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The Saxon Stories (also known as Saxon Tales/Saxon Chronicles in the US and The Warrior Chronicles and most recently as The Last Kingdom series) is a historical novel series written by Bernard Cornwell about the history of Anglo-Saxon England in the ninth and tenth centuries. The Last Kingdom Series 1 Characters. Meet the characters from The Last Kingdom. Played by Alexander Dreymon. Played by David Schofield. View Abbot Eadred. Cornwell told HistoryExtra in 2018 that “The Last Kingdom series is going to end with a real historical event: the battle of Brunanburh in 937. The battle marked the beginning of England, so obviously had to be included in the series.” The Last Kingdom season four airs on Netflix from Sunday 26 April. The Last Kingdom S4 E3 review: moments of introspection remind us of history’s “shared humanity” The Last Kingdom S4 E4 review: “Royal rage could be a terrible thing in the early Middle Ages” The Last Kingdom S4 E5 review: “This has to rank among the more gruesome episodes of the season, if not the series”. May 21, 2020 The Last Kingdom star Alexander Dreymon, who plays Uhtred, told RadioTimes.com that it was one of his favourite shooting locations: “It is just the most gorgeous place in the forest, with these.

The Last Kingdom is the first historical novel in The Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell, published in 2004. This story introduces Uhtred Ragnarson, born a Saxon then kidnapped by raiding Danes who raise him from age 11,^{[1][2][circular reference]} teaching him how to be a warrior.

Plot summary[edit]

Nine-year-old Osbert is the second son of Ealdorman (Earl) Uhtred, Lord of Bebbanburg in Northumbria. Danes raid Bebbanburg, and Ealdorman Uhtred's first son, also called Uhtred, is killed while scouting the raiders. Ealdorman Uhtred renames Osbert Uhtred. Ealdorman Uhtred is killed during a disastrous attack on Danish-seized Eoferwic (York) and his son is captured by Danish Jarl Ragnar the Fearless. Ragnar, amused by the boy's bravery during the battle, keeps him as a thrall. Uhtred's uncle, Ælfric, takes Bebbanburg and usurps the title of ealdorman from Uhtred, the rightful heir.

The Last Kingdom Map

Uhtred befriends Ragnar's youngest son, Rorik, and has many clashes with one boy in particular, Sven, son of Kjartan, one of Ragnar's shipmasters. One day, Sven kidnaps Ragnar's daughter, Thyra, and removes part of her clothing in an effort to sexually assault her. Uhtred charges Sven from hiding, taking Sven's sword and attacking him with it. Uhtred, Rorik, and Thyra escape back to Ragnar's hall. Ragnar dismisses Kjartan from his service when Kjartan makes light of his son's behaviour. He also crushes one of Sven's eyes with the hilt of his sword - adding darkly that he would have crushed both, had Sven stripped Thyra completely naked.

Uhtred then goes viking across East Anglia, and participates in the conquests of Mercia and East Anglia, and the invasion of Wessex. He is kidnapped by a priest, Beocca, an old family friend. He then escapes from Wessex and rejoins Ragnar. Uhtred enjoys life with the Danes, but flees after Kjartan and his men set fire to Ragnar's hall and kill everyone who tries to flee. Ragnar remains inside, preferring to die on his terms rather than at Kjartan's hands. Kjartan abducts Thyra.

Uhtred hopes to escape Kjartan's assassins by spreading the rumour that he too died in the hall-burning. Uhtred then joins King Alfred in Wessex. There he learns to read and write, and sails with Alfred's fleet of 12 ships against the Danes. After a battle with the Danes, he meets Ragnar the Younger, Earl Ragnar's eldest son, and tells him how his father died and that Thyra was kidnapped. They part friends, swearing that one day they will band together to take revenge on Kjartan and rescue Thyra. Seeking to take command of the fleet, Uhtred gains it on the condition that he marry the orphaned Wessex girl Mildrith. He is not told that, by marrying her, he will also assume her family's very large debt to the Church. Afterward, he takes part in a siege against Guthrum, and is among a group of hostages exchanged when the Danes and Saxons make peace. Staying with the Danes in the city over the winter, he again meets Ragnar, who saves him from death when Guthrum breaks the peace and murders the other Saxon hostages. Uhtred then escapes to find his wife. She was taken by Odda the Younger, another Wessex ealdorman, to the north. There he fights in the Battle of Cynwit, where Uhtred kills the renowned Danish leader, Ubba Lothbrokson, in single combat.

The novel concludes with Uhtred riding with his men to Exanceaster to find his wife and newborn son, instead of going directly to inform Alfred of his victory.

