Mr Cornwell,

I just want to express my thanks for your many wonderful and exciting stories, especially The Last Kingdom Series. My question pertains to the wound Uhtred received from Cnut in The Pagan Lord. The agonizing wound continues over into The Empty Throne, where Uhtred is finally cured by having Edith stab him in the festering wound with the sword that originally caused it. Was there any scientific basis for the wound being reopened, that Dark Age people knew about, or is the theme of magic and superstition that you expressed, the only way to look at his healing?

Daryl Mears