Believe me this is serious. In an effort to explain the extraordinary organizational structure of an engineering company to a new recruit, I stumbled on the analogy that it is not a regular army, but more like a band of Vikings! Your Saxon stories, if they hold accurately to history, only serve to reinforce that analogy. In your Saxon stories I detect some cynicism regarding the role of the Christian church in English history. If that impression is accurate, I would tend to agree. Apropos my “Viking” business analogy, I find the response to it often blurred by people’s image of the Vikings, or Danes/Northmen on a viking raid, thinking that they had the exclusive rights to brutality. Your view suggests that they were merely reflections of their times, but better at the mechanics of success. I also enjoy the Sharpe series immensely. Douglas L. Marriott