November 20, 2025 • 15 mins
A glossary of Anglo-Saxon place names alongside their modern equivalents, setting a historical stage for the narrative. The story centers on Uhtred, a Saxon noble raised by Danes (pagans), who is caught between the shifting political and religious landscape of ninth-century England, primarily focusing on the conflicts between the Danes and the West Saxons led by King Alfred. Major plot points include Uhtred's time in Danish captivity and subsequent service under Alfred, his personal feuds and betrayals (including the murder of his foster father and the machinations of his uncle and other antagonists like Kjartan), and his complex relationships with figures like the priest Father Beocca and the Danish warrior Ragnar the Younger, as well as his eventual marriage to the Dane Gisela. The narrative also details several battles and campaigns against Danish incursions and internal Saxon power struggles, often highlighting the clash between Christian and pagan beliefs.
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You can listen and download our episodes for free on more than 10 different platforms:
https://linktr.ee/book_shelter
Produced by:
https://www.podcaistudio.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the deep dive. You've handed us in an
extraordinary stack of sources today. Yeah, this is quite something,
It really is. It reads less like a dry history
and more like a well, a sprawling epic saga. Our
job really is to distill the life, the whole dramatic
journey of one man.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Oh Tred hmm Outred of Bebenberg, a Northumbrian lord whose
entire identity you could argue was just forged in the
chaos of the Viking.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Age, right, and we're aiming to go deep here, not
just a quick plot summary exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
We need to trace the geography, the politics, the really
personal conflicts that shaped him. He's this figure caught between
his Saxon birth, his oaths to.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
King Alfred, which were quite strict.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Oh absolutely, and then there's the fierce, almost pragmatic loyalty
he ends up feeling for the Danes Well who raised
him after capturing him.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
It's an incredible arc from his ancestral fortress in Northumbria,
through the manipulations of Alfred's court, even into slavery carrific stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, and then back to the battlefield again and again.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
The core tension seems to be identity doesn't it is
he Saxon? Is he Dane Christian.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Pagan constantly pulled in different directions. So we're gonna track
this chronologically, look at how his allegiance to a shift
and crucially, how one single disastrous battle really set his
whole life's trajectory when he was just a boy.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Okay, let's unpack that beginning. Where do we start.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
We have to start at home Bevenberg, that iconic fortress,
you know, perched high on a rock, guarded by the
low and high gates, a real symbol of Saxon strength
in the North.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
But the sources give us this immediate chilling omen right
before things even really kick off.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yes, exactly, his father's banner, the wolf banner, just hung limp,
wouldn't catch the wind, wouldn't rise up against the Pagan
ships sailing towards them. It's quite a potent image and.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
It foreshadows disaster perfectly. The Battle Leophroic York as we
know it. The sources described this well frankly brilliant trap
by the Danes.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Was devastatingly effective. They didn't just defend the walls, they
actually built new barricades inside the city. They pretended to retreat.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Luring the Saxons in.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Precisely pulled the uh the rather overconfident Saxon army right
into a pre prepared killing ground, just absolute chaos. And
it's right there in that chaos that young o Tred
meets the man who changes.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Everything, Pearl Ragnar the Fearless, the very same.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
He literally watches his older brother get cut down, and
then he comes face to face with Ragnar, who, instead
of killing him claims him takes him, which leads.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
To this forced education. You could call it a pagan
childhood exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And the contrast with his old life is Christian Saxon
life is immediate, it's visceral.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
It's not just learning Danish ways, is it. It's a
whole philosophy ship completely.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
We get these these telling details, like learning the quickest
way to slaughter cattle isn't some ritual, it's a specific
strike to the spine behind the skull, pure pragmatism, efficient fairy,
and Ragnar teaches him this core philosophy. When you conquer,
you have two choices, slaughter everyone or learn to live
alongside them.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
No dillering, which is quite different from the political maneuvering.
Otrin sees later in Wessex.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
World's Apart, and this difference extends to religion too. He's
given a miniature iron hammer of thorid Aware, a powerful symbol.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
In the Danish approach to their god's thor wodin Odin.
It seems much looser, more celebratory.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, very much woven into daily life, feasting, storytelling. It's
not the rigid, often fear driven dogma of the Saxon
priests like Father Biaka, who demanded constant study moral rectitude.
