The Burning Land

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The Burning Land
The Burning Land Cover.jpg
First edition cover
Author Bernard Cornwell
Original titleThe Burning Land
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Series The Saxon Stories
Genre historical novel
Publisher HarperCollins
Publication date
2009
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages366 first edition, hardback
ISBN 978-0-00-721975-9 (first edition, hardback)
Preceded by Sword Song  
Followed by Death of Kings  

The Burning Land is the fifth historical novel in The Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell, published in 2009. The story is set in the 9th-century Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Wessex, Northumbria and Mercia. The first half of season 3 of the British television series The Last Kingdom is based on this novel.

Contents

Uhtred of Bebbanburg wins a victory against Danish invaders threatening Alfred the Great's kingdom of Wessex. When Uhtred unintentionally kills a Christian priest who insulted his dead wife, Alfred demands heavy reparations of Uhtred. Instead, Uthred breaks his oath to Alfred and sets off viking, but eventually returns to Mercia because of his oath to Aethelflaed, Alfred's daughter, and ends the (immediate) Danish threat.

This novel, and the series of which it is the fifth part, has been well received. One reviewer remarks "Vivid descriptions of merciless battlefield slaughter, rape, and destruction are artfully related by a masterful storyteller." [1] Another comments on the series and its viewpoint varying from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , saying "Historical novels stand or fall on detail, and Mr Cornwell writes as if he has been to ninth-century Wessex and back." [2] Another again praises Cornwell's eye for historical detail, and "his capacity for pulling off deft reverses are still in place, which helps to keep the narrative turning briskly along." [3]

Plot summary

892 – 893: Uhtred of Bebbanburg is now the preeminent warlord of Wessex, Alfred the Great's kingdom. Always in poor health, Alfred urges him to swear an oath to Alfred's son and presumptive heir, Edward. Uhtred is unwilling to do so, as that would interfere with his yearning to retake his family's stronghold at Bebbanburg in Northumbria, stolen from him by his uncle Aelfric after his father's death.

Uhtred is military governor of Lundene (London), sharing power with Bishop Erkenwald, whom he dislikes, but respects. Wessex is threatened by two separate Danish forces who have landed in Cent (Kent). Uhtred delivers Alfred's bribe to Jarl (Earl) Haesten, who leads the smaller army, to get him to leave, so that he can deal with the more serious threat posed by Jarl Harald Bloodhair. Uhtred objects to the bribe, as he knows that Haesten is completely untrustworthy. While travelling with a small force to meet Alfred, Uhtred captures Skade, Harald's woman and a reputed sorceress. Harald arrives, leading Saxon captive women, and threatens to kill all of them if Skade is not returned to him. When he starts butchering his prisoners before Uhtred's eyes, Uhtred releases Skade. Skade curses Uhtred as she and Harald make their escape.

Uhtred devises a plan to lure Harald into a trap. The plan works brilliantly. Uhtred and Alfred's men rout Harald's forces and again take Skade prisoner. Harald is severely wounded, but escapes to Torneie Island (Thorney Island), with a few followers. The island's natural defences and a palisade he builds make it too costly to attack him, but he is trapped there.

Uhtred is devastated by the news that his beloved wife, Gisela, has died in childbirth, along with the child she bore. When Uhtred and Skade return to Lundene, the cleric Godwin denounces Gisela, ranting that Gisela was the devil's whore and has come back from the dead as Skade. Uhtred flies into a rage and kills him accidentally. As punishment, Alfred orders Uhtred to pay a huge fine and swear an oath to Alfred's son Edward. Alfred holds Uhtred's children as hostage to his terms, and places them in the custody of Aethelflaed, Alfred's daughter and wife of Aethelred, the ealdorman of Mercia. Furious, Uhtred reneges on his oath to Alfred and sails, with Skade, to Dunholm in Northumbria, stronghold of his old friend Ragnar, a Danish leader. Uhtred trusts Aethelflaed to protect his children.

