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The Dark Ages: The Viking Invasion of Wessex 878 AD.
Publisher: Pen and Sword.
Publication due: November 2011.
Run time: 90 mins.

Publisher's recommended price
DVD ISBN 5060247620091, £12.99

Description:

In the year 878 AD Alfred, King of Wessex, faced the fourth and most serious attempt by the devious Viking chieftain Guthram to seize the last remaining Saxon kingdom. Thwarted in their conventional attempts in 871, 876 and 878 AD, the Vikings 'stole away' from their base in Gloucester and descended on Alfred's court while they were celebrating Twelfth Night on the borders of wintery Wessex at Chippenham. Alfred escaped but was driven into hiding in the Somerset Marshes, while the Vikings fanned across Wessex. All seemed to be over for Alfred and the Saxons! The King of Wessex then staged one of the most unlikely recoveries to be found in all military history. It is, however, one full of historical controversies, with historians from many backgrounds bending the slim Dark Ages body of facts to breaking point and beyond to support their own theories. Soldiers and military historians, Tim Saunders and Andrew Duff apply the enduring principals of war and inherent military probability to take a fresh look at the campaign and its hotly debated locations. The campaign climaxed in the Battle of Eddington. This the most decisive and formative battle to be fought on English soil and it led to Alfred becoming the only Englishman to be known as 'The Great'.