Sword Song recap

Alfred sends Uhtred to retake Lundene, seized by the Norse brothers Sigefrid and Erik Thurgilson with the ever-treacherous jarl Haesten alongside. Uhtred storms the old Roman city in an amphibious assault, drives the brothers out, and becomes Lundene's military governor, while Alfred's young daughter Aethelflaed is married to Uhtred's vain Mercian cousin Aethelred to bind Mercia to Wessex. On a river campaign, Aethelred's blundering lets Aethelflaed be captured and held at the Norse camp of Beamfleot for a kingdom-breaking ransom. There Erik and Aethelflaed fall in love, and Uhtred secretly agrees to help them escape rather than see the ransom paid. Haesten's betrayal wrecks everything: the escape becomes a battle in which Sigefrid kills his own brother Erik, Uhtred's men storm the camp, Sigefrid is killed at Uhtred's order, and Haesten slips away. Aethelflaed returns, grieving, to her father and her cold marriage; Lundene is Alfred's; and Uhtred remains bound to Wessex's dream of England.

Previously: Uhtred of Bebbanburg - Saxon-born, Danish-raised, robbed of his fortress by his uncle Aelfric - killed Ubba at Cynuit, stood by the fugitive King Alfred in the marshes, and helped win the battle of Ethandun that saved Wessex, losing his friend Leofric and his lover Iseult there. In The Lords of the North he rode north for vengeance: he made a freed slave, Guthred, into a king, was betrayed by him and sold to a slaver's oar for two years - where he gained his lifelong companion, the Irish fighter Finan - and was freed by his Danish foster brother Ragnar. Together they took the impregnable fortress of Dunholm; Ragnar killed Kjartan, their father's murderer, Sven the One-Eyed died with him, and the captive Thyra was freed. Uhtred killed the warlord Ivarr in single combat, secured Guthred's throne, and married Guthred's sister Gisela. His childhood debts are paid in blood, but Bebbanburg is still stolen, and his oath still binds him to Alfred of Wessex, whose dream of one Christian England is growing.

Two Norse brothers, the savage Sigefrid and the more thoughtful Erik Thurgilson, seize the old Roman city of Lundene with their fleets, threatening the Temes trade and Alfred's design of a united English realm; the smiling, faithless jarl Haesten - once briefly sworn to Uhtred, an oath he abandoned - rides with them. Uhtred, lord of an estate in Wessex with Gisela and his household warriors around him, is drawn into the brothers' orbit and hears grand talk of crowns and prophecy before Alfred's purpose hardens: Lundene must be taken. Meanwhile Alfred binds Mercia to Wessex by marrying his bright young daughter Aethelflaed to Uhtred's cousin Aethelred, a vain and jealous Mercian lord whom Uhtred despises - a wedding whose unhappiness begins almost at once.

Uhtred takes Lundene by an amphibious assault, bringing his men up the river to storm the old city's defences while Aethelred blunders about the newer town for glory; the Thurgilson brothers are driven out and Uhtred becomes the city's military governor, setting its Roman walls in order with Gisela beside him and Finan at his shoulder. Among his household now is Osferth, Alfred's bastard son, escaped from the monastery to learn the sword. The Norse threat regathers downriver at Beamfleot, a fortified camp above a creek full of ships, from which Sigefrid, Erik, and Haesten raid and scheme. A campaign along the river to punish the raiders goes wrong through Aethelred's arrogance, and ends in the disaster that shapes the rest of the book: Aethelflaed, Alfred's daughter and Mercia's lady, is captured by the Danes.

Aethelflaed is held at Beamfleot for a ransom vast enough to beggar Wessex and Mercia and to fund armies that could unmake England entirely. Uhtred is sent to negotiate, and inside the Norse camp he discovers the thing no one planned: Erik Thurgilson and Aethelflaed have fallen in love, honestly and completely, and Aethelflaed dreads her rescue almost as much as her captivity, for it returns her to Aethelred's cold cruelty. Uhtred, moved by them and appalled by what the ransom would do, secretly agrees to help the lovers escape - a betrayal of his oath to Alfred that he chooses with open eyes. But Haesten has plans of his own for so valuable a captive, and the web of loyalties at Beamfleot begins to tear.

The end comes at Beamfleot in blood. Haesten betrays his allies, seizing Aethelflaed to sell her for a greater ransom himself, and the planned escape collapses into open battle in the Norse camp; in the fighting Sigefrid recaptures her, and when Erik comes for her, brother kills brother - Erik dies at Sigefrid's hand. Uhtred's men storm through the camp, and Uhtred orders Osferth to kill the wounded Sigefrid, which the monk's-son does. Haesten escapes, unpunished and unrepentant, to menace another year. Aethelflaed is freed, but her love is dead, and she must return to her father's design and her husband's spite, carrying a secret grief. The book closes with Lundene held for Alfred under Uhtred's governorship, the Thurgilson brothers gone, the ransom never paid - and Uhtred, who broke his oath for pity and was rescued from the consequences by catastrophe, still bound to Alfred's dream of England.

The book ends in slaughter at Beamfleot. The ransom of Aethelflaed collapses when Haesten betrays his allies and tries to carry her off for a larger prize, and in the chaos Sigefrid retakes her. Uhtred and Erik's planned escape - Erik and Aethelflaed have fallen genuinely in love, and Uhtred has chosen to help them flee rather than see her ransom beggar Wessex and Mercia - turns into a battle in the Norse camp. Erik is killed by his own brother's hand in the fighting; Uhtred's men break the camp, and Uhtred has the wounded Sigefrid killed, ordering Osferth to strike the blow. Haesten escapes to scheme another day. Aethelflaed, freed but bereaved, must be returned to her father and to her loveless marriage with Aethelred, carrying a grief she can never openly name. Lundene stands secured for Alfred with Uhtred as its military governor, the Thurgilson brothers are dead, and the great Norse threat on the Temes is broken - but Aethelred's jealousy has been planted, Haesten lives, and Uhtred, still oath-bound to a king he does not love, has learned how much Wessex's dream of England will cost the people he cares for.