Book: War of the Wolf by Bernard Cornwell
Krishna
The story of Uhtred continues in the Saxon series. The series starts with The Last Kingdom, and so far had come up to The Flame Bearer.
Uhtred and Finan, old now, go to rescue a fort of Wessex from the invading army, this time Edward’s (English instead of the usual Viking enemies). They go with very few people but have the element of surprise on their side. They start the attack and realize then that the enemy had tethered all the horses in the Roman amphitheater.
Finally, he realizes that the fort was well defended by Arthur’s grandson Athelfled, whom he had groomed from childhood and who should have been, but was not, the legitimate ruler of Wessex. The whole ‘news’ from the monk who pleaded with him to go was a ruse to get him out into the open. But who laid the trap? Why?
Cynleaf, the rebel leader is trapped and surrounded by Aethelstan’s soldiers. The son of the Welsh lord is to be given back to the Welsh and Aethelstan agrees to pardon the Welsh and send them their way (in order to ensure peace with Wales for a short while)
Uhthred guesses that Aethelhelm, who hates Uhtred for the death of his father in the latter’s captivity, and the fact that his daughter chose to marry Uhtred’s son rather than go back to her father when the ransom was paid makes him Uhtred’s mortal enemy. He still does not know why he lured him back to Caester.
Finally, when he confronts the ‘priest’ who is not a priest at all, he realizes that his son in law and his daughter are in grave danger as literally thousands of men (Danes) have gone there to invade their kingdom, first carefully removing Uhtred far away by the lure. It is shocking.
Then he goes hard with his men to come to the aid of Styggir. The priest gives Uhtred the ‘magic root’ that makes men brave in battle and begs Uhtred to take his wife and him with Uhtred’s group. When Uhtred goes towards Northumbria to provide help to his son in law, he sees Skoll and his dreaded blind shaman Snorri returning. They hope to capture some trailing army men herding a group of weak women and children in the rear (meant as slaves) and get spotted. They manage to run away with two captives with Skorr in hot pursuit, after Uhtred injures a brave and fast warrior in the head.
He learns from the captives that the siege to Northumbria failed because they tricked Skorr into bringing part of his army over a palisade which was a trap. However, he also learns that the man he wounded was Skorr’s own son and he is pursuing them in anger. In addition, he learns that Sigtyggir had gone to defend the place from Mercians when Skorr attacked and the ‘queen’ who defended the castle died in the battle. That is how he learns that his daughter Stiorra is dead.
He runs to avoid pursuit but vows to find and kill Skorr at a more opportune time.
Finally, he invades Skoll’s fortress, and falls for every plan Skoll made, gets injured and is on the verge of defeat, having lost many heroic men. On the verge of realizing that his life may end there, Skoll makes a fatal error and opens the gates to send his wolf warriors out.
Snorr the shaman is leading them. There is an exhilerating scene where Snorr tries to intimidate the enemy and what happens next. The story takes an unexpected turn next and there is a final battle between Skoll and the ageing, wounded Uhthred.
Excellent story as usual, taking a figment of historical truth and weaving an elaborately carved story out of it.
There is some weakness in the plot, but still good to read.
7/10
– – Krishna (July 2019)