His priests are everywhere, and they are forever a thorn on Uthred’s side. Alfred cannot abide Uthred’s religion and lack of remorse and morals whilst Uthred cannot stand Alfred’s piety and priests. Neither one can stand each other, and each resents the fact that they need one another to survive. In this book, Alfred takes center stage and becomes Uthred’s counterpart and nemesis. Not the fight between Saxon and Dane, but between God and the devil, between good and evil! We are part of it!” Uthred leaves for Cornwalum then but his relationship with Mildrith by then is beyond repair. He cannot abide her Christianity, and she wants him to convert. This makes him even angrier and his relationship with Mildrith suffers. But what is worse is that Mildrith agrees with the king’s punishment for Uthred and she watches as her husband is made to grovel in penance.

Understandably, Uthred is not happy about the way Alfred treats him and he is angry. Also, in the TV show, Aethelwold accompanies them.

This is where the TV adaptation of the book differs a little from the source material because in the TV series Uthred and Leofric do not go to Cornwalum by ship but on horseback. Uthred considers this, for he is as poor as he’s ever been, and steals one of Alfred’s ships to do so. So the men are not happy, chief among them Leofric, who tells Uthred that they should go Viking. He also becomes the richest man in the country, but he does not share that wealth with the men who actually fought at Cynuit. Odda The Younger, with his father, Odda The Elder, having been injured in battle and unable to contradict him, thus becomes one of the most powerful (if not the most powerful) ealderman in Wessex. After defeating the Danes at Cynuit (and saving Wessex) in the process, Uthred falls out of favor with King Alfred whilst his enemies in court, aka Odda The Younger, take credit for both the won battle and the death of Ubba Lothbrok. The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell is a fast-paced and action-packed historical novel, and it is the first book in this series that follows this author’s well-known formulaic style. Like all my reviews, this review has spoilers. Read my review for The Last Kingdom, the first book of this series, here. Today I am reviewing The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell, the second installment of The Saxon Stories series. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews.

The pale horseman book