Truth is ever feeble against passionate falsehood.
King Edmund of East Anglia is now remembered as a saint, as one of those blessed souls who live forever in the shadow of God. Or so the priests tell me. In heaven, they say, the saints occupy a privil...
I charge more for prophecy, Offa said, on the grounds that what is worthless must be made expensive.
I am not sure,' Mordecai told Thomas, 'whether omens can be trusted.''Of course they can.''I should like to hear your reasons. But show me your urine first.''You said I was cured,' Thomas protested. '...
History is not just a tale of men’s making, but is a thing tied to the land. We call a hill by the name of a hero who died there, or name a river after a princess who fled beside its banks, and when t...
He’s a boy who must learn to be a warrior and a king,’ I said, ‘and death is his destiny. He must learn to give it.’ I patted Æthelstan’s shoulder. ‘Make it quick, boy,’ I told him. ‘He deserves a slo...
Five things make a man happy, I told him, a good ship, a good sword, a good hound, a good horse, and a woman. Not a good woman? Finan asked, amused. They’re all good, I said, except when they’re not,...
Esse é o verdadeiro dom das mulheres, ser sábias, e não são muitos os homens que o têm.
Descobri em minha longa vida que a maioria dos homens da Igreja prega os méritos da pobreza enquanto corre atrás da riqueza. Adoram dinheiro, e a Igreja atrai dinheiro como uma vela atrai mariposas.
But fate, as Merlin always taught us, is inexorable. Life is a jest of the Gods, Merlin liked to claim, and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh, he once told me, or else you'll just weep your...
Of bronze about
Different ways. Some to Spain, others to
You are sheep, they are wolves. Your blood will soak the hillsides, your skin will make saddles, your flesh will feed pigs!
Wyrd bi ful aræd.
Why did I choose to fight him? He was going to die whether I fought him or not, and he was dangerous, half my age and a warrior. But it is reputation, always reputation. Pride, I suppose, is the most...
There’s plenty of food here, Erik said dismissively. We have fish traps and eel traps, we net wildfowl and eat well. And the prospect of silver and gold buys a lot of wheat, barley, oats, meat, fish,...
The standing to be cannonaded,’ he wrote in the memoirs of his military service: and having nothing else to do, is about the most unpleasant thing that can happen to soldiers in an engagement.
So you know it was a glorious battle, Hook, in which God favoured the English, but God's favour is a fickle thing.''Are you telling me He's not on our side?''I'm telling you that God is on the side of...
So a good man can be a bad Christian?I suppose so.Then a bad man, I said, can be a good Christian?
Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. It