Characters in The Last Kingdom[edit]

Fictional[edit]

• Uhtred - dispossessed Ealdorman of Bebbanburg originally named Osbert
• Earl Ragnar the Fearless - Danish warlord who raises Uhtred like his own son
• Ragnar Ragnarsson (Ragnar the Younger) - Ragnar's son, Uhtred's foster brother and close friend
• Rorik Ragnarsson - Ragnar's younger son and Uhtred's childhood friend
• Thyra Ragnarsdottir - Ragnar's daughter, kidnapped by Kjartan
• Brida - East Anglian Saxon girl, Uhtred's lover and friend
• Sigrid - Earl Ragnar's wife and mother to Ragnar the Younger, Rorik and Thyra
• Ravn - blind skald and Earl Ragnar's father
• Sven Kjartansson - Uhtred's sworn enemy and Kjartan's son
• Kjartan - Danish shipmaster who kills Earl Ragnar
• Father Beocca - Alfred's priest and Uhtred's family friend
• Mildrith - Uhtred's pious West Saxon wife
• Leofric - Uhtred's friend, warrior and shipmaster
• Odda the Younger - Ealdorman Odda's son and Uhtred's enemy
• Ælfric - Uhtred's uncle and usurper of Bebbanburg
• Lord Uhtred of Bebbanburg - Uhtred's father
• Gytha - Uhtred's stepmother

Historical[edit]

• King Alfred of Wessex (Alfred the Great) - King of Wessex
• Æthelflæd - Alfred's eldest daughter, Lady of the Mercians
• Guthrum the Unlucky - Danish warlord
• Ubba Ragnarsson - Danish warlord feared by many, older brother to Ivar and Halfdan
• Ivar Ragnarsson (Ivar the Boneless) - Danish warlord feared by many, brother to Ubba and Halfdan
• Halfdan Lothbroksson - Danish warlord and younger brother of Ubba and Ivar
• Ælswith - Alfred's wife, who dislikes Uhtred
• Æthelwold - Alfred's nephew and friend of Uhtred
• Ealdorman Odda - Earldorman of Wessex
• King Edmund of East Anglia
• King Osbert of Northumbria

Television adaptation[edit]

In July 2014, the BBC announced that production would begin in autumn 2014 on a television adaptation, to be titled The Last Kingdom. Stephen Butchard is the writer. A series of eight 60-minute episodes was produced, and the series began airing on 10 October 2015.^[3]BBC Two, Carnival Films and BBC America were involved in the production. As of April 2020, 36 episodes were aired in 4 seasons.

Publication details[edit]

• 2004, UK, HarperCollins ISBN0-00-714990-5, Pub date 4 October 2004, hardback
• 2005, UK, HarperCollins ISBN0-00-714991-3, Pub date 30 May 2005, paperback
• 2006, UK, HarperCollins ISBN0-00-721801-X, Pub date 3 October 2005, paperback (mass-market)
• 2006, USA, HarperTorch ISBN0-06-053280-7, Pub date 30 June 2006, paperback (mass-market)

References[edit]

1. ^Uhtred of Bebbanburg
2. ^'Uhtred of Bebbanburg - DiscoverMiddleAges'. DiscoverMiddleAges.co.uk. 2015-11-18. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
3. ^Una Maguire (9 July 2014). 'BBC Two announces new drama series, The Last Kingdom'. Retrieved 24 July 2014.

External links[edit]

• The Last Kingdom on Netflix

The Saxon Stories (also known as Saxon Tales/Saxon Chronicles in the US and The Warrior Chronicles and most recently as The Last Kingdom series) is a historical novel series written by Bernard Cornwell about the history of Anglo-Saxon England in the ninth and tenth centuries. The protagonist of the series is Uhtred of Bebbanburg, born to a Saxon lord in Northumbria, but he was captured and adopted by the Danes. The story takes place during the Danish invasions of Britain, when all but one of the English kingdoms are conquered. The name of the fictional protagonist comes from the historical Uhtred the Bold; Cornwell is a descendent of this family.^[1]

The story centres on the emergence of England as a nation on the island of Britain from the vision and actions of Alfred, later dubbed 'the Great'. King Alfred of Wessex reluctantly accepts that he cannot drive the invaders from the island, after his defeat at Wilton, and is forced to make peace with them. His heirs consolidate what Alfred begins.

The first eight novels in the series were adapted for four seasons of the television series The Last Kingdom, starring Alexander Dreymon. Cornwell subsequently posted a note on his web site: 'The Warrior Chronicles/Saxon Stories have been renamed The Last Kingdom series'.^[2]

The first two seasons were made by the BBC. A third and fourth season were produced by Netflix, and a fifth season was recently confirmed.

