The Last Kingdom

The Last Kingdom
Bernard Cornwell

BBC2’s major TV series THE LAST KINGDOM is based on Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling novels on the making of England and the fate of his great hero, Uhtred of Bebbanburg. The Last Kingdom is the first book in the series.Season 2 of the epic TV series premiers this March.Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of ninth-century Northumbria. Orphaned at ten, he is captured and adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways. Yet Uhtred's fate is indissolubly bound up with Alfred, King of Wessex, who rules over the only English kingdom to survive the Danish assault.The struggle between the English and the Danes and the strife between christianity and paganism is the background to Uhtred's growing up. He is left uncertain of his loyalties but a slaughter in a winter dawn propels him to the English side and he will become a man just as the Danes launch their fiercest attack yet on Alfred's kingdom. Marriage ties him further still to the West Saxon cause but when his wife and child vanish in the chaos of the Danish invasion, Uhtred is driven to face the greatest of the Viking chieftains in a battle beside the sea. There, in the horror of the shield-wall, he discovers his true allegiance.The Last Kingdom, like most of Bernard Cornwell's books, is firmly based on true history. It is the first novel of a series that tells the tale of Alfred the Great and his descendants and of the enemies they faced, Viking warriors like Ivar the Boneless and his feared brother, Ubba. Against their lives Bernard Cornwell has woven a story of divided loyalties, reluctant love and desperate heroism. In Uhtred, he has created one of his most interesting and heroic characters and in The Last Kingdom one of his most powerful and passionate novels.

THE LAST KINGDOM

BERNARD CORNWELL

Copyright (#ulink_2ac6b2a5-bce8-5dda-815f-df0b3e5e19ca)

This novel is a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2004

Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2004

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017

Photography by Des Willie © Carnival Film & Television Limited 2017

Bernard Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780008139476

Ebook Edition © JULY 2009 ISBN: 9780007338818

Version: 2017-05-08

Dedication (#ulink_dde2f494-9b1b-51fa-b999-a6d005ac7175)

THE LAST KINGDOM

is for Judy, with love

Wyrd bið ful ãræd

Contents

Cover (#uadc11bd9-9289-50c9-bd7c-08ea3f8baae5)

Title Page (#u69c1bcf3-9f5e-5233-9052-e53949f806a5)

Copyright (#ua9ff26d8-bcc8-5aba-bed8-5fea76f475d2)

Dedication (#u68479b08-7b47-5829-b4a3-5f4005e62923)

Map (#u03d74d9c-ccc6-58e5-8808-5306b2c5039e)

Place Names (#u0ca088e2-bd00-51e4-9033-8a1cb357bc0a)

Prologue: NORTHUMBRIA, 866–867 AD (#u2c663d1f-7c3b-5304-bfd3-f98c1cc3c903)

Part One: A PAGAN CHILDHOOD (#uc7c89acc-91f5-5348-b799-8412e89db60b)

Chapter One (#uf4daf69a-4fdc-5645-8b04-b9179e16eb75)

Chapter Two (#u0d9324df-2877-59f1-addc-e5b354e2030b)

Chapter Three (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Two: THE LAST KINGDOM (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Three: THE SHIELD WALL (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Historical Note (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)