Skip to main content

The Last Kingdom

Review

The Last Kingdom

Name the Kings of England.

Well, there's mad old George III, who lost the Revolutionary War. That's one. And Henry VII, everyone remembers him. After that, there's King James, who we recall from his version of the Bible, and the one who gave up his crown to marry the American woman, and the one who got his head chopped off.

After them, and maybe Richard III from the Shakespeare play, the collective memory (at least on this side of the Atlantic) goes a bit dim.

But only one of those Kings of England who we really don't know or remember was named "the Great," and that was Alfred, who ruled from 871 to 900, back in the days when the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was on the bestseller list, at least for people who could read. Bernard Cornwell thinks we should know more about Alfred and his times, which is why he has written THE LAST KINGDOM. That should be enough of a recommendation for anyone.

Cornwell is the author of the bestselling Richard Sharpe series, which follows the adventures of a hard-charging British soldier during the Peninsular Campaign. Although Sharpe is a great character by himself, one thing he serves to do is to illustrate the greatness of Lord Wellington --- the commander of the British forces in Spain, and Sharpe's own patron. Wellington (at least as portrayed by Cornwell) is far too stiff, aloof and unlikable to ever be the hero of his own tale, and Sharpe ably stands in.

The same trick is tried in THE LAST KINGDOM, with a twist. The first-person narrator here is Uhtred, who is the son of a minor lord of Northumbria. As a child, he is captured by a raiding pack of Danes that are "going Viking," or raiding the coast. The young Uhtred becomes the adopted son of a Viking leader and learns a central, universal truth: Vikings are cool.

Vikings are cool for the same reasons that Vikings have always been cool. Vikings don't have to brush their teeth (not that anybody did, much, in the ninth century). Vikings get cool swords and stand shoulder to shoulder in the shield wall. Vikings don't have to learn how to read, or say their prayers, or build a stable, efficient society based on the rule of law. Vikings don't have to do any of that, so they are
cool.

While Uhtred is with the Vikings, learning the way of the warrior from his surrogate parents (and bedding a nubile wench or two along the way), the story meanders along, explaining the Viking way of revenge and the blood feud and the glories of Valhalla. But Uhtred is English and wants nothing more than to reclaim his lost castle and birthright; to do that, he may have to return to his own people. And when treacherous Danish opponents of his foster family launch a surprise attack, he has no choice but to do so.

Alfred is different because he, at least for his day and age, was civilized. Uhtred misses few opportunities to sneer at Alfred for his Christianity, his belief in law, and his supposed softness. Uhtred takes off the cross and puts on the hammer of Thor because he finds Thor to be the stronger --- but Thor lives on today only in the pages of Marvel Comics and in the name of Thursday. It was Alfred, and Western Civilization, that were the stronger in the battle, and it is Cornwell's job to show why.

THE LAST KINGDOM is the first of a proposed trilogy, which will show how Alfred defeated the Danes and established England as England and not as a Viking protectorate. As such, it is just the beginning of the story, and a long and bloody epic it promises to be. Cornwell is a talented historical novelist, and he's at the top of his game here --- all the more so because the history of the ninth century is much less documented than the nineteenth.

The novel provides a lot of insight to our time, of course, with Western Civilization again under threat. And the character of Uhtred, going back and forth between the civilized and uncivilized worlds, is emblematic of the struggle (as well as being a skilled teller of tales and describer of battles). But none of this explains the appeal of THE LAST KINGDOM so much as these three words, which are all you need to know about the book.

Vikings are cool.

The Last Kingdom
by Bernard Cornwell

  • Publication Date: January 1, 2006
  • Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins
  • ISBN-10: 0060887184
  • ISBN-13: 9780060887186