“The Flame Bearer”: Uhtred of Bebbanburg Finally Goes Home

It look longer than I had hoped, but I finished reading The Flame Bearer, the latest installment in Bernard Conwell’s excellent Saxon Tales series about the founding of the kingdom of England in the early tenth century. Here’s my review.

For ten novels – that’s right, ten – we’ve been waiting for Uhtred to reclaim his ancestral home of Bebbanburg, and in The Flame Bearer we finally learn how that story ends. Fans of the series will recall that Uhtred’s last attempt to capture the impregnable Northumbrian fortress took place in The Pagan Lord, where we were introduced to his son Uhtred as a young warrior. By The Flame Bearer, Uhtred the father is an old man, and with most of his enemies gone after the events in Warriors of the Storm, reclaiming Bebbanburg seems to be all that is left for Uhtred’s tale.

Uhtred is a man possessed in this book, hell-bent on achieving the one thing he’s longed for ever since his wicked uncle stole Bebbanburg from him in Cornwall’s The Last Kingdom. Fortunately, before Uhtred gets too far along on his quest, Cornwell presents him (and us) with another mystery of the kind featured throughout the series. This time, the West Saxons are threatening Northumbria, in apparent breach of the truce reached at the end of Warriors of the Storm. And like most of the mysteries in this series, there’s more to this move than meets the eye.

Uhtred’s adventures also continue in Season 2 of The Last Kingdom on Netflix

Eventually, however, the tale turns back to Bebbanburg, and how Uhtred is going to pull off this improbable siege. Uhtred may be old, but he’s still the greatest warrior in England, and the last third of this novel offers one of the longest battle sequences in the series. Cornwell is a master of writing battles, with all of its violence, carnage, and shield walls, so fans of the series won’t be disappointed. By the end, every open storyline from the prior two novels appears to reach its conclusion. That is, every storyline but one. So, in what looked to be the final book in the series, Cornwell drops a hint there may be more to come.

Even if Cornwell never goes beyond book ten, The Saxon Tales have been one of the great works of medieval fiction. Set in an important era in English history, its stories are engaging, its characters are memorable, and its hero is unforgettable. Someday, we’re going to miss the narrations of Uhtred of Bebbanburg. But until then, enjoy the ride.

You can read an excerpt of the book here.