As a medievalist (writing doctoral dissertation) and recent returnee from a trip to northern England, I am currently reading and enjoying your “The Last Kingdom,” which I received as a Christmas present. It appears to be very carefully researched, and I like the borrowings from Old English poetry. On the subject of Old English, I did notice a couple of things you might wish to correct for the next printing. The letter you describe as a “thorn” on p. 93 (the crossed uncial “d”)is actually an eth. The thorn is the Old English letter that looks like a thorn. And the nominative of the word for “shadow-walker” is “sceadugenga,” not “sceadugengan” as you have it. Check out line 703 of “Beowulf” concerning Grendel the “sceadugenga” (one of my favorite words in Old English, by the way). Charlotte Allen