The gods are not kind to us any more than children are kind to their toys.
So saith Uhtred of Bebbanburg, the heathen hero of Bernard Cornwell’s wildly popular Saxon Stories which are my guilty pleasure. Billed as like Game of Thrones but real, this fiction about the unification of England under Alfred the Great (King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 to 899) and his progeny was made into Netflix’ 4-season blockbuster The Last Kingdom interweaving Uhtred’s mercenary mission to serve the King with his quest to reclaim his family’s Northumbrian estate following his childhood abduction and adoption by the Danes. The series’ popularity hinges on Uhtred the Bold’s swashbuckling valor, dry-humored fatalism, and unerring sex appeal, most evident in the TV series. It’s a winning combination based far more in fiction than fact, yet forgotten historical characters from Aethelred the Unready to the Viking warlord Ubba have kept me googling for years.
War of the Wolf, the eleventh of twelve books in the series, depicts Uhtred at sixty, old but still strong as he battles the Viking Sköll toward the final unification of England. Fighting is the dominant raison d’être of this volume, with an undercurrent of superstition as Uhtred believes himself cursed by the gods. Many beloved characters of the previous novels are dead by this point, though several favorites abide with him. In order to save the surprise, I will not name names. I would also recommend listening to Matt Bates’ excellent narration, rather than reading the book, as it is long on gore and short on personal plot. This volume made me long for the youthful mischief and philosophical probing of young Uhtred, but it is still worth a look and listen. The final installment of the Netflix series is expected out sometime in 2022.