Britons and Celts
Live Free or Die: Unicorn Edition
“It can be killed but never subdued alive. And if ever by the exertion of hunters it happens to be taken alive, it immediately dies.” […]
Year: 2024
Viking
Pirate v. Pirate in the Far North
“Here Sigmundur showed his skill; he tossed his sword with a flourish aloft and he caught it with his left hand, holding his shield in his right. He slashed at Randver with his sword and cut his right leg clear off below the knee. Randver pitched over, and Sigmundur gave him a blow to the neck which severed off his head.” […]
Greek and Roman
Night, Whom Even the Deathless Gods Fear
“And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends of gloomy earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor.” […]
Britons and Celts
The Beauty of a Giant
“Sir Walter Raleigh ordered him to carry up the first dish at dinner, where the queen beheld him with admiration, as if a beautiful young giant had stalked in with the service.” […]
Humor
The Chains of Etiquette
“You are only a boy,” he replied, “and cannot understand the things appertaining to honor in which, at the present time, is all the wealth of respectable people. You must remember that I am, as you know, an esquire. I swear to God that if I met a count in the street and he did not salute me, I would not salute him if I met him again.” […]
Greek and Roman
Insults from the Battlements
“Did those pygmy Romans, they asked, wither their feeble hands and muscles, imagine that they could mount such a heavy tower on top of a wall?” […]
Britons and Celts
A Dream Mistress of Great Power
‘Then she handed me a sword with a highly polished hilt.
“Wield this weapon of mine,” said the woman,
“Much blood has been spilt at the bite of its blade,
And as you slash and swish it will serve you unswaveringly.”’ […]
Britons and Celts
The Punishment of Judas
“When I am sitting here I feel as if I were in a paradise of delights in contrast with my fear of the torments that lie before me this evening. For I burn, like a lump of molten lead in a pot, day and night. But here I have a place of refreshment every Sunday from evening to evening, at Christmas until the Epiphany, at Easter until Pentecost, and on the feasts of the purification and assumption of the mother of God. After and before these feasts I am tortured in the depths of Hell.” […]
Violence
A Duel By Night
“I would rather die here and now than let the 9 king’s daughters or their mother see me bound, and after that be insulted by all ladies and maidens as long as I live.” […]
Human Affairs
The Dangerous World of Ice-Skating
“You are never in greater peril or nearer to death than when you set off skating while the ice is covered with even the thinnest layer of snow.” […]