An Author's Inspiration
The Last King
England: The First Viking Age
The Ninth Century Book 1
MJ Porter
The Last King is set in the AD870’s in Mercia, one of the
ancient kingdoms of England. If you’ve watched or read Bernard Cornwell’s The
Last Kingdom books, then it’s just about where the first book starts.
I’ve long avoided trampling on the toes of the literary
creation that is Uhtred of Bebbanburg. I’ve written about the seventh century,
the tenth and the eleventh, but I had left the ninth well alone. But no more.
I was amused, while recently watching The Last Kingdom, to
find a character called Coelwulf, no doubt ‘my’ Coelwulf, keel over dead during
a feast in Wessex. This made me chuckle, and also made me appreciate that the
archaeological find that inspired me to write about him is recent (2015) and
has called into question just what was happening in Mercia (and Wessex) in the
870s. (For information on the coin find, please have a look here,
https://www.ashmolean.org/watlington-hoard).
And so, The Last King. It’s very much an action thriller
with a historical setting. There’s a lot of blood, sweat, and gore (and
swearing), but it is an attempt to explore this ‘other’ scenario, contrary to
that in the Uhtred books, and contrary to much that has been written about
Coelwulf in the past. He has been seen as a puppet of the Vikings. But, what if
he wasn’t, as seems increasingly likely.
First and foremost, I approach my books from a historical
perspective. But what I love, (and I really do love), is reading between the
lines, toying with the might-have-beens, and the what-ifs. And Coelwulf,
forgotten ‘hero’ that he might be, is a perfect vehicle for such an exploration
of Mercia. And as a ‘Mercian’ by birth myself, it feels right to not let her
get overshadowed by the might of Wessex, under what could just be, a perfectly
written piece of political propaganda – The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – that has
plunged Coelwulf into historical obscurity, and from which he can only emerge
thanks to the ‘Two Emperor Coins.’ These hint that Coelwulf was not a Viking
puppet-king. Was he perhaps someone who overshadowed even Alfred himself, and
who, Alfred, in a fit of pique branded as a traitor in his chronicle of the
times.
What if, indeed.
***
They sent three hundred warriors to kill one man. It wasn’t
enough.
Mercia lies broken but not beaten, her alliance with Wessex
in tatters.
Coelwulf, a fierce and bloody warrior, hears whispers that
Mercia has been betrayed from his home in the west. He fears no man, especially
not the Vikings sent to hunt him down.
To discover the truth of the rumours he hears, Coelwulf must
travel to the heart of Mercia, and what he finds there will determine the fate
of Mercia, as well as his own.
Purchase Links
***
About the Author
I'm an author of fantasy (Viking age/dragon-themed) and
historical fiction (Early English, Vikings, and the British Isles as a whole
before the Norman Conquest), born in the old Mercian kingdom at some point
since AD1066. I write A LOT. You've been warned!
Connect with M J Porter:
Thank you so much for hosting the blog tour for The Last King.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure.
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