Violence
A Kiss or a Kill
THE SCENE: After the Spanish General El Cid defeated the army of King Bucar of Morocco, he pursued the fleeing monarch to the sea. After cornering Bucar, El Cid offered him one chance at surrender: […]
12th Century AD
Britons and Celts
A Poison-Proof Isle
“They found toads brought in by chance in the bottom of the holds. They threw them out still living on to the land; but immediately they turned their bellies up, burst in the middle, and died, while everybody saw and wondered.” […]
Supernatural
The Taxonomy of Magic
“It is not surprising that barbarians yields to their weird hocus-pocus and were led into the rites of a debased religion, since even the intelligent Romans were reduced into worshiping similar mortals with divine honours.” […]
Supernatural
A Supernatural Secret
“Lady,” he said, “in God’s name, have mercy on me! If I tell you this, great harm will come to me. For as a result I shall lose your love and destroy myself.” […]
Greek and Roman
One Family Humbles Two Empires
“The princes hesitated over what to do. Should they abandon a great and costly expedition without hope of recovering their losses? Or should they allow the lord pope, the City and the church be cast into slavery, or rather destroyed?” […]
Eastern Europe
The Old Gods and the New
“Messengers thus came and said to the father, “Since the lot has fallen upon your son, the gods have claimed him as their own. Let us therefore make sacrifice to the gods.”” […]
Human Affairs
Respect for Honor is Universal
“Hardly could he speak, but when he did, [craving] pardon for putting off the fulfillment of his promise, all were filled with wonder and sympathy, and the king himself, appeased by the good faith of his prisoner, let him go free.” […]
Britons and Celts
Billions of Blistering Blue Birds
“Accordingly in some parts of Ireland bishops and religious men eat barnacles without sin during a fasting time, regarding them as not being flesh, since they were not born of flesh.” […]
Supernatural
The Gods Must Be Crazy
“Subordinating her husband’s divine honours to the splendor of her own apparel, Frigg submitted herself to the lust of one of her servants.” […]
Human Affairs
A Knight Begs for Sex
“He kissed her and henceforth was at peace. They lay together and talked, kissing and embracing. May the final act, which others are accustomed to enjoy, give them pleasure.” […]