Warriors of the Storm characters

Appears from the start

Uhtred of Bebbanburg, the pagan Northumbrian warlord who serves Aethelflaed of Mercia. Healed of the wound that nearly killed him, he holds the burh of Ceaster on Mercia's northwestern frontier - the ground a Norse invasion fleet has chosen to land beside. His daughter's marriage to a Norse king in Ireland now ties him, awkwardly, to the family of Mercia's newest enemy.

Appears from the start

The Irish swordsman who commands Uhtred's household warriors and has fought at his shoulder for decades. His knowledge of Ireland, the land of his birth and his exile, becomes unexpectedly valuable when events pull Uhtred across the sea.

Appears from the start

The Lady of the Mercians, ruler of Mercia in her own right since her husband's death, and Uhtred's lover of long standing. Devout and cautious where Uhtred is impulsive, she must weigh his aggressive instincts against the counsel of her churchmen as a Norse army lands on her frontier.

Appears from the start

Uhtred's warrior son, a seasoned fighter in his father's household troops, trusted with real commands as the war against the Norse invaders spreads from Mercia to Ireland and Northumbria.

Also known as Ragnall Ivarson

Appears from the start

A Norse sea-king driven out of Ireland, called the Sea King for the fleet he commands and feared on both sides of the Irish Sea. Ambitious to carve a kingdom out of Northumbria and Mercia, he lands a great army near Ceaster. He is the elder brother of Sigtryggr, the husband of Uhtred's daughter - a kinship that makes some Saxons doubt whose side Uhtred is truly on.

First appears in chapter 2

The old, endlessly treacherous Danish chieftain who has schemed against Uhtred for thirty years and survived every defeat by changing sides. Now sworn to Ragnall, he holds the fort at Eads Byrig and bargains, as ever, in bad faith.

First appears in chapter 3

Uhtred's first lover, once a Saxon girl raised with him among the Danes, now an implacable enemy of Uhtred and of all Christians. Widow of Ragnar and mistress of the fortress of Dunholm, she has allied herself with Ragnall, and her hatred of Uhtred has curdled into cruelty toward everything he loves.

Appears from the start

The one-eyed Norse king in Ireland, Ragnall's younger brother and husband of Uhtred's daughter Stiorra. He lost the eye to Uhtred at Ceaster and gained a wife and a father-in-law's respect in the same campaign. Now the brothers' paths have split: Sigtryggr holds his ground in Ireland while Ragnall hunts a kingdom in Britain.

Appears from the start

Uhtred's daughter, wife of Sigtryggr and a pagan queen in Ireland, with her father's defiant spirit. Her marriage ties Uhtred to the family of the invader Ragnall, and her fate across the Irish Sea weighs on her father throughout the war.

Also known as Father Oswald

First appears in chapter 8

Uhtred's disowned eldest son, who gave up his birthright for the priesthood and the name Oswald. He has spent the years since ministering among the Danes of Northumbria, and his path crosses his father's again in the cruelest way the war can devise.