Idea for the series of novels[edit]

In an interview with Emerson College, Cornwell said: 'Years ago, when I was at university, I discovered Anglo-Saxon poetry and became hooked on that strange and often melancholy world. For some reason the history of the Anglo-Saxons isn’t much taught in Britain (where I grew up) and it struck me as weird that the English really had no idea where their country came from. Americans know, they even have a starting date, but the English just seemed to assume that England had always been there, so the idea of writing a series about the creation of England was in my head for a long time.'^[1] The historical setting is the big story; writing historical fiction needs a little story so the history can be the background. When he was in his fifties, Cornwell met his birth father, named William Outhred (or Oughtred), and learned the story of his own descent from the Saxons who owned the fortress of Bebbanburg (now Bamburgh Castle). Thus was born Uhtred, the protagonist of the fictional tales.^[3]

In the interview, he revealed that there is a plan to adapt the series for television, in answer to a question of how many more books are planned for the series. Dresser td8g operator's manual pdf. 'I wish I knew! I don’t know how the chapter I’m writing now will end, let alone the book, and the series? No idea! I suspect there will be a few more; I just heard that BBC Television have commissioned a series that will follow Uhtred’s escapades. The company that makes Downton Abbey will make the programs, which is wonderful, and I’ll need to keep them supplied with stories (I hope). So? Six more? Eight more? I just don’t know.'^[1]

When the television adaptation of the first two novels aired in fall of 2015, Cornwell reiterated how the idea took shape in his mind when he met his birth father in Canada. Cornwell's paternal ancestors were traced to the time of Alfred; the family holding Bebbanburg was betrayed in the 11th century and fled to Yorkshire.^[4]

Overview[edit]

Uhtred, the protagonist, is the second son of a Saxon lord who rules from the nearly impregnable fortress at Bebbanburg (modern day Bamburgh) in the kingdom of Northumbria. Danish raiders kill first his older brother, then his father. Uhtred himself is spared only because the Danish leader, Ragnar the Fearless, is amused when the youngster attacks him. Ragnar takes Uhtred home and raises the boy like one of his own sons. Uhtred abandons Christianity in favor of Danish pagan beliefs, such as the gods Thor and Odin, Valhalla, and the Norns. In particular, he believes that 'Wyrd bið ful āræd' ('Fate is inexorable').

When he is an adult, that fate drives him to serve Alfred the Great, whom he dislikes but respects, and Alfred's dream of uniting all English speakers into a single kingdom, Englaland. To his great disgust, Uhtred finds himself saving Alfred's Christian kingdom of Wessex (and the neighbouring kingdom of Mercia) time and time again from those who threaten it, primarily the pagan Danes who have settled in Britain, despite despising Christianity and admiring the Danes. When Wessex is overrun and Alfred is at his lowest point, a fugitive with few followers hiding in a marsh, it is Uhtred who convinces him to fight back rather than go into exile.

Uhtred's overriding ambition, however, is to take Bebbanburg, stolen from him by his uncle after his father's death.

The story is told almost entirely from Uhtred's first-person perspective. The reader knows only what Uhtred knows or learns. (The first few chapters of The Empty Throne are written from the perspective of Uhtred's second son, before reverting to Uhtred's viewpoint.)

Cornwell provides a 'Historical Note' at the end of each novel in which he clarifies which characters and events are based on actual history and what liberties he took with them.

Style[edit]

The series is frequently compared to The Warlord Chronicles, not only because of similarities between the two protagonists (both were orphaned), but also in the similarities between the foreign menace in the form of the Danes in The Saxon Stories and the Saxons in The Warlord Chronicles. Alfred also resembles Arthur in his mission as the only man to save his kingdom (England for Alfred, Southern Celtic Britain for Arthur) from an unstoppable threat.

The main character, Uhtred of Bebbanburg (the old Saxon name of Bamburgh Castle), is an old man telling tales of events that took place decades earlier, starting from his childhood and going on, his story intertwining with the story of the British Isles in the end of the ninth century. He intersperses the narrative with often-acerbic comments regarding the events and characters he describes. It is notable that the Saxon-born Uhtred, baptized Christian three times, has a very critical view of the Christian religion throughout the entire series. Though he took an oath to serve Alfred, he keeps his sympathy to the Danes, their way of life and their gods. This offers the reader a balanced picture of the conflict of the times, when it was in no way a certainty that there would be an England or Angle-land instead of a 'Daneland' as the southern and central parts of the island of Britain.

