“ It was fate, I thought. Just fate. We think we control our own lives, but the gods play with us like children playing with straw dolls. Bernard Cornwell
“ If my body is recovered, Colonel, pray have it sent back to Normandy. My companion, on the other hand, is from Boston, so you may allow his body to rot in whatever noxious swamp it comes to rest. Come… Bernard Cornwell
“ I've known women! Æthelwold shouted at the rain, and they were bad women! Forgive me!Alfred was furious, but he could not stop a man making a fool of himself before God. Perhaps he thought Æthelwold's… Bernard Cornwell
“ I was doing everything wrong. I was confused. Confusion is inevitable in battle, but indecision is unforgivable, and I had hesitated to make any decision and then made all the wrong ones. Bernard Cornwell
“ I touched Thor's hammer, then Serpent-Breath's hilt, for death was stalking us. God help me, I thought, touching the hammer again, Thor help us all, for I did not think we could win. Bernard Cornwell
“ I put my hands over Saint Cuthbert's fingers and I could feel the big ruby ring under my own fingers, and I gave the jewel a twitch just to see whether the stone was loose and would come free, but it… Bernard Cornwell
“ I look at those parchments, which are deeds saying that Uhtred, son of Uhtred, is the lawful and sole owner of the lands that are carefully marked by stones and by dykes, by oaks and by ash, by marsh… Bernard Cornwell
“ I kicked back my heels, but all I achieved was to ride out of the panicked mass into the path of the Danes, and all around me men were screaming and the Danish axes and swords were chopping and swingi… Bernard Cornwell
“ I heard only last week that they want to make Erkenwald into a saint. Priests come to my home beside the northern sea where they find an old man, and they tell me I am just a few paces from the fires… Bernard Cornwell
“ I hated Alfred. He was a miserable, pious, tight-fisted king who distrusted me because I was no Christian, because I was a northerner, and because I had given him his kingdom back at Ethandun. And as… Bernard Cornwell
“ I had unlaced my cheek-pieces, let them see the blood on my face, see the blood on my mail, the blood on my hands. I was a man of gold and of blood. I was a lord of war and I was filled with the rage… Bernard Cornwell
“ Entendo que é possível olhar nos olhos de alguém e de súbito saber que a vida será impossível sem eles. Saber que a voz da pessoa pode fazer seu coração falhar, e que a companhia dessa pessoa é tudo q… Bernard Cornwell
“ Do you know who wins battles, boy?We do, Father.The side that is least drunk, he said, and then, after a pause, but it helps to be drunk.Why?Because a shield wall is an awful place. He gazed into the… Bernard Cornwell
“ Did I know all that at eleven? Some, I think. It lay in my heart, unformed, unspoken, but hard as a stone. It would be covered over in time, half forgotten and often contradicted, but it was always th… Bernard Cornwell
“ Christianity is not a religion that offers the solace of revenge to its adherents. For that you must go to the old women who know which herbs to pluck and what charms to say under a waning moon. Bernard Cornwell
“ But Alfred could not live long. He was already an old man, well past forty years, and now he was looking to the future. He Bernard Cornwell
“ Beware the man who loves battle. Ravn had told me that only one man in three or perhaps one man in four is a real warrior and the rest are reluctant fighters, but I was to learn that only one man in t… Bernard Cornwell
“ A hall-burning, Rorik said bitterly.Hall-burning?It happens at home, Rorik explained. You go to an enemy’s hall and burn it to the ground. But there’s one thing about a hall-burning. You have to make… Bernard Cornwell
“ Gli uomini sono degli sciocchi - ha asserito Igraine, poi mi ha guardato di sottecchi. - Tu hai mai tradito Ceinwyn?- No - risposi, ed era la verità.- E non hai mai avuto il desiderio di tradirla?- Oh… Bernard Cornwell
