The Last Kindom by Bernard Cornwell

I have been negligent regarding writing about what I have been reading. Back in June I read George Grant’s large list of his planned summer reading. One that caught my eye was his recommendation of the series of stories about King Alfred the Great written by Bernard Cornwell

With the passing of Ellis Peters and Patrick O’Brian, perhaps the greatest living practitioner of the historical novel is Bernard Cornwell. His new series is about King Alfred the Great during the ninth century Viking invasions. The Last Kingdom and The Pale Horsemen are the first two installments–and I hope to read them both this summer.

I was able to check out The Last Kingdom from my local library and thoroughly enjoyed it. The prologue starts out with the statement:

My name is Uhtred. I am the son of Uhtred, who was the son of Uhtred and his father was also called Uhtred.

I am an Ealdorman, though I call myself Earl Uhtred, which is the same thing, and the fading parchments are proof of what I own. The law says I own that land, and the law, we are told, is what makes us men under God instead of beasts in the ditch. But the law does not help me take back my land. The law wants compromise. The law thinks money will compensate for loss. The law, above all, fears the bloodfeud. But I am Uhtred, son of Uhtred, and this is the tale of a bloodfeud. It is a tale of how I will take from my enemy what the law says is mine. And it is the tale of a woman and of her father, a king.

I was hooked!

Although it is the story of King Alfred, it is told to us by Uhtred as an old man and as his own story as it interrelates with King Alfred. In 866 AD, Uhtred is 10 years old when the Danes (Vikings) attack Northumbria and kill his father and brother. He grow up being treated as the adopted son of a Danish lord and warrior and learns the ways of the Danes, living with his adopted family until they are killed by some treacherous Danes.

Cornwell paints a vivid picture of 9th century life in England. Once again I feel I learned more about English history from one novel than I ever learned in school. Of course that becomes even more obvious since I had never even heard of King Alfred the Great until the family attended a history conference in Moscow, ID a number of years ago!

The Christian Church is painted in a not-too-flattering way. Cornwell makes statements about monks being drawn to money like moths are to a flame. And even though King Alfred’s piety is mocked by Uhtred because, to him, Thor appears to be the stronger, Cornwell will show in this series that it is Christianity, in the form of Western Civilization that is truly the final victor.