I AM not great at self-promotion but I feel I must respond to the Echo article on Brunanburh by Lizzie Anderson (Echo, June 11).

While I have not had the chance to read the book by Bjornsson and Vernhardsson, I would claim that they are wrong to place the Battle of Brunanburh near Hunwick. I dug deeply into the historical sources to produce the solution that appears in my book “Erik Bloodaxe: His Life and Times” (pp 52-99).

For me there were two battles, a point made clear by “Egil’s Saga”. The first was at Bromborough, while the second was near Bramham, south west of York. The saga names it as Vinheidr.

The name Brunanburh appears in a poem, written by a West Saxon poet to praise Athelstan, his king. He may never have been in the north, but made the error of conflating the two battles under the name more suitable for the preliminary one.

I think we have been invaded by two 20th Century Vikings from Iceland and think we should resist them.

As a matter of interest I have involved Hunwick in earlier events at the time of the war between King Oswin of Deira and King Oswy of Bernicia (7th Century). For interested parties, these appear in my later book “Beowulf the Jute: His Life and Times (pp 457-561).

William Pearson, Stockton