AD 450: A young king and his followers step down from their longship onto a foreign shore to celebrate Yule at the court of his brother-in-law. But their hopes of warm fires and ale, feasting and good cheer, are dashed as they realise that they have walked in to the middle of the mother of all family feuds.

From the wreckage of the disaster, a reluctant leader emerges, one who must choose between survival and breaking the heroic code, picking his way through a maze of betrayals and tangled loyalties to lead his people towards a destiny that is fundamental to the foundation of England.

From the time that England forgot, but brilliantly evoking the warrior-heroic culture of Beowulf, Peter Ward has brought back to life the heroes and the kings, their longhalls and longships, showing us the women with the wit and the warriors with the grit: the wave­ farers whose deeds and daring brought Saxon ships to Britain's shores.