Atlas the titan has always been one of my favorite mythological figures. He sits there, carries the sky with both shoulders, and does not say a word although he clearly does not enjoy the task. He benefits us all with the giant burden that is on his back and does not ask for anything in return. Every time I encounter stories of people who are torn by the will to do the right thing in spite of all the pressure, I remember Atlas. It is a beautiful depiction, after all, a ripped man showing all of his muscles, carrying a heavy weight. There is one point in this story where Atlas decides to relieve himself of the eternal burden and simply rest. That is during the 11th labor of Hercules, where Hercules carries the weight so that Atlas can catch the apples of Hesperides. There, Atlas tells Hercules that he himself willfully agreed to carry this weight and as a result of that will, he has to carry it forever. Hercules eventually tricks Atlas and puts the sky back on his shoulders, but the idea that willful agreement to carry a burden puts it on your shoulder for eternity has always fascinated me. It is a true concept in real life.
Uhtred son of Uhtred is the same way. He was separated from his Saxon family in childhood due to the death of his father in a battle and was raised by the Danes. He grew up believing in Odin and the gods where Christianity was heavily adhered to by Saxons, and remained in that faith his entire life. As all immigrants can attest, there are two ways to address a situation of having lived in two communities: You can be a lost soul belonging to neither, or you can treat people as people, and see all communities as one. Uhtred decides to do the latter. In a war-torn England where Saxons are trying every day to uproot Danes, Uhtred becomes a faithful soldier to Saxon kings while trying to calm the situation. As his entire friends and family are Danes, willfully pledging allegiance to the Saxon king results in a burden he has to carry for the rest of his life. Along the way, the consequences torment him. His Dane brother fights against him, his childhood love swears to kill him, any woman he loves either dies or has to avoid him, and he, very frequently, sees close friends lose their lives in front of his eyes. He suffers the death of his children while raising other people’s children as his own. He has no land of his own that he calls home while longing to get back to Bebbanburg where his father was the lord and he sees it as his land. He is shrewd, a great speaker, and the best warrior the land has seen, but you can constantly hear the sound of his soul ripping as all the consequences of his willful agreement to carry a burden unfold.
While the show is based on true history and uses many real historic figures, the character of Uhtred and the details of the events are entirely fabricated. Nonetheless, the show does an admirable job of reviving a tumultuous time in England’s history. I have not read the Saxon Stories books but Mr. Cornwell is a history major who apparently is a descendant of Uhtred the Bold. He tells an impeccable story while injecting all these characters into real history through which, you see a man who has willfully agreed to carry the sky on his shoulders.
