reviewed by Justin Hill
The Pale Horseman story starts with Uhtred, the Northumbrian narrator, enjoying his victory over the Danes at Cynuit (which actually happened the following year, but has been brought forward by Cornwell to fit in with his storyline). But instead of riding hard to Winchester to bring the news to get the reward due to him, he rides home to enjoy the virtuous heiress Alfred has married him to. Youth is one reason for this oversight. Uhtred is just twenty-year old at this point in the story, which seems young until you realise that many of the leading figures of the Dark Age are men barely into their twenties.
The rather unwarlike Odda the Younger takes the news to Alfred instead. He takes full credit for the victory, leading to a confrontation with Uhtred, who is plunged into a personal combat which he cannot win. In a recent interview, Cornwell said he likes to trap his heroes in a narrative cul-de-sac with no hope of rescue, and then finding a sudden opening to get him out of trouble. It is at this point that one of the doors opens, and the narrative really takes off, running with the story of Alfred the Great’s defeat and return.
The Alfred story is fairly well known: Vikings attack his hall at Chippenham in the depths of Yuletide, and he is driven into the swamps of Athelney, all but defeated. But from the marshes he gathers an army at Egbert’s Stone, and defeats the Danes at the Battle of Edington.
Edington is one of those truly defining battles of history, which, if Alfred had lost, would probably have meant the end of the English nation as we know it. Because Alfred’s West Saxons won that day, he went on to define and cemented the concept of the ‘Anglekyn’; went on to begin to unify the four kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria; promoted literacy and the church; and had the Bible translated into English, 700 odd years before Martin Luther. He defined Englishness, which his successors built on, their concept was strong enough to withstand both Knut and fifty years later, William the Bastard.
Cornwell follows pretty closely the line of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, which amplifies the problems that Alfred faces, to make his subsequent come back even more remarkable. But having chosen someone other than Alfred as his key figure, Cornwell is forced to give Uhtred much of the credit for Alfred’s subsequent victory, while Alfred is cast as something of an over-bookish fool. This is a drawback of the novel, especially as Cornwell’s stated aim of the series was to show how remarkable Alfred’s achievements were, but Cornwell is a master of creating and illustrating the worlds he recreates: and he is at his best in bringing into vivid detail the challenges and horrors and difficulties of Dark Age England. Although a little divorced from the probably succession of events Cornwell is a master of narrative, and this is an enjoyable and entertaining page-turner.