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e409e27
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Is all ordained? Foreknowledge is not fate, and we may choose our paths, yet fate says we may not choose them. So if fate is real, do we have a choice?
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fate
paths
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Bernard Cornwell |
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aef9442
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We honour great men, we admire aristocrats, we applaud actors, we shower gold on portrait painters and we even, sometimes, reward soldiers, but we always despise merchants. But why? It's the merchant's wealth that drives the mills, Sharpe; it moves the looms, it keeps the hammers falling, it fills the fleets, it makes the roads, it forges the iron, it grows the wheat, it bakes the bread and it builds the churches and the cottages and the pa..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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fa950c8
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He liked to see men cowed and frightened, for that made them biddable, and Sergeant Hakeswill was always at his happiest when he was in control of unhappy men.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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cac1ac9
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the rocketmen ran for cover. The missiles
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Bernard Cornwell |
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fc01d13
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You will not say how you are haunted by the faces of the men you killed, how in their last gasp of life they sought your pity and you had none. You will not speak of the boys who died screaming for their mothers while you twisted a blade in their guts and snarled your scorn into their ears. You will not confess that you wake in the night, covered in sweat, heart hammering, shrinking from the memories. You will not talk of that, because that..
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fear
heroes
horror
secret
shit
warriors
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Bernard Cornwell |
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e4eac30
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Step forward again, hold the shield steady. Peer over the top. Fear is screaming somewhere deep. Ignore it. You can smell the shit now. Shit and blood, the stench of glory. The enemy is more frightened. Kill them. Keep the shields steady. Kill.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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7fd8b23
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You do not swing in a shield wall, you stab. May the gods ever send me enemies who swing their blades.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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8006647
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Poor as an honest lawyer.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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94f79f8
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And you can use that sword, Weland Godfredson?" "As a woman can use her tongue, lord." "You're that good, eh?" Ragnar asked, as ever unable to resist a jest." --
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Bernard Cornwell |
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d96189b
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So I do my duty," Sharpe said, "and land in the shit." "You have at last seized the essence of soldiering," Hogan said"
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Bernard Cornwell |
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6cef956
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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 swinging. The grim work, the blood feast, the song of the blade, they call it.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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9d145bc
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So you settle to be a slave, eh? Yes, lord, no, lord, let me hold your prick while you piss all over me, lord?
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Bernard Cornwell |
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79f47df
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Sometimes, when I tell folk my story, they ask why I did not run away from the pagans, why I did not escape southward into the lands where the Danes did not yet rule, but it never occurred to me to try. I was happy, I was alive, I was with Ragnar, and it was enough.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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6171e3b
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Have you ever fought in a battle? I know you burned down my barns, but that isn't a battle, you stinking piece of rat-gristle. A battle is the shield wall. It's smelling your enemy's breath while he tries to disembowel you with an ax, it's blood and shit and screams and pain and terror. It's trampling in your friends' guts as enemies butcher them. It's men clenching their teeth so hard they shatter them. Have you ever been in a battle?
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Bernard Cornwell |
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59c6d68
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our oaths.' He advanced down the path
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Bernard Cornwell |
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72b04fc
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Mais tarde, muito mais tarde, aprendi que a alegria e o medo sao exatamente a mesma coisa.
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ptbr
the-warlord-chronicles
the-winter-king
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Bernard Cornwell |
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3617495
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a mystery to make men mad.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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3da3e20
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I ain't seen a herd the size of it, not even when the Scots drive the beeves down from Scotland to London.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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b9b1f33
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Now, waving flies from his face, he told the two deserters what they might expect.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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5349f74
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even be here,' Douglas snarled. The Scottish knights had been summoned by
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Bernard Cornwell |
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3f9228e
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He was loose in his enemy's rear, he was angry, and he was ready to give the bastards a taste of hell on earth.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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eab0af8
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E uma coisa ruim estar sempre combatendo", disse ele a ela: Enquanto estou no meio daquilo fico atarefado demais para sentir qualquer coisa; mas logo depois a sensacao e deploravel. E praticamente impossivel pensar em gloria. A mente e os sentimentos ficam exauridos. Fico desconfortavel ate mesmo no momento da vitoria, e sempre digo que, depois de uma batalha perdida, o maior sofrimento e uma batalha vencida. Nao apenas voce perde amigos q..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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9963fcf
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ignored Truslow, trusting instead in the Colonel's largesse.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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9e70de1
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I still feel a pang every time I look at her,' I admitted. 'That's it, isn't it?' he said enthusiastically. 'A pang! A quickness in the heart.' 'Love,' I said drily. 'We're lucky, you and I,' he said, smiling. 'It's friendship, it's love, and it's still something more. It's what the Irish call anmchara, a soul friend. Who else do you want to talk to at the day's end? I love the evenings when we can just sit and talk and the sun goes down an..
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love
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Bernard Cornwell |
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7b9ed9a
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Bem, gracas a Deus eu nao sei o que e perder uma batalha, mas certamente nada pode ser mais doloroso do que ganhar uma com a perda de tantos amigos.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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01a8097
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certainly strip him of his petty
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Bernard Cornwell |
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6ab3fbc
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Mostre-me um guerreiro humilde, e eu verei um cadaver
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Bernard Cornwell |
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06805ac
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Vi que Cippanhamm estava pegando fogo. A fumaca escurecia o ceu de inverno e o horizonte estava cheio de homens, homens montados, homens com espadas, machados, escudos, lancas e estandartes, e mais cavaleiros vinham da porta leste, trovejando sobre a ponte. Porque as oracoes de Alfredo haviam falhado e os dinamarqueses tinham vindo a Wessex.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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d851412
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My banner was behind me and that banner would attract ambitious men. They wanted my skull as a drinking cup, my name as a trophy. They watched me as I watched them and they saw a man covered in mud, but a warlord with a wolf-crested helmet and arm rings of gold and with close-linked mail and a cloak of darkest blue hemmed with golden threads and a sword that was famous throughout Britain. Serpent-Breath was famous, but I sheathed her anyway..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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a6e7df6
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Meu estandarte estava atras de mim, e atrairia homens ambiciosos. Eles queriam minha caveira como uma taca para beber, meu nome como trofeu. Olhavam-me enquanto eu os olhava, e viam nao um homem coberto de lama, mas sim um senhor de guerra com um elmo que tinha um lobo na crista, braceletes de ouro, malha de elos apertados e um manto azul-escuro com bainha de fios dourados e uma espada famosa por toda a Britania. Bafo de Serpente era famosa..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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e799840
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They're praying to ham bones, ham bones! The blessed pig!
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pig
praying
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Bernard Cornwell |
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daafda0
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St George!' the English shouted, but the saint must have been sleeping for he gave the attackers no help.
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saint
st-george
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Bernard Cornwell |
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b859903
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Children born to unwed mothers,' he said after a long silence, 'have parts of their souls missing.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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04afbe9
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An English man-at-arms had his helmet split open and his skull with it, so that he rode wavering from the fight, blood pouring down his mail coat. His horse stopped a few paces from the turmoil and the man-at-arms slowly, so slowly, bent forward and then slumped down from his saddle. One foot was trapped in a stirrup as he died but his horse did not seem to notice. It just went on cropping the grass.
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death
horse
man-at-arms
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Bernard Cornwell |
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404eca4
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Father Hobbe, his cassock skirts hitched up to his waist, was fighting with a quarterstaff, ramming the pole into French faces. 'In the name of the Father,' he shouted, and a Frenchman reeled back with a pulped eye, 'and of the Son,' Father Hobbe snarled as he broke a man's nose, 'and of the Holy Ghost!
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father-hobbe
fighting
french
priest
quarterstaff
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Bernard Cornwell |
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8fde075
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Where's your bowstrings?' Thomas asked, for the priest had neither helmet nor cap. 'I looped them round my...well, never mind. It has to be good for something other than pissing, eh? And it's dry down there.' Father Hobbe seemed indecently cheerful.
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bowstrings
father-hobbe
thomas-of-hookton
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Bernard Cornwell |
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289d61b
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It was then I first saw Ubba fight and marveled at him, for he was a bringer of death, a grim warrior, sword lover. He did not fight in a shield wall, but ran into his enemies, shield slamming one way as his war ax gave death in the other, and it seemed he was indestructible for at one moment he was surrounded by East Anglian fighters, but there was a scream of hate, a clash of blade on blade, and Ubba came out of the tangle of men, his bla..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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34a239c
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thinking of her, he felt a sudden longing inside him. She had the face of a hawk, slim and cruel, with dark hair and eyes. Teresa was beautiful as a fine sword was beautiful; slim and hard.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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86e6251
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Hurry up and do nothing, that was the army's way of doing things.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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532f728
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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 a man, it drives him. It's the shield wall around his reputation and the Danes understood that. Men die they said, but reputation does not die. What do we look for in a lord? Strength, generosity, hardness, and success. And why should a man no..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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75a5594
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The rest merely requires common sense; it is like a boxing match, the more you punch the better it is.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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cda7a33
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I ran with him and suddenly I was released from fear as the mad, God-given joy of battle came to me for the very first time. Later, much later, I learned that the joy and the fear are the exact same things, the one merely transformed into the other by action, but on that summer afternoon I was suddenly elated. May God and His angels forgive me, but that day I discovered the joy that lies in battle and for a long time afterwards I craved it ..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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1e0f4b4
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Have you heard a cuckoo yet?" I asked Steapa. "Not yet." "It's time to go," I said, "unless you want to kill me?" "Maybe later," Steapa said, "but for the moment I'll fight beside you." And" --
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Bernard Cornwell |
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622b888
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Yet to complain of the world's unfairness was the same as grumbling that the sun was hot or that the wind sometimes changed its direction.
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Bernard Cornwell |