The Burning Land

The Burning Land

The latest book in the Saxon chronicles from novelist Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land tells of the dark days when the Danes fought with the Saxons for possession of the British Isles. Out of these long and violent struggles, England was born.

Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, has grown old, and his territories are once again menaced by the Danish warriors who regularly plunder the neighboring kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia. One of the most vicious of these Viking lords, Harald Bloodhair, has landed two hundred ships on the coast and proceeded deep into Wessex in search of loot. Alfred once again looks to his pagan warlord, the Thor-worshipping Uhtred, to repel the invaders. Uhtred lays his plans well, and at the battle of Fearnhamme hands the Vikings a devastating defeat. But for Uhtred, victory is short-lived: driven from Alfred’s court by personal tragedy and malicious intrigue, he renounces his oath to the King. He vows never to serve the Saxons again, and returns to his northern homeland. But his self-imposed exile is short-lived. For even as the Danes plan one last massive invasion of Wessex, Uhtred receives an urgent plea from an old friend in Alfred’s realm. Will he join the invasion, or once again fight against his northern brethren?

With the Saxon Chronicles, Bernard Cornwell once again combines painstaking historical research with a gift for vivid storytelling. His narrator/hero Uhtred is a masterful achievement: as fatalistic and cynical as a Dashiell Hammett character, yet as brave and ultimately noble as any knight out of Sir Walter Scott. Uhtred is torn between two cultures: the Christian south to which he is bound by oaths; and the pagan north to which he yearns to return. One is a place of laws, priests and politics, the other a land of renown earned through deeds of battle. While the latter world is ultimately more appealing to Uhtred—and, one senses, to Cornwell himself—it is the former that will ultimately triumph, and this tinges the novel with irony and regret.

But Cornwell never romanticizes the past, nor lets the reader forget the extreme violence of the time. Kirkus Reviews once referred to Cornwell as “the master of historical battle,” and he proves it again here. We don’t just see Uhtred charging the Danish line at the Battle of Fearnhamme: we hear the war cries of the Saxon warriors and feel the grind of metal on bone as the warlord plunges his sword into Viking bellies. It’s thrilling and horrifying all at once.

As always, Cornwell provides a rich cast of characters, from familiar friends like Ragnar Ragnarsson, Father Beocca and Finian the Agile to new antagonists like Skade, the Danish sorceress whose dark beauty is matched only by the blackness of her soul.

Hardcover: 352 pages

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers ( January 19, 2010 )

Item #: 53-1567

ISBN: 9780060888749

Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25 x 0.79 inches

Product Weight: 16.0 ounces