The Pale Horseman

The Pale Horseman
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BBC2’s major TV series THE LAST KINGDOM is based on Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling novels on the making of England and the fate of his great hero, Uhtred of Bebbanburg. THE PALE HORSEMAN is the second book in the series.Season 2 of the epic TV series premiers this March.When peace is torn apart by bloody Danish steel, Uhtred must fight to save a king who distrusts him.Skeptical of a treaty between the Vikings and Wessex, Uhtred takes his talent for mayhem to Cornwall, gaining treasure and a mysterious woman on the way. But when he is accused of massacring Christians, he finds lies can be as deadly as steel.Still, when pious King Alfred flees to a watery refuge, it is the pagan warrior he relies on. Now Uhtred must fight a battle which will shape history – and confront the Viking with the banner of the white horse …Uhtred of Bebbanburg’s mind is as sharp as his sword. A thorn in the side of the priests and nobles who shape his fate, this Saxon raised by Vikings is torn between the life he loves and those he has sworn to serve.

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THE PALE

HORSEMAN


BERNARD CORNWELL


Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2005

Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2005

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

Photography by Kata Vermes © Carnival Film & Television Limited 2015

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

A catalogue record for 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, downloaded, 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: 9780008139483

Ebook Edition © July 2009 ISBN: 9780007338825

Version: 2017-05-08

THE PALE HORSEMAN

is for

George MacDonald Fraser, in admiration

Ac her forlo berað; fugelas singað,gylleð grœghama.

For here starts war, carrion birds sing, and grey wolves howl.

From The Fight at Finnsburh


The spelling of Place Names in Anglo-Saxon England 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 the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names for the years nearest or contained within Alfred’s reign, 871–899 AD, 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 use England instead of Englaland, and 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.

Æsc’s Hill Ashdown, Berkshire
Æthelingæg Athelney, Somerset
Afen River Avon, Wiltshire
Andefera Andover, Wiltshire
Baðum (pronounced Bathum) Bath, Avon
Bebbanburg Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland
Brant Brent Knoll, Somerset
Bru River Brue, Somerset
Cippanhamm Chippenham, Wiltshire
Contwaraburg Canterbury, Kent
Cornwalum Cornwall
Cracgelad Cricklade, Wiltshire
Cridianton Crediton, Devon
Cynuit Cynuit Hillfort, nr. Cannington, Somerset
Dærentmora Dartmoor, Devon
Defereal Kingston Deverill, Wiltshire
Defnascir Devonshire
Dornwaraceaster Dorchester, Dorset
Dreyndynas ‘Fort of thorns’, fictional, set in Cornwall
Dunholm Durham, County Durham
Dyfed South-west Wales, mostly now Pembrokeshire
Dyflin Dublin, Eire
Eoferwic York (also the Danish Jorvic, pronounced Yorvik)
Ethandun Edington, Wiltshire
Exanceaster Exeter, Devon
Exanmynster Exminster, Devon
Gewæsc The Wash
Gifle Yeovil, Somerset
Gleawecestre Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Glwysing Welsh kingdom, approximately Glamorgan and Gwent


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