Dear Mr. Cornwell: I´ve just finished reading Sword Song. I did enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the previous three books of the Saxon stories, the warlord chronicles and the Grail Quest series. It all began last year when looking for the new Sharpe book translated into Spanish in a bookstore here in Mexico City, I found, between Sharpe’s Eagle and Stonehenge, a book entitled in Spanish: Northumbia, el último reino, picturing a danish war vessel in the cover. The vikings being one of my favorite historical interests, I purchased the book and I loved it from the very first page. From that moment on, I became almost obsessed with your work (until then I had only read two Sharpe’s), and a surgical procedure gave time and an excuse to read the Warlord Chronicles, The pale horseman, Lords of the North and now Sword Song. I had to buy the latter three online, cause they weren’t available in Spanish yet, nor the American or British versions. As soon as I finished Sword Song, I felt the depression of having to wait at least a year for the next one, and now I found in your website that the wait is going to be of at least two!

Anyway, I have some questions to make you: were the similarities between Derfel Cadarn and Uthred Ragnarson (by the way, he should introduce himself using that name more often) deliberate?. Will Ragnar appear in the next book? …. I hope one day they will meet again and carry they swords northwards, to Bebbanburg. (please don’t kill Ragnar before that!).

Why are the viking ships sails often portrayed as having had a striped pattern, usually red and white? Is that accurate?.

And finally, what about the death by “blood eagle”?. I expected Kjartan the cruel to be executed using that, he deserved it. But, did the Danes really do that? I have read in some history books that they did, and it’s described is some ancient Norse saga, but hey, you know your job much better than I do. Meanwhile, i like to picture every historical event I’m interested in described by your pen. I had never understood many things about high middle ages in general and feudalism in particular as I had by reading Derfel’s and Uthred’s adventures. I trust that you won’t let serpent breath “sleep in its scabbard” for long, Greetings from Mexico. Alfredo Reynoso