The Dragon and the Raven 870 A.D.

The Dragon and the Raven:
In a time of chaos and Viking onslaught, Alfred the untested Saxon king, must fight to save his ravished land. The tale unfurls through the eyes of a young thane, Edmond, who becomes Alfred's friend and mightiest warrior. When Danes over run the land and the Saxons capitulate, this young knight trains and leads a devoted corps of pike-men to recapture the kingdom.
On his adventures Edmond is captured by the Pagan Danes, raises the siege of Paris, meets the Pope and still finds time to fall in love. Henty successfully weaves this plot of intrigue and suspense into the fabric of true history.

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Dear Lads 

Dear Lads 

Living in the present days of peace and tranquility it is difficult to picture the life of our ancestors in the days of King Alfred, when the whole country was for years overrun by hordes of pagan barbarians, who slaughtered, plundered, and destroyed at will.  You may gain, perhaps, a fair conception of the state of things if you imagine that at the time of the great mutiny the English population of India approached that of the natives, and that the mutiny was everywhere triumphant. The wholesale massacres and outrages which would in such a case have been inflicted upon the conquered whites could be no worse than those suffered by the Saxons at the hands of the Danes. From this terrible state of subjection and suffering the Saxons were rescued by the prudence, the patience, the valour and wisdom of King Alfred.  In all subsequent ages England has produced no single man who united in himself so many great qualities as did this the first of great Englishmen. He was learned, wise, brave, prudent, and pious; devoted to his people, clement to his conquered enemies. He was as great in peace as in war; and yet few English boys know more than a faint outline of the events of Alfred's reign events which have exercised an influence upon the whole future of the English people. School histories pass briefly over them ; and the incident of the burned cake is that which is, of all the actions of a great and glorious reign, the most prominent in boys' minds.  In this story I have tried to supply the deficiency. Fortunately in the Saxon Chronicles and in the life of King Alfred written by his friend and counselor Asser, we have a trustworthy account of the events and battles which first laid Wessex prostrate beneath the foot of the Danes, and finally freed England for many years from the invaders. These histories I have faithfully followed. The account of the siege of Paris is taken from a very full and detailed history of that event by the Abbe' D'Abbon, who was a witness of the scenes he described.

G. A. HENTY.