Uhtred needs money to gather men to attack Bebbanburg. Skade claims that Skirnir, her hated husband and Frisian pirate, has a hoard, so Uhtred sails to Frisia. On the voyage, he and Skade become lovers. After he defeats and kills Skirnir, he is disappointed when Skirnir's treasure hoard fails to match Skade's description. When Skade demands half of the hoard as her share, Uhtred denies it to her. From that point on, Skade becomes his enemy. Uhtred winters at his close friend Ragnar's fortress at Dunholm.

That winter, they receive news that Alfred has died. Ragnar and two other powerful Northumbrian jarls, Cnut and Sigrid, plot to attack Wessex. During the meeting, an uninvited Haesten arrives and offers to attack Mercia first, to distract Alfred and draw away some of his forces. When Haesten leaves, Skade surprises Uhtred by going with him. Uhtred is caught in a conflict of loyalties, between the Danes with whom he was raised, and his oaths to Alfred and Aethelflaed. He also fears for his children's safety. His indecision is broken when his friend, the Welshman Father Pyrlig arrives. Pyrlig reminds Uhtred that he has given his oath to serve Aethelflaed, and "oaths made in love cannot be broken".

Aethelred, Aethelflaed's husband, wishes to divorce her to break free of Alfred's domination of Mercia. He directs Lord Aldhem to rape Aethelflaed, which would give Aethelred the excuse of "adultery" to divorce her. Uhtred kills Aldhem, frees Aethelflaed, and reunites with his children. He and Aethelflaed then go to Aethelred's council, surprising him before the assembled Mercian lords. Warning of Jarl Haesten's advance, Uhtred tries to win the Mercian lords to his and Aethelflaed's side, asking them to bring their men to Lundene. Because Aethelred holds the purse-strings, only Lord Elfwold comes. Uhtred and Aethelflaed become lovers. Uhtred learns that Alfred had advised Aethelflaed to use Uhtred's oath to her to bring him back. Eventually, Steapa, Alfred's retainer and Uhtred's friend, brings an army of twelve hundred of Alfred's best house troops, along with Edward. Uhtred again refuses to give his oath to Edward.

With these reinforcements, Uhtred decides to attack Haesten's two forts at Baemfleot (Benfleet), although Haesten is not there. Uhtred encounters and attacks a larger Danish force and is surrounded. He nearly loses the battle and his life, but is saved by Steapa's timely arrival with Alfred's troops. They capture one fort. The second is tougher, but Uhtred eventually takes it too.

In the hall, Uhtred finds Skade and a hoard of gold. Harald Bloodhair, crippled and vengeful over Skade's betrayal with Haesten, suddenly appears, embraces her and kills her. He then asks Uhtred to kill him. Uhtred does, then meets with Edward, who says that he does not need Uhtred's oath as long as his sister has it. Uhtred and Aethelflaed then sail away.

Characters

Lists

On 31 October 2009, the book was number 5 on the hardback best-seller list of the Evening News (Edinburgh, Scotland) [4]

Reviews

Publishers Weekly finds the action-packed novel to be artfully related by a masterful storyteller.

Slathered in blood and gore, Saxon warlord Uhtred of Bebbanburg hacks his way through the ninth century in the exciting fifth installment to bestseller Cornwell's Saxon Tales series (following Sword Song). This action-packed novel continues the saga of warfare for supremacy in Britain, a brutal period when Saxon and Danish swords, battleaxes, and treachery ruled the day. By now, Alfred the Great is old and feeble, unwilling and unable to repel the Danish invaders. He relies on trusty pagan warlord Uhtred, but Uhtred's temper and an unexpected violent act force Uhtred to break his oath of loyalty to Alfred and flee north with his men, intending to reclaim his ancestral home. En route, they face marauding Danish armies, betrayal, battles for a pirate treasure, and the curse of a vicious Danish witch, only to eventually be manipulated back into fighting for Alfred. Vivid descriptions of merciless battlefield slaughter, rape, and destruction are artfully related by a masterful storyteller. Uhtred is victorious in some battles, but the outcome of others will have to wait for the sequel. [1]

Tom Shippey has strong praise in a detailed review of this novel, praise for the series, for this novel's portrayal of ninth-century Wessex, and for filling a gap in the written records, records written by Alfred's supporters.

