Uhtred of Bebbanburg

Uhtred of Bebbanburg is the protagonist and main character of the best selling Saxon Stories novel series by Bernard Cornwell. Uhtred is in part based upon the historical Uchtred the Bold who flourished at the start of the 11th century. Over the eight current books, Uhtred, a Saxon pagan, has become increasingly complex in his loyalty and general attitude.

Biography

Uhtred was born into status as son of Ealdorman Uhtred, Lord of Bebbanburg, and raised to have hatred towards the surrounding kingdoms of Mercia, East Anglia, Wessex, Scotland and the Danes. Uhtred was originally called Osbert and was the younger of Ealdorman Uhtred's sons. The name Uhtred was given always to the oldest son, but after his older brother was killed in a failed attack on the Danes Osbert's name was changed to Uhtred. Uhtred was never taught swordsmanship in his nine years at Bebbanburg as his stepmother wanted him to pursue a life dedicated to being a priest.

In 866, the first of the Danish army began to arrive in Northumbria. In their speed the Danes were able to capture Eoferwic. Ealdorman Uhtred was killed in the failed assault to reclaim Eoferwic, and Uhtred was captured by the Danes following his furious but feeble attack on a Danish warlord. That warlord, Ragnar the Fearless, son of Ravn, decided to nurture Uhtred's fury into a suitable fighting spirit and so adopted him. Uhtred found that living with the Danes was a much freer existence than with the pious Christians and their dour priests at Bebbanburg and embraced the Danish gods of Thor, Odin, and Hoder. Uhtred came to love Ragnar as a father and became a brother to Ragnar's sons, Ragnar and Rorik, and daughter, Thyra.

Living in Ragnar's company was enjoyable, even after Rorik's death of sickness, until everything changed. Ragnar had made an enemy in a man named Kjartan due to an incident between Thyra and Kjartan's son, Sven. The enmity came to a head one night when Uhtred was in the forest making charcoal for weapons. Kjartan led a warband to where Ragnar and his family were sleeping and lit their hall on fire, killing them all. Kjartan initially believed Uhtred to have also died in the fire. Uhtred was crushed by Ragnar's death and left Northumbria to find family amongst the Saxons in Mercia, to the south.

Uhtred ended up in Wessex and in the service of Alfred the Great. Wessex was the last unconquered Saxon kingdom in England and thus always under constant threat from the Danes. Despite Uhtred's childhood he began to fight and revel in Danish defeats. However, Uhtred had a particular hatred towards Alfred whom he believed too pious, weak and trusting to fight off the Danish invasion, although he maintained a healthy respect for Alfred's intelligence. Alfred managed to calm any wanton violence between the two and Uhtred served him faithfully, though grudgingly, and at times with a mind to return to the Danes. Yet, as Uhtred's usefulness improved so did Alfred's attention, and as Uhtred aged he began to understand Alfred's wisdom although dislike was always present.

Women

Uhtred, in accordance with the times, is associated with many women, yet there are few women who shape his life. Uhtred has a penchant for defiant women who have "a spirit like an eagle", a characteristic he has attributed to many a woman. Conversely he dislikes woman who crave order and Christianity, (Æthelflaed and Hild are exceptions). However, Uhtred does not limit himself to those women with whom he has a long-standing relationship. In "the Burning Land" he was found lying with a slave girl in Dunholm by Father Pyrlig, one of many instances of indiscriminate womanizing.

Brida

Brida is Uhtred's friend and later mistress. Like Uhtred, she is Saxon in origin, and is adopted by the Danes after they see the ruins of her village, wiped out by a raiding party from a rival band of Vikings and experience Brida's feisty nature. Also like Uhtred, she comes to love the Danes for their free-spirited nature. She and Uhtred become playmates & close friends, and later lovers when they reach adolescence. Brida becomes pregnant by Uhtred at least once, but miscarries. Along with Uhtred, she learns the art of making charcoal for forging steel, and so survives along with Uhtred when Ragnar and the others are killed in the night-time attack by Kjartan The Cruel. Brida despises the strait-laced, pious Christian Saxons of Alfred's court even more than Uhtred does. When they both have the opportunity to join Ragnar the Younger, Uhtred decides to return to Alfred to complete his oath-sworn service, and she does stays with the Danes, later becoming lovers with Ragnar the Younger - now known as Ragnar Ragnarson at the time of the events. As of The Burning Land Brida hates Uhtred for abandoning the fight against Wessex with Ragnar.

