'No one has done more than Michael Livingston to revive memories of
the battle, and you could not hope for a better guide.' BERNARD CORNWELL
Bestselling author of The Last Kingdom series
Late in AD 937, four armies met at Brunanburh. On one side stood the
shield-wall of the expanding kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons. On the other
side, a remarkable alliance of rival kings - at least two from across
the sea - who had come together to destroy the Anglo-Saxons once and for
all. The stakes were no less than the survival of the dream that would
become England. The armies were massive. The violence, when it began,
was enough to shock a violent age.
Brunanburh may not today have the fame of Hastings, Crécy or Agincourt,
but generations later it was still called, quite simply, the 'great
battle'. For centuries now, its location has been lost but after an
extraordinary effort, uniting enthusiasts, historians, archaeologists
and linguists the location of these bloodied fields may well have been
identified.
This groundbreaking new book tells the story of this remarkable
discovery and delves into why and how the battle happened. Most
importantly, though, it is about the men who fought and died at
Brunanburh, and how much this forgotten struggle can tell us about who
we are and how we relate to our past.