For Artred Pagani is a must have felt like breathing
fresh air.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
But even then, his internal conflict shows this secret belief
he holds onto this Kdoo union.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
The shadow Walkers, Yes, creatures neither truly alive nor truly dead.
He heard about them from Eieldwolf, the Smith, and he.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Keeps this belief hidden, doesn't he, especially from the priest.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Absolutely, It's like this little pocket of pagan power, something
personal and secret. Even when he's later forced back into
the Christian Saxon world, it shows that division in him
right from the start.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So moving forward in time, the map of Britain is
changing rapidly dramatically.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Northumbria falls Mercia falls Wesles under King Alfred is basically
the last Saxon kingdom holding out against the Great Heathen Army.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And Adred at this point is still living with the Danes.
He's present at the siege of snowt and Gum and
Nottingham h.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
The sources show the Danes just waiting. They're expecting Alfred
and King Ethelred of Mercia to bring their combined forces
for a big battle.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
But it doesn't really happen, does it, not in the
way they expect.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
There's a standoff. The main action, if you can call it, that,
is the brutal public execution of some Danish spies right
outside the walls, a very raw display of power and violence.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
And this is where Tred really gets his first proper
look at Alfred.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yes, and his impression is fascinating. He sees Alfred as
physically weak, sickly even the sources mentioned his chronic pains,
but undeniably clever, sharp as attack, calculating extremely. Alfred actually
tries to ransom Artrid here, not out of affection, but
because he sees Artred as a potential asset, someone to
be controlled. He wants to bring him into his household
(05:13):
force him to learn reading and writing.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
So Alfred's thinking is already about administration, about literate warriors,
not just brute force.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
That's Alfred's genius, isn't it, long term strategy? So eventually
Atred does return south. He briefly serves his cousin in Murcia,
but then he enters Alfred's court directly, and.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
The culture shock must have been immense.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Oh absolutely, imagine going from Ragnar's feasting hall, full of
noise in life, to Alfred's court. The source is painted
almost like a monastery, full of priests, monks copying manuscripts.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And Alfred's wife Elswi described as pinch faced. Doesn't sound
very welcoming.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Not exactly the warm, wild freedom he was used to.
But Alfred knows how to use people. He needs Intrid's fighting.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Skills, especially for this new he's building.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Right, Alfred's trying to beat the Vikings at their own
game on the sea. He commissions these new ships, like
the he Hangle, designed by a former Danish oarsman.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Ironically enough, he recruits to Eatred use a bit of flattery, maybe.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Oh, certainly, But Alfred always wants leverage. Military skill isn't
enough he needs to control Ughtred, and that leads to
the forced marriage to Mildred. Yes, Mildred a woman of well,
not exactly noble birth, but she comes with land land.
Alfred needs a tread tied to. But there's a catch,
an enormous bride price thirty three shillings payable to her
(06:34):
godfather Eielderman Atta the younger wait.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Thirty three shillings for a girl of ignoble birth. That
seems astronomical, foot it is.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
It's completely out of proportion, and that's the point.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
It's a leash exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
It's designed to financially cripple Otred, to make him dependent
on Alfred's favor, on earning money through service to pay
off this massive debt. It's Alfred using economics as a
tool of political control, very clever, very youthful.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
So Atred is now bound financially, politically and by oath.
This brings us to a real turning point where his
service pays off spectacularly, but also leads to well utter betrayal.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
The storm Agritterra is out commanding Alfred's new fleet, and
this huge storm hits the coast, sinks a lot of
Danish ships, and.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
This leads him and his crew towards Sinuit, right where
Ubel lothbrooks and is besieging a Saxon hill fort.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yes, and here Uhtred makes a choice. He doesn't wait
for orders. He takes bold unsanctioned action, leads a night
attack on the Danish ships below the hill fort, causes.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Mayhem, creates an opening Exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
The next morning, Ubba comes out, expecting to parlay, maybe
negotiate a surrender, but Uhtred forces a fight. He kills
Ubel lothbrucks in, one of the most feared Viking leaders
in single.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Combat, a massive victory for Wessex.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Huge, but it's what Oughtred does next that really shows
where his deeper loyalties lie. Even while serving Alfred.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
He puts the axe in UBA's hand.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Kneels down beside the dying Uba, and places his huge
two handed war acts in his hand. It's a pagan
ritual ensuring Uba can enter Valhalla as a warrior, an
active respect warrior to warrior, completely outside Christian norms.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So he returns to Alfred's court expecting right glory, recognition.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
He'd think, so he's just saved the kingdom essentially, but
instead he walks right into a political buzzsaw. Go to
the younger huh, the man holding his debt, The very
same auDA steps forward and takes all the credit. He
presents UBA's capture, graven banner and that famous war axe
to Alfred, claiming he led the charge, he won the victory.
