The Last Kingdom

 

The Last Kingdom – Bernard Cornwell

After quickly digesting and thoroughly enjoying Bernard Cornwell’s “King Arthur” trilogy, I decided that I simply couldn’t leave the remainder of this author’s work untouched.  The good news (maybe bad news) is that this guy has a LOT of other books out there. Where to start the remainder of my journey?  Well, this “Last Kingdom” series contains thirteen books. Wow.  OK. We’ll start there. The first volume (called “The Last Kingdom”) contains many of the same flavors as the King Arthur books. More importantly, these books (at least the first one) has the same level of high quality.  So far,  with one down and twelve to go, it’s money well-spent.

The main difference is that the King Arthur books are based on Legend whereas this series is based on actual History.  In many cases it might be hard to distinguish. The focus here is the 9^th and 10^th century Viking invasions of Denmark onto neighboring (what we now know as) England.  So the tales within this journey are very harsh and bloody. History isn’t always pretty.

Our story starts with one of those invasions from the north.  The tale is told through the eyes of an English noblemen Uhtred.  He is only nine when his homeland is invaded by the Danes.  Whereas the majority of the English are slaughtered, Uhtred is spared by the Danes. Why? Well, they admire the kid’s courage.  He has the nerve to attempt to fearlessly attack the Danish leader. Of course, there’s not much damage a nine-year-old can do, so the Danes essentially kidnap him thinking that if he could be turned, he might just be useful.

So Uhtred isn’t treated as a slave, and we watch his growth into a bold strong warrior and by the time he’s twenty, he is now, in his heart, a Dane. And a fine fighter.  His connections to his homeland of England weren’t necessary strong, so it really isn’t that this young man has any sort of yearning to go back to being on the side of his homeland.  The Danish made him a man, and that’s where his loyalty lies.

Well, let’s just say that things end up getting a lot more complicated.  When civil war happens among the Danes while they’re attempting to conquer Wessex (the ‘last kingdom’), Uhtred finds himself conflicted and things get mightily complex and interesting.

As with the ‘Arthur’ books, the Christian religion is treated rather harshly by author Bernard Cornwell.  We see the priests, friars, nuns, and the general Christian population as weak and humble.  The stronger pagan Danes simply can’t understand this way of thinking.  Their God is the mighty Odin and feel as though it’s much better to have such a deity on one’s side when the objective is conquering, raping, and pillaging.

Like many good books, this novel contains a lot of individual stories within the main story.  Everything here is told in a way that makes the reader not want to stop and continue to turn the pages.  Sometimes the 10^th-century names of people and places can get a bit overwhelming but this is really par for the course if the author seriously wants to maintain truth when telling stories of history.

Anxiously eager to start book 2.