The last kingdom

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The Last Kingdom (English. The Last Kingdom ) is a historical novel by British writer Bernard Cornwell . The book was published by HarperCollins in 2004 and the German translation by Rowohlt Verlag in 2007 . The book has also been translated into French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish and Danish.

The title The Last Kingdom refers to Wessex , the last of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England that has not yet been conquered by the Danish Vikings. King Alfred von Wessex rules here , who has to defend himself against the overwhelming force of the invaders. The clashes between the Anglo-Saxons and the Danish Vikings under King Guthrum form the background of the story. Historical figures like the kings Alfred and Guthrum are juxtaposed with fictional characters like the Anglo-Saxon Uhtred, the hero and narrator of the story.

Classification in Cornwell's series

The Last Kingdom is the first novel in Cornwell's The Saxon Stories series, which is set against the backdrop of British history in the 9th and 10th centuries . To date, eleven novels have been published in the original language. The sequels of the first part, The White Rider and The Lords of the North , appeared in the original language in 2005 and 2006 and in German in 2007 and 2008, respectively. The first volumes describe the childhood and adolescence of the fictional Anglo-Saxon warrior Uhtred, who was brought up by Vikings but later served King Alfred of Wessex and his son Edward. The Saxon Stories have therefore been published in German under the title Die Uhtred-Saga . The original title The Last Kingdom also gave its name to a historical action series broadcast by the BBC in 2015, which tells the fate of Uhtred and his family over several seasons. On April 16, 2019, Wolfskrieg, the eleventh part of the novel series, was also published in German.

action

Bamburgh Castle now stands on the site of a hill fort that was called Bebbanburg at the time of Alfred of Wessex.

Osbert is 10 years old (born 856 AD) and the second son of Aldermann Uhtred, Lord of Bebbanburg in Northumbria . When the Danes attack Bebbanburg, Uhtred's first son, who is also called Uhtred, is killed and his body is desecrated by the Danes. Osbert, who is now the eldest son of Aldermann Uhtred, is now also baptized with the name Uhtred. The Aldermann Uhtred and his men follow the king's call when a Danish fleet lands in Eoferwic ( York ). The Danes lure the Anglo-Saxon army into an ambush and destroy it. Alderman Uhtred falls. His son Uhtred is captured by the Danish Count Ragnar during the battle. Ragnar, who is amused by Uhtred's attempt to attack him, spares the boy and takes him under his wing, first as a slave, later more and more as a third son. Uhtred's uncle, Ælfric, takes Bebbanburg and the title Aldermann, although Uhtred is legally entitled to do so. Only because Ragnar refuses to sell Uhtred to Ælfric does Uhtred stay alive.

Uhtred describes his life among the Danes. He travels the country with Ragnar and his men, working like a slave and fighting with other boys, both slaves and Danes. Uhtred befriends Ragnar's son Rorik and often fights with him against a boy named Sven, who is the son of Kjartan, a shipmaster of Ragnar's small fleet. The Danes settle in England and are tolerated by the locals grudgingly. Ragnar builds a hall. His ship crews settle nearby, while Ragnar takes the position of an English lord who fell before York. One day, Ragnar's daughter Thyra is kidnapped by Sven. He tries to force Thyra to touch him sexually. Uhtred and Rorik observe this from a hiding place, attack Sven, and Uhtred injures Sven on the thigh with his sword. Uhtred, Rorik and Thyra flee back to Ragnar's farm and report the matter to him. He is very angry and angry about Sven's behavior. He turns to Kjartan and knocks out Sven's eye with the hilt of his sword because he used it to look at his daughter naked. Kjartan is expelled from Ragnar's crew and has to retreat to a humiliating and unproductive position as a guard for the puppet king of the Danes, a deep social decline for him.

