War of the Wolf recap

A false plea for help lures Uhtred from Bebbanburg to Ceaster, where he puts down Cynlaef's rebellion against King Edward - and learns the summons was a decoy. While he was away, Skoll Grimmarson, a Norse warlord from Northumbria's wild west who means to be its king, attacked Eoferwic; Uhtred's daughter Stiorra, queen of Northumbria, led its defenders in her husband Sigtryggr's absence and was killed. The war that follows is a blood feud. Skoll's ulfhednar, frenzied wolf-warriors, and his blind sorcerer Snorri make his army feared beyond its numbers, and a first campaign into the hills ends in a mauling that teaches Uhtred the price of this enemy. Uhtred and Sigtryggr finally storm Skoll's high fortress of Heahburh at terrible cost. Skoll kills Snorri for his failed prophecies, feigns surrender, and tries to kill Sigtryggr; Uhtred defeats him and Sigtryggr delivers the killing blow, avenging Stiorra. Uhtred returns to Bebbanburg victorious, grieving, and aware that the fight over Edward's succession is coming.

Earlier in the series: Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a pagan Northumbrian raised by Danes, spent his life as the sword of the Christian Saxon kings - Alfred, then his children Edward and Aethelflaed - while his own birthright, the sea fortress of Bebbanburg, sat in his usurping cousin's hands. He broke the Danish army at Teotanheale, put Aethelflaed on Mercia's throne, destroyed Ragnall Ivarson's invasion, and made his one-eyed Norse son-in-law Sigtryggr King of Northumbria at Eoferwic, with Uhtred's daughter Stiorra as queen. Then, in the last book, he finally took Bebbanburg back, killing his cousin inside its walls; the powerful ealdorman Aethelhelm died in the fortress's fall, and his son and heir blames Uhtred. Since then Aethelflaed has died, King Edward has swallowed Mercia and pushes his rule northward, and Northumbria - Sigtryggr's kingdom, the last in Britain outside Saxon hands - is the prize everyone circles. Uhtred, grown old, holds his fortress and his oaths, chief among them his bond to Aethelstan, the prince he raised, whose claim to Edward's throne is contested by Aethelhelm's faction backing the rival prince Aelfweard.

A messenger reaches Bebbanburg with a plea Uhtred cannot refuse - and it proves a lie. Drawn across Britain to Ceaster, Uhtred finds a real fight there anyway: Cynlaef Haraldson, a failed favorite turned rebel, is besieging the town in revolt against King Edward, and Uhtred crushes the rising. But the summons that brought him was a decoy, and its purpose lands like a blade: while Bebbanburg's lord and his warriors were far away, the Norse warlord Skoll Grimmarson came down out of Northumbria's wild west and struck at Eoferwic. Sigtryggr was away in the south, summoned to answer King Edward; the city's defence fell to his queen - Uhtred's daughter Stiorra - and she was killed. Skoll, who means to carve a kingdom of Northumbria for himself, has made his war with Uhtred personal beyond any mending. Grief hardens into purpose: Uhtred, his son, and Sigtryggr will have Skoll's life, whatever the war costs. Around the feud, the larger board darkens - Edward's health is failing, the succession fight between Aethelstan and Aelfweard is gathering, and Aethelhelm's son works against Uhtred wherever gold reaches.

The war against Skoll proves unlike Uhtred's other wars. The Norseman's stronghold lies high in the Cumbrian fells, hard country that eats armies, and his reputation rests on his ulfhednar - wolf-warriors who fight in a drugged frenzy, feel no fear, and believe the prophecies of Skoll's blind sorcerer Snorri make them proof against death. A first campaign into the hills teaches the allies the price of underestimating him: a bruising, bloody encounter with the wolf-warriors costs Uhtred and Sigtryggr dear and settles nothing, and the survivors carry back a healthy dread of Snorri's magic - a dread Uhtred knows is itself Skoll's sharpest weapon, working on his men's courage before a blow is struck. Between campaigns the feud must share the board with politics: Edward's decline accelerates the struggle over his crown, and Uhtred must guard Bebbanburg's independence and his bond to Aethelstan while every faction tries to use Northumbria's war for its own ends. Through it all the purpose holds - find Skoll on his own ground, break his wolf-warriors, and avenge Stiorra.

The reckoning comes at Heahburh, Skoll's fortress high in the fells. Uhtred and Sigtryggr bring their combined strength against it, and the assault is as costly as the ground promised: the attackers fight through the gate and into the walls, and the defence is broken only after savage killing that thins Uhtred's own household ranks. Inside, Skoll's faith in prophecy turns on its maker - he kills the blind sorcerer Snorri for the failure of his promised victory - and then, cornered, he offers to surrender his sword Grayfang to Sigtryggr. The offer is a trick; he turns the blade on the king. Uhtred is quicker, beats Skoll down, and takes Grayfang from him, then steps back and gives the kill to the man it belongs to: Sigtryggr ends Skoll, and Stiorra is avenged. The victory is real and the grief is too - a daughter and queen dead, good men spent in the hills, and the north weakened even in its triumph. Uhtred returns to Bebbanburg with the feud settled and the future unsettled: Edward is dying by degrees, Aethelstan and Aelfweard are set on a collision, and the last kingdom of Northumbria stands exposed to whichever Saxon wins.

The war ends at Heahburh, Skoll's high fortress in the Cumbrian hills, taken at brutal cost. Uhtred and Sigtryggr's men fight through the gate and break the defence, and Skoll - after killing his own blind sorcerer Snorri for the failure of his prophecies - offers to surrender his sword Grayfang. The surrender is a trick: he turns the blade on Sigtryggr, but Uhtred intervenes and beats him down, then gives the kill to his son-in-law, and Sigtryggr ends Skoll and avenges Stiorra. The victory settles the feud but not the future. Stiorra is dead and stays dead; Uhtred has buried a daughter and Sigtryggr a queen, and the assault has cost Uhtred dearly in the men of his household. Northumbria survives as the last kingdom outside Saxon rule, but it is weaker, King Edward's health is failing, and the succession struggle between Aethelstan and Aelfweard - with Ealdorman Aethelhelm's faction behind the latter, and no friend to Uhtred - is coming whether the north wants it or not. Uhtred returns to Bebbanburg a victor in mourning, bound to Aethelstan by old loyalty and to Northumbria by blood, with the last convulsion of the Saxon wars still ahead.