He even promises to build a church on the site
(08:35):
to Christianize the whole event.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Wow, so pagan courage saves the day, but Christian politics
claims the prize.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
That's the brutal irony and Otred real. He doesn't take
it well. The sources describe his reaction as monstrous pride
and ungovernable rage. He disrupts mass in front of every splodes,
demands Alfred acknowledged the truth, calls auDA a liar. It's
a massive public spectacle.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Plays right into Alfred's hands, does it, or at least
the hands of his e old Dorman.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
It gives them the opening they need to sideline this dangerous,
unpredictable warrior they can't fully control. Instantly, o Tred is
put on trial not for disrupting mass, but for treason.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Treason on what grounds they dredge.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Up accusations colluding with another pagan leader Spain. Attacking a
monastery is clearly trumped up, and the key testimony comes
from Oda's oath man.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Stepa Snowder, described as a terrifying warrior.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yes, and Stepa calmly walks up, places his hand on
the Gospel book and lies through his teeth, condemning.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Ughtred and Alfred. What does he do?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Alfred remains silent, He just watches, lets it happen. He
seems perfectly willing to let Utred be condemned, presumably for
the sake of political stability, until Ughtred, cornered, forces the
issue again.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
He demands trial by combat against Stepa.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
A fight Utred might actually win, despite Stipa's reputation, but
it never gets that far because of betrayals. Aren't over?
Oh no, what before the combat can happen, He's betrayed again,
this time by the man he helped put on the
throne in Northumbria, King Guthred.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Guthrid sells him into slavery, just.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Hands him over. It's devastating. Ered is branded physically branded
with an S on his arm, a permanent mark of shame.
He's chained to an ore bench on a trading ship,
the trader under a brutal captain named Savary Robinson.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
This must have been his lowest point.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Unimaginable. The sources convey the sheer degradation, the filth, the
festering brand wound, rowing endlessly next to other broken men.
He meets fenn In here, another captive noble who claims
he was betrayed over a woman. This period. It strips
away Utred's pride forces a kind of terrible humility on him.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
How does he get out?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Fate has another twist. He's eventually brought back towards England
on the ship, and who should find him.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
But not Steepest Notre, the man who lied at his trial.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
The very same Stepa finds him, recognizes him despite the filth,
and in this incredibly bizarre, almost brutal moment of well,
maybe respect or just practicality, he takes his axe and
cuts his chains, smashes the shackles right off, apparently barely
misses Otre's groin in the process. It's a shocking, violent
act of liberation from the most unexpected source.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
So he's free, but politically things are still complicated.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Very he learns his adoptive brother Ragnar the Younger is alive,
but Ragnar is being held hostage, which prevents Otred from
just riding off to join.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Him, and Alfred sees another opportunity.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Naturally, always the pragmatist, Alfred releases Ragnar, but he forces
Utred to swear another oath. His mission escort Father Bioka,
his old priest, north to advise King Guthrid. Essentially outre
becomes Alfred's reluctant agent in.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
The North, but going north does bring some positive changes
for him. He finds love he does.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
He meets and falls for Jessla. She's King Guthrid's stir
fears smart Danish woman, and importantly, she was originally meant
to marry Utred's treacherous uncle Elfrick, the one holding Bebenberg,
so that adds another layer of inflict and motivation.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And this return north sets up the final confrontation for
this part of the saga, doesn't it Yah vengeance for
his adoptive father, Ragnar.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
The Fearless, Yes, shredj and Ragnar the Younger finally get
that chance to go after Gajar Tan the Crewel and
his equally unpleasant sons spend the one eyed the ones
who murdered the elder Ragnar and captured Thyra. They're hold
up in Dunholm, this seemingly impregnable fortress.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
And Nutred uses some unconventional tactics lessons learned from the Danes.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Perhaps definitely psychological warfare. Before the main assault, he has
severed heads rotting heads placed on stakes along the path
leading up to Dunham's Gate, just to terrify the defenders,
break their morale. Rim but effective, and during the night attack,
the final assault, it's pure chaos and vengeance. Ragnar the
younger finally confronts and kills kurtain Spen is also killed,
(12:51):
and his body is given to Kirtran's own hounds.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Brutal justice. But what about Thyra, Ragnar's sister? She was
driven mad by your captivity, wasn't she?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yes, deeply traumatized. She's rescued, but she's almost feral. And
then comes another truly shocking scene. Father Bioca performs a
public exorcism.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
An exorcism, yes.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
But not like you might imagine. It's described as incredibly forceful,
almost violent. Bioca physically confronts her, drives out the demon
her trauma. In this raw display it's meant to show
the power of the Christian God even in this brutal
pagan North.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
