Mostrando resultados por autor "Christopher Webster" en Todas las categorías

This collection of stories and poems covers the period from first wave of migration in c. 449 to the end of Anglo-Saxon England with the Norman Conquest in 1066 and include stories about the most popular Anglo-Saxon heroes and events, such as Hengest, King Alfred, the Battle of Maldon and the Battle of Hastings. They also include material from the common Germanic stock, such as the legends of Beowulf and Starkath.

This collection of stories set in the Anglo-Saxon period begins with a novella about Brother Boniface, a monk who becomes the victim of a Viking raid. It also includes the story of Offa’s single combat in the English homeland of Angeln, Sigurd’s fight with the dragon Fafnir, Beowulf’s fight with the troll-wife, and several other lays and legends including a poem which explores what might have happened if the greatest Celtic warrior (King Arthur) were to be matched with the greatest Germanic warrior (Beowulf).

A tomboyish girl, fond of stories of shieldmaidens and waelcyries, gets involved a viking raid led by her older brother. The raid goes wrong, and her stepmother tries to teach her that her 'womanly weapons' have more power. She goes on to seduce one king of Britannia and kill another, thus playing as large a part in the conquest of that country as her father, Hengest – but can she ever find true love? This is the third part of the English Dawn pentalogy, which tells the story of the conquest and settlement of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century, set against the broad sweep of ...

“Take Lions’ reins and run to safety to the nearby wood. I’ll welcome these warriors with Weland’s work – no words are sharper!” Attila—the devil made flesh, a savage, a warlord, a king. He killed his own brother to seize the kingship of Hungvar. That tale alone made Rome tremble. But one man stands up to him—Waldere, master of Nordic martial arts, and possessor of the fabled sword, Mimming. Atilla takes him hostage, but when he escapes, Attila sends 12 of his finest warriors to bring him back, dead or alive. Will Waldere's martial skills enable him to survive?

England will burn – and Halfdan Ragnarsson will fuel the fire. Son of the feared Viking warlord, Ragnar Hairy-Breeches, and brother to Ivar the Boneless and Ubba Frisi, Halfdan sails for England at the head of the Great Heathen Army, sworn to avenge his father’s death by making a blood-eagle of King Aella. He goes on to conquer Eoforwic, and renames it Jorvik, despite the opposition of a cathedral canon named Cynewulf, and, later, crosses swords with a mysterious shieldmaid at the Battle of Ashdown. Halfdan of Jorvik is the opening novel of The Jorvik Trilogy, an epic saga of invasion, ...

This story of amour courtois, senile lust, and true love is based on the ballad of Robin Hood and Allan-a-Dale. I have given it a Conisbrough setting at a specific date in history, 1190, one year after King Richard I left England to go on crusade, leaving his brother John to wreak havoc with the kingdom, and with the heart of his mistress, Adela, at Conisbrough Castle. Deserted by her royal lover, Adela makes a play for Allan-a-Dale, putting his life in jeopardy. Allan-a-Dale visits Conisbrough Castle and Adela takes a fancy to him. To make matters worse, Allan falls in love with her sister...

"I am thy fool, and I shall lose my wits." In this dark and compelling idyll, the great wizard Merlin, wise, but weary, and growing old, falls under the spell of Vivien, a cunning and ambitious seductress. Through flattery and deceit, she seeks to learn his secrets and gain power over him. A tale of betrayal and the downfall of wisdom, Merlin and Vivien explores the dangers of desire and the fragility of even the greatest minds.

This is the missing book of the Hengeid Tetralogy—an “Interquel” to be read between Books 2 and 3. It tells the dramatic tale of Attila and Waldere, shedding crucial light on the events that shape Hengest’s destiny. In 449, soon after Hengest’s first venture into Britannia, one of the most decisive battles in Western history raged in far away Gaul—the clash between Aetius, leading Rome's last legion, and the Hunnic hordes led by Attila. Among those in the fray was Hengest’s greatest rival for the dominion of Britannia: Aurelius Ambrosius—but will his legion survive the storm...

Attila explodes on the world, threatening to bring down the Roman Empire, and few can stand against him. Waldere is one, who, after escaping from Attila, and fighting single-handed, dispatches eleven of his attackers. Another is Aurelius, Britannia's rightful king, but in exile in Armorica. These heroes, and many others, join forces with Aetius, who has put together a shambolic army of allies, auxiliaries and and foederati, the last that Rome will ever field – but is it enough to protect the Empire from the fury of Attila? This is the second part of the English Dawn pentalogy, which tells...

