Lord Uhtred of Bebbanburg returns to give battle and bring death to his enemies in Bernard Cornwell’s
Sword Song, the fourth book of the Saxon series. In
Sword Song Uhtred, oath bound, still serves the pious King Alfred of Wessex, though his heart longs to return to his beloved home in Northumbria. It seems like his fate takes him everywhere but north. Fate, Uhtred understands, is inexorable.
The year is 885. England is still a dream in the mind of an ambitious Christian king, and Lord Uhtred is charged with holding Wessex’ northern frontier against any Viking threat. A new group of Northmen have taken refuge within the derelict walls of the ancient Roman town of London, and are impeding trade up and down the Thames. King Alfred has shrewdly married his daughter to the heir of the Mercian throne, Uhtred’s cousin, Aethelred. And it is left to Uhtred to secure their wedding gift, London, from the hands of the hated men of the north. But a corpse named Bjorn (who winds up being a Dane pretending to be a dead man) and two Norse brothers conspire to tempt Uhtred into betraying his oath to King Alfred and joining the Viking quest to destroy Wessex forever. Uhtred ponders the question of choice over fate. If fate is unavoidable, why do men make oaths?
Sword Song is a good book, but it is not great. It feels like a bridge book that mostly serves to move the overall story arc forward. The battle for London is told, and it is exciting and bloody, but this book’s Viking villains are neither likeable, nor scary. The story is fairly short, and nothing of any real significance happens. The story just doesn’t have the sweeping feel of the last three, nor does the danger feel all that real at anytime.
I enjoyed the book immensely, and I finished it very quickly for me.
Sword Song, when compared to other historical fiction, is a great piece of work. When compared with the other stories in the Saxon series, it is just pretty good. But it does leave this reviewer wanting more, and Uhtred’s tale is far from over.
