Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Sunday, April 05, 2009

The Pale Horse Man

The Pale Horseman is the second book of Saxon stories written by Bernard Cornwell, I've mentioned the first that was about and narrated by Uhtred a Saxon boy that raised by Danes and became a warrior.
the second book started by Uhtred getting one of the Alfred's ships with the company of Leofric (his friend and ship captain) and make it like a Dane ship and started robbing and killing Britons who had hired Uhtred to protect them against Svein the white hourse, I don't lilke it when he allies with Svein and betrayed those who asked for his help.


Uhtred later accused for the invasion and ordered to duel with Steapa (who is very strong in battle), the duel left undone (cut short) because of Guthrum (Viking king) who broke peace and start attacking Wessex, Uhtred has escaped and after some adventures saved king Alfred's life and swore to him again. he became one of the most important persons in the battle of Ethandun...
the uhtred character is fictional but the base stories are real and I learned many things about Saxon history from these books, the character of Uhtred is not a complete good hero, he killed innocent people for money, his brother Ragnar was one of the hostages that Guthrum gave to Alfred as conditions of truce but he can not save him when Guthrum stared the war (later he figured out he is alive), he forgot about his son and wife when running from Danes or hiding in swamp and ... .
those not 100% pure goodness people are more acceptable.