Sword Song: The Battle for London

The sound of Serpents Breath swing is music to my ears!There are so many great things to say about this book, actually the whole series so far and just to think I’m only into the 4th book. First let me say though, this author knows how to capture his readers. Every sentence is a cling on to the next great action. The drama and war action just constantly unfolds throughout the whole book.Here are a few of my notes and thoughts on different things I found interesting.Alfred has Uhtred’s oath of loyalty and obedience which drives me insane because Alfred though he is king is in my opinion not worthy of Uhtred’s loyalty. I really don’t like Alfred the Great in this novel, no I believe He owes everything to Uhtred, as without him he would have lost his kingdom long ago, yet time and time again he rewards him with punishment. I cannot comprehend why Uhtred still fights for this man.Aethelflaed, Alfred’s daughter – beautiful daughter but I can see she will be used as a tool for Alfred. Her story is beyond interesting already as he marries her off only for a gain and then the idiot she is married to is an abusive pig. Yet she is the Kings daughter and the King accepts this action and does nothing – Using the reasoning from the book that Uhtred explained -“The message certainly matched Alfred’s philosophy, for he believed that a kingdom could only thrive if it was ruled by law, was ordered by government, and was obedient to the will of God and the king. Yet he could look at his daughter, see her bruises and approve? He had always loved his children. I had watched them grow, and I had seen Alfred play with them, yet his religion could allow him to humiliate a daughter he loved?”Onto more cheerful things, I really like Uhtred’s beloved friend Ragnar Ragnarson, he’s the type of guy who is strong and fierce when he wants to be.My favorite part of the book is the battles and the understanding of the battles by Uhtred. Here are just a few of his philosophy if you will or planning techniques that I really admired.“the joy of battle was the delight of tricking the other side. Of knowing what they will do before they do it, and having the response ready so that, when they make the move that is supposed to kill you, they die instead.”“In battle a man risks all to gain reputation. In bed he risks nothing. The joy is comparable, but the joy of a woman is fleeting, while reputation is forever. Men die, women die, all die, but reputation lives after a man”Here is one scene I really liked:“Lord”“You told us it was death to leave the shield wall.” “You left the shield wall, lord,” Osferth said, almost reprovingly. I straightened and touched my arm rings. “You live,” I told him harshly, “by obeying the rules. You make a reputation, boy, by breaking them. But you do not make a reputation by killing cripples.”I liked his take on Lust & Love:“Lust is the deceiver. Lust wrenches our lives until nothing matters except the one we think we love, and under that deceptive spell we kill for them, give all for them, and then, when we have what we have wanted, we discover that it is all an illusion and nothing is there. Lust is a voyage to nowhere, to an empty land, but some men just love such voyages and never care about the destination. Love is a voyage too, a voyage with no destination except death, but a voyage of bliss.”“perhaps love is friendship more than it is lust, though the gods know the lust is always there.”LETS NOT FORGET THE LOVE WITHIN THE BOOKI am so glad Uhtred and Gisela are together and I think I like her better than the women he has been with so far. I loved the fact that he has 2 children. Here is the description from the book.“My son. He was four years old with hair as golden-colored as mine and a strong little face with a pug nose, blue eyes, and a stubborn chin. I loved him then. My daughter Stiorra was two years old. She had a strange name and at first I had not liked it, but Gisela had pleaded with me and I could refuse her almost nothing, and certainly not the naming of a daughter. Stiorra simply meant “star,” and Gisela”The thing I enjoy most about this series is the way it is narrated by an Uhtred who is looking back on his life.EXCELLENT READ! I highly recommend reading the series in order so you can follow the war and growth of each character.

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Descriptions of life back then are amazing.

Uhtred's story continues with the Battle for London. Alfred tasks him with securing the city, and then to retrieve his daughter from the marauding Danes. Uhtred does his usual warrior stuff, and the action is fast-paced.Bernard Cornwell uses really long chapters, there are only 11 and the book is over 300 pages. They could have been broken down into smaller chapters to help move the flow along.

