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4be186d
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I ignored Waldhere and still spoke
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Bernard Cornwell |
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c8422b3
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He won't be happy," I said happily."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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5a4c17a
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Don't give me your Christian shit about forgiveness.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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9025f95
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Dealing with the Scots, my father had always said, was like trying to geld wildcats with your teeth, but luckily the wildcats spent much of their time fighting each other. Once
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Bernard Cornwell |
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e7c810c
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Erkanwald) "That is what you do, Lord Uhtred! You beat a child into obedience! A child learns by suffering pain, by being beaten, and that pregnant child must learn her duty. God wills it! Praise God!" 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 of hell. I only need repent, they say, an..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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bd717ef
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When you are young and powerless you dream of possessing mystical strength, and once you are grown and strong you condemn lesser folk to that same dream,
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Bernard Cornwell |
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f9c92a5
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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 of hell. I only need repent, they say, and I will go to heaven and live for evermore in the blessed company of the saints. And I would rather burn till time itself burns out.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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78ea5b6
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When we are young, we yearn for battle. In the firelit halls we listen to the songs of heroes; how they broke the foemen, splintered the shield wall, and soaked their swords in the blood of enemies. As youngsters we listen to the boast of warriors, hear their laughter as they recall battle, and their bellows of pride when their lord reminds them of some hard-won victory. And those youngsters who have not fought, who have yet to hold their s..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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4d32136
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superb book Mercia and the Making of England (Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2000).
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Bernard Cornwell |
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8124055
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Just remember, Braithwaite. While you were learning to be a fool at Oxford I was learning to kill men. And I learned well.
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dangerous-people
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Bernard Cornwell |
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750c549
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And I was so tempted that night in Cippanhamm's royal church. There is such joy in chaos. Stow all the world's evils behind a door and tell men that they must never, ever, open the door, and it will be opened because there is pure joy in destruction. At one moment, when Ragnar was bellowing with laughter and slapping my shoulder so hard that it hurt, I felt the words form on my tongue. That is Alfred, I would have said, pointing at him, and..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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3f102cf
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E uma coisa estranha que notei com relacao aos cristaos. Eles afirmam que nossos deuses nao tem poder, no entanto temem as maldicoes feitas em nome desses deuses.
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paganismo
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Bernard Cornwell |
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ec8b10c
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Wyrd bi ful araed.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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a8bc38d
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Says so in the scriptures,
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Bernard Cornwell |
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013c3b0
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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
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Bernard Cornwell |
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fc580e2
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Never do what an enemy expects, Dudda. We'll go in at dawn. On the flood.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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6a6650a
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Instead he was summoning his last tension, like a bowman drawing the cord of a hunting bow an extra inch to give the arrow deadly force, then Steapa howled like an animal and charged. Weland charged too and they met like stags in the rutting season. The Danes and Norsemen had crowded around, making a circle that was limited by the spears of Sigefrid's bodyguard, and the watching warriors gave
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Bernard Cornwell |
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06aecf0
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You're to grovel." AEthelwold spoke for the first time. He grinned at me. We were not exactly friends, but we had drunk together often enough and he seemed to like me. "You're to dress like a girl," AEthelwold continued, "go on your knees and be humiliated." "And"
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Bernard Cornwell |
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9edc5fc
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of every night you must be open to the Gods, and if
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Bernard Cornwell |
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9b8cf5d
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You can't take a city without shedding blood.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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ee8a741
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Lawford shrugged. "She jilted you." "Easy come, easy go," Sharpe said, then belted the tunic."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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2fee35e
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If the Danes come," he spoke to Wulfhere, "you must let me fight." "You don't know how to fight." "Then you must teach me." He slid Serpent-Breath back into the scabbard. "Wessex needs a king who can fight," he said, "instead of pray."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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1c966c8
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I paid him," Lawford said indignantly. "If you want a job done properly," Sharpe said, "you do it yourself. Hell!"
