England just after 1000 A.D. teeters on the brink of survival, struggling in the aftermath of repeated invasions and assimilating former enemies as new neighbors. Alfgar, descended from Danish invaders on one side and English farmers on the other, faces a personal struggle to lead a moral life while corrupt officials fan old resentments and disguise personal ambition with holy rhetoric. His love and faith pit him against powerful enemies, including his own father, and lead him on a course of adventure alongside the English king.

Author Biography

Augustine David Crake (1836-1890) was an English cleric and author, known for devotional works, and for juvenile historical fiction that has been compared to the books of John Mason Neale. Crake was the author of a long series of historical fiction works, about the church in Britain, using Oxfordshire and Berkshire settings; they were based on stories he had told at Bloxham school. In 1873 he published a popular History of the Church under the Roman Empire.