As the fourth in Bernard Cornwell's swashbuckling and raucous Saxon series of 9th century England under the reign of Alfred the Great, I'd be less than honest if I didn't say that Uthred's heroics in "Sword Song" are beginning to feel a bit tired. After all, it takes fewer than twenty reminders to get the idea that a Viking warrior must die with sword in hand for admittance to Odin's corpse hall. Or that hand-to-hand battle across a shield wall was really bloody. Or that life among the waddle and thatch and damp and human waste of the Dark Ages is not a lot of fun. So no, "Sword Song" is not the strongest of this terrific series, but it is nonetheless an action-packed page-turner that, despite some repetition of its predecessors - especially "Lords of the North" - this is high octane entertainment with enough history and education to disqualify it from simple guilty pleasure.This time around, Alfred sends the ever-mightier Uthred to liberate London from the clutches of a trio of marauding Norsemen. Cornwell's London is a wonderfully sordid place - crumbling walls of the Roman's patched by mud and sticks, raw sewage in the streets, a stick that precedes the city by miles. Meanwhile, the fair Ethelflaed, Alfred's daughter, is married off to Uthred's cousin Ethelred, a marriage that turns out not to be made in heaven. Cornwell admittedly takes some liberty with what little is known about real historical characters Ethelred and Ethelflaed, but wraps enough history into the drama and ever-present carnage to keep it credible and often enlightening. As always, Cornwell makes his tales engaging with liberal doses of treachery, betrayal, deceit while keeping the blood flowing deep. Viking lore clashes openly with Christianity and its annoying priests, while Uthred's irreverence and rejection of Alfred's authority plays like a Medieval Dirty Harry. And thus the tension between Alfred and Uthred continues, joined by the escalating feud with his cousin Ethelred, building to a brutal climax that if unlikely is still a lot of fun."Sword Song" wraps up a couple of loose ends from "Lords of the North" and provides a good set-up for its successor, "The Burning Land", while weaving in some interesting threads along the way. Fans of the series will definitely want to gobble this one up, but newbies will likely not want to choose this one as a potential standalone novel (though "Lords from the North" would be a decent candidate). In short, despite some flaws, more great entertainment from the reigning master of historical fiction.

".....but fairness is not the historical Novelist`s first duty."(B. Cornwell in siner Historical Note, Seite 317)Neben seinem Postulat, was nicht die erste Pflicht des Autors eines historischen Romans sei, räumt Bernard Cornwell in seinem Nachwort zusätzlich ein, dass "Sword Song" mehr Fiktion beinhaltet, als die drei vorangegangenen Romane um König Alfred den Großen und den fiktiven Protagonisten Uthred of Bebbanburg. Dies lässt schon der Titel erahnen, der gegenüber den pragmatischen der vorangangenen Bände, geradezu poetisch anmutet. Während sich der erste Band "The Last Kingdom" weitgehend an die historische Chronologie hielt, was durch etliche Jahreszahlen dokumentiert wurde, bekannte Cornwell im Nachwort zu "The Pale Horseman", dass er aus "dramaturgischen Gründen" den angelsächsischen Sieg von Cynuit um ein Jahr vorverlegt hat. Im dritten Band, "The Lords Of The North" gestattete ihm das "dunkles Zeitalter" Northumbrias im 9 Jahrhundert eine Menge dichterischer Freiheiten, von denen er reichlich Gebrauch machte. Die "Historical Note" zu "Sword Song" bietet jedoch nur eine rudimentäre Trennung zwischen historischen Tatsachen und Fiktion. Während Cornwell zugibt, das alttestamentarische "Eifersuchtsordeal des bitteren Wassers" (Numeri 5,11-31) in die Handlung eingebaut hat, wird der Leser nicht nur darüber im Unklaren gelassen, welche Akteure historisch, welche fiktiv sind, er erhält auch keinen Hinweis darauf, dass wieder die Chronologie der Ereignisse verändert wurde. In seinem, im Jahre 885 beginnenden, vierten Teil lässt er der Hochzeit Aethelreds II of Mercia mit Alfreds Tochter Aethelflaed die Eroberung Londons und danach die Belagerung Rochesters folgen. Tatsächlich wurde das damalige Hrofeceastres jedoch bereits im Jahre 884 belagert, London 886 erobert und an den Lord of Mercia übergeben und der früheste Zeitpunkt der Hochzeit war im Jahre 887.......nachdem Uthred aus Northumbria zurückgekehrt ist, lebt er seit zwei Jahren mit seiner zweiten Ehefrau Gisela, der Schwester König Guthreds von Northumbria, und seinen Kindern seit zwei Jahren in Coccham (Cookam/Berkshire. Dort soll er die Stadt zu einer "burgh" ausbauen und den Grenzfluss Temes (Themse) gegen anhaltende Überfälle der Nordmänner sichern, als ihn König Alfred mit der Eroberung Lundenes beauftragt....Neben den bereits bekannten Akteuren hat Cornwell auch neue Antagonisten in die Romanhandlung eingebaut, die beiden norwegischen Warlords Sigefrid und dessen Bruder Erik. Bemerkenswert ist auch diesmal, dass sich die Darstellung der Charaktere nicht in einer Schwarzweissmalerei erschöpft, sondern z. B. Freundschaft und Loyalität unabhängig von Stammes- oder Religionszugehörigkeit sind. Cornwell schafft es jedoch, dass der Leser eher Sympathie für den "Heiden" Uhtred und seine Kameraden empfindet, als für König Alfred und dessen Günstlinge und klerikale Berater. Zu Beginn des Romans gibt es ein Verzeichnis, das die damaligen angelsächsischen und nordischen Ortsnamen ihren heutigen Bezeichnungen gegenüberstellt. Daneben bieten zwei Skizzen einen geographischen Überblick die damaligen Königreiche Wessex, Mercia und Eastanglia bis zur Mündung der Themse, sowie die im Zentrum des "Dreiländerecks" gelegenen Stadt Lundene (London)."Sword Song" ist ein Muss für alle Cornwell-Fans, die bereits die vorausgegangenen Bände seiner Sachsenchronik gelesen haben und zwingt den Leser geradezu, sich näher mit der Geschichte Britanniens zu befassen. Trotz des fortschreitenden Verlustes an historischer Substanz ist es dem Autor wieder gelungen, eine emotional packende Story vorzulegen, die erneut beweist, dass das Schicksal unerbittlich sein muss und daher in der Hoffung auf einen mehr historischen, jedoch gleichermaßen spannenden 5. Teil mit 4 Amazonsternen zu bewerten ist."Yet dreams, as the more fortunate of the authors characters discover, can come true, and so Uhtred ans his Story will continue....." (Seite 318)

