Between the end of Roman Britain and the earliest onslaught of the Viking age, a warrior dynasty claiming descent from Woden forged the first military superpower of the Anglo-Saxon world. For 200 years the kings of Northumbria reigned supreme. This history of Northumbria, from the Battles of Kites and Crows in the shadow of the Roman wall to the golden age of the Lindisfarne Gospels, draws on the earliest surviving sources. John Marsden is the author of The Illustrated Bede , The Illustrated Border Ballads and The Illustrated Columcille .