| Æsc’s Hill | Ashdown, Berkshire |
| Æthelingæg | Athelney, Somerset |
| Afen | River Avon, Wiltshire |
| Andefera | Andover, Wiltshire |
| Baðum (pronounced Bathum) | Bath, Avon |
| Bebbanburg | Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland |
| Brant | Brent Knoll, Somerset |
| Bru | River Brue, Somerset |
| Cippanhamm | Chippenham, Wiltshire |
| Contwaraburg | Canterbury, Kent |
| Cornwalum | Cornwall |
| Cracgelad | Cricklade, Wiltshire |
| Cridianton | Crediton, Devon |
| Cynuit | Cynuit Hillfort, nr. Cannington, Somerset |
| Dærentmora | Dartmoor, Devon |
| Defereal | Kingston Deverill, Wiltshire |
| Defnascir | Devonshire |
| Dornwaraceaster | Dorchester, Dorset |
| Dreyndynas | ‘Fort of thorns’, fictional, set in Cornwall |
| Dunholm | Durham, County Durham |
| Dyfed | South-west Wales, mostly now Pembrokeshire |
| Dyflin | Dublin, Eire |
| Eoferwic | York (also the Danish Jorvic, pronounced Yorvik) |
| Ethandun | Edington, Wiltshire |
| Exanceaster | Exeter, Devon |
| Exanmynster | Exminster, Devon |
| Gewæsc | The Wash |
| Gifle | Yeovil, Somerset |
| Gleawecestre | Gloucester, Gloucestershire |
| Glwysing | Welsh kingdom, approximately Glamorgan and Gwent |
| Hamptonscir | Hampshire |
| Hamtun | Southampton, Hampshire |
| Lindisfarena | Lindisfarne (Holy Island), Northumberland |
| Lundene | London |
| Lundi | Lundy Island, Devon |
| Mærlebeorg | Marlborough, Wiltshire |
| Ocmundtun | Okehampton, Devon |
| Palfleot | Pawlett, Somerset |
| Pedredan | River Parrett |
| Penwith | Land’s End, Cornwall |
| Readingum | Reading, Berkshire |
| Sæfern | River Severn |
| Sceapig | Isle of Sheppey, Kent |
| Scireburnan | Sherborne, Dorset |
| Sillans | The Scilly Isles |
| Soppan Byrg | Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire |
| Sumorsæte | Somerset |
| Suth Seaxa | Sussex (South Saxons) |
| Tamur | River Tamar |
| Temes | River Thames |
| Thon | River Tone, Somerset |
| Thornsæta | Dorset |
| Uisc | River Exe |
| Werham | Wareham, Dorset |
| Wilig | River Wylye |
| Wiltunscir | Wiltshire |
| Winburnan | Wimborne Minster, Dorset |
| Wintanceaster | Winchester, Hampshire |
These days I look at twenty-year-olds and think they are pathetically young, scarcely weaned from their mothers’ tits, but when I was twenty I considered myself a full-grown man. I had fathered a child, fought in the shield wall, and was loath to take advice from anyone. In short I was arrogant, stupid and headstrong. Which is why, after our victory at Cynuit, I did the wrong thing.
We had fought the Danes beside the ocean, where the river runs from the great swamp and the Sæfern Sea slaps on a muddy shore, and there we had beaten them. We had made a great slaughter and I, Uhtred of Bebbanburg, had done my part. More than my part, for at the battle’s end, when the great Ubba Lothbrokson, most feared of all the Danish leaders, had carved into our shield wall with his great war axe, I had faced him, beaten him and sent him to join the einherjar, that army of the dead who feast and swive in Odin’s corpse-hall.
What I should have done then, what Leofric told me to do, was ride hard to Exanceaster where