Well I'll get all the negative stuff out of the way first! Uhtred really is just a dark ages 'Sharpe' he even has an Irish side kick now and whilst Sharpe was loathed as a commoner amongst upper class twit fellow officers, Uhtred is loathed because he is a pagan amongst pious preachy christians!That said for many years I loved Sharpe! and likewise I am loving Uhtred and the Saxons, a major part of our national history largely ignored till now! Romans and vikings by the score, Saxons, hardly any!.Back to the book it's architypical Cornwell. Our hero is unloved by his masters, out numbered by his foe's but backed up by his savage comrades. Yes we've seen it a hundred times before from Cornwell but it is such a winning formula and he does it probably better than anyone. Also I like the stories being told from the first person perspective by Uhtred himself as you really feel like you are in the heart of the action.This book starts with the re-taking of London from the Danes an actual event but then takes a sharp left down imagination lane to put Uhtred in a daring rescue bid. As with most Cornwell stories the action is compelling gritty and believable, the book is fast paced though perhaps a hundred pages short of what we normally expect of him.We are promised more Uhtred action shortley by the author and I'll no doubt be there with my credit card though I hope he doesn't over do it as I felt he did with Sharpe as there are so many other great bits of history he can take us to but I have not quite had enough of Uhtred yet! So I'll be sharpening my battle axe for next time.

Read this book in 2007, and this the the 4th episode of Uhtred in the "Last Kingdom" series.This book is set in the year AD 885, and Eng(la)land is at peace with King Alfred of Wessex in the south and a Danish Kingdom in the north.But that peace is broken when a supposed dead man has risen and his Vikings are occupying London.It falls to Uthred, half Dane, half Saxon, to show his true loyalties, and thus he should be the one to expel these Vikings from that place and win London back for King Alfred.What is to come is an action-packed tale about loyalty, bravery, rivalry and violence, and this great Sword Song will make Uhtred and England formidable to enemies wherever they come from, whether its from within and without.Very much recommended, for this is another exciting addition to this great series, and that's why I like to call this wonderful episode: "A Brilliant Sword Song"!

In this, the fourth of the chronicles of Uhtred and the birth of the English nation under Alfred, the year is now 885 and the Danes appear to have been subdued. The treaty with Guthrum has the Danes settled in their own area of the Danelaw and the remainder of the Anglo Saxon kingdoms are apparently quiet; Alfred is now looking to consolidate his hold over the whole kingdom. This should be the high point for Alfred and all to look forward to from here; if he can keep his nephew Aethelwold from causing trouble, and hold off any more potential Dane incursions, hopefully he can bring Christianity to the whole country and start to rebuild under his own dynasty.But for Uhtred things are not so straightforward, as the Norse under the Thurgilson brothers arrive in Lundene from Frankia. Alfred wants Uhtred's cousin Aethelred to be King of Mercia so tasks Uhtred with tidying up the problem in Lundene. While Uhtred is, as always, happy to fight and kill, he's not so happy to be involved in Alfred's schemes. All Uhtred really wants is to go home to Bebbanberg and reclaim his inheritance. But, he is a warrior and must do as a warrior does. I didn't count up the number of who died in this book, but I think it was a lot! Life sure was hard, short and brutal in those days.Other reviewers of this book have complained that it lacks action, and that the story is stretched beyond its limits. I think that this story stands quite well in the series of five books about Uhtred, as in this one some years have passed since the last book, and relationships have settled. Uhtred finds himself content with his wife, Alfred's children are growing and demanding attention, the Danes are shifting their attention and their allegiances. I think that this book really acts as a stepping stone from the action that filled the first three books to the settlement of the many threads of the story hopefully in the fifth book. I guess we'll just have to see when I get to it. Still, recommended.

