Book: War Lord by Bernard Cornwell
Krishna
Bernard Cornwell is a favourite of ours. We have reviewed many of his books, including earlier books in this series called the Saxon Series. See Sword of Kings and War of the Wolf for two examples.
Aethelstan has come into Northumbria and sends priest Oda. Oda’s mission is to convince Guthred to come to Aethelstan’s aid. Guthred is reluctant to go.
Constantine also wants Northumbria but Guthred would rather that Northumbria remained a part of Englaland and not form part of Scotland. (Yes, I know but the old name for England was Englaland.)
They want to intercept Guthred, who is going to join the Scottish King, to give up and go to Aethelstan as a vassal. So Aethelstan seeks the help of Uhtred, who is the hero of the series but is now very old.
Uhtred is then invited to the convention of the King. He finds that King Athelstan, whom he had groomed and trained and who owed him everything now, found that he did not need Uhtred. He had turned deep Christian (or affected to be) and broke his promise of not invading Babberburg as long as Uhtred was alive.
He meets his own son who turned traitor and hates him. He is now the Archbishop – Oswald. The king offers him a huge and rich kingdom in exchange for giving up Babbenburg but Oswald meets him privately and tells him of the treachery of the King, who now listens to advisors who are united in hatred to all pagans and particularly Uhtred.
Uhtred decides to reject the offer and defend Babbenburg against the King whom he used to consider as his son.
He rushes back and Ealdred comes in and swaggers in. Uhtred’s son Uhtred makes sure that he comes with a minimum contingent. He refuses to give the weapons at the gate and gives a parchment with supposed seals from Uhtred and Aethelstan to comply with orders. When Alaina, Uhtred’s adopted daughter mocks him, he slaps her and Uhtred, coming from hiding, humiliates him thoroughly and sends him off.
Realizing that he is now alone and all Kings are against him, he hatches a clever plan. He pretends to have found gold to first fool Ealdred and Gurfrith, and when they come with a small force, disguises himself as Scotsman under Constantine and drives them away. He just captures Ealdred and Gurfrith and kills them, privately revealing who he is.
He then sends Ealdred’s corp to Athelstan, claiming that the Scots killed him before he could ride to the rescue.
Now Athelstan has Constantine as the primary enemy. A priest comes to interrogate Uhtred but he easily denies he was ever in the field.
This far into the stories, it is disappointing to see that the plot is not tight and Uhtred wanders all over the place with very little purpose. Yes, I know that it is based on true historical events with fictional central characters like almost all of his stories are but still Bernard Cornwell is far too seasoned to have a loose thread running through the story, so much so that you wonder what the purpose of this book is.
The last sixty pages make up for all of it. The treachery of the people Aethelstan trusted and revered is searing in reading. Anlaf allied with Constantine and openly challenging Aethelstan by picking and marking the place he wanted to fight using hazelrods where he thought they, the Norsemen had an overwhelming advantage. Uhtred explains to Aethelstan why he must accept the challenge and how he can turn the course of the battle.
In a brilliant move, the outnumbered Saxons and some Norsemen allied with him including Uhtred go to meet the enemy at the time and place of the enemy’s choosing. The final battle which really happened and established England (even though some characters including Uhtred are fictional) is brilliantly described.
There Bernard Cornwell comes to his usual page turning descriptions and skill. Brilliant.
And we are left in no doubt that this series has ended when this book ends. (And no, old Uhtred does not die!)
Would I forget that the story dragged a lot in the light of the exhilaration? Not likely, and so I can give it only a 6/10
— Krishna