"Now the Normans neared the standard, where Harold had stayed striving to the utmost, but the arrow had wounded him in the eye and he suffered piteously from the pain. A Norman baron sprang from the battle and hit him on the aventail of his helmet and beat him down. He did his best to get up again, but another knight beat him on the thigh through to the bone..." Book Three in this series includes this account of the Battle of Hastings based on Wace's Roman de Rou. Other stories include the adventures of a housecarl who, after the defeat at Hastings, joins the Varangian Guard, a story about ...

Book III of The Jorvik Trilogy tells the story of Eric Bloodaxe, using the fragmentary skaldic poem Eiríksmál as a basis. After his father's death, Eric fights with his brothers for control of Norway, but is finally driven out by his brother, Hákon the Good. He takes the kingship of Jorvic at the invitation of Archbishop Wulfstan who wants the Kingdom of Jorvik to be independent of the Wessex hegemony. But as Wessex threatens and allies waver, Eric must deal with treachery, a demanding wife, and the ghosts of his own bloodthirsty past.

In Book II of The Jorvik Trilogy, Olaf Guthfrithson, a descendant of the legendary Ivar the Boneless and king of Dyflin, dares to challenge the might of England. Crushed at Brunanburh in 937, he bides his time until the death of King Athelstan enables him to capture Jorvik. Olaf quickly turns his sights to Mercia, taking the beautiful Wulfruna, First Lady of the Mercians, as prisoner. But when duty and desire clash, it is Olaf who finds himself the prisoner – of love.

English Dawn tells the story of the conquest and settlement of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century, set against the broad sweep of events in the Dark Ages: the decline of the Roman Empire, the rise of Attila the Hun, the raids by the Picts and the Scots, and the usurpation of the kingship of Britannia by the tyrant, Vortigern. Anglo-Saxon culture is presented in all its richness, including the history and the legends, the arms and armour, and the songs and sagas. Celtic legends about the Sword of Albion and the dragons of Dinas Emrys are also included, along with an original ...

Two poachers, Peter and Gregory, play a trick on Father Bernadine by stealing a cask of his wine. He punishes them by laying a curse on the cask, and when they open it, a serpent wriggles out. The serpent grows until it terrorizes the town of Coningsburgh. Only one person can save the people from destruction – young Robert and his little dog Toby – but how can a boy and his dog take on the might of the serpent?

Dreng (Anglo-Saxon): "Young warrior". Nithing, the first book of the English Dawn Pentalogy, begins in medias res, with Hengest exiled from Angeln for a revenge raid on Frisia which he led when only 17 years of age. This is the story of that raid and the events leading up to it.

“We did not come to plunder, but to help. We heard your king needs warriors. We will break your foes and cast them back into the sea. We bring swords.” The second volume of the Englaland Pentalogy tells the dramatic story of Hengest and Horsa, whose epoch-making landing in Britain marks the arrival of the first Anglo-Saxons and the birth of what would become Englaland.

Young squire Eubulo le Strange is sent to Conisbrough Castle to complete his military training under the formidable John de Warenne. But what begins as a rite of passage soon draws him into a tangled web of feuds, forbidden love, and political intrigue. As tensions mount across the realm, Eubulo finds himself entangled in one of the most daring scandals of the age—the abduction of Lady Alice de Laci, wife to the powerful and vengeful Earl Thomas of Lancaster. When Lancaster’s wrath descends upon Conisbrough in the form of a siege, loyalty and survival hang in the balance. Based on real ...

Gautier : le preux d'Aquitaine Au cœur des vastes plaines d'Europe, alors que l'Empire romain vacille sous les assauts d'Attila, un héros s'élève : Gautier, le preux d'Aquitaine. Entre batailles sanglantes et complots politiques, il manie son épée légendaire, Mimaing, et défend sa patrie avec courage et sagesse. Inspirée des épopées médiévales et des fragments perdus du Waltharius et de Waldere, cette novella mêle histoire, légende et héroïsme, retraçant le destin d'un homme qui lutte pour la gloire, la justice et la survie de son peuple.

Conisbrough Castle is associated with a glittering array of kings, crusaders and knights, yet in the 1530’s it was linked with another man who was famous for a very different reason—Thomas Wyatt, the poet (1503-1542). Wyatt was made Constable of Conisbrough Castle in 1536, and soon after, found himself having to hold the castle against the army of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Unfortunately for Wyatt, the army consisted of over 40,000 men. Most of the main events in my story actually happened, though Conisbrough Castle was never invested by the Pilgrims. However, it was provided with a large...

England, 1317. As baronial unrest simmers beneath the crown's uneasy peace, a scandal erupts that threatens to ignite open war. Alice de Laci—heiress to vast northern lands and wife of the powerful rebel Thomas of Lancaster—is abducted under mysterious circumstances by William de Warenne, a loyalist with ambitions of his own. Furious and humiliated, Lancaster leads his army to Conisbrough Castle determined to reclaim his wife—and his honour.