We have good historical sources for what happened next, notably an early life of Alfred written by Bishop Asser and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, annals compiled by anonymous scribes across two centuries. But both works were written by Alfred's supporters and intended to burnish his legend. "The Burning Land" opens accordingly with Uhtred as an old man, angrily burning what seems to be a copy of the "Chronicle" for the lies it tells. His own story is the true one, he insists. "The Burning Land" proceeds to tell it.

What Mr Cornwell is doing—it's often a good strategy for a historical novelist—is writing into a gap in our knowledge. The Anglo-Saxons, for instance, thought they'd won a big battle at Farnham in 893, but the "Chronicle" is strangely silent on who was leading them. Why? We know that it wasn't Alfred, who was occupied elsewhere. Was the leader his son-in-law Æthelred, Alfred's candidate for ruler (but not king) of Free Mercia? How did Alfred intend to realize his dream of assimilating Free Mercia, reconquering Danish Mercia, and rolling up the other kingdoms to create, for the first time ever, a political unit called "England"?

. . .

Historical novels stand or fall on detail, and Mr Cornwell writes as if he has been to ninth-century Wessex and back. He gives a graphic sense of what it's like to stand in a defensive shield-wall and how you go about breaking one. Each of his battles poses different tactical questions and gets imaginatively different answers. His accounts of fire and slaughter, and of Viking methods of extorting money, would seem gruesomely exaggerated if they weren't so often based on old legends or confirmed by archaeology.

In Uhtred, Mr Cornwell has given us a great character: quite a nice guy, underneath, but in a permanent bad temper as a result of disastrous, unrealistic and ungrateful higher management. Much has changed since the ninth century, but some things, and some feelings, are timeless. [2]

Curtis Edmonds is pleased with the development of Uhtred, the main character. While wishing Uhtred could stop being used by so many larger forces and instead follow his own desires, Edmonds knows that would be the end of The Saxon Tales, and there are more tales to tell. "It’s hard enough to write one novel, but it’s downright difficult to pen five of them consecutively with the same characters and themes and keep the writing fresh and interesting. 'Difficult' isn't even the word; 'impossible' is more like it.  ... This is not to denigrate THE BURNING LAND in any way; it’s superior entertainment (if you like your entertainment blood-stained and brutal). Uhtred is a fully-realized character, capable of great bravery and great foolishness, mixed in with—as he might describe himself—the deviousness of Loki and the thunder of Thor’s hammer in battle. And Cornwell’s eye for period detail and his capacity for pulling off deft reverses are still in place, which helps to keep the narrative turning briskly along." [3]

"The only thing to dislike about THE BURNING LAND is that it didn’t go in the direction that the main character (and at least this part of the readership) wanted it to go. But that means that the issue of who holds Bebbanburg Castle will be resolved in another volume, and given Cornwell’s talents, that will be a book to wait for indeed." [3]

Adaptation

This novel is the basis for the first half of season 3 of The Last Kingdom .

Related Research Articles

Mercia One of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy (527–918)

Mercia was one of the three notable Anglic kingdoms founded after as Sub-Roman Britain was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred around the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlands of England.

Æthelflæd 9th and 10th-century ruler of Mercia in England

Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians ruled Mercia in the English Midlands from 911 until her death. She was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and his wife Ealhswith.

Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians 9th and 10th-century ruler of Mercia in England

Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians became ruler of English Mercia shortly after the death or disappearance of its last king, Ceolwulf II in 879. Æthelred's rule was confined to the western half, as eastern Mercia was then part of the Viking-ruled Danelaw. His ancestry is unknown. He was probably the leader of an unsuccessful Mercian invasion of Wales in 881, and soon afterwards he acknowledged the lordship of King Alfred the Great of Wessex. This alliance was cemented by the marriage of Æthelred to Alfred's daughter Æthelflæd.

Uhtred or Uchtred is a common masculine personal name from the Anglo-Saxon period of British history. It may refer to:

The Saxon Stories is a historical novel series written by Bernard Cornwell about the birth of England in the ninth and tenth centuries. The protagonist of the series is Uhtred of Bebbanburg, born to a Saxon lord in Northumbria. He is captured as a child and adopted by a Danish warlord. The name of the fictional protagonist comes from the historical Uhtred the Bold; Cornwell is a descendant of this family.