The very dramatic end to that whole storyline.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Absolutely and the saga closes this chapter not just with
vengeance but with prophecy. Desilla takes out her.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Ringsticks and she foretells Utred's future very specifically.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
She says he'll have two sons and a daughter. One
son tragically will break his heart, which refers to the
infant son who died while Ughtred was enslaved. The other
son will make him proud, and his daughter, she will
be the mother of kings.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Wow. So his lineage is destined for greatness, even through tragedy.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
That's the prediction. So when you look back at this
whole arc, Utred's story, as the sources lay it out,
is just saturated with these themes oaths made, oaths broken,
constant political manipulation, especially by Alfred using him as this
necessary but dangerous weapon.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
And that internal struggle never really goes away, does it.
Saxon Lord fighting for Danes, pagan, serving a Christian king,
pulled between ambition and duty.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Never He's always navigating that knife edge, and it leads
him after all this warm betrayal to grapple with that
huge philosophical question about fate.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
If the Norns the fates have already spun everything out,
what's the point of fighting it exactly?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
If your destiny has already written, does free will even exist?
It informs his final kind of bleak conclusion.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Doesn't it weird? Before I read it?
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Fate is inescapable? That's where his experiences lead him. After
everything he's done, everything he's fought for, he suspects it
might all have been preordained.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
An incredibly powerful, maybe unsettling thought for a man who
seemed to spend his whole life trying to carve out
his own destiny. Definitely something for you to chew on
as you think about the battles Bigger sm All in
your own life. Thank you for taking this deep dive
with us.
Welcome to the deep dive. You've handed us in an
extraordinary stack of sources today. Yeah, this is quite something,
It really is. It reads less like a dry history
and more like a well, a sprawling epic saga. Our
job really is to distill the life, the whole dramatic
journey of one man.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Oh Tred hmm Outred of Bebenberg, a Northumbrian lord whose
entire identity you could argue was just forged in the
chaos of the Viking.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Age, right, and we're aiming to go deep here, not
just a quick plot summary exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
We need to trace the geography, the politics, the really
personal conflicts that shaped him. He's this figure caught between
his Saxon birth, his oaths to.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
King Alfred, which were quite strict.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Oh absolutely, and then there's the fierce, almost pragmatic loyalty
he ends up feeling for the Danes Well who raised
him after capturing him.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
It's an incredible arc from his ancestral fortress in Northumbria,
through the manipulations of Alfred's court, even into slavery carrific stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, and then back to the battlefield again and again.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
The core tension seems to be identity doesn't it is
he Saxon? Is he Dane Christian.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Pagan constantly pulled in different directions. So we're gonna track
this chronologically, look at how his allegiance to a shift
and crucially, how one single disastrous battle really set his
whole life's trajectory when he was just a boy.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Okay, let's unpack that beginning. Where do we start.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
We have to start at home Bevenberg, that iconic fortress,
you know, perched high on a rock, guarded by the
low and high gates, a real symbol of Saxon strength
in the North.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
But the sources give us this immediate chilling omen right
before things even really kick off.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yes, exactly, his father's banner, the wolf banner, just hung limp,
wouldn't catch the wind, wouldn't rise up against the Pagan
ships sailing towards them. It's quite a potent image and.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
It foreshadows disaster perfectly. The Battle Leophroic York as we
know it. The sources described this well frankly brilliant trap
by the Danes.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Was devastatingly effective. They didn't just defend the walls, they
actually built new barricades inside the city. They pretended to retreat.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Luring the Saxons in.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Precisely pulled the uh the rather overconfident Saxon army right
into a pre prepared killing ground, just absolute chaos. And
it's right there in that chaos that young o Tred
meets the man who changes.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Everything, Pearl Ragnar the Fearless, the very same.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
He literally watches his older brother get cut down, and
then he comes face to face with Ragnar, who, instead
of killing him claims him takes him, which leads.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
To this forced education. You could call it a pagan
childhood exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And the contrast with his old life is Christian Saxon
life is immediate, it's visceral.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
It's not just learning Danish ways, is it. It's a
whole philosophy ship completely.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
We get these these telling details, like learning the quickest
way to slaughter cattle isn't some ritual, it's a specific
strike to the spine behind the skull, pure pragmatism, efficient fairy,
and Ragnar teaches him this core philosophy. When you conquer,
you have two choices, slaughter everyone or learn to live
alongside them.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
No dillering, which is quite different from the political maneuvering.
