The Last Kingdom: a Historical and Philological Study of the Netflix Series

This paper considers the resources behind the adaptation of “The Saxon Stories”, written by Sir Bernard Cornwell, into a Netflix TV series. The purpose of the paper is to analyse historical data and compare them to the imaginary world of the books, using a medievalist approach. At the heart of the research lie the figure of the main character, Uhtred of Bebbanburg, and the sources behind his creation. The thesis goes on examining his belonging to the archetypal hero. The methodology then switches to a philological study of the texts, thus investigating the accuracy of the Old English words and expressions used by the author, and identifying the documents written in Old English that he may have read and used in his writing process. The paper concludes by explaining the implications related to the creation of a modern product loaded with historical and cultural references to the Germanic world, as well as indicating possible directions for future studies within Germanic philology.