Violence
Sworn through Sword
“Both lances were broken. They both leapt off their horses and drew their swords. They came together and fought so bravely that neither wanted to flee from the other, not even as far as a foot is wide.” […]
Regions
Greek and Roman
Even Herodotus Has His Limits
“The bald men say, but it does not seem to me credible, that the people who live in these mountains have feet like goats.” […]
Human Affairs
Lovestruck on the Battlefield
“Sohrab bore down on her again and snatched her helmet from her head; her hair streamed out, and her face shone like a splendid sun. He saw that his opponent was a woman, one whose hair was worthy of a diadem.” […]
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. […]
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.” […]