Otrin sees later in Wessex.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
World's Apart, and this difference extends to religion too. He's
given a miniature iron hammer of thorid Aware, a powerful symbol.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
In the Danish approach to their god's thor wodin Odin.
It seems much looser, more celebratory.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, very much woven into daily life, feasting, storytelling. It's
not the rigid, often fear driven dogma of the Saxon
priests like Father Biaka, who demanded constant study moral rectitude.
For Artred Pagani is a must have felt like breathing
fresh air.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
But even then, his internal conflict shows this secret belief
he holds onto this Kdoo union.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
The shadow Walkers, Yes, creatures neither truly alive nor truly dead.
He heard about them from Eieldwolf, the Smith, and he.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Keeps this belief hidden, doesn't he, especially from the priest.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Absolutely, It's like this little pocket of pagan power, something
personal and secret. Even when he's later forced back into
the Christian Saxon world, it shows that division in him
right from the start.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So moving forward in time, the map of Britain is
changing rapidly dramatically.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Northumbria falls Mercia falls Wesles under King Alfred is basically
the last Saxon kingdom holding out against the Great Heathen Army.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And Adred at this point is still living with the Danes.
He's present at the siege of snowt and Gum and
Nottingham h.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
The sources show the Danes just waiting. They're expecting Alfred
and King Ethelred of Mercia to bring their combined forces
for a big battle.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
But it doesn't really happen, does it, not in the
way they expect.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
There's a standoff. The main action, if you can call it, that,
is the brutal public execution of some Danish spies right
outside the walls, a very raw display of power and violence.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
And this is where Tred really gets his first proper
look at Alfred.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yes, and his impression is fascinating. He sees Alfred as
physically weak, sickly even the sources mentioned his chronic pains,
but undeniably clever, sharp as attack, calculating extremely. Alfred actually
tries to ransom Artrid here, not out of affection, but
because he sees Artred as a potential asset, someone to
be controlled. He wants to bring him into his household
(05:13):
force him to learn reading and writing.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
So Alfred's thinking is already about administration, about literate warriors,
not just brute force.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
That's Alfred's genius, isn't it, long term strategy? So eventually
Atred does return south. He briefly serves his cousin in Murcia,
but then he enters Alfred's court directly, and.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
The culture shock must have been immense.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Oh absolutely, imagine going from Ragnar's feasting hall, full of
noise in life, to Alfred's court. The source is painted
almost like a monastery, full of priests, monks copying manuscripts.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And Alfred's wife Elswi described as pinch faced. Doesn't sound
very welcoming.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Not exactly the warm, wild freedom he was used to.
But Alfred knows how to use people. He needs Intrid's fighting.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Skills, especially for this new he's building.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Right, Alfred's trying to beat the Vikings at their own
game on the sea. He commissions these new ships, like
the he Hangle, designed by a former Danish oarsman.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Ironically enough, he recruits to Eatred use a bit of flattery, maybe.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Oh, certainly, But Alfred always wants leverage. Military skill isn't
enough he needs to control Ughtred, and that leads to
the forced marriage to Mildred. Yes, Mildred a woman of well,
not exactly noble birth, but she comes with land land.
Alfred needs a tread tied to. But there's a catch,
an enormous bride price thirty three shillings payable to her
(06:34):
godfather Eielderman Atta the younger wait.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Thirty three shillings for a girl of ignoble birth. That
seems astronomical, foot it is.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
It's completely out of proportion, and that's the point.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
It's a leash exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
It's designed to financially cripple Otred, to make him dependent
on Alfred's favor, on earning money through service to pay
off this massive debt. It's Alfred using economics as a
tool of political control, very clever, very youthful.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
So Atred is now bound financially, politically and by oath.
This brings us to a real turning point where his
service pays off spectacularly, but also leads to well utter betrayal.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
The storm Agritterra is out commanding Alfred's new fleet, and
this huge storm hits the coast, sinks a lot of
Danish ships, and.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
This leads him and his crew towards Sinuit, right where
Ubel lothbrooks and is besieging a Saxon hill fort.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yes, and here Uhtred makes a choice. He doesn't wait
for orders. He takes bold unsanctioned action, leads a night
attack on the Danish ships below the hill fort, causes.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Mayhem, creates an opening Exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
The next morning, Ubba comes out, expecting to parlay, maybe
negotiate a surrender, but Uhtred forces a fight. He kills
Ubel lothbrucks in, one of the most feared Viking leaders
in single.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Combat, a massive victory for Wessex.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Huge, but it's what Oughtred does next that really shows
where his deeper loyalties lie. Even while serving Alfred.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
He puts the axe in UBA's hand.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Kneels down beside the dying Uba, and places his huge
two handed war acts in his hand. It's a pagan
ritual ensuring Uba can enter Valhalla as a warrior, an
active respect warrior to warrior, completely outside Christian norms.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So he returns to Alfred's court expecting right glory, recognition.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
He'd think, so he's just saved the kingdom essentially, but
instead he walks right into a political buzzsaw. Go to
the younger huh, the man holding his debt, The very
same auDA steps forward and takes all the credit. He
presents UBA's capture, graven banner and that famous war axe
to Alfred, claiming he led the charge, he won the victory.
He even promises to build a church on the site
(08:35):
to Christianize the whole event.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Wow, so pagan courage saves the day, but Christian politics
claims the prize.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
That's the brutal irony and Otred real. He doesn't take
it well. The sources describe his reaction as monstrous pride
and ungovernable rage. He disrupts mass in front of every splodes,
demands Alfred acknowledged the truth, calls auDA a liar. It's
a massive public spectacle.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Plays right into Alfred's hands, does it, or at least
the hands of his e old Dorman.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
It gives them the opening they need to sideline this dangerous,
unpredictable warrior they can't fully control. Instantly, o Tred is
put on trial not for disrupting mass, but for treason.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Treason on what grounds they dredge.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Up accusations colluding with another pagan leader Spain. Attacking a
monastery is clearly trumped up, and the key testimony comes
from Oda's oath man.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Stepa Snowder, described as a terrifying warrior.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yes, and Stepa calmly walks up, places his hand on
the Gospel book and lies through his teeth, condemning.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Ughtred and Alfred. What does he do?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Alfred remains silent, He just watches, lets it happen. He
seems perfectly willing to let Utred be condemned, presumably for
the sake of political stability, until Ughtred, cornered, forces the
issue again.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
He demands trial by combat against Stepa.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
A fight Utred might actually win, despite Stipa's reputation, but
it never gets that far because of betrayals. Aren't over?
Oh no, what before the combat can happen, He's betrayed again,
this time by the man he helped put on the
throne in Northumbria, King Guthred.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Guthrid sells him into slavery, just.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Hands him over. It's devastating. Ered is branded physically branded
with an S on his arm, a permanent mark of shame.
He's chained to an ore bench on a trading ship,
the trader under a brutal captain named Savary Robinson.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
This must have been his lowest point.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Unimaginable. The sources convey the sheer degradation, the filth, the
festering brand wound, rowing endlessly next to other broken men.
