War of the Wolf (Saxon Tales)

Product Information

Norwegian novelist Jacobsen folds a quietly powerful coming-of-age story into a rendition of daily life on one of Norway’s rural islands a hundred years ago in a novel that was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.

Uhtred is told that the plague has broken out in the north; his wife, son-in-law and grandchildren are dead.

Further Reading

The themes of War of the Wolf are in many ways beautiful. Here is an old and weathered warrior whose family and friends are mostly all gone with the wind. His old enemies, once legends of the sword threatening the very existence of the places and people we readers have come to know and love, are distant memories from days of yonder. When Uhtred's internal monologue considers his father, his brother, his wife, his children, his mentor, the kings who made him and who he made, his brothers-in-arms from countless battles, and now even the lost keeper of the oath who shaped him, the thoughts are simply glimpses of something that once was, and is no more. I have fought many battles. I have stood in shield walls and heard the sound of axes biting willow boards, I have heard men howling, heard them screaming, I have heard the butcher’s sound of blades cleaving flesh, the heart-wrenching sound of grown men weeping for heir mothers’ comfort. I have heard the grating breath of the dying and the lament of the living, and in all those fights I have fought for one thing above all others. To take and to keep Bebbanburg.”

Uhtred learns that Edward has called a Witan at Tamweorthin, summoning Sigtryggr, but not him. He goes anyway. Eadgifu, Edward's wife, tries subtly enlisting his support against their mutual enemy, Æthelhelm, who is there. Æthelhelm tries to have him killed, but fails. Sigtryggr agrees to a treaty with Edward so that he can turn his full attention to avenging his wife. Then Æthelstan swears an oath to never fight against Uhtred or invade Northumbria (if he becomes king of Wessex) while Uhtred lives; in exchange, he gets Uhtred to swear to try to kill Æthelhelm. Uhtred, after years of fighting and planning revenge on his hated uncle is once again lord of his ancestral home, Bebbanberg. It is set in 10th-century England and continues to follow the fortunes of the fictional Uhtred of Bebbanburg. In this novel Uhtred is finally secure in his childhood home, Bebbanburg. It is the next stage in a long story that has many fans. [3] Plot [ edit ] Domino Alexandro le Convers, pro denariis per ipsum datis,…, carpentariis facientibus ingenium quod vocatur Lupus Guerre, et aliis operaris diversis operantibus, …, mensibus Maii et Junii anno presenti (1304), vii o die Junii, …, 10 s. War and fight scenes are chillingly realistic. I really felt like I was there with Uhtred, fighting every new enemy or being part of countless shield wars.Uhtred's on-again, off-again lover and ruler of Mercia, dies. Edward, King of Wessex, seizes the opportunity to take over her kingdom. Uhtred ignores Edward's summons to swear fealty to him, and his Mercian lands are forfeited, but Uhtred is content with his beloved Bebbanburg. When a new Viking invader decides to set up his own kingdom in the lawless Western Northumbria, fate pulls Uhtred down a difficult new path of sorrow, pain, and renewed entanglements with Wessex. As a child, Cornwell loved the novels of C.S. Forester, chronicling the adventures of fictional British naval officer Horatio Hornblower during the Napoleonic Wars, and was surprised to find there were no such novels following Lord Wellington's campaign on land. Motivated by the need to support himself in the U.S. through writing, Cornwell decided to write such a series. He named his chief protagonist Richard Sharpe, a rifleman involved in most major battles of the Peninsular War. Inevitably Uhtred's one-on-one with his nemesis seems to be a thing of the past and BC book highlights from Sharpe to Derfel to Thomas of Hookton have always revolved around the inevitable duel.

Uhtred, now older, wants nothing more than to enjoy retirement at Bebbanburg, but pressures on Northumbria from Edward to the south and the Scots to the North are stretching their small armies to the max and making for an uneasy peace. Let me share with you at least some major points to explain my reasons for loving this series so much: War is bitter. The poets give battle a splendor, extolling the brave and exulting in victory, and bravery is worth their praise. Victory too, I suppose, but the poems, chanted in mead halls at night, give boys and young men their ambition to be warriors. Reputation! It is the one thing that outlives us. Men die, women die, all die, but reputation lives on like the echo of a song, and men crave reputation”One of the most beautiful women ever to grace the silver screen, Hedy Lamarr also designed a secret weapon against Nazi Germany.

I've enjoyed the Uhtred series and was eagerly awaiting this new volume. it was enjoyable but was not as engrossing as previous ones. I think Uhtred, now in his sixties, is running out of steam or perhaps Cornwell is. First of all, the new villainous Norseman is much like previous villainous Norsemen, the Christian priests are still lying manipulators and the Saxons are still underhanded. Not much new there. Secondly, some of the fascinating characters are no longer around. Aethelflaeda has died, Edward is dying, and Skiorra.....better left unsaid. Aethelstan is coming into his own and we know he will be the new king as soon as Edward shakes off his mortal coil but he is becoming something of a sanctimonious prig. Third, the plots are too similar...one grasping invader after another in the North and political maneuvering in the South. Of course, Cornell is only being true to history. Now, for the positives. The action is fast paced and Uhtred is still a fascinating character, cynical, determined but sadder and older. Descriptions are vivid although I tend to skim over the bloody battles. It was a violent age and Cornwell is true in depicting this reality. Cornwell draws a fascinating picture of England as it might have been before anything like England existed’ THE TIMES I really did not enjoy the first part & if it was another book in a series I may well have thrown it in......There is a very odd series of passages towards the end of WAR OF THE WOLF, the 11th entry in Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Tales. The great warrior Uhtred pauses in his recollection of the mighty battle he fought against a nefarious Norse intruder to correct the bard who is writing a song about it. So what you have is a fictional character, telling the story of what is essentially a fictional battle, being interrupted by another fictional character, telling the story of the same battle. But it’s a different story, and the two stories disagree with each other. Cornwell has his protagonist observe: "The gods are not kind to us, any more than children are kind to their toys. We are here to amuse the gods, and at times it amuses them to be unkind....Perhaps my conviction that I was cursed was false, but there were not birds in the winter sky, and that omen told me I was the plaything of cruel gods." And paradoxically, of course, it’s not true --- it’s all fiction --- and it’s to Cornwell’s credit that readers believe Uhtred, at least while they are reading the book. Cornwell is universally regarded as the best current writer in English of battle scenes --- whether it’s Napoleonic-War rifle companies or Saxon shield-walls. Battle scenes are great things to have in novels because they have stakes --- there’s a winner and a loser, and you don’t need a crew of zebra-striped NFL referees huddled around a monitor to tell you which is which. There are real consequences to a battle won, and even more final consequences for a battle lost.