The Empty Throne
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Did you notice that Cornwell changed the birth order of Uhtred's chilren?
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Didn't pick that up, looking forward to the TV series have been told filming has already started.
Their is a short video on the upcoming series on YouTube looks great.sharp rocks if you haven't already check out the hornblower series they are really good as well.
Rita wrote: "I don't know if someone noticed that the birth order of Stiorra and Uhtred Jr. (former Osbert) was changed. In this book it is mentioned that Stiorra is the youngest child, but in book 4, Sword Son..."Hm.. I must have missed that detail or not have paid close attention to it. Could you give the respective page numbers or chapters of those books?
Tim wrote: "Rita wrote: "I don't know if someone noticed that the birth order of Stiorra and Uhtred Jr. (former Osbert) was changed. In this book it is mentioned that Stiorra is the youngest child, but in book..."Tim, in Sword Song, chapter three, Uhtred tells that they have 2 children: Uhtred who is 4 years old and Stiorra that is 2 years old. In the same chapter Gisela tells Uhtred that she is pregnant (with Osbert and future Uthred).
I only picked that up because I discovered The Saxon Chronicles this year and read all the books at a breakneck pace, one just after the other and they were all fresh in my mind.
You're right:Sword Song, page 72 (Osbert, later renamed Uhtred, not yet born): "Uhtred was the oldest. My son. He was four years old with hair as golden-colored as mine and a strong little face with a pug nose, blue eyes, and a stubborn chin. I loved him then. My daughter Stiorra was two years old."
Empty Throne, page 60: "Stiorra puzzled me. She was my youngest, and it hurt to look at her because she so resembled her dead mother;"
I love Cornwell’s books, but the people who review let lots of mistakes like that pass. Try to work out the chronology, at some point it just not add up. Despite of that the series is amazing one of my favorites.
RE: Burning LandDid anyone else feel short-changed by the non-event nature of the beginning of the affair between Uhtred and Aethelflaed? She was just a young girl in The Last Kingdom and grew up into a teen maiden married off to Aethelred pretty quickly. I read the books out of order and knew they had been lovers at some point but when I went back and read the books in sequence, I was looking forward to learning how they 'hooked up'. Only to discover it was about 2 lines long. Since she was Alfred's daughter and married to a man who desperately wanted to divorce her ... I really expected more.
Me too. Cornwell is not very good at romances. It always seems it is out of the blue. With Gisella he got me invested and it broke my heart when she died. But with Aetheflaed, it seemed contrived, not real. It was as it f Uhtred was just killing some time with her. It didn’t convince me.
He's certainly not a great romance writer, but I think that's partly because Uhtred doesn't exactly wear his heart on his sleeve either. Reading the books in order, I did feel that something was brewing between him and Aethelflaed. It was not overt, but the way he was so protective of her, and especially when he made an oath of loyalty to her, which he didn't have to do, it was clear he had feelings for her. At the same time, I think Uhtred has always held her at arms length, because he knows he can't marry her.
Good points Rita and Robin. While I don't believe any of us read Cornwell for 'romance' I did expect a bit more regarding his thoughts about their union. Uhtred wouldn't wax poetic, that's not his style but he must have felt something ... given who she was and that she held his oath. She was more important in Uhtred's life than Skade or Edith, yet Cornwell reveals more about Uhtred's feelings for them (good or bad) than for Aetheflaed. And she wasn't a 'roll in the hay' sort of woman and Uhtred would have been well aware of that. It's almost as if Uhtred didn't want to consider any of the ramifications and Cornwell followed suit.
Sorry to re-open a more-or-less dead thread but correct me if I'm wrong here but didn't Uhtred (of Bebbanburg) re-name his first son (to Judas LOL) once he found out he was a priest?
Edward wrote: "Sorry to re-open a more-or-less dead thread but correct me if I'm wrong here but didn't Uhtred (of Bebbanburg) re-name his first son (to Judas LOL) once he found out he was a priest?"Yes, and his second son, originally Osbert, was renamed Uhtred at the same time.
As we are in the subject, does anyone know what happened with Judas, former Uhtred? He kind of disappeared after his horrible injure. I didn't see any reference of whether he died or not.
Rita wrote: "As we are in the subject, does anyone know what happened with Judas, former Uhtred? He kind of disappeared after his horrible injure. I didn't see any reference of whether he died or not."He survived. That was in Warriors of the Storm. He had renamed himself Oswald, and as a priest, was known as Father Oswald. After he nearly died, Uhtred sort of made peace with him (seeing him nearly die I think made Uhtred realized that of course he still loved his son) and stopped calling him Judas, started calling him Father Oswald. He is mentioned a few times in Warriors of the Storm after his injury but I'm not finding him mentioned in the following books (Flame Bearer and War of the Wolf). I guess after Uhtred made peace with him, he sort of stopped playing any kind of significant role in the plot.
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It really get me wondering if there was something wrong in my copy of Sword Song of if this was a mistake that no editor caught.