LITMIR.BIZ

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Place names

       Map

       Prologue

      Part One: THE DYING LORD

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Part Two: THE LADY OF MERCIA

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Part Three: THE GOD OF WAR

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

       Historical Note

       Keep Reading …

       About the Author

       Also by Bernard Cornwell

       About the Publisher

       PLACE NAMES

      The spelling of place names in Anglo-Saxon England was an uncertain business, with no consistency and no agreement even about the name itself. Thus London was variously rendered as Lundonia, Lundenberg, Lundenne, Lundene, Lundenwic, Lundenceaster and Lundres. Doubtless some readers will prefer other versions of the names listed below, but I have usually employed whichever spelling is cited in either the Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names or the Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names for the years nearest or contained within Alfred’s reign, AD 871–899, but even that solution is not foolproof. Hayling Island, in 956, was written as both Heilincigae and Hæglingaiggæ. Nor have I been consistent myself; preferring the modern form Northumbria to Norðhymbralond to avoid the suggestion that the boundaries of the ancient kingdom coincide with those of the modern county. So this list, like the spellings themselves, is capricious.