Auch der vierte Teil der "Saxon Stories" ist ein routiniert geschriebener, recht unterhaltsamer Historienroman – und dennoch der bislang schlechteste Teil der Reihe über das angelsächsische England im ausgehenden 9. Jahrhundert. Der Hauptprotagonist ist wieder Uhtred, der heimatlose Krieger aus Northumbria. Er ist mittlerweile fast 30 Jahre alt, verheiratet und zweifacher Vater. König Alfred, mit dem ihn eine komplexe, widersprüchliche Beziehung verbindet, hat seinen Wert als erstklassigen Heerführer erkannt und ihn als eine Art Militärgouverneur in einer der vielen grenznahen Wehrburgen eingesetzt. Auch hier kann sich Uhtred den Intrigen und Auseinandersetzungen zwischen den einzelnen sächsischen und nordischen Königreichen nicht entziehen und muss wieder gegen skandinavische Invasoren kämpfen, deren Lebensart ihm doch so viel näher steht als die der zunehmend vom christlichen Klerus dominierten Angelsachsen. Die Geschichte entwickelt sich rasant, wieder hat der Held viele Gefahren zu bestehen. Diesmal wirken die beinahe ununterbrochen aufeinander folgenden Schlachten jedoch etwas ermüdend, die Beschreibungen dieser Szenen, im Allgemeinen eine Spezialität des Autoren Cornwell, erscheinen inzwischen stereotyp und geben der Geschichte keine neuen Impulse. Auch das ständige Auftauchen immer neuer skandinavischer Warlords wirkt geradezu beliebig. Die Hauptstärke des Gesamtentwurfes dieser Romanserie, den Romanhelden als echten Mann zweier Welten darzustellen, der in beiden Gegenpolen, der angelsächsischen und der nordischen Welt, (nicht) zu Hause ist, kommt in diesem Teil weit weniger zum Tragen. Das merkt man dem Roman leider immer wieder an. Insgesamt hat man etwas den Eindruck, hier erstmals Ermüdungserscheinungen beim Autor festzustellen. Das fällt besonders bei einigen typischen Themen des Autors auf: Der Demontage historischer oder mythischer Lichtgestalten und ganz besonders der verächtlichen Beschreibung christlichen Glaubenseifers und der Scheinheiligkeit des politisch agierenden Klerus (der Autor wuchs in einer bigotten Pflegefamilie auf). Was gelegentlich durchaus amüsant sein kann, ist in diesem Fall ziemlich nervig. Ein Pluspunkt ist wieder mal die Einbindung der diversen Charaktere, deren Zeitbezug durchaus glaubwürdig erscheint und die dennoch für ein modernes Publikum attraktiv sind. Das verbindet Cornwell mit einer legendären Kollegin, Rosemary Sutcliff. Beiden war die virtuose Beschreibung menschlicher Charaktere nicht gegeben, beiden gelang es durch die gekonnte Einbettung in einen spannenden Geschichtsverlauf dennoch Figuren zu entwickeln, die einem Leser sehr schnell ans Herz wachsen können. Gerade das gelingt aber vielen zeitgenössischen Verfassern historischer Romane nicht mehr, gerade das lässt Bernard Cornwell – auch wie hier mit einem schwächelnden Buch – immer noch aus dem Gros der Konkurrenz herausragen. Wollen wir hoffen, das nach einem guten ersten, einem hervorragenden zweiten Teil und den beiden lauen dritten und vierten Bänden die Nummer fünf wieder besser wird. Die Figur Uhtred, die trotz aller schicksalhaften Wendungen kaum eine nennenswerte Entwicklung durchmacht, muss mehr Tiefe erhalten, die monochrome Festlegung auf einen arroganten, selbstbewussten Krieger kann auf Dauer nicht fesseln, geschweige denn einen Romanzyklus tragen. Ein Pluspunkt ist wie immer die originelle Porträtierung Alfreds, dem "Warrior King", als einen pedantischen, gelehrten und rationalen Fürsten in einem mystisch geprägten Zeitalter, der wie ein Vorläufer der absolutistischen, intellektuellen Monarchen des Hochmittelalters wirkt. In der Konfrontation dieser beiden so gegensätzlich Charaktere, Alfred und Uhtred, dürfte wohl auch das größte Potential für die weiteren Folgen liegen.