Mildrith

Mildrith is Uhtred's first wife, who first appears in The Last Kingdom. They were married as part of an arrangement whereby Uhtred gained command of the tiny Wessex fleet. The two do not really love each other, as a result of their vastly different outlooks on life and religion. As part of her dowry Mildrith brought with her a homestead in Oxton which bore an enormous debt because her father had pledged a substantial portion of his estate to the church which he had repeatedly been unable to pay. They had a son, named Uhtred after his father, but the child died young after choking on a pebble. The elder Uhtred believes the death is supernaturally connected to the survival of Alfred's son Edward, who was healed by Iseult at the same time that the younger Uhtred choked. After young Uhtred's death, through grief Mildrith retreats further into her religious devotion, eventually joining a convent.

Iseult

Iseult is a British shadow queen from Cornwall who appears in The Pale Horseman. Iseult was married to a minor king named Peredur who kept her virginity in the belief that it maintained her powers of prophecy. Seeing that Uhtred's arrival would result in her freedom, she convinced Peredur to hire on Uhtred and his ship's crew when they appeared off the coast in order to fight the Danish warlord Svein of the White Horse, who had captured a nearby fort. Svein and Uhtred ended up colluding to turn on Peredur and pillage his settlement, and Uhtred claimed Iseult and began living with her although he was still married to Mildrith. Although Iseult healed Alfred's son Edward from an illness that nearly killed him and created herbal medicines for Alfred that made him healthier, she was feared and distrusted by the Wessex court because of her paganism. Alfred used her as a "surety" to ensure that Uhtred would not betray him and go to the Danes. She was later baptized, which helped alleviate some of the resentment against her. She prophecised that Uhtred would father three children, two sons and a daughter but refused to go into any detail when pressed. She was killed during the Battle of Ethandun when the Danes attacked the Wessex caravan behind their line.

Hild

Hild (Hildegyth) is a nun who had been raped and prostituted after being captured by the Danes when they took Cippenaham (Chippenham) before being rescued by Uhtred, Steapa and Alfred in The Pale Horseman. She becomes Uhtred's companion and lover after Iseult's death and accompanies him back to Northumbria in Lords of the North. During this time Uhtred's attraction to Gisela was a factor that made her reconsider joining the church. When Uhtred discovered that he had been sold into slavery by Guthred as a condition of his alliance with his uncle Ælfric, he bequeathed his possessions to Hild. Hild then returned to Wessex where she recovers Uhtred's hoard of wealth which he had buried before journeying to Northumbria. She uses the hoard, and the promise that she would return to the church and found a nunnery dedicated to helping the poor and sick of Wessex, to convince Alfred to mount an attempt to rescue Uhtred. After Uhtred was liberated and returned to Wessex, he retrieved his armor and weapons from Hild, now the Abbess Hildegyth, who also gave him a small silver cross which he then had worked into the hilt of his sword Serpent-Breath. According to Uhtred, Hild was later revered as a saint.

Gisela

Uhtred marries the Danish Gisela, sister of King Guthred of Cumbraland. When Uhtred was betrayed by Guthred as part of Guthred's alliance with AElfric, Gisela was devastated. She determinedly waited for Uhtred to return and soon after Uhtred took Dunholme, they were married. She often relies on Viking runes to tell her of the future (she shares her predictions with Uhtred). She has sworn not to leave Uhtred's side. They have three children as of 'Sword Song' (Uhtred, Stiorra and Oswith). In 'The Burning Land' she and their fourth child both die, much to Uhtred's grief. Uhtred was loving and fiercely loyal to Gisela, and wept bitterly at her death, though only in front of Finan. In the book Burning Lands Uhtred accidentally killed a blind monk out of anger, by breaking his neck with a single blow, for him calling Gisela a witch (among other things) in Alfred's court after she had died.

Æthelflaed

After Gisela's death in The Burning Land Uhtred reneges on his oath to Alfred of Wessex. When Jarl Haesten prepares to attack Mercia, and Æthelred tries to get a divorce from Æthelflaed by having one of his lords to sleep with her (therefore making her an adulterer). Æthelflaed calls on the oath that Uhtred made to her before the attack on Lundene 'Sword Song'. Uhtred is persuaded by Father Pyrlig that he cannot break the oath made to Æthelflaed because it was made in love. Uhtred with his some 40 men return to Æthelflaed's side and rescue her from the Lord Aldhem. It is soon revealed that the ailing Alfred of Wessex advised Æthelflaed to use Uhtred's oath. Uhtred has maintained a friendly relationship with Æthelflaed since she was a child. During 'The Burning Land' they fall into a forbidden love. Uhtred sees Æthelflaed as the woman of Iseult's prophecy, 'She will be a woman of gold.' (Æthelflaed has golden hair).

