Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Place Names

       Map

      Part One: A Fool’s Errand

      One

      Two

      Three

      Four

      Part Two: City of Darkness

       Five

       Six

       Seven

       Part Three: The Field of Barley

       Eight

       Nine

       Ten

       Part Four: Serpent-Breath

       Eleven

       Twelve

       Thirteen

       Historical Note

       About the Author

       Also by Bernard Cornwell

       The Sharpe series

       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; I have preferred 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 of places mentioned in the book is, like the spellings themselves, capricious.