Hi Bernard. Not feeling too good today so I’ve been at home researching the Post Roman period in Britain through to late Anglo Saxon period for my illustrations. Happened to come across a BBC TV re run of a series called Meet the Ancestors in which an Archaeologist called Julian Richards tries to uncover the stories behind burials. One in particular reminded me of the scene in The Last Kingdom in which Ragnar sacrifices his horse prior to the campaign; the remains of a Saxon warrior was unearthed complete with weaponry, shield etc… and his horse! What reminded me of the said scene was the fact that the horse had been sacrificed with a blow to the forhead (sound familiar?). However, the specialist horse bone specialist pointed out a fact which I was wondering if you had heard before: horses are very difficult to kill with such a blow! What usually happened was the horse was stunned with a massive blow to the area between the eyes and then its throat was cut, often with such force that the blade would cut right through the flesh to leave marks in the backbones. Had you found evidence to the contrary as Ragnar kills the horse with a blow to the head only, or was this simply artistic license? I would be interested to hear your views. Regards Andrew Moore