The Pale Horseman

The second book in Bernard Cornwell's New York Times bestseller trilogy that tells the epic story of England's creation, comparing it to "Game of Thrones, but real" (The Observer, London) and serving as the inspiration for the popular television series The Last Kingdom.

This is the fascinating, though little-known, tale of how England came to be in the ninth and tenth centuries, when King Alfred the Great, his son, and his grandson drove out the Danish Vikings who had taken over three of the country's four kingdoms.

Even though the Danes had lost at Cynuit at the conclusion of The Last Kingdom, the English victory was short-lived. Three of England's four kingdoms are quickly overrun by the Danish Vikings, who also take control of the remaining one, a small area of marshland where Alfred and his family reside along with a few soldiers and retainers, among them Uhtred, the dispossessed English nobleman who was raised by the Danes. Uhtred is a Dane at heart, and he's always thought he would fight for the men who reared him and taught him the customs of the Vikings if given the opportunity. But when the formidable witch Iseult enters Uhtred's life, he is forced to confront emotions he has never faced before, and in his hour of greatest danger, Uhtred finds a renewed sense of devotion and love for his own nation and its monarch.