History
Charlemagne the Big-Hearted
“Say, sire, what grief doth your heart oppress?”
“To ask,” he said, “brings worse distress; I cannot but weep for heaviness. […]
Regions
History
Throwing Bones in the Court of the King
“They decreed that he should be seated last of all, and pelted with bones at any man’s pleasure.” […]
Britons and Celts
Merlin’s First Prophesy
“The serpents began to struggle with each other; and the white one, raising himself up, threw down the other and sometimes drove him to the edge; and this was repeated thrice.” […]
History
Roland’s Mighty Blow
“Down through the saddle with gold inlaid, till sank in the living horse the blade, severed the spine where no joint was found, and horse and rider lay dead on ground.”
[…]
History
The Death of Attila the Hun
“There they found the death of Attila accomplished by an effusion of blood, without any wound, and the girl with downcast face weeping beneath her veil.” […]
Greek and Roman
A Legend in Love and War
“The found in a cave a strange being, between a maiden and a serpent, whose form from the waist upwards was like that of a woman, while all below was like a snake.” […]
Humor
Viking Gallows Humor
“At that very moment he pulled his head away sharply so that the blow fell on the man who was holding the hair and cut off both arm at the elbows.” […]
Supernatural
The Monstrous Visage of a “Mer-maid”
“This appears to have the form of a woman from the waist upwards, for it has large nipples on its breast like a woman, long hands and heavy hair, and its neck and head are formed in every respect like those of a human being.” […]
Greek and Roman
Beware the Condemnations of a Horny Historian
“Often when she was alone with other actors she would undress in their midst and arch her back provocatively, advertising like a peacock both to those who had experience of her and to those who had not yet had that privilege her trained suppleness.” […]
Britons and Celts
An Anglo-Saxon Riddle
“Allowed to become proud, however, he proves ungrateful.” […]