Buying Options

Read for £0.00

OR

Print List Price:	£9.99
Kindle Price:	£0.99 Save £9.00 (90%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

Enter a promotion code or Gift Card

Share <Embed>

The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria by [Max Adams]

Audible Sample

Playing...

Paused

Follow the author

Max Adams

The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria Kindle Edition

by Max Adams (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

354 ratings

in Historical British Biographies BCE-1000 AD

See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Amazon Price

New from

Used from

Kindle Edition

"Please retry"

£0.99

—

Audible Audiobooks, Unabridged

"Please retry"

£0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

£879.35

£69.98

Paperback

"Please retry"

£8.19

£6.91

£7.09

Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged

"Please retry"

£25.52

—

Kindle Edition
£0.00 This title and over 1 million more are available with Kindle Unlimited £0.99 to buy
Audiobook
£0.00 Free with your Audible trial
Hardcover
£879.35

1 Used from £69.98 1 New from £879.35
Paperback
£8.19

7 Used from £7.09 16 New from £6.91
Audio CD
£25.52

1 New from £25.52

**'A triumph – a Game of Thrones in the Dark Ages' TOM HOLLAND.**

The magisterial biography of Oswald Whiteblade, exiled prince of Northumbria, who returned in blood and glory to reclaim his birthright.

A charismatic leader, a warrior whose prowess in battle earned him the epithet Whiteblade, an exiled prince who returned to claim his birthright, the inspiration for Tolkein's Aragorn.

Oswald of Northumbria was the first great English monarch, yet today this legendary figure is all but forgotten. In this panoramic portrait of Dark Age Britain, archaeologist and biographer Max Adams returns the king in the North to his rightful place in history.

Print length

546 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Head of Zeus
Publication date

29 Aug. 2013
File size

8307 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Max Adams
143
Kindle Edition
£5.79
Max Adams
45
Kindle Edition
£5.59
Harriet Harvey Wood
108
Kindle Edition
£1.99
Max Adams
36
Kindle Edition
£6.49
Michael Wood
440
Kindle Edition
£1.99
Adrian Goldsworthy
204
Kindle Edition
in Ancient Military History
£4.79

Amazon Business : For business-exclusive pricing, quantity discounts and downloadable VAT invoices. Create a free account

Also check our best rated Biography reviews

Product description

About the Author

Max Adams is a writer, archaeologist and woodsman whose work explores themes of landscape, knowledge and human connectedness with the earth. He is the author of Admiral Collingwood, Aelfred's Britain, Trees of Life, the bestselling The King in the North and In the Land of Giants. He has lived and worked in the North-East of England since 1993.

Review

'A triumph. The most gripping portrait of 7th-Century Britain that I have read ... A Game of Thrones in the Dark Ages' Tom Holland, The Times.

'An engagingly populist and evocative book that makes a bold and effective attempt to bring a particularly obscure period in northern British history to the general reader' Literary Review.

'This early ruler had a life, and a legacy that rivals any fable' Independent.

'Gripping, hugely enjoyable and deeply scholarly.' --History Today Books of the Year. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

ASIN : B00CGOD5K0
Publisher : Head of Zeus (29 Aug. 2013)
Language : English
File size : 8307 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 546 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 11,061 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 1 in Historical Biographies 501-1000
- 1 in Historical British Biographies BCE-1000 AD
- 12 in Historical Irish Biographies

Customer reviews:
354 ratings

More items to explore

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Customer reviews

5 star		56%
4 star		24%
3 star		12%
2 star		4%
1 star		3%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from United Kingdom

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

The real Aragorn - excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 October 2015

