Bernard Cornwell - War of the Wolf

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2018

Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2018

Map © John Gilkes 2018

Plan of the Roman fort adapted from a drawing by Thomas Sopwith

Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2019

Cover photography © CollaborationJS

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

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, while at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008183868

Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2019 ISBN: 9780008183851

Version: 2020-03-31

War of the Wolf

is dedicated to the memory of

Toby Eady,

my agent and dear friend.

1941–2017

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Place Names

Map

Part One: The Wild Lands

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Part Two: Eostre’s Feast

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Part Three: Fortress of the Eagles

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Historical Note

Keep Reading …

Also by Bernard Cornwell

The SHARPE series

About the Publisher

The spelling of place names in ninth- and tenth-century Britain 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, like the spellings themselves, is capricious.