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Bernard Cornwell |
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809274c
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And I must be nineteen by now, lord! Maybe even twenty?" "Eighteen?" I suggested. "I could have been married four years ago, lord!" We"
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Bernard Cornwell |
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f8ab495
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I could hardly see him in the darkness, but knew he wore a leather jerkin and had a sword at his side. The rest of us were in leather and mail, had helmets, and carried shields, axes, swords, or spears. Tonight we would kill. Sihtric,
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Bernard Cornwell |
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d75a81c
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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, Lundenberg, Lundenne, Lundene, Lundenwic, Lundenceaster and Lundres.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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69abc05
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Because I'm tired of Wessex,' I said, 'tired of priests, tired of being told what your god's will is, tired of being told that I'm a sinner, tired of your endless damned nonsense, tired of that nailed tyrant you call god who only wants us to be miserable.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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5e439dd
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Quando um inimigo quer conversar significa que nao quer lutar.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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7047691
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I am old now. So old. My sight fades, my muscles are weak, my piss dribbles, my bones ache, and I sit in the sun and fall asleep to wake tired.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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c4c77c5
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Uhtred of Steapa - He might be dumb as a parsnip but he knows how to fight.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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8bf8963
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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, and ale."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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13ed2aa
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Remember the old saying, my lady," he said slyly. "Put a cat to watch a flock and the wolves eat well."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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934eb08
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Only a fool leaves cash where a servant can find it,' he said.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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a9fb4b4
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What are our intentions, sir?" "Our intentions, Milton? Our intentions are victory, fame, glory, peace, forgiveness of our enemies, reconciliation, magnanimity, prosperity, happiness, and the assured promise of heaven's reward." "Then might I suggest, sir," Cogswell said, trying to sober the ebullient Senator, "that we advance and occupy that stand of trees?"
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Bernard Cornwell |
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4af3617
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The English chevauchee was a tactic to destroy a country's power, to starve the lords of taxes, to burn their
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Bernard Cornwell |
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9f8a0eb
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of jackets that had their sleeves threaded onto two poles cut from an ash tree
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Bernard Cornwell |
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0b32c7a
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The sun flashed off the wet blades, splinters of light, then the oars dipped, were tugged, and the beast-headed boats surged, and I stared entranced.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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44413a9
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It might have been a moment or an hour. To this day I do not know. I listen to my poets sing of age-old fights and I think no, it was not like that, and certainly that fight aboard Haesten's ship was nothing like the version my poets warble. It was not heroic and grand, and it was not a lord of war giving out death with unstoppable sword-skill. It was panic. It was abject fear. It was men shitting themselves with fright, men pissing, men bl..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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c9f280b
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Yule is supposed to be a celebration and a consolation, a moment of warm brightness in the heart of winter, a time to eat because you know that the lean times are coming when food will be scarce and ice locks the land, and a time to be happy and get drunk and behave irresponsibly and wake up the next morning wondering if you will ever feel well again, but the West Saxons handed the feast to the priests who made it as joyous as a funeral. I
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Bernard Cornwell |
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a315dee
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were
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Bernard Cornwell |
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68a85c4
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Entendo que e possivel olhar nos olhos de alguem e de subito saber que a vida sera impossivel sem eles. Saber que a voz da pessoa pode fazer seu coracao falhar, e que a companhia dessa pessoa e tudo que sua felicidade pode desejar, e que a ausencia dela deixara sua alma solitaria, desolada e perdida.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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70347c1
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Trinity Royal, which was being nuzzled by a dozen small launches nosing into her flank like piglets suckling on a sow.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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4184566
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If we do nothing then Wessex will spread like a plague. There'll be priests everywhere." We seek the future. We stare into its fog and hope to see a landmark that will make sense of fate."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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9b2b3ae
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The spinners were watching me, waiting, needles poised, and unless I did their bidding then my fate would be failure.
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Bernard Cornwell |