The FALLEN PILLAR: Volume 1 of Saxon Wars Trilogy

When the Franks take Eresburg and cut down the Irminsul, young Bruno witnesses the beginning of a wound that will divide Saxony and his own family. His older brother Bernwald responds with fury, but Bruno is drawn into a different struggle: the war of memory, language, faith, and power.Three years later, Charlemagne's renewed campaign forces Saxon households to make terms. To preserve his family, Wulfhard gives Bruno as a hostage to the Franks rather than sending the more dangerous Bernwald. Carried west across the Rhine, Bruno enters a world of roads, clerks, monasteries, royal authority, and Christian teaching.Among Franks and Saxons alike, Bruno learns that conquest is not only carried by swords. It is written into lists, enforced through oaths, preached through churches, and remembered by children. As he learns letters and begins to understand the faith of his captors, Bruno must decide how much he can admire without surrendering himself.A bilingual English-German historical novel of Charlemagne's Saxon Wars.