Verified Purchase

This is a superb history. It offers the nearest we will ever get to a biography of a very early medieval king who was not only the central character of the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England, but also Tolkien's inspiration for Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. But it goes much wider than that, and gives a good feel for the fabric of the social order at a very transitional time, the seventh century, when kings such as Oswald of Northumbria were the first leaders to be what one might term heads of a state that could outlive that king, as opposed to warrior leaders whose rule collapsed after their deaths. It was also very much a transitional time in religious terms, with not only battles between Christianity and paganism, but also between the Celtic Christian tradition, introduced by St Columba in Scotland in the 560s, and the Roman Christian tradition introduced slightly later by St Augustine in Kent in 597. The decision of the Synod of Whitby in 664 to go with the Roman variety shaped the future of religion in England and is a date that should probably be much better known than it is. The author also brings into play archaeology and an exploration of features of the Medieval mindset that are hardest for us in the twenty first century to understand, the veneration of saints' remains and the belief that miracles and magic are perfectly valid and unremarkable elements of a narrative of events. Great stuff, supplemented by genealogies, chronologies and pictures.

25 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

A top book!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 October 2019

Verified Purchase

Excellent book. I first borrowed it from the Library and when I finished reading it and returned it to the Library I purchased my own. I highly recommend it to anyone.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Richard Sewell

Oswald and Oswiu – a great double-act?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 April 2016

Verified Purchase

At times, not the easiest of reads in terms of language/style, but the subject-matter was in general very well-handled and Max Adams' knowledge-base is very secure – although his conjectures may be challenged by some. Like another reviewer, I felt that the title encompassed more than just Oswald – Oswiu, if anything, is a more "substantial" king, so I feel that the sub-title on the front cover, "The life and times of Oswald of Northumbria" is not fully accurate. The text on the back cover, with its "Game of Thrones" style, may well have misled those reviewers who thought it to be a fantasy novel?
Adams presents a comprehensive overview of the development of Northumbria and the structural and dynastic reasons why it was ultimately unable to defend itself from the depradations of the the Vikings, although it's debatable whether it could have withstood this onslaught had it been in better health. He links well the developing relationship between "church" and "state" in their embryonic forms and I would say that this is a very good introduction for the lay reader to a period of Early English history focussing on the north as opposed to Wessex, allowing for the caveats expressed by some other reviewers.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Suzanne

Did not bring this era to life for me.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2019

Verified Purchase

Sadly my concentration started to wander very early on. I found it heavy going and uninspiring (albeit as well researched as it is possible for this time in our history) and soon started the fatal move of page skipping.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Fascinating early English history

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 October 2020

Verified Purchase

This tells of a little known period in our history - before the Romans, even before the Viking invasions
- when British Kings ruled from the North.
But the story does not flow as well as it might. The sections seem to be separate monographs bound together into a book, with some overlap and a narrative that periodically jumps back or forward. A good editor would have earned it 5 stars.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

RadGirl

More than just Oswald

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 October 2020

Verified Purchase

Bought this for research about the times - even though it was said to be about the Kings of the North, and the locality I am concerned with is much further South - I found it contained interesting information that touched on the rest of the British Isles too.
Seems well researched and written.

Helpful

DOC

Arrived quickly and safely. Looking forward to reading this ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 July 2018

Verified Purchase

Arrived quickly and safely. Looking forward to reading this volume soon as I know very little about Oswald and am interested to learn about his relationship with St Cuthbert.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Mrs. D. Mack

Very Good.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 December 2020

Verified Purchase

From what I have read this book is very good and easy to read - which I find is a must. This is my favourite era of history which of course is helpful.

Helpful

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	AbeBooks Books, art & collectables	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Audible Download Audiobooks	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	DPReview Digital Photography	Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations

Amazon Home Services Experienced pros Happiness Guarantee	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy	Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands

Amazon Warehouse Deep Discounts Open-Box Products	Amazon Business Service for business customers	Whole Foods Market We Believe in Real Food	Amazon Second Chance Pass it on, trade it in, give it a second life

Select Your Cookie Preferences

Buying Options

OR

Buy for others

Buying and sending Kindle Books to others

Follow the author

Similar authors to follow

The King in the North: The Life and Times of Oswald of Northumbria Kindle Edition

Customers who bought this item also bought

Product description

About the Author

Review

Book Description

Product details

More items to explore

Customer reviews

Top reviews from United Kingdom

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.