Never Greater Slaughter

'No one has done more than Michael Livingston to revive memories of the battle, and you could not hope for a better guide.' BERNARD CORNWELL Bestselling author of The Last Kingdom series Late in AD 937, four armies met at Brunanburh. On one side stood the shield-wall of the expanding kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons. On the other side, a remarkable alliance of rival kings - at least two from across the sea - who had come together to destroy the Anglo-Saxons once and for all. The stakes were no less than the survival of the dream that would become England. The armies were massive. The violence, when it began, was enough to shock a violent age. Brunanburh may not today have the fame of Hastings, Crécy or Agincourt, but generations later it was still called, quite simply, the 'great battle'. For centuries now, its location has been lost but after an extraordinary effort, uniting enthusiasts, historians, archaeologists and linguists the location of these bloodied fields may well have been identified. This groundbreaking new book tells the story of this remarkable discovery and delves into why and how the battle happened. Most importantly, though, it is about the men who fought and died at Brunanburh, and how much this forgotten struggle can tell us about who we are and how we relate to our past.

Dr. Michael Livingston holds degrees in History, Medieval Studies, and English, and he teaches the military and cultural history of the Middle Ages at The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. With his long list of peer-reviewed scholarly publications, he is a well-regarded figure in medieval academic circles, and his book The Battle of Crécy: A Casebook (Liverpool University Press, 2016) was the winner of the prestigious 2017 Distinguished Book Award from the international Society for Military History. He has also published three historical fantasies (The Shards of Heaven, The Gates of Hell, and The Realms of God) with Tor Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing, as well as many short stories, one of which was a winner in the well-regarded Writers of the Future awards.

Foreword by Bernard Cornwell Preface List of Illustrations List of Maps Introduction: A Field of Death, 937 1. The Birth of England, to 865 2. The Vikings Arrive, 837-66 3. Alfred and the Viking Conquest, 866-99 4. The Gathering Storm, 900-24 5. The Rise of Athelstan, 924-34 6. The Great Alliance, 934-37 7. Reconstructing Battles 8. The Search for Brunanburh 9. The Ships and the Saga 10. The Day England Came of Age, 937 11. Wirral Archaeology 12. England, Come of Age Appendix: Objections and Alternate Sites Suggested Reading and Acknowledgements Endnotes Index