“ If a man believes the nonsense that there is only one god then there’s no point in arguing because it would be like discussing a rainbow with a blind man. Bernard Cornwell
“ An arena where, so Merewalh’s priest told me, Christians had been fed to wild beasts. Some things are just too good to be true and so I was not sure I believed him. Bernard Cornwell
“ Who summons the dead man? she asked. A fresh corpse, Æthelwold said. A fresh corpse? I asked. Someone must be sent to the world of the dead, he explained, as though it were obvious, to find Bjorn and… Bernard Cornwell
“ We live by oaths and we can die by them. To give an oath is to harness a life to a promise, and to break an oath is to tempt the punishment of the gods. Bernard Cornwell
“ We are almost men, not quite warriors, and on some fateful day we meet an enemy for the first time and we hear the chants of battle, the threatening clash of blades on shields, and we begin to learn t… Bernard Cornwell
“ This time, if God wills it, we shall replace him. A man bitten by a snake once does not let the snake live a second time. Bernard Cornwell
“ There’s war between the gods, Uhtred, war between the Christian god and our gods, and when there is war in Asgard the gods make us fight for them on earth. Bernard Cornwell
“ There is a famous painting of the young Napoleon crossing the St Bernard Pass on his way to the Italian campaign which rocketed him to fame. Louis David’s canvas shows him on a rearing horse, and ever… Bernard Cornwell
“ The war was between the Danes and Wessex. My war was with Odda the Younger, and I knew I was driven by pride. The preachers tell us that pride is a great sin, but the preachers are wrong. Pride makes… Bernard Cornwell
“ The spelling of place names in Anglo Saxon England was an uncertain business, with no consistency and no agreement even about the name itself. Thus London was variously rendered as Lundonia, Lundenber… Bernard Cornwell
“ The men, who a moment before had been cursing and cumbersome creatures clambering down the clay bank into the clumsy boats, were mysteriously transformed into warrior silhouettes, spiky with weapons,… Bernard Cornwell
“ That is why battles of the shield wall are slow to start. Men have to nerve themselves for the horror. Bernard Cornwell
“ So we all die?'No, no, no! We fight them!''How do you fight a dragon?''With prayer, boy, with prayer.''So we do all die Bernard Cornwell
“ She is a woman, and what women want, they get, and if the world and all it holds must be broken in the getting, then so be it. Bernard Cornwell
“ Poor Uther. He believed that virtues are handed down through a man's loins! What nonsense! A child is like a calf; if the thing is born crippled you knock it smartly on the skull and serve the cow aga… Bernard Cornwell
“ Now, waving flies from his face, he told the two deserters what they might expect. Bernard Cornwell
