William Carpenter

ETHandun William Carpenter

The Feast of the Epiphany, 878 AD. Gormr the Dane mounts a night attack on young Alfred's hunting lodge at Chippenham in Wiltshire, where he celebrates with West Saxon leaders. Three times Alfred has bought peace from the Danes. Now Gormr's corps of the Great Heathen Army drives Alfred into the wilderness. The struggle for supremacy between Christian Saxons and pagan Danes tests each people's endurance, loyalty, cunning, and faith in divine sanction for its survival. History unfolds, as it does, in calamity and miracle.

A war epic in the tradition of Homer and Virgil told in swaggering blank verse, the meter of Shakespeare's histories, EÞandunpaints Western Christendom in its darkest hour. Unlike the peevish schemer of Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales, this Alfred is a true Christian warrior.

Includes a dozen dramatic full-color illustrations, maps, an extensive glossary, and a complete bibliography.