Human Affairs
Many Marriages Means Many Mongols
“All the idolaters, and likewise the Saracens, take six, eight, or ten wives apiece, and as many as they can afford to keep, and beget innumerable children.” […]
Genre
Greek and Roman
Evidence of Mer-Folk
“I have illustrious knights as authority for the assertion that a Triton has been seen by them in the Gulf of Gades, perfect resembling a man in his physical appearance.” […]
Orient
One-on-one Demon Combat
“He sprang forward like a maddened elephant and slashed with his sharp sword at the demon’s trunk. The force of his blow severed a leg at the thigh, but the wounded demon attacked him, and the two locked together like an elephant and a lion.” […]
Human Affairs
Marriage Woes of the Great and Powerful
“He said that it was on every man’s lips that Harald was the son of King Helgi, and the boy looked just like him. And he said that he had come to let him know about this betrayal.” […]
Medieval Mentality
The Dance of the Heavens
“Others have suggested that during the hours of night, when the sun’s course is beneath the earth, an occasional gleam of its light may shoot up into the sky; for they insist that Greenland lies so far out on the earth’s edge that the curved surface which shuts out the sunlight must be less prominent there.” […]
Eastern Europe
The Price of Honey
Life in medieval Bulgaria. […]
Britons and Celts
Merlin’s Blasphemous Birth
“Many times, too, when I was sitting alone, he would talk with me, without becoming visible; and when he came to see me in this way he would often make love with me, as a man would do, and in that way he made me pregnant.” […]
Greek and Roman
The Origin of Life
“Then, as the sun’s fire shone upon the land, it first of all became firm, and then, since its surface was in a ferment because of the warmth, portions of the wet swelled up in masses in many places, and in these pustules covered with delicate membranes made their appearance.” […]
Britons and Celts
A Man and His Caliburn
“He drew his sword Caliburn, called up on the name of the Blessed Virgin, and rushed forward at full speed into the thickest ranks of the enemy. Every man whom he struck, calling upon God as he did so, he killed in a single blow.” […]
Viking
Starkad Chooses His Death
“When the severed head struck the ground, it is said to have bitten the earth; thus the fury of the dying lips declared the fierceness of the soul.” […]