Uhtred goes on a raid across East Anglia with the Danes and takes part in the conquest of Mercien , East Anglia and the invasion of Wessex . During and between these fighting, Uhtred is trained as a warrior and takes part in various looting of the Danes. In Wessex, he is picked up by Beocca, a priest and a friend of his family. He now works for the pious King Alfred, who wants to send Uhtred to a monastery to teach him to read and write. On the way there, Uhtred, who thinks nothing of the plan, flees and rejoins Ragnar.

Uhtred enjoyed life with the Danes until Kjartan burned Ragnar's farm down and Ragnar was killed. Without a reference person from the Danes and fearing persecution by Kjartan, he joins King Alfred in Wessex. There he learns to read and write and sails against the Danes with Alfred's fleet, which consists of 12 ships. Since he wants to command the fleet, he accepts the condition to marry Mildrith, an orphan from Wessex. Only when he has already agreed to the marriage does he learn that the court is Mildrith's dowry and is burdened with high debts. He resents this deception to Alfred. He then took part in an attack on Guthrum and after the peace negotiations was handed over to the Danes as one of several hostages as a pledge in order to secure the peace that had been achieved. Over the winter he stays with the Danes in the city and is welcomed by Ragnar the Younger, the son of his foster father. When Guthrum breaks the peace and kills all the hostages, Uhtred is saved by Ragnar. He tells him about the murder of his father by Kjartan and his betrayal. Both decide to take revenge on Kjartan. But first Uhtred fled the Danes to find his wife. She was brought north by Odda the Younger, an Aldermann from Wessex who was in love with her even before she married Uhtred. Uhtred follows the two and leads a crew of loyal fighters to the Saxon army, which is surrounded by Ubba Lothbrokson in a fortress. With supplies running low and none of the other nobles willing to act, Uhtred single-handedly develops a battle plan. Alone he sneaks to the Danes' ships and sets some of them on fire. This is the sign for a few hundred men. The Saxons form a shield wall with the burning ships and the beach in the back and are attacked by the entire army of Ubba. Under Uhtred's leadership, the men held out long enough for the rest of the army to stab Ubba in the rear. Uhtred kills Ubba. The battle of Cynuit is won by his battle plan .

Characters of the plot

Fictional people

  • Uhtred - The protagonist , narrator, dispossessed Aldermann von Bebbanburg; originally called Osbert .
  • Prince Ragnar the Fearless - Danish Viking prince and foster father Uhtred
  • Ragnar Ragnarsson (Ragnar the Younger) - Ragnar's son, Uhtred's close friend
  • Rorik Ragnarsson - Ragnar's younger son and Uhtred's childhood friend
  • Thyra Ragnarsdottir - Ragnar's daughter who is kidnapped by Kjartan
  • Brida - Saxon girl from East Anglia , Uhtred's lover
  • Sigrid - wife of Prince Ragnar and mother of Ragnar the Younger, Rorik and Thyra
  • Ravn - blind skald and father of Prince Ragnar
  • Sven Kjartansson - Uhtred's archenemy and Kjartan's son
  • Kjartan - Danish sailor who betrays Prince Ragnar
  • Father Beocca - Alfred's priest and Uhtred's family friend
  • Mildrith - Uhtred's first wife from West Saxony
  • Leofric - Uhtred's friend, warrior and ship master
  • Odda the Younger - Alderman Odda's son and Uhtred's enemy
  • Ælfric - Uhtred's uncle and illegitimate owner of Bebbanburg
  • Lord Uhtred of Bebbanburg - Uhtred's father
  • Gytha - Uhtred's stepmother

Historical people

reception

In the UK, the book reached # 5 on the Sunday Times bestseller list and stayed there for 8 weeks.

In the United States, The Last Kingdom was published in large print by HarperCollins in 2005 and as a paperback by HarperTorch in 2006. The book was on the bestseller lists published by Publishers Weekly and The New York Times for three weeks, ranking 11th and 8th, respectively.

Reviews

filming

The British television series The Last Kingdom has been broadcast since 2015 . Alexander Dreymon can be seen in the main role .

Web links