The Burning Land (the Saxon Stories, #5)

The fifth installment in Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales series is set in late ninth-century England, a land divided between the Christian Saxon kingdom of Wessex and territories held by the Danes, pagan Norse and Danish invaders who have conquered much of the island. The story is narrated by Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a Saxon nobleman raised by Danes who worships the Norse gods yet serves the Christian King Alfred of Wessex.

The novel opens with a framing scene: An aged Uhtred visits a Mercian monastery and discovers monks copying annals that credit Lord Æthelred of Mercia with victories Uhtred himself won. Furious, he burns the manuscripts and vows to tell the truth about the battles at Fearnhamme and Beamfleet.

In the main narrative, Uhtred is in his mid-thirties and commands the garrison at Lundene (London). Two Danish fleets have landed in Cent (Kent): a smaller force under Haesten, a cunning jarl, or warlord, and a larger army of over 200 ships led by Jarl Harald Bloodhair. Alfred's army, led by his son-in-law Æthelred and his son Edward, sits paralyzed between the two forces. Alfred sends Uhtred to bribe Haesten with silver. He returns to his pregnant wife Gisela in Lundene, where they dream of reclaiming Bebbanburg, the great Northumbrian fortress his uncle Ælfric stole from him in childhood.

Alfred summons Uhtred south. Riding toward Danish raids, Uhtred ambushes a raiding party and captures Skade, Harald's woman, a beautiful sorceress who curses him. To provoke Harald, Uhtred strips Skade naked on a hilltop in view of watching Danes and lets a surviving Dane carry the insult back. At the fortified town of Æscengum, Bishop Asser, Alfred's Welsh adviser and Uhtred's longtime enemy, objects to Uhtred's presence. Uhtred proposes luring Harald to Fearnhamme (Farnham), where a hill with ancient earthworks provides ideal defensive terrain. Alfred asks Uhtred to swear loyalty to Edward; Uhtred refuses. When Harald rides to the river demanding Skade's return and begins executing captive Saxon women, Uhtred releases Skade to save the remaining prisoners.

That night, Æthelflæd, Alfred's daughter and Æthelred's unhappy wife, warns Uhtred that her husband has secretly ordered his commander Lord Aldhelm to retreat from Fearnhamme. Æthelred resents his dependence on Wessex and is trying to divorce Æthelflæd by engineering a false adultery charge so he can confine her to a nunnery. She rides with Uhtred to Fearnhamme, where she confronts Aldhelm, tells him the orders have changed, and inspires the Mercian troops.

The battle unfolds as planned. Uhtred dresses Osferth, Alfred's illegitimate son, as a decoy king and feigns a retreat to lure Harald to the ford. Steapa, Alfred's bodyguard commander, leads 700 West Saxons into the Danish rear while Uhtred charges downhill in a swine head formation, a disciplined wedge of warriors, shattering the shield wall. Uhtred wounds Harald, but the Danes drag him away. After the victory, devastating news arrives: Gisela has died in childbirth, along with the baby. Uhtred is consumed by grief, convinced Skade's curse killed his wife.

Haesten moves his fleet to Beamfleet (Benfleet) on the Temes estuary. At a feast in Lundene celebrating the baptism of Haesten's wife and sons, Brother Godwin, a blind monk, goes into a trance and denounces Gisela as evil. Uhtred strikes Godwin twice, accidentally breaking his neck. Father Beocca, Uhtred's old friend, brings Alfred's terms: Uhtred must forfeit his lands, pay a wergild, a legal compensation for the killing, of 1,500 shillings, and swear loyalty to Edward. Uhtred suspects Asser orchestrated the episode. He refuses the terms and sails east on his warship Seolferwulf with 43 warriors, their families, and Skade.

During the voyage north, Uhtred takes Skade as his lover. She reveals that her Frisian husband Skirnir keeps a treasure hoard on the island of Zegge. Uhtred sails to Bebbanburg, then travels south to Dunholm, the fortress of Jarl Ragnar, his closest friend. Brida, Ragnar's woman and Uhtred's childhood companion, argues that the Danes must destroy Wessex before Alfred's kingdom consumes them. Uhtred sails to Frisia, stages a fake mutiny to lure Skirnir into a trap, and kills the pirate lord, but the treasure proves small. Skade demands half; Uhtred refuses. Their relationship turns to hatred.

Back at Dunholm, Uhtred falls gravely ill. During Yule, news arrives that Alfred has died. Ragnar summons the northern jarls, who agree to a coordinated assault: Haesten will attack Mercia while the Northumbrian fleet strikes Wessex's coast. Skade departs with Haesten. Then Father Pyrlig, a Welsh warrior-priest, arrives with shattering news: Alfred is not dead. He carries a message from Æthelflæd, trapped in a convent at Lecelad, asking Uhtred to honor his oath to serve her, as Æthelred is still trying to engineer a divorce. Uhtred decides to go south. Brida calls him a Saxon who lacks the courage to be a Dane. Ragnar embraces him sadly, and Uhtred promises never to fight against his friend.

At Lecelad, Uhtred reunites with his children, discovering that his eldest son has become a Christian. He confronts Aldhelm, who has brought warriors to keep Æthelflæd confined. Uhtred appeals to the troops' loyalty to Æthelflæd, and they turn against Aldhelm. Uhtred kills him in single combat, breaking Aldhelm's sword against his own blade, Serpent-Breath. He threatens Æthelred with death if Æthelflæd is harmed. At a council, the scope of Haesten's invasion becomes clear: Thousands of raiders burn across Mercia while most West Saxon troops defend against the Northumbrian fleet in Defnascir (Devonshire). Uhtred proposes striking Beamfleet. Æthelred refuses, but Æthelflæd publicly sides with Uhtred.

In Lundene, Uhtred assembles a small force. Æthelflæd learns that Alfred himself secretly arranged for her to summon Uhtred, knowing Mercia would need him. Uhtred discovers that Skade led a raid on the Lecelad convent, burning the nuns alive and missing his children by two days. The situation transforms when Edward arrives with 1,200 of Alfred's best warriors, sent with instructions to accept Uhtred's guidance.

Uhtred camps near Beamfleet and captures an old hilltop fort after a Danish sortie. He devises an unorthodox plan for the new fort below: rope-lattice ladders fashioned from stolen ship sails to scale the moat's muddy banks, and eight sealed beehives as weapons. At dawn, 800 Saxons charge. Pyrlig hurls the hives over the walls, releasing swarms of enraged bees that sting the defenders. Steapa reaches the wall first, Edward follows, and Osferth leaps inside to open the gates. The full Saxon force pours in. Finan, Uhtred's Irish second-in-command, blocks the creek and prevents most Danish ships from escaping.

Inside the great hall, Skade stands atop the plundered Mercian treasure, screaming defiance. She charges at Æthelflæd, but Uhtred blocks her with his shield. Harald, now legless, crawls from the shadows. He places a golden torque on Skade's head, tells her he loved her, then drives a hidden knife through her mail. Uhtred denies Harald a weapon for passage to Valhalla, the Norse warriors' afterlife, and kills him.

Nearly 200 Danish ships are burned and 30 captured. Hundreds of hostages are taken, including Haesten's wife and sons. Edward tells Uhtred he does not need his oath because Æthelflæd already holds it and agrees his sister should remain in Mercia. Uhtred sets Skade's skull on a spear above the ruins and sails the captured ships to Lundene with Æthelflæd at his side, now committed to her cause and to Mercia's defense.