Cornwell’s gripping Dark Ages drama drives right to the hilt
WAR OF THE WOLF by Bernard Cornwell HarperCollins, £20
THERE can surely be no better writer of historical dramas than Bernard Cornwell, and that is no mean compliment in a market bristling with very able rivals.
War Of The Wolf is the 11th chapter in his Saxon Tales, now rebranded The Last Kingdom after two successful television series, and chronicling the history of the establishment of Saxon England begun under Alfred the Great. Fans of the Dark Ages saga will have followed its protagonist Uhtred of Bebbanburg – accompanied faithfully by his sword Serpent-Breath and dagger Wasp Sting – and his transformation from young hero to battle-weary warrior surrounded by threats which promise to end his way of life for ever. Uhtred, born to a Saxon noble but captured and raised by Danes, has always stood at the intersection between pagan and Christian, between Saxon and Viking, between the old world he was born into and the new world being forged around him. In War Of The Wolf, Uhtred has won back his ancestral lands of Bebbanburg in Northumbria. But our protagonist’s way of life is a neck in a noose and the rope is tightening.
Queen Aethelfaed of Mercia has died. As Mercian thanes swear their loyalty to the Queen’s daughter, her brother King Edward of Wessex has taken advantage of the power vacuum by proclaiming himself king of the Angles and Saxons.
Northumbria, led by Uhtred’s son-in-law King Sigtryggr, is now the only realm where Angles and Saxons live completely free of Edward’s influence.
For Uhtred, independence has
another significance because Northumbria is also the only realm where the old pagan religions have not been snuffed out by Edward’s crusade.
With Scotland and Wales now Christian, Northumbria is “the last kingdom where folk could worship whatever God they chose”. So when Edward summons Sigtryggr to a summit in Tumweorthin, Staffordshire, he expects him to pledge his loyalty in a step that threatens to make Edward king of all lands in England. And Uhtred has another deadly battle on his hands.
In recent years Cornwell has been compared with Game Of Thrones creator George RR Martin and Martin himself has credited Cornwell for the best battle scenes ever put to paper.
But there are differences. While Martin was inspired by the War of The Roses, his fantasy is purely fictional. Cornwell’s Saxon Tales, which take place some 450 years before, are rooted in reality. And Cornwell can trace his ancestry back to Uhtred himself.
His greatest skill is in the effortless way he drives the story forward, keeping faith with a historical context without bombarding the reader with historical minutiae. He also excels in well-executed subplots such as Norseman Jarl Skoll’s attempt to take Northumbria, captured with clarity even though the entire saga is written from Uhtred’s point of view.
And readers will learn all about the slowest and quickest ways of killing prisoners, for instance, but there is nothing gratuitous about these gloriously gory details because they are woven tightly into the narrative.
Those who have followed the saga so far should know what to expect. But first-timers should brace themselves for a masterclass in simple, unputdownable storytelling.