John The Old Saxon: King Alfred and the Revival of Anglo-Saxon Learning

by John Broughton

In his darkest hour, hiding in the depths of the Somerset marshes in 878 AD, King Alfred devises a scheme to save his kingdom from the Vikings threatening to overwhelm the country. His spectacular success, beginning with the triumphant battle of Ethandun, involves creating a sense of nation among his subjects. To help with this, Alfred gathers a small band of brilliant foreign scholars in his court, chief among them John the Old Saxon. Follow this epic tale set in medieval England and see how King Alfred laid the foundations for a united country, and the tenth-century Anglo-Saxon Renaissance. This is the large print edition of John The Old Saxon, with a larger font / typeface for easier reading.

210 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 29, 2021

About the author

John Broughton was born in Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire, studied at the local grammar school and went on to take an honours degree in Medieval and Modern History at the University of Nottingham, where he also studied Archaeology.
John retired in January 2014 and chose the period that fascinates him most – the Anglo-Saxon period – as the setting for his first historical novel. Since then, he has had 28 novels published by Next Chapter Publishing. Most are historical novels, but he also writes murder mysteries, fantasy and sci-fi.

Reviews

[Brian Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real treat for historical fans

Author John Broughton hits the spot once again in this fascinating and enthralling chronicle of the life of King Alfred, as seen through the eyes of the narrator of the tale, Asher, later known as Gwynn, (read the book to unravel the name change), and his friend and mentor, John, the old saxon of the book's title.
Mr Broughton has a happy knack of bringing the past to life using his passion for words, expertly augmented by an equal love of history, particularly that of the period he do clearly loves above all others.
Although Asher and John begin the tale as monks, both blessed with the skills to jointly create splendid illuminated manuscripts, glorifying God and the Bible, don't think for one minute that this is going to be a boring tale of two dusty old monks, cloistered away from the world behind the closed doors of their Abbey. Far from it, as the intrepid pair find themselves at the court of King Alfred, where they soon take up arms in defence of the kingdom as early England, (Angle-Land) is threatened by the hordes of Vikings intent on the conquest of Alfred's Kingdom.
There's action galore in these pages, with the author graphically depicting scenes of battle and the tactics of medieval warfare.
There's even a treacherous monk whose eventual demise is blood-curdling and in its execution.
It's a great read, well worth a five star rating.

[Mari · Rating 5 out of 5]

You are immersed in the ninth century of the struggle between the Saxons and the Viking raids. It is a straight-forward tale of monks and their cloistered lives. There are no females as there would have been none at the abbey. Our two monks are summoned for their abilities with translating the old texts and creating the new illustrated books of vellum for King Alfred. John also has a towering intellect and battle abilities. King Alfred calls on John and his friend Gwynn for creating the Book of Hours, but an attack by the Vikings allows John’s military abilities to produce a victory. King Alfred begins to use John for military and educational reasons. One of the monks at the abbey is jealous of their prestige and feels he should be at the head of the translations and illustrating. Through the years he schemes and plots against them until he finally sets up an assassination attack while John is praying, His quick response saves his life, but not before he is severely wounded. Gwynn must take over until John recovers. This is a huge epic tale of men surviving during the Viking raids that sought to destroy the Kingdoms of England. Life may have been more placid, but never dull.

[G. Miki · Rating 5 out of 5]

John and Asher are Anglo-Saxon ninth-century pagans, defeated in war and taken prisoner and beaten. They agree to set aside their old ways and become Christians, a role that they turn out to be well suited to. John pens important and beautiful Christian texts for the church and the nobility, and Asher illustrates them. But all is not peaceful in their world with the abbeys and churches beset by raiding Norsemen Vikings. The two must return to war to defend the monks and their sacred treasures--and John is a skillful tactician at this. Ultimately, the two friends wind up in England in service of an intellectual and devout King Alfred.

This novel is every bit as fascinating as Broughton's Expulsion, which tells the story of the Viking raiders in the first century AD. Broughton has a remarkable ability to bring other times and cultures to life, times most of us know nothing of. Both novels are an education in the early world of Europe as well as other, more sophisticated lands (the amazingly developed Middle East in Expulsion). I will certainly read more of Broughton's many novels with an assurance that they will be every bit as illuminating and entertaining as these. Absolutely five stars for John the Old Saxon.

[Stuart]

Well, that was a pretty bad book. The characters and plot were flat and hardly compelling. The writing was ho hum, and the history poorly connected.

[Mark Buckley · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF