Author: Richard Winston
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Author: Richard Winston
Publisher: New Word City
ISBN: 1612309208
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 101

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From his father, Charlemagne inherited only a part of the Frankish kingdom - little more than half of modern France and the Low Countries. Before his astonishing career had ended, he had conquered half of Europe and his armies had marched through Italy, Germany, and Spain. In a glittering Christmas Day ceremony in Rome, in the year 800, he was crowned the new Holy Roman Emperor. More than the heroic conqueror of Western Europe, Charlemagne was an intense and thoughtful human being. His succession of five wives brought him a palace full of children. So warm was his love for his daughters that he could never bear to see them married away from the court, even though enticing alliances with other rulers were offered them. A deeply religious man, Charlemagne became the protector of orthodox Christianity against medieval heresies. A patron of learning, he established schools and brought artists and scholars to his court to work and study. As a result, most classical literature comes down to us in copies of books made in Charlemagne's time. Here, from National Book Award winner Richard Winston, is his remarkable story.

Author: George Payne Rainsford James
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Author: Harry Harrison
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466823178
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 547

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A Viking king discovers new enemies while traveling from England to Scandinavia in this second entry in a historical fantasy adventure trilogy. A craftsman, visionary, and warrior, Shef has risen from slavery to become king of a mighty Viking nation. But his growing kingdom menaces all of Europe, and he has made many powerful enemies. Chief among his enemies are the Knights of the Lance, a fanatical order of soldiers sworn to bring Shef down, no matter what the cost. To defeat Shef, they will go to extraordinary lengths to find the sacred spear of Christ—and resurrect the Holy Roman Empire. Driven by dreams, Shef battles to change the course of history, but even the gods themselves may be plotting against him. . . . Praise for One King’s Way “Evokes the true spirit of the period falsely termed the Dark Ages. Fascinating details of the various Norse societies provide a rich background for a compelling saga of a hero who rivals Arthur.” —Library Journal “Cleverly combining mystical visions of Norse and Christian mythologies with an alternative history of the ninth century, Harrison’s . . . latest is an entertaining follow-up to The Hammer and the Cross. . . . The story is richly laden with detailed accounts of period naval warfare and changes in technology and culture, but one of its most satisfying pleasures is the intertwining of pagan mythologies and Christian dreams.” —Publishers Weekly

Author: Harry Harrison
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466823305
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 549

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In this rich and exciting alternate history, a Science Fiction Hall of Famer “evokes the spirit and atmosphere of the so-called Dark Ages” (Publishers Weekly). 865 A.D. Warring kings rule over the British Isles, but the Church rules over the kings, threatening all who oppose them with damnation. Only the dreaded Vikings of Scandinavia do not fear the priests. Shef, the bastard son of a Norse raider and a captive English lady, is torn by divided loyalties and driven by strange visions that seem to come from Odin himself. A blacksmith and warrior, he alone dares to imagine new weapons and tactics with which to carve out a kingdom—and launch an all-out war between. . . . The Hammer and the Cross. “Savage, inventive, compelling.” —Piers Anthony, New York Times–bestselling author of the Xanth series “Few historicals are as powerfully evocative of time and place as Harrison’s tremendous saga.” —Kirkus Reviews

Author: Robert Ferguson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Now, with the chamber boarded up, came what was probably the heart of the proceedings. Four or five dogs and two more oxen were slaughtered, as well as fifteen horses that had first been run to exhaustion. The furniture, tools and carriages scattered across the foredeck were bathed in their blood.Stones were then piled over the ship, breaking many of the grave-goods and rendering them unusable. The sights and sounds accompanying such an orgy of blood-letting we might perhaps be able to imagine, the atmosphere conjured by it probably not. As the mourners then set about completing the mound the sight before them must have been eerie and awe-inspiring, the blood-spattered ship with its cargo of dead women seeming to lurch forward across the field in a last attempt to shake off the engulfing wave of dark earth rising behind it. The meadow flowers preserved from this stage of the proceedings were autumnal, showing that the whole process from the opening of the furrow to the closing of the mound must have taken about four months. Clearly at least one of the women had died long before the burial took place.

Author: Jostein Gaarder
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1466804270
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 599

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A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

Author: Derek Wilson
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307274802
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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An incisive and absorbing biography of the legendary emperor who bridged ancient and modern Europe and singlehandedly altered the course of Western history. Charlemagne was an extraordinary figure: an ingenious military strategist, a wise but ruthless leader, a cunning politician, and a devout believer who ensured the survival of Christianity in the West. He also believed himself above the rules of the church, siring bastards across Europe and coldly ordering the execution of 4,500 prisoners. Derek Wilson shows how this complicated, fascinating man married the military might of his army to the spiritual force of the Church in Rome, thereby forging Western Christendom. This is a remarkable portrait of Charlemagne and of the intricate political, religious, and cultural world he dominated.

Author: Burnam W. Reynolds
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1441150080
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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There is a vigorous debate on the exact beginnings of the Crusades, as well as a growing conviction that some practices of crusading may have been in existence, at least in part, long before they were identified as such. The Prehistory of the Crusades explores how the Crusades came to be seen as the use of aggressive warfare to Christianise pagan lands and peoples. Reynolds focuses on the Baltic, or Northern, Crusades, an aspect of the Crusades that has been little documented, thus bringing a new perspective to their historical and ideological origins. Baltic Crusades were distinctive because they were not directed at the Holy Land, and they were not against Muslim opponents, but rather against pagan peoples. From the Emperor Charlemagne's wars against the Saxons in the 8th and 9th centuries to the Baltic Crusades of the 12th century, this book explores the sanctification of war in creating the ideal of crusade. In so doing, it shows how crusading ultimately developed in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Prehistory of the Crusades provides a valuable insight into the topic for students of medieval history and the Crusades.

Author: Captivating History
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781647488352
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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