Bernard Cornwell - The Last Kingdom

This novel is a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2004

Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2004

Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2016

Cover illustration © Lee Gibbons/Tin Moon – www.leegibbons.co.uk

Bernard Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780008139476

Ebook Edition © JULY 2009 ISBN: 9780007338818

Version: 2019-06-12

THE LAST KINGDOM

is for Judy, with love

Wyrd bið ful ãræd

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Map

Place Names

Prologue: NORTHUMBRIA, 866–867 AD

Part One: A PAGAN CHILDHOOD

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Part Two: THE LAST KINGDOM

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Part Three: THE SHIELD WALL

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Historical Note

Keep Reading

About the Author

Also by Bernard Cornwell

About the Publisher

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 whatever spelling is cited in the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names for the years nearest or contained within Alfred’s reign, 871–899 AD, 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 England to Englaland and, instead of Norðhymbralond, have used Northumbria 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: