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c88c72c
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Truth is ever feeble against passionate falsehood.
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truth
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Bernard Cornwell |
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1f56cca
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I remember Ragnar laughing one day. "It is so kind of the Christians! They put their wealth in one building and mark it with a great cross! It makes life so easy."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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01c7ea4
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That dawn is seared on my memory, burnt there by the flames of a hall-burning. There was nothing we could do except watch.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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6a537e1
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So I woke, I listened, and I heard the small sounds of a wood at night, the things moving, the claws in the dead leaves, the wind's soft sighs.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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6954c40
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Guinevere grimaced. 'Do you know how cloying love can be, Derfel? I don't want to be worshipped. I don't want every whim granted. I want to feel there's something biting back.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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5f92654
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In madness lies change, in change is opportunity, and in opportunity are riches.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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8bed10b
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Love is a voyage too, a voyage with no destination except death, but a voyage of bliss.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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3457b62
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We had to fight, because to decline battle was a defeat.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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71ae8a8
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Instinct is a strange thing. You cannot touch it, feel it, smell it, or hear it, but you must trust it, and that night, as we listened to the slap of the waves and the creak of the oars, I was as certain as I could be that my fears were justified.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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657eecc
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E enquanto houver um reino nesta ilha varrida pelo vento, havera guerra. Portanto nao podemos nos encolher para longe da guerra. Nao podemos nos esconder de sua crueldade, de seu sangue, do fedor, da malignidade ou do jubilo, porque a guerra vira para nos, desejemos ou nao. Guerra e destino, e o destino e inexoravel.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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e59b849
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The Lord Uhtred sought to annoy you, bishop," the king said, "and it is best not to give him the satisfaction of showing that he has succeeded."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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5db303c
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I think only one man in three is a warrior, and sometimes not even that many, but in our army, Uhtred, every man is a fighter. If you do not want to be a warrior you stay home in Denmark. You till the soil, herd sheep, fish the sea, but you do not take to the ships and become a fighter. But here in England? Every man is forced to the fight, yet only one in three or maybe only one in four has the belly for it. The rest are farmers who just w..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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e501c64
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I was Uhtred, Lord of Bebbanburg, in my war-glory. The arm rings of fallen enemies glinted on my forearms, my shield was newly painted with the snarling wolf's head of my house, while another wolf, this one of silver, crouched on the crest of my polished helmet. My mail was tight, polished with sand, my sword belt and scabbard and bridle and saddle were studded with silver, there was a gold chain at my neck, my boots were panelled with silv..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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ddd578c
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A humble god! You might as well have a toothless wolf! The gods are the gods, ruling thunder and commanding storms, they are the lords of night and day, of fire and ice, the givers of disaster and of triumph. To this day I do not understand why folk become Christians unless it's simply that the other gods enjoy a joke. I have often suspected that Loki, the trickster god, invented Christianity because it has his wicked stench all over it. I ..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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b16a728
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He needed to know it, see it, smell it, and survive it. I was training the boy not just to be a warrior, but to be a king.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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1b2c935
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Forward now. Forward to battle slaughter. 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 twenty is a lover of battle. Such men were the most dangerous, the most skillful, the ones who reaped the souls, and the ones to fear. I was such a one, and that day, beside the river where the blood flo..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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4fdad76
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Gods fight, Ragnar went on earnestly, and some win, some lose. The Christian god is losing. Otherwise why would we be here? Why would we be winning? The gods reward us if we give them respect, but the Christian god doesn't help his people, does he? They weep rivers of tears for him, they pray to him, they give him their silver, & we come along & slaughter them! Their god is pathetic. If he had any real power then we wouldn't be here, would ..
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religion-christianity
gods
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Bernard Cornwell |
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52a0e68
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Earsling,' a harsh voice challenged me from beside the Wheatsheaf's heart. 'What rancid demon brought you here to spoil my day?' I stared. And stared. Because the last person I had ever expected to see in AEthelred's stronghold of Gleawecestre was staring at me. 'Well, earsling?' he demanded, 'what are you doing here?' It was my father.
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uhtred
cornwell
saxon-stories
the-empty-throne
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Bernard Cornwell |
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ee2ecf2
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My dear Lord,' I said, but not to him. I spoke to Arthur. And I watched and wept, my arm around Ceinwyn, as the pale boat was swallowed by the shimmering silver mist. And so my Lord was gone. And no one has seen him since.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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2476b1f
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If you roll the dice often enough you always get the numbers you want. If I tell you the sun will shine tomorrow and that it will rain and there will be snow and that clouds will cover the sky and that wind will blow and that it will be a calm day and that thunder will deafen us, then one of those things will turn out to be true and you'll forget the rest because you want to believe that I really can tell the future.
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skepticism
superstition
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Bernard Cornwell |
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5615fb5
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O mundo esta apodrecendo. A Igreja e corrupta e os reis sao fracos. Cabe a nos fazer um mundo novo, amado por Deus, mas para faze-lo temos de destruir o velho. Temos de tomar o poder e depois dar o poder a Deus. E por isso que estamos lutando.
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inspirational
fight
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Bernard Cornwell |
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223a690
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And afterwards, you recall little, except the blows that so nearly killed you. You work and push and stab to make an opening in their shield wall. And then you grunt and lunge and slash to widen the gap. And only then does the madness take over. As the enemy breaks and you can begin to kill like a god. Because the enemy is scared and running or scared and frozen. And all they can do is die while you harvest souls.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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a2b2811
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He was watching my eyes. A man who uses a sword with lethal skill always matches his opponent's eyes.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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26991fd
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Always fight the horse, not the rider.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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f7ff873
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The Immortals were about to engage the Impregnable. The unbeaten would fight the unbeatable.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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c9d442c
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Dreams are like songs. Their task is not to offer an exact image of the world, but a suggestion of it.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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c0e5f06
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I like to see a man obeying a woman," Father Pyrlig said as I fetched the loaf. "Why's that?" I asked. "Because it means I'm not alone in this sorry world."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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5ff088c
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How anyone could endure three or four hours of chanting monks and ranting priests was beyond my understanding, just as it was beyond my understanding to know why bishops needed thrones. They would be demanding crowns next.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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4638b30
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And that, too, was the truth, that a man cannot step back from a fight and stay a man. We make much in this life if we are able. We make children and wealth and amass land and build halls and assemble armies and give great feasts, but only one thing survives us. Reputation. I could not walk away.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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209105d
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Instinct is everything.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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1bd1700
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It was madness. And, as Finan had said, sometimes madness works.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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8112bb1
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I have a path to follow," I said, "and it goes north. North back to Bebbanburg."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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5c5878f
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Play with the devil," Finan said, "and you get burned."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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b9f2fa1
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How can a god disapprove of a good hump?
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Bernard Cornwell |
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5f91e7b
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And I looked,' Pyrlig said to me, 'and I saw a pale horse, and the rider's name was death.' I just stared in amazement. 'It's in the gospel book,' he explained sheepishly, 'and it just cam to mind.
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war
prophesy
title
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Bernard Cornwell |
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da2d9d3
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Do you really think men and women thanked you for bringing them peace? They just became bored with your peace and so brewed their own trouble to fill the boredom. Men don't want peace, Arthur, they want distraction from tedium,
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Bernard Cornwell |
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c5ff58b
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So, in the morning light, where they flapped in the drying wind, the bear and the star defied the Saxons.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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1f19e4a
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The art of war," I told him, "is to make the enemy do your bidding."
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Bernard Cornwell |
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ed309d9
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The world began in chaos and it will end in chaos. The gods brought the world into existence, and they will end it when they fight among themselves, but in between the chaos of the world's birth and the chaos of the world's death is order, and order is made by oaths, and oaths bind us like the buckles of a harness.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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a4d6d00
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I forgot to mention," Father Christopher said, smiling seraphically at Sir Martin, "that I am also a priest. So let me offer you a blessing." He pulled out a golden crucifix that had been hidden beneath his shirt and held it toward Lord Slayton's men. "May the peace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ," he said, "comfort and sustain you while you take your farting mouths and your turd-reeking presence out of our sight." He waved a sketchy cro..
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Bernard Cornwell |
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daf3757
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He was a startlingly handsome young man, and that, too, distracted him for girls were attracted to him like priests to gold.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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b2f3947
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Tell Ragnall," I told him, "that the Saxons of Mercia are coming. Tell him that his dead will number in the thousands. Tell him that his own death is just days away. Tell him that promise comes from Uhtred of Bebbanburg." --
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Bernard Cornwell |
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61a4cc3
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His men howled with him. They were caught up in Baird's madness. At this hour, under the fire of the sun and emboldened by the arrack and rum they had drunk in their long wait in the trenches, the redcoats and sepoys had become gods of war. They gave death with impunity as they followed a warmaddened Scotsman down an enemy wall that was sticky with blood. Baird would have his city or else he would die in its dust.
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Bernard Cornwell |
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0dbcc25
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Do you ever read the scriptures?" "Every day," I said enthusiastically, "not a moment passes that I don't have a quick read of Ieremias or dip into Ezekiel." She smiled, amused. "What a barbarian you are!"
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momento
ezekiel
ieremias
scriptures
read
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Bernard Cornwell |