By Grand Rapids Public Library

It was a time when men’s gods called them to terror and war. A time when the strong felt it was their destiny to cull the weak, and the prayer offered up across Britain was, “Deliver us, O Lord, from the fury of the Norsemen…”

After the Romans left in 410, the Jutes, Anglos, and Saxons came and settled, and now, four centuries later, a gathering storm is building in the Scandinavian lands that will soon rip apart the weakened and divided kingdoms that make up Britain.

In fact, in the next three centuries, the vikings will spread across Europe, into Russia, and as far as Greenland and Labrador.

Bernard Cornwell, one of our greatest historical adventure writers, directs his gaze to the English theater during these critical ninth and tenth centuries, and how King Alfred’s reign was a pivotal time when Britain was almost swallowed up by the Norsemen.

The history is complex and bloody, filled with alliances, strategies, betrayals, and the battles that raged across the land.

The author brings all his masterful storytelling skills to bear to breath life into the history through his protagonist, Uhtred, who is only 10 years old when we meet him. Second son of the Earl of Bebbanburg in Northumbria, he becomes the first son, and then the heir, when both his brother and father are killed by the raiders in the dragon boats.

Amused by the boy’s rage and courage during the battle, Uhtred is captured by the Danish chief. Although taken as a slave, he is soon treated as a son, and he spends his youth as a Dane. But Uhtred can’t forget the beautiful wild lands of Bebbenburg, and the struggle between his loyalties makes for a great read.