Before England, Scotland and Wales formed, a disparate set of kingdoms stretched their way across the British Isles, expanding and compressing with the personalities and successes of their warrior kings, more war-leaders, and more often than not, owing allegiance to one overlord, one over mighty king exacting tribute from whomever he could. The year is 641 and the great Oswald of Northumbria, bretwalda (wide-ruler) over England, must battle against an alliance of the old Britons and the Saxons led by Penda of the Hwicce, the victor of Hae feld nine years before, the only Saxon leader seemingly immune to his beguiling talk of the new Christianity spreading through England from both the north and the south. Alliances will be made and broken, and the victory will go to the man most skilled in war craft and statecraft. The ebb and flow of battle will once more redraw the lines of the petty kingdoms stretching across the British Isles. There will be another victor and another bloody loser.