeve (255 e.g. Hampton [Southampton, Hampshire (Hamptonscir)], Exanceaster [aka Exeter, Devon(sh)], Dornwaraceaster [Dorchester, Dorset(sh)], Wiltunscir [Wiltshire], Somersaete [Somerset(sh)], Berkshire, Cornwall?, x, x). Uhtred manages to get Alfred to name him cmdr of the fleet, but only on condition that he marry Mildrith of Devonshire (260). He ends up marrying her (265) and just afterward learns of the huge debt he now owes (2K shillings). She was in fact pretty and he grew to love her (the debt wasn't her fault, but her father's, who'd badly managed his insufficient lands).
"There is a hierarchy among men. Beocca liked to tell me it reflected the hierarchy of heaven, and perhaps it does ... At the top is the king, and beneath him are his sons [princes], and then come the ealdormen who are the chief nobles of the land and w/o land a man cannot be noble ... The king and his ealdormen are the power of a kingdom, the men who hold great lands and raise the armies, and beneath them are the lesser nobles, usually called reeves, and they are responsible for law in a lord's land, though a man can cease to be a reeve if he displeases his lord. The reeves are drawn from the ranks of thegns, who are wealthy men who can lead followers to war, but who lack the wide holdings of noblemen like Odda [whose reeve was Mildrith's father] or my father. Beneath the thegns are the ceorls [karls], who are all free men, but if a ceorl loses his livelihood than he could well become a slave, which is the bottom of the dung heap. Slaves can be, and often are, freed, though unless a slave's lord gives him land or money he will soon be a slave again" (267, so 7 levels; king, prince, ealdorman [earl], reeve, thegn, karl, slave).
Not long after they married, its now 876, when "the Danes made their greatest effort yet to rid England of its last [Saxon] kingdom [i.e. Wessex], and the onslaught was huge, savage, and sudden" (269). Guthrum attacks from E Anglia, capturing Werham fortress on the S Wessex coast (270, now Wareham, Dorset). There they wait for Halfdan to attack from Wales (271). But Halfdan had been killed in Ireland. Of the 3 Lothbrok brothers, only Ubba remained, but "he was still in the far wild north" (271). Beocca comes to Uhtred, living at Hampton (navy HQ, now Southampton, where Titanic was built/launched), and says Uhtred must come to see Alfred (and gives him news of Halfdan's death) at Werham, where he is negotiating terms w/Guthrum. He soon learns that he is to be a hostage given to the Danes (275). Happily, once in Werham fortress, he meets Ragnar and Brida. Guthrum showed a genuine interest in Christianity and talked much w/a captive priest (277, Waella, cousin of Alfred). "Alfred spent that winter reading the ancient law codes ... and dreaming of the perfect society where the church told us what not to do and the king punished us for doing it" (282 i.e. 'Christendom'). Uhtred and the other hostages remained all winter and in Spring 877 were roused one night and told to go outside. Guthrum had ordered all the hostages to be killed (since the Danes were going to break the truce agreement). Uhtred was about to die when Ragnar intervened, killing Uhtred's attacker. Ragnar's "men came out of the crowd to stand beside their lord. They were outnumbered by at least 5 to 1, but they were Danes and they showed no fear ... Uhtred is my brother, and you are welcome to kill him, lord, but you must first kill me" (285). Ragnar offers Uhtred to join them, but he declines: "I have a wife and a child." Ragnar: "Alfred has trapped you, Uhtred." Ragner drops Uhtred off on an island, saying "You are free" (286). Uhtred returns to Hampton but Mildrith has been taken (by Odda [the Elder, her father, the shire reeve; she also has a bro Odda the Younger]) back to Devonshire (for her own safety, to escape the coming Danes). There are stories that Ubba has replaced dead Halfdan in organizing a Dane/Welsh army to attack from the W (i.e. at Devonshire).
