Review: Sword Song

Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



There are so many things to like about Mr. Cornwell's "Sword Song," but what stood out for me was (decidedly "pagan" and Thor devotee) Uthred's unlikely friendship with two priests: the fierce Welsh warrior Father Pyrlig and King Alfred's adviser and scholar Father Beocca.

Uhtred on choosing Father Pyrlig:
"On one side a kingdom, Viking friends and wealth, and on the other a Briton who was the priest of a religion that sucks joy from this world like dusk swallowing daylight. Yet I did not think. I chose, or fate chose, and I chose friendship. Pyrlig was my friend."

Uhtred on Father Beocca:
"He had a club foot, a squint, and a palsied left hand. He was blind in his wandering eye that had gone as white as his hair, for he was now nearly fifty years old. Children jeered at him in the streets and some folk made the sign of the cross, believing that ugliness was a mark of the devil, but he was as good a Christian as any I have ever known."

Funny repartees involving Uhtred and Beocca...
"Too many people were talking in the church!" Beocca complained. "This was a holy day, Uhtred, a sacred day, a celebration of the sacrament, and people were talking as if they were at market!"
"I was one of them," I (Uhtred) said.
"You were?" he asked, squinting up at me. "Well, you shouldn't have been talking. It's just plain bad manners! And insulting to God! I'm astonished at you, Uhtred, I really am! I'm astonished and disappointed."
"Yes, father," I said, smiling.

...and Uhtred and Pyrlig:
"But I've known Aethelflaed forever!" I exclaimed.
"He fears you know her only too well," Pyrlig said, "and it drives him to madness."
"But that's stupid!" I spoke angrily.
"It's jealousy," Pyrlig said, "and all jealousy is stupid."


More favorite passages from the book:

"It is strange what men talk about before battle. Anything except what faces them. I have stood in a shield wall, staring at an enemy bright with blades and dark with menace, and heard two of my men argue furiously about which tavern brewed the best ale. Fear hovers in the air like a cloud and we talk of nothing to pretend that the cloud is not there." —Uhtred, p.10

"You never, ever, tell others of your crimes, not unless they are so big as to be incapable of concealment, and then you describe them as policy or statecraft." —Uhtred, p.36

"Yet I was sworn to Alfred. I was sworn to defend Wessex. I had given Alfred my oath and without oaths we are no better than beasts." —Uhtred, p.55

"Cowardice is always with us, and bravery, the thing that provokes the poets to make songs about us, is merely the will to overcome the fear." —Uthred, p.136

"You live by obeying the rules. You make a reputation, boy, by breaking them." —Uhtred, p.149





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Review: Lords of the North

Lords of the North by Bernard Cornwell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



In "Lords of the North," we see a powerful warrior (Uhtred of Bebbanburg who killed—correct me if I'm wrong—not one, but two descendants of the legendary Ragnar Lothbrok) brought to his knees. The first part of the book, excellent as always, chronicles Uhtred's downfall from rising star of the Saxons to...well, just read the book.

And just when you think that everything's going very very bad for our hero, the author pulls off a deus ex machina (I'm always skeptical of this plot device, but it seemed to work in this case—I had to stop myself from doing three cartwheels on the train). This happens in the exact middle part of the book (How did Mr. Cornwell do that?), and everything just goes uphill from there (Uhtred-wise, not story-writing or plot-wise—because the author is the absolute king of Saxon-Viking storytelling).

Unforgettable scenes from the book if they were chapter titles:
1) The Red Ship
2) Thyra and the Hounds
3) Father Beocca's Miracle

Thank you Mr. Cornwell for making me care about your protagonist so much. I don't want his story to end, ever.





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Review: The Pale Horseman

The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Winning lines from the book:

On Vikings (Danes) as "savage pagans":
"When folk speak of the Danes these days they have an idea that they were all savage pagans, unthinking in their terrible violence, but most were like Svein and feared losing men. That was always the great Danish fear, and the Danish weakness." (p.79)

On reputation:
"And that too was the truth, that a man cannot step back from a fight and stay a man. We make much in this life if we are able. We make children and wealth and amass land and build halls and assemble armies and give great feasts, but only one thing survives us. Reputation. I could not walk away." (p.137)

On harsh realizations:
"There comes a moment in life when we see ourselves as others see us. I suppose that is part of growing up, and it is not always comfortable." (p.155)

On taking notes:
"Beocca was not writing. He knew when he was hearing nonsense and he was not going to waste scarce ink on bad ideas." (p.206)

On one of the reasons why King Alfred the Great was able to unite England:
"Battle, for most of us, was a hammering rage, nothing clever, a killing orgy, but Alfred saw it as a competition of wisdom, or perhaps as a game of tall that took cleverness to win. That, I am sure, was how he saw our two armies, as tall pieces on their chequered board." (p.336)






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