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.” […]
Gore
Britons and Celts
Three Knights Versus the City of London
“The fighting was so fierce that the gutters of every street ran with blood. So many men lay dead that the waters of the Thames turned the colour of blood.” […]
Viking
The Bloody Poetry Rushes Forth
“A warm, foamy stream of Danish blood, squeezed from their veins, gathers in waves to form broad lakes, an inundation which rolls the scattered corpses.” […]
Viking
The Fall of Grettir and Illugi
“Grettir swung his short-sword at Hjalti Thordarson’s follower Vikar, striking him on the left shoulder as he jumped down into the hut and cutting right through his shoulders and down his right side. The man was chopped clean in half and his body fell on top of Grettir in two pieces.” […]
Orient
A Massacre of Demons
“He grabbed him by the head and ears, and holding on to his shoulders with his other hand tore the demon’s head off, like a ravening lion, and flung it covered in blood into the crowd of warriors.” […]
Britons and Celts
The Revenge of Gawain
“Then he rode into the host, hacking through helmets,
Riving off rivets and ripping through shields,
Causing carnage in the ranks but keeping his course,
Rampaging through the rearguard and riding onward,
Then reigning back, that right royal battler,
And returning to the ranks of his own Round Table.” […]
Viking
The Failed Ambush
“Kolskegg said: ‘No need to look! It’s just as you thought; the leg is off!’ Then Kol fell dead to the ground.” […]
History
Death of a Viking Legend
“In the thick of the fighting, Bui and Sigmundur closed on one another in single combat. Bui was the stronger man, but Sigmundur was the quicker and better with a sword. Sigmundur switched his weapon to his other hand, as he could fight equally well with either hand – something which few or no men can do – and in a blinding slash, he cut off one of Bui’s hands at the wrist.” […]
Medieval Mentality
Righteous Punishment
“When he was alive he had lacked a brain, and now that he was dead he lacked a heart, for they ripped it from his entrails and impaled it on a stake, swollen as it was with fraud and evil.” […]
Greek and Roman
A Terrifying Oath
“Whichever contenders trample on this treaty first, spill their brains on the ground as this wine spills – theirs, their children’s too – their enemies rape their wives!” […]