Uhtred decides to take Leofric and a "full fighting crew" (288) by ship to Devonshire. En route, they get caught in a monster storm, which kills many Danes, but which they somehow get through. They landed and made their way to Oxton, learning that Odda had been sent by Alfred to block Ubba's eastward advance at N Devonshire (295). They head toward the place where Odda (and Uhtred) will meet Ubba in battle [historical note: 'the one large change I have made was to bring Ubba's death forward by a year, so that, in the next book, Uhtred can be elsewhere, and, persuaded by ... John Peddie's book ... I placed that action at Cannington in Somerset rather than at the more traditional site of Countisbury Head in N Devon' p333]. Although he saw Alfred's banner in the distance, Uhtred wants to avoid being ordered elsewhere in order to catch up to Mildrith (presumably w/Odda). "The preachers tell us that pride is a great sin, but the preachers are wrong. Pride [related to honor] makes a man, it drives him, it is the shield wall around his reputation and the Danes understood that. Men die, they said, but reputation does not die. What do we look for in a lord? Strength, generosity, hardness, and success, and why should a man not be proud of those things? Show me a humble warrior and I will see a corpse" (296). Though Alfred preached humility, he was proud, and men feared him because of it. Pride also drove Uhtred to either find his wife and child or take revenge on their killers (297). "The river was called the Pedredan and close to its mouth was small place called Cantucton, near ... the ancient earth-walled fort that the locals said was named Cynuit ... older than the Romans" (298-9). There he found Odda, his son and his army. Meanwhile, Ubba's [36, i.e. ~1250 men] ships were collecting at the river's mouth. Ubba was the "last, strongest, most frightening of the sons of Lothbrok" (300). Uhtred confonts Odda, but learns his wife and son are fine and in Devonshire w/Odda's wife (301). When the 2 sides meet to talk, Uhtred shocks everyone by taunting Ubba, telling him Guthrum's fleet is gone and that the runes say Ubba will soon die (305). Ubba is shaken but defiant. Odda wants to wait for Alfred, but Uhtred convinces him they must attack at dawn. Its 900 Saxons v. 1250 Danes. But as Uhtred lays awake, a new plan comes to him; he will sneak down the hill (i.e. he's a 'night walker') through the Dane camp by night and set fire to the ships at dawn, the signal for the [100, Uhtred's 50 plus 50 from Odda] others to race down the hill and join the battle (while the rest of Odda's men would attack the Danes' rear, 311). Long-story-short, it works! Amazingly, Uhtred ends up killing the mighty Ubba in the midst of a dreaded Shield wall battle (320-6).
"These days, so long after that battle at Cynuit [877], I employ a harpist. He's an old Welshman, blind, but very skillful, and he often sings tales of his ancestors. He likes to sing of Arthur and Guinevere, of how Arthur slaughtered the English [Saxons], but he takes care not to let me hear those songs ... after [Cynuit] it seemed to me that my life was made of strings ... Ragnar ... Kjartan ... Brida ... Mildrith ... Alfred ... Aelswith, and all those separate people were a part of my life, strings strung on the frame of Uhtred ... Daft thoughts, I told myself. Life is just life. We live, we die ... There is no music, just chance ... [Leofric tells him] 'you're as bad as Alfred. You think too much.' He was right. Alfred was obsessed by order ... by the task of marshalling life's chaos into something that could be controlled. He would do it by the church and by the law, which are much the same thing, but I wanted to see a pattern in the strands of life. In the end I found one, and it had nothing to do with any god, but with people. With the people we love ... We are all lonely and seek a hand to hold in the darkness" (327-9, hmmm, too bad, humanist tripe).
- Historical Note: "Alfred was responsible for saving Wessex and, ultimately, English society from the Danish assaults, and his son Edward [the Elder], daughter Aethelflaed, and gson Aethelstan finished what he began to create, which was, for the first time, a political entity they called Englaland. I intend Uhtred to be involved in the whole story" (331). Most characters are real, but "Ragnar and Uhtred [and Kjartan, Sven] are fictional, though a family w/Uhtred's name did hold Bebbanburg (now Bamburgh Castle) later in the Anglo-Saxon period, and that family are my ancestors" (333, and mine). Main sources are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (ASC) and Asser's life of King Alfred.
