The assault on the church by the Danes is well recorded. The invaders were not Christians and saw no reason to spare churches, monasteries, and nunneries from their attacks, especially as those places often contained considerable treasures. Whether the concerted attack on the northern monastic houses happened is debatable. The source is extremely late, a thirteenthcentury chronicle written by Roger of Wendover, but what is certain is that many bishoprics and monasteries did disappear during the Danish assault, and that assault was not a great raid, but a deliberate attempt to eradicate English society and replace it with a Danish state.
Ivar the Boneless, Ubba, Halfdan, Guthrum, the various kings, Alfred’s nephew ?thelwold, Ealdorman Odda, and the ealdormen whose names begin with ? (a vanished letter, called the ash) all existed. Alfred should properly be spelled ?lfred, but I preferred the usage by which he is known today. It is not certain how King Edmund of East Anglia died, though he was certainly killed by the Danes and in one ancient version the future saint was indeed riddled with arrows like Saint Sebastian. Ragnar and Uhtred are fictional, though a family with Uhtred’s name did hold Bebbanburg (now Bamburgh Castle) later in the AngloSaxon period, and as that family are my ancestors, I decided to give them that magical place a little earlier than the records suggest. Most of the major events happened; the assault on York, the siege of Nottingham, the attacks on the four kingdoms, all are recorded in the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle or in Asser’s life of King Alfred, which together are the major sources for the period. I used both those sources and also consulted a host of s econdary works. Alfred’s life is remarkably well documented for the period, some of that documentation written by Alfred himself, but even so, as Professor James Campbell wrote in an essay on the king, “Arrows of insight have to be winged by the feathers of speculation.” I have feathered lavishly, as historical novelists must, yet as much of the novel as possible is based on real events. Guthrum’s occupation of Wareham, the exchange of hostages and his breaking of the truce, his murder of the hostages and occupation of Exeter all happened, as did the loss of most of his fleet in a great storm off Durlston Head near Swanage. The one large change I have made was to bring Ubba’s death forward by a year, so that, in the next book, Uhtred can be elsewhere, and, persuaded by the arguments in John Peddie’s book,Alfred, Warrior King, I placed that action at Cannington in Somerset rather than at the more traditional site of Countisbury Head in north Devon. Alfred was the king who preserved the idea of England, which his son, daughter, and grandson made explicit. At a time of great danger, when the English kingdoms were perilously near to extinction, he provided a bulwark that allowed the Anglo- Saxon culture to survive. His achievements were greater than that, but his story is far from over, so Uhtred will campaign again.
Place-Names
The spelling of place- names in Anglo- Saxon England was an uncertain business, with no consistency and no agreement even about the name itself. Thus London was variously rendered as Lundonia, Lundenberg, Lundenne, Lundene, Lundenwic, Lundenceaster, and Lundres. Doubtless some readers will prefer other versions of the names listed below, but I have usually employed whatever spelling is cited in theOxford Dictionary of English Place- Names for the years nearest or contained within Alfred’s reign,A . D. 871–899, but even that solution is not foolproof. Hayling Island, in 956, was written as both Heilincigae and H?glingaigg?. Nor have I been consistent myself; I have preferred the modern England to Englaland and, instead of Nor hymbralond, have used Northumbria to avoid the suggestion that the boundaries of the ancient kingdom coincide with those of the modern county. So this list, like the spellings themselves, is capricious.
?bbanduna
Abingdon, Berkshire
?sc’s Hill
Ashdown, Berkshire
Ba?um (pronounced Bathum)
Bath, Avon
Basengas
Basing, Hampshire
Beamfleot
Benfleet, Essex
Beardastopol
Barnstable, Devon
Bebbanburg
Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland
Berewic
Berwick on Tweed, Northumberland
Berrocscire
Berkshire
Blaland
North Africa
Cantucton
Cannington, Somerset
Cetreht
Catterick, Yorkshire
Cippanhamm
Chippenham, Wiltshire
Cirrenceastre
Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Cridianton
Crediton, Devon
Cynuit
Cynuit Hillfort, near Cannington, Somerset
Contwaraburg
Canterbury, Kent
Cornwalum
Cornwall
Dalriada
Western Scotland
Deoraby
Derby, Derbyshire
Defnascir
Devonshire
Dic
Diss, Norfolk
Dunholm
Durham, County Durham
Eoferwic
York (also the Danish Jorvic, pronounced Yorvik)
Exanceaster
Exeter, Devon
Fromtun
Frampton- upon- Severn, Gloucestershire
Gegnesburh
Gainsborough, Lincolnshire
The Gew?sc
The Wash
Gleawecestre