Name of the series of novels[edit]

This series of novels is known by several names. Saxon Stories and Saxon Tales were the first titles in the US and the UK editions for the first five novels, and those titles continue in use for later novels. Starting with The Death of Kings, the UK editions bear the series title, The Warrior Chronicles. The series is also known as The Saxon Chronicles on US editions. In the autumn of 2015, a series of television programs based on the first two novels and using the title of the first novel – The Last Kingdom – has led book sellers to link the novels to the television series by referring to them as The Last Kingdom novels. The author renamed the series The Last Kingdom, per a news notice at his website.^[5]

Bibliography of the Saxon Tales[edit]

Bernard Cornwell mentioned in the historical notes at the end of The Lords of the North (third novel) that he intended to continue writing The Saxon Stories. On his website,^[6] Cornwell states 'I need to finish Uhtred', the main character in The Saxon Stories. On 5 March 2020, Cornwell announced on social media that the 13th book will be titled War Lord, and will be the final novel in the series.^[7]

Ltz 250 manual. The following novels have been published, with the UK publication date listed.

• The Last Kingdom (2004)
• The Pale Horseman (2005)
• The Lords of the North (2006)
• Sword Song (2007)
• The Burning Land (2009)
• Death of Kings (2011)
• The Pagan Lord (2013)^[8]
• The Empty Throne (2014)^[9]
• Warriors of the Storm (2015)^[10]
• The Flame Bearer (2016)^[11]
• War of the Wolf (2018)^[12]
• Sword of Kings (2019)^[13]
• War Lord (October 2020)^[14][15]

Television adaptation[edit]

Netflix The Last Kingdom Map

In July 2014, the BBC announced that production would begin in autumn 2014 on a television adaptation of The Saxon Stories, to be titled The Last Kingdom. Stephen Butchard is the writer. A series of eight 60-minute episodes was produced.^[16]BBC Two, Carnival Films and BBC America are involved in the production. The series premiered on BBC America on 10 October 2015 and on BBC Two in the UK on 22 October 2015.^[4]

In an interview, Cornwell said he did not believe that the success of Game of Thrones led to the decision to produce The Last Kingdom. 'I don’t think so, [Game of Thrones] is fantasy, unless the appeal is brutal men in chain mail and leather beating the shit out of each other .. I can’t see anything else we have in common. This is rooted in reality. And even though Uhtred didn’t exist as I have written it, there is always that big story .. in the background'.^[4] The big story, in Cornwell's terms, refers to the history of Alfred and the start of England.^[3]

Two series had aired by early 2018. The third and fourth, each with ten episodes, was released exclusively by its sole producer Netflix; BBC was no longer involved.

Another season on Netflix was announced July 7 2020 ^[17]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

The Last Kingdom Map Vs Great Britain

1. ^ ^abcLafferty, Hannah (31 January 2014). 'Bernard Cornwell Talks The Pagan Lord, The Challenges of Historical Fiction, And Future Plans'. Emertainment Monthly. Boston: Emerson College. Archived from the original on 22 June 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
2. ^'The Last Kingdom Series (formerly The Warrior Chronicles/Saxon Stories)'. Bernard Cornwell. 26 October 2015. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
3. ^ ^abLafferty, Hannah (31 January 2014). 'Bernard Cornwell Talks The Pagan Lord, The Challenges of Historical Fiction, And Future Plans'. Emertainment Monthly. Boston: Emerson College. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
4. ^ ^abcBrown, Maggie (17 October 2015). 'Bernard Cornwell: BBC made The Last Kingdom due to its 'interesting echoes of today''. The Guardian. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
5. ^'The last Kingdom series (formerly The Warrior Chronicles/Saxon Stories)'. News. Bernard Cornwell. 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
6. ^'Uhtred in Your Questions'. 3 October 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
7. ^https://www.facebook.com/bernard.cornwell/photos/a.10150941136705356/10156626030140356/?type=1&theater
8. ^'The Pagan Lord (2013)'. Fantastic Fiction. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
9. ^'The Empty Throne'. Fantastic Fiction. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
10. ^'Warriors of the Storm'. Fantastic Fiction. October 2015. ISBN0-00-750407-1. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
11. ^'The Flame Bearer'. HarperCollins. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
12. ^'War of the Wolf publication'. News. Bernard Cornwell web page. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
13. ^'Sword of Kings'. HarperCollins. ISBN9780008183899. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
14. ^'War Lord (The Last Kingdom Series, Book 13)'. Amazon UK book seller. 15 October 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
15. ^Cornwell, Bernard (2020). 'War Lord'. Harper. ISBN978-0062563293. Retrieved 13 November 2020. published in the UK on 15 October 2020 and in the US on 20 November 2020.
16. ^Maguire, Una (9 July 2014). 'BBC Two announces new drama series, The Last Kingdom'. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
17. ^https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2020-07-07/the-last-kingdom-renewed-season-5/

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