Hastein was a notable Viking chieftain of the late 9th century who made several raiding voyages.

<i>The Last Kingdom</i> 2004 book by Bernard Cornwell

The Last Kingdom is the first historical novel in The Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell, published in 2004. This story introduces Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a Saxon noble who is kidnapped by Danish Vikings as a young child and is assimilated into their culture, religion and language before a series of events lead him into the service of King Alfred of Wessex and his participation in multiple battles, including the notable Battle of Cynwit before the book's conclusion.

<i>The Pale Horseman</i> 2005 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell

The Pale Horseman is the second historical novel in the Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell, published in 2005. It is set in 9th century Wessex and Cornwall.

<i>The Lords of the North</i> 2006 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell

The Lords of the North is the third historical novel in the Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell published in 2006. The story is set in the 9th century Anglo-Saxon kingdoms Wessex and Northumbria. Uhtred wants revenge against his uncle, and falls in love. He fights for both the Danes and for Alfred.

Edward the Elder King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 to 924

Edward the Elder was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousin Æthelwold, who had a strong claim to the throne as the son of Alfred's elder brother and predecessor, Æthelred.

<i>Sword Song</i> 2007 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell

Sword Song is the fourth historical novel in The Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell, published in 2007. Uhtred leads battles against the Danes, as King Alfred strengthens the defences of his kingdom of Wessex.

<i>Death of Kings</i> 2011 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell

Death of Kings, published in 2011, is the sixth novel of Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales series. It continues the story of Saxon warlord Uhtred of Bebbanburg who resists a new Danish invasion of Wessex and Mercia.

<i>The Pagan Lord</i> 2013 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell

The Pagan Lord is the seventh historical novel in the Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 2013. The story is set in the early 10th century in Anglo-Saxon Mercia and Northumbria.

<i>The Empty Throne</i> 2014 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell

The Empty Throne is the eighth historical novel in The Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in October 2014. It is set in 10th-century Mercia and Dyfed.

<i>The Last Kingdom</i> (TV series) British television series

The Last Kingdom is a British historical fiction television series based on Bernard Cornwell's The Saxon Stories series of novels. The series was developed for television by Stephen Butchard, premiering on the 10 October 2015 on the BBC. In 2018 the show was acquired by Netflix. The series lasted for a total of five seasons, with the final season airing on 9 March 2022. A feature-length sequel, titled Seven Kings Must Die, is in development at Netflix.

<i>Warriors of the Storm</i> 2015 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell

Warriors of the Storm is the ninth historical novel in The Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in October 2015. It is set in 10th-century Mercia, Northumbria and Northern Ireland and continues to follow the fortunes of the fictional Uhtred of Bebbanburg.

<i>The Flame Bearer</i> 2016 historical novel in The Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell

The Flame Bearer is the tenth historical novel in The Saxon Stories series aka The Last Kingdom series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in April 2016. It is set in 10th-century England and continues to follow the fortunes of the fictional Uhtred of Bebbanburg. In this novel Uhtred sets out to finally regain his childhood home, Bebbanburg, which is now held by his cousin.

<i>War of the Wolf</i> 2018 historical novel in The Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell

War of the Wolf is the eleventh historical novel in The Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell. It was first published in October 2018.

<i>Sword of Kings</i> 2019 book by Bernard Cornwell

Sword of Kings is the twelfth historical novel in The Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell. It was first published in October 2019.

<i>War Lord</i> (novel) 2020 novel by Bernard Cornwell

War Lord is the 13th and last novel in the Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell. It was published on 15 October 2020 in the UK.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Burning Land". Publishers Weekly. 16 November 2010. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
  2. 1 2 Shippey, Tom (16 January 2010). "A Saxon War Story: Imagining the battle for England as Vikings neared conquest". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 16 August 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 Edmonds, Curtis (1 September 2010). "Review: The Burning Land". Bookreporter. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
  4. "Books: Top Ten Best Sellers". Evening News. Edinburgh, Scotland: Gale Custom Database – Newspapers Web. 31 October 2009. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2010.