The Flame Bearer characters

Appears from the start

Uhtred of Bebbanburg, the pagan Northumbrian warlord, now based at Dunholm in his son-in-law Sigtryggr's kingdom. Every war he has fought has been for other people's thrones; with a fragile truce holding between the Saxon kingdoms and Norse Northumbria, he means at last to fight the one that is his own - the taking of Bebbanburg, the sea fortress his family lost when he was a boy.

Appears from the start

The Irish swordsman who has been Uhtred's closest friend and second-in-command through every campaign. If Bebbanburg is ever to be taken, Finan will be in the front of the fight.

Appears from the start

Uhtred's warrior son and heir, a proven fighter with his father's stubbornness. The reclaiming of Bebbanburg is his inheritance as much as his father's obsession, and he shares every risk of the campaign.

Appears from the start

Uhtred's cousin, also named Uhtred, the usurping lord of Bebbanburg. Son of the uncle who stole the fortress, he has held its near-impregnable walls for years, secure behind sea, sand, and stone, and rich enough to hire swords when enemies gather.

First appears in chapter 2

King Edward's eldest son, the prince Uhtred raised and trained, whom court faction still brands illegitimate to bar him from the succession. Bold to the point of recklessness, he trusts Uhtred more than he trusts the men around his father's throne.

First appears in chapter 2

The richest and most powerful ealdorman in Wessex, grandfather of Edward's second son Aelfweard, whom he means to see crowned. Ruthless behind a mask of piety, he works to destroy the rival prince Aethelstan and to extend his family's reach - and his gold moves men far beyond Wessex's borders.

First appears in chapter 5

King of Scotland, a hard and intelligent ruler with ambitions along Northumbria's northern marches. When opportunity opens in the lands around Bebbanburg, Constantin moves with an army, and he is a far more formidable enemy than any hired sword.

Also known as Einar the White

First appears in chapter 5

A Norse sea-warlord whose ships and crews are for hire. Drawn into the struggle over Bebbanburg by its lord's gold, he and his men become one more wall between Uhtred and his birthright.

Also known as Jeremias

First appears in chapter 3

A mad Danish shipmaster who styles himself a Christian bishop, ruling his own little flock at Gyruum at the mouth of the Tyne. Half prophet, half pirate, and shrewder than his lunacy suggests, he trades in information and favors, and becomes an unlikely instrument in Uhtred's designs on Bebbanburg.