Interesting pop-scientific retelling of the conflicts between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings under the reigns of Canute and Ethelred the Unread. Speed-read for my thesis. ( )

I lived in England a couple years, back when I was nine and ten years old. So I learned the Kings and Queens of England in school, rather than the U.S. Presidents. But we started with William in 1066. We did discuss a bit the earlier folks... Ethelred the Unready - but not much.

One of our family dream adventures is to walk the Hadrian's Wall Path. Certainly I expect there to be a lot of Roman history along the way there. But surely some Anglo-Saxon history too. Maybe I could learn a bit of that to be better prepared?!

Fletcher's book did a great job on just sketching out life around the year 1000 in England. I really like how studying a detail creates a kind of point of perspective around which a whole cultural universe can be constellated. Fletcher looks at a feud between two Northumbrian baronal families, a series of murder and slaughters over a couple centuries. It's a nice thread that ties together a lot of history. Fletcher does a nice job of filling in enough context that a total novice like myself doesn't get too lost. But I expect folks much more knowledgeable won't be too annoyed. Fletcher seems to do a good job of providing sources and indicating the varying degrees of speculation involved in building a plausible coherent narrative. ( )

There is much to enjoy in this analysis of a long running family feud in the 11th century, esp. the nature of late Anglo-Saxon society and the interplay between land ownership, inheritance and family honour and local independence from the English kings. ( )

This is an excellent combination of solid history and intrigue. In my personal view, its a great example of that saying "truth is stranger than fiction". The story of a multi-generational feud in late Anglo-Saxon England, told against the backdrop of the Conquest, this book provides the reader with not only a great introduction to the period, but explores two particular families' feud in a detective-like manner, which provides an interesting alternative means of exploring history. ( )

I liked this book well enough but the title is a bit of a misnomer. Though feuding between some specific families in the north of England through the Norman conquest is the hook that Fletcher hangs his book on, this is really a general survey of England from the establishment of the Danelaw through the Conquest. Those people looking mostly for the thrill of aristocratic intrigue (though there's some of that) will probably be disappointed. ( )