What’s new with me?

Soon I’ll be registering for my university course that will start at the beginning of January. I’m planning on taking a course in the History Department called Medieval England.

In a somewhat related way, I just finished binge-watching the third season of “The Last Kingdom” on Netflix, which at this point is recounting the last days of King Alfred (Alfred the Great), who died in 899 C.E. after winning back much of the territory that the Danes had conquered and incorporated into the Danelaw:

Although Alfred did not achieve his goal of uniting all the English-speaking peoples of Britain into one country, to be called Englaland, or England, he certainly laid a firm foundation for that to be accomplished by later rulers.

The Netflix series is based upon the numerous novels by Bernard Cornwell that make up The Saxon Tales. In this third season of the TV show, the hero, Uhtred Uhtredson (or Ragnarson), is still apparently in his 30’s. I just finished the book The Flame Bearer, the tenth book in The Saxon Tales, in which Uhtred is now in his 60’s. But that’s the only spoiler I will reveal. 😉

The Saxon Tales is probably my favorite historical fiction series. So it would be an uphill battle for a TV series to be better than that, since I usually prefer the written word supplemented by my own imagination to any depiction on film. However, “The Last Kingdom” is definitely binge-worthy, if you are a Netflix viewer!

It is Thanksgiving today in the USA. I won’t be celebrating it on this day, though. Instead, I’ll be gathering tomorrow evening with my brothers who live in other cities and states at a restaurant in our old hometown, where none of us lives anymore. The family diaspora!