Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today I am reviewing The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell, the second installment of The Saxon Stories series. Read my review for The Last Kingdom, the first book of this series, here. Like all my reviews, this review has spoilers.
The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell is a fast-paced and action-packed historical novel, and it is the first book in this series that follows this author’s well-known formulaic style. After defeating the Danes at Cynuit (and saving Wessex) in the process, Uthred falls out of favor with King Alfred whilst his enemies in court, aka Odda The Younger, take credit for both the won battle and the death of Ubba Lothbrok. Odda The Younger, with his father, Odda The Elder, having been injured in battle and unable to contradict him, thus becomes one of the most powerful (if not the most powerful) ealderman in Wessex. He also becomes the richest man in the country, but he does not share that wealth with the men who actually fought at Cynuit. So the men are not happy, chief among them Leofric, who tells Uthred that they should go Viking. Uthred considers this, for he is as poor as he’s ever been, and steals one of Alfred’s ships to do so. This is where the TV adaptation of the book differs a little from the source material because in the TV series Uthred and Leofric do not go to Cornwalum by ship but on horseback. Also, in the TV show, Aethelwold accompanies them. This does not happen in the book.
Understandably, Uthred is not happy about the way Alfred treats him and he is angry. But what is worse is that Mildrith agrees with the king’s punishment for Uthred and she watches as her husband is made to grovel in penance. Uthred is humiliated. This makes him even angrier and his relationship with Mildrith suffers. He cannot abide her Christianity, and she wants him to convert. Uthred leaves for Cornwalum then but his relationship with Mildrith by then is beyond repair.
“There is a greater war, Uhtred. Not the fight between Saxon and Dane, but between God and the devil, between good and evil! We are part of it!”
In this book, Alfred takes center stage and becomes Uthred’s counterpart and nemesis. Neither one can stand each other, and each resents the fact that they need one another to survive. Alfred cannot abide Uthred’s religion and lack of remorse and morals whilst Uthred cannot stand Alfred’s piety and priests. His priests are everywhere, and they are forever a thorn on Uthred’s side. These two characters are the personifications of the religious war going on in the background of this story between Christianity and Paganism, and no matter how many battles Uthred wins for Alfred, this is a war that he is losing. I personally liked how Cornwell portrays this conflict between the different faiths and how he attempts to show us a glimpse of how people following a non-monotheistic religion might have lived alongside those that do. It also shows us how the Church might have become the political power it was during the Middle Ages.
“But deep under the earth, where the corpse serpent gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil, the tree of life, there are three spinners. Three women who make our fate. We might believe we make choices, but in truth our lives are in the spinners’ fingers. They make our lives, and destiny is everything. The Danes know that, and even the Christians know it, Wyrd biõ ful araed, we Saxons say, fate is inexorable.”
Two additional characters important to Uthred’s story in this book are Iseult, the shadow queen he brings back from Cornwalum, and Brother Asser, the priest in King Peredur’s hall at the time of Uthred’s arrival to Cornwalum and Uthred’s sworn enemy after he kills Peredur and steals his silver. Brother Asser goes to Alfred and tells the king of Uthred’s exploits in Cornwalum, a feat for which Uthred is condemned to death, but the Danes invade Wessex and conveniently save Uthred’s life. Now, everyone is on run, including the king and his family. And thus begins one of the darkest periods of Alfred’s reign, one in which he is reduced to hiding in the marshes, saved by the very man he had sentenced to death hours before and upon whom he now depends on for his safety and that of his family. Uthred and Alfred’s lives are inexorably linked together, and they both devise a plan to recover Wessex. Thus, Uthred is Alfred’s man once again. And like the previous book, this one too ends in a major battle that gives the Saxons a victory over the Danes. Hence, the structure is one where Uthred is in a low point of his life at the beginning of the book and leaves Wessex only to come back recalled by his oath to Alfred and ultimately saves the kingdom by defeating the Danes in a major battle at the end.
“And I looked,’ Pyrlig said to me, ‘and I saw a pale horse, and the rider’s name was death.’ I just stared in amazement. ‘It’s in the gospel book,’ he explained sheepishly, ‘and it just came to mind.”
Nonetheless, this book is very good and once again the characters are the reason why this book is that good. In The Last Kingdom, after the author has introduced the main characters, both Uthred and Alfred, he sets up the historical background in which their story takes place and begins the story of how Alfred fought for his dream of uniting all four kingdoms of Britain into a single country called England. The Pale Horseman continues that story and brings Alfred to his lowest point; to where he is about to lose everything, and to recover it he must once again rely on the sword of a pagan. This book also continues Uthred’s story and his personal struggle between fighting for Wessex and the Saxons but wanting to go back North to both avenge his family and recover Bebbanburg.
I gave this book an I Really Liked It And Will Probably Read It Again rating.