Skade

Skade is the consort of Harald Bloodhair who presents one of the main threats to Wessex during the events of The Burning Land. On his way to meet Alfred at Æscengam, Uhtred and his small force pass through a small village where they come across one of Harald's war bands led by Skade who is found mutilating the village priest in the church. At Æscengam Harald impulsively comes to demand her release, threatening to execute Saxon prisoners one by one in front of the walls until she is released to him. Skade meanwhile openly curses Uhtred, which leads him to blame her for the subsequent death in childbirth of Gisela. Uhtred relents after the execution of the first prisoner and releases her to Harald. After defeating Harald at Farnham (written in the book as Fearnhamme), Skade is taken prisoner again. When Uhtred flees to Ragnar's fortress Dunholm after he murdered Brother Godwin, who had called Gisela a whore, Skade convinces Uhtred to go Viking and go steal her first husband Skirnir's hoard in Frisia. It is during the journey to Frisia that Uhtred and Skade become lovers. However when Uhtred refuses to give her half of the captured hoard - which turns out to be vastly inferior to how it was described - relations between the two become acrimonious and increasingly hostile. They return to Dunholm where Brida convinces Ragnar to sail south and attack Wessex, along with the two most powerful Danes in Northumbria, Sigurd and Cnut. Haesten arrives to convince the three that as a diversion he will attack East Anglia distracting Alfred's forces away from the supposedly main threat of Ragnar, Sigurd and Cnut. Haesten becomes infatuated with Skade and when he leaves Dunholm, she leaves with him. After the Saxon victory at the battle of Benfleet (written in the book as Beomfleot), Uhtred fights his way to Haesten's hoard in the new fort where he finds an incredibly hostile Skade on top of the hoard. This leads to a standoff which is resolved when a crippled and vengeful Harald Bloodhair, grievously wounded in his defeat at Farnham, makes his way to Skade and while feigning affection embraces her, then stabs her, killing her.

Personality

In his youth, Uhtred is described a restless child, resisting his education and playing with armor and the harp. After his capture by the Danes, his restlessness is shaped into a warrior's fierceness.

Uhtred is forced to hate the Saxons because as a "Dane" they are his enemy. After the Danes win battle after battle against the Saxons, he becomes disgusted at their weakness in relying on prayers, and failing to produce decent warriors. He also honestly grows to love Ragnar the Elder as a surrogate father, and his family as his own.

However, during the Danes' first attempt at capturing Wessex, Uhtred discovers a streak of pride at a rare Saxon victory, and feels remorse when his uncle is killed in battle. After Ragnar's death deprives him of his family, he realizes he must rejoin the Saxons, where he develops friendships with several comrades that prevent him from returning to the Danes.

Portrayed as brash and arrogant, Uhtred at first despises Alfred as a weakling who listens too much to the counsel of priests, but, as time goes on (and also writing with the benefit of hindsight), he realizes that Alfred's cleverness is an effective weapon against the Danes, and also that he has a vision of something no one has ever dreamed of before: England united as one kingdom.

Uhtred is often portrayed as having to juggle several conflicting loyalties and priorities: despite having rejoined the Saxons, he still retains his love for his Danish foster brother, Ragnar the Younger, later known as Ragnar Ragnarson, and willingly fights alongside him to avenge the elder Ragnar's death, retaking the stronghold of Dunholm in the process. Uhtred uses the name of his foster brother on a number of occasions to hide his true identity from the enemy he is interacting with, such as when going ashore when recapturing Lundene in Sword Song. Outranking all other priorities is his determination to oust his usurper uncle as and take his rightful place as Lord of Bebbanburg.

Uhtred does not like breaking oaths and is therefore hesitant if he must take one and his arrogance, although rightly earned through the killing of fearsome Danish warlords, gives some people the wrong impression about Uhtred.

Uhtred shows love for his children, his first son died due to swallowing a pebble and choking and although cold at first, he weeps when it actually hits him. His second sons live well but he shows great love for his daughter, Stiorra, whom he is always playing with and nurturing. Although he shows a dislike for his second son as he wants to be a Christian and not a warrior. Uhtred is a complex character with his own loyalties constantly being questioned, even by himself, though he is a trustworthy man.

Uhtred dislikes the Scots, but has a grudging respect for their fighting abilities. In Lords of the North, Ivar Ivarsson's army is ambushed and decimated by the Scottish king Aed, after Ivar invades Scotland in response to Aed's men raiding across the Border. Uthred, when he hears accounts from survivors of the battle, comments,

"Ivar's shield wall had held, but I could well imagine the ferocity of that battle. My father had fought the Scots many times, and he always referred to them as devils. Mad devils, he said, sword devils. Howling devils. And Ivar's Danes told us how they rallied from that first attack, and used sword and spear to cut the devils down - and still the shrieking hordes came. Climbing over their own dead, their wild hair red with blood, their swords hissing."

In the novel The Burning Land, Uhtred again quotes his father, "Dealing with the Scots is like trying to geld wildcats with your teeth."

References