Uhtred of Bebbanburg - Personality

Personality

In his youth, Uhtred is described a restless child, resisting his education and playing with armor and the harp. After his capture by the Danes, his restlessness is shaped into a warrior's fierceness.

Uhtred is forced to hate the Saxons because as a "Dane" they are his enemy. After the Danes win battle after battle against the Saxons, he becomes disgusted at their weakness in relying on prayers, and failing to produce decent warriors. He also honestly grows to love Ragnar the Elder as a surrogate father, and his family as his own.

However, during the Danes' first attempt at capturing Wessex, Uhtred discovers a streak of pride at a rare Saxon victory, and feels remorse when his uncle is killed in battle. After Ragnar's death deprives him of his family, he realizes he must rejoin the Saxons, where he develops friendships with several comrades that prevent him from returning to the Danes.

Portrayed as brash and arrogant, Uhtred at first despises Alfred as a weakling who listens too much to the counsel of priests, but, as time goes on (and also writing with the benefit of hindsight), he realizes that Alfred's cleverness is an effective weapon against the Danes, and also that he has a vision of something no one has ever dreamed of before: England united as one kingdom.

Uhtred is often portrayed as having to juggle several conflicting loyalties and priorities: despite having rejoined the Saxons, he still retains his love for his Danish foster brother, Ragnar the Younger, later known as Ragnar Ragnarson, and willingly fights alongside him to avenge the elder Ragnar's death, retaking the stronghold of Dunholm in the process. Uhtred uses the name of his foster brother on a number of occasions to hide his true identity from the enemy he is interacting with, such as when going ashore when recapturing Lundene in Sword Song. Outranking all other priorities is his determination to oust his usurper uncle as and take his rightful place as Lord of Bebbanburg.

Uhtred does not like breaking oaths and is therefore hesitant if he must take one and his arrogance, although rightly earned through the killing of fearsome Danish warlords, gives some people the wrong impression about Uhtred.

Uhtred shows love for his children, his first son died due to swallowing a pebble and choking and although cold at first, he weeps when it actually hits him. His second sons live well but he shows great love for his daughter, Stiorra, whom he is always playing with and nurturing. Although he shows a dislike for his second son as he wants to be a christen and not a warrior. Uhtred is a complex character with his own loyalties constantly being questioned, even by himself, though he is a trustworthy man.

Uhtred dislikes the Scots, but has a grudging respect for their fighting abilities. In Lords of the North, Ivar Ivarsson's army is ambushed and decimated by the Scottish king Aed, after Ivar invades Scotland in response to Aed's men raiding across the Border. Uthred, when he hears accounts from survivors of the battle, comments,

"Ivar's shield wall had held, but I could well imagine the ferocity of that battle. My father had fought the Scots many times, and he always referred to them as devils. Mad devils, he said, sword devils. Howling devils. And Ivar's Danes told us how they rallied from that first attack, and used sword and spear to cut the devils down - and still the shrieking hordes came. Climbing over their own dead, their wild hair red with blood, their swords hissing."

In the novel The Burning Land, Uhtred again quotes his father, "Dealing with the Scots is like trying to geld wildcats with your teeth."