I'm looking for book recommendations on the history of Anglo-Saxon England, and especially one covering their conflicts with the Danes from the time the Danes landed in England (c. 793) to the end of the reign of King Eadred (c. 955), but would prefer a more complete history. More specifically, I am looking for a book that presents this from a historical narrative rather than a specifically archaeological perspective. So far, I have found some books that may fit the bill, but am open to suggestions.
The Viking Wars: War and Peace in King Alfred's Britain, by Max Adams
The Anglo-Saxon World, by Nicholas Highman
The Northern Conquest: Vikings in Britain and Ireland, by Katherine Holman
Viking Age England, by Julian Richards (definitely a very archaeology-based book)
I also looked at The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England by Michael Lapidge, though it is a reference book, but I found some complaints that it focuses almost exclusively on Christian England traditions, cultures, and norms.
Thank you!!!
/u/BRIStoneman (who is the real expert in this field of research), /u/Steelcan909 and I posted a relevant book list for a while ago in: Could somebody recommend me some books on England 850-1066?
I suppose you can check some of the books mentioned in the linked list above (Foot's Aethelstan and Lavelle's Alfred's War are especially my personal recommendations).
In addition to the works mentioned in the linked thread above, Dawn M. Hadley, & Julian D. Richards, Viking Great Army and the Making of England. London: Thames & Hudson, 2021: has also just been published. It is also a good book, but the focus of the work might be a bit too narrow in accordance with OP's concern (though it certainly employs both written and archaeological evidence).
I'd recommend starting with Frank Stenton's Anglo-Saxon England. The last edition is almost 50 years old at this point, so several of its ideas are now a bit dated, but it nonetheless remajns the seminal work for looking at the period.
In terms of dealing with the Vikings explicitly, I'd recommend Lavelle's Alfred's Wars and The Danes in Wessex.
Strickland's Anglo-Norman Warfare should be on everyone's reading list anyway, but specifically the early chapters look in particular at the pre-Conquest English navy and how it fought the Danes.