Sword song
Sword Song (English. Sword Song ) is a novel by British writer Bernard Cornwell . It is a historical novel , i.e. a prose work that takes historical (i.e. actual) events as the background for its invented (= fictional) main story. Sword singing is set in Wessex and Cornwall in the 9th century AD and describes the clashes between the Anglo-Saxon King Alfred von Wessex and the Danish Vikings under King Guthrum . 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.
Schwertgesang was published in the English original language in 2007; the German translation was published in 2008.
Classification in Cornwell's series
Sword Singing is the fourth part of a multi-part series that appears in English under the title The Saxon Stories . In German it is called Die Uhtred-Saga after its protagonist . The predecessors of Schwertgesang are The Last Kingdom , The White Rider and The Lords of the North . The series continued with The Burning Land , The Dying King and The Lord of the Gentiles . With Wolf War eleventh novel was the cycle by Alfred the Great and his son in April 2019 Edward published in German. How many parts the entire series will contain has not yet been announced by Cornwell.
action
Sword singing begins a few years after Die Herren des Nordens : Uhtred von Bebbanburg is about to 30, has married for the second time and has two small children. On King Alfred's orders, he builds the castles and fortresses along the Thames and prepares them for the Danish attacks on the Kingdom of Wessex .
When the Danes, under the leadership of the brothers Erik and Sigefried Thurgelson and Count Haesten, who was once Uhtred's husband, occupy the city of London , get more and more reinforcements and maritime trade across the Thames comes to a standstill, Uhtred and his cousin Æthelred , Aldermann , are said to be of Mercien to recapture London. After this has been achieved with a trick and after a hard fight, Uhtred becomes the military governor of London and takes care of the city's defense. Meanwhile, Æthelred pursues the Danes who have withdrawn to the Thames estuary. His wife Aethelflaed , who is King Alfred's eldest daughter, accompanies him . The fleet is badly damaged by the attacking Vikings and Aethelflaed is captured during the fighting.
The Danes are now demanding an incomparably high ransom for the king's daughter. With the ransom, the Danes could raise an army strong enough to conquer Wessex. But Alfred doesn't want his daughter humiliated as a whore of the Danes. So he sends Uhtred with Steapa to the Danish camp in Beamfleot to negotiate a good ransom.
During the subsequent ransom negotiations, Uhtred realizes that Aethelflaed has fallen in love with the Viking leader Erik and doesn't even want to go back to her tyrannical husband. They agree on a ruse to help Aethelflead and Erik flee north to Uhtred's friend Ragnar, but this fails because Count Haesten takes the king's daughter prisoner and wants to flee with her. In the end, Uhtred still manages to thwart Haester's plan, but Erik is killed by his brother Sigefried. Osferth, Alfred's illegitimate son, kills Sigefried on Uhtred's orders. Haesten escapes, however, and Uhtred brings Alfred back his daughter.