Alfred the Great: A Life from Beginning to End

In the winter of 878, the Great Heathen Army swept across Anglo-Saxon England. Kingdom after kingdom had fallen to the Viking onslaught—Northumbria, East Anglia, Mercia—all crushed beneath the boots of Norse warriors. Now only Wessex remained, and its young king had been driven from his throne, forced to flee into the marshes of Athelney with nothing but a handful of loyal followers. This should have been the end of Anglo-Saxon rule in England. Instead, it became the beginning of a legend.

This is the extraordinary story of how a king who once hid in the swamps became the man who saved Christian civilization in England. From his childhood pilgrimage to Rome to his deathbed vision of a united England, discover how King Alfred earned his place as the only English monarch ever called “the Great.” This is the life and legend of Alfred the Great in full.