Human Affairs
The Cuckold’s Ultimatum
“Now do one of two things: you kill him, or I’ll take him for my own husband and we’ll drive you away. He spoke seductively to me.” […]
Mild
Medieval Mentality
The Medieval Legal Mind
“But if this suit is tried at the Assembly and an objection is raised on the score that you gave Thorgeir the first blow, and therefore may plead neither your own suit nor that of others, then I shall answer this point by saying that I declared you inviolable at the Thingskalar Assembly.” […]
Greek and Roman
A Dream of Death; a Life of Sorrow
“Gabriotto did not reply, but simply lay there gasping for breath and perspiring all over, and shortly thereafter he gave up the ghost.” […]
Human Affairs
A Murdered Beloved
“In an outburst of love which her weakness hardly allowed, she slid along like a snake, dragging her own completely bloody body up beside the lifeless corpse. As if he were alive, she gave him as many sweet kisses as she could and broke out into a sorrowful song.” […]
Human Affairs
The Arrogance of Metalworkers
” The king bade them do so, and they then made a knife and brought it to the king. He tried it on his beard, and took off the beard as well as the skin, so that it took hold in the flesh.” […]
Britons and Celts
A Patriot’s Vision of his Homeland
“Numberless springs also well up, and burst forth from the hills and the sloping ridges of the mountains, and, trickling down with sweetest sound, in crystal rivulets between flowery banks, flow together through the level vales, and give birth to many streams; and these again to large rivers, in which Scotia marvelously abounds, beyond any other country.” […]
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.” […]
Greek and Roman
Totally Normal Behavior
“Then she wrapped the head in a piece of rich cloth, and laid it in a large and elegant pot, of the sort in which she planted several springs of the finest Salernitan basil.” […]
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.” […]