He meets fenn In here, another captive noble who claims
he was betrayed over a woman. This period. It strips
away Utred's pride forces a kind of terrible humility on him.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
How does he get out?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Fate has another twist. He's eventually brought back towards England
on the ship, and who should find him.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
But not Steepest Notre, the man who lied at his trial.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
The very same Stepa finds him, recognizes him despite the filth,
and in this incredibly bizarre, almost brutal moment of well,
maybe respect or just practicality, he takes his axe and
cuts his chains, smashes the shackles right off, apparently barely
misses Otre's groin in the process. It's a shocking, violent
act of liberation from the most unexpected source.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
So he's free, but politically things are still complicated.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Very he learns his adoptive brother Ragnar the Younger is alive,
but Ragnar is being held hostage, which prevents Otred from
just riding off to join.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Him, and Alfred sees another opportunity.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Naturally, always the pragmatist, Alfred releases Ragnar, but he forces
Utred to swear another oath. His mission escort Father Bioka,
his old priest, north to advise King Guthrid. Essentially outre
becomes Alfred's reluctant agent in.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
The North, but going north does bring some positive changes
for him. He finds love he does.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
He meets and falls for Jessla. She's King Guthrid's stir
fears smart Danish woman, and importantly, she was originally meant
to marry Utred's treacherous uncle Elfrick, the one holding Bebenberg,
so that adds another layer of inflict and motivation.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And this return north sets up the final confrontation for
this part of the saga, doesn't it Yah vengeance for
his adoptive father, Ragnar.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
The Fearless, Yes, shredj and Ragnar the Younger finally get
that chance to go after Gajar Tan the Crewel and
his equally unpleasant sons spend the one eyed the ones
who murdered the elder Ragnar and captured Thyra. They're hold
up in Dunholm, this seemingly impregnable fortress.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
And Nutred uses some unconventional tactics lessons learned from the Danes.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Perhaps definitely psychological warfare. Before the main assault, he has
severed heads rotting heads placed on stakes along the path
leading up to Dunham's Gate, just to terrify the defenders,
break their morale. Rim but effective, and during the night attack,
the final assault, it's pure chaos and vengeance. Ragnar the
younger finally confronts and kills kurtain Spen is also killed,
(12:51):
and his body is given to Kirtran's own hounds.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Brutal justice. But what about Thyra, Ragnar's sister? She was
driven mad by your captivity, wasn't she?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yes, deeply traumatized. She's rescued, but she's almost feral. And
then comes another truly shocking scene. Father Bioca performs a
public exorcism.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
An exorcism, yes.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
But not like you might imagine. It's described as incredibly forceful,
almost violent. Bioca physically confronts her, drives out the demon
her trauma. In this raw display it's meant to show
the power of the Christian God even in this brutal
pagan North.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
The very dramatic end to that whole storyline.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Absolutely and the saga closes this chapter not just with
vengeance but with prophecy. Desilla takes out her.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Ringsticks and she foretells Utred's future very specifically.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
She says he'll have two sons and a daughter. One
son tragically will break his heart, which refers to the
infant son who died while Ughtred was enslaved. The other
son will make him proud, and his daughter, she will
be the mother of kings.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Wow. So his lineage is destined for greatness, even through tragedy.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
That's the prediction. So when you look back at this
whole arc, Utred's story, as the sources lay it out,
is just saturated with these themes oaths made, oaths broken,
constant political manipulation, especially by Alfred using him as this
necessary but dangerous weapon.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
And that internal struggle never really goes away, does it.
Saxon Lord fighting for Danes, pagan, serving a Christian king,
pulled between ambition and duty.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Never He's always navigating that knife edge, and it leads
him after all this warm betrayal to grapple with that
huge philosophical question about fate.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
If the Norns the fates have already spun everything out,
what's the point of fighting it exactly?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
If your destiny has already written, does free will even exist?
It informs his final kind of bleak conclusion.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Doesn't it weird? Before I read it?
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Fate is inescapable? That's where his experiences lead him. After
everything he's done, everything he's fought for, he suspects it
might all have been preordained.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
An incredibly powerful, maybe unsettling thought for a man who
seemed to spend his whole life trying to carve out
his own destiny. Definitely something for you to chew on
as you think about the battles Bigger sm All in
your own life. Thank you for taking this deep dive
with us.
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