Thought shall be the harder, heart the keener, mood the more, as our might lessens

taken from the ending of the Anglo-Saxon poem, words often taken as the ‘classic declaration of the heroic faith’.

I was torn like a battlefield commander facing a strategic dilemma. I wanted to feature the Battle of Brunanburh (937 AD), the great victory of Alfred the Great’s grandson, Æthelstan, which many historians regard as the unifying battle ensuring there would be an England. The trouble is we haven’t a clue where it was fought – most likely in the north.