Medieval English

Acclaimed actress Claire Danes burnishes an epic story of heroes, gods, and monsters in a groundbreaking translation of The Odyssey, the first great adventure story in the Western literary tradition. When the wily warrior-king Odysseus sets off for home after the Trojan War, he doesn’t realize this simple undertaking will become a perilous journey of 10 years. Beset at every turn, he encounters obstacles, detours, and temptations—both supernatural and human—while his wife Penelope fends off would-be suitors desperate to take the throne.

At the side of the most famous warlord of history, Matilda worked, not as a quiet, modest wife, but as a leader...as a ruler just as ruthless as her husband. Under her soft mask of beauty and modesty there lay the heart of a woman powered by ambition. A woman who was strong, courageous, and devious.... Through the eyes of one of the most extraordinary women of history unfold the events leading to the invasion of England and the battle that would decide its fate....

Salisbury 1227: Ela Longespée’s friend Alice de Gilbert bemoans her barren and loveless marriage, but Ela counsels her to remain faithful. When Alice’s husband is found dead, Ela must prove her friend’s innocence—or try her for murder.

Beset by prophetic dreams since the time she was a child, Elienor knew the Norsemen would storm Brouillard castle—she saw it in a dream. She saw the death of many. And she saw him—the golden-haired Viking who would claim her for his prize...

For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region's complex history. As The Mongol Storm reveals, during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions. In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region's geopolitics. This is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences.

When MMO gamer Lansius woke up in a fantasy world, his greatest concerns were learning the language and keeping a thatch roof over his head. Then he joined the army as a lowly soldier right as the thousand-year third Imperium rule was crumbling. Little did he know he would end up leading his own troops into battle.

In The Greatest Knight, renowned historian Thomas Asbridge draws upon the thirteenth-century biography and an array of other contemporary evidence to present a compelling account of William Marshal's life and times. Asbridge charts the unparalleled rise to prominence of a man bound to a code of honor yet driven by unquenchable ambition.

In the Robin Hood reimagining, a beautiful maiden poaches to feed the poor, while a handsome forester is on a mission to catch her.

Aristotle’s Poetics is the earliest-surviving work of dramatic theory and the first fully intact philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory. The respected Greek sage offers an account of what he calls "poetry" (which the Greeks understood to literally mean "making"), examining its "first principles" and identifying its genres and basic elements, including what he terms drama-comedy, tragedy, and the satyr play - as well as lyric poetry, epic poetry, and iambic pentameter, which he always associates with wit.

Who is Jesus? What is he like? And who am I, encountering Jesus? These questions were just as important to Christians in the Middle Ages as they are today. And yet—as C.S. Lewis noted—the modern church tends to forget that people of different cultures and times also thought carefully about who Jesus was; and sometimes their ideas and emphases were different. Medievalist scholar Grace Hamman believes that we can deepen our understanding and adoration of Christ by looking to the Christians of the Middle Ages.

The Middle Ages are seen as a bloodthirsty time of Vikings, saints and kings; a patriarchal society that oppressed and excluded women. But when we dig a little deeper into the truth, we can see that the “Dark” Ages were anything but.

England, 1553. Richard Fitzwarren is a man determined to forge his own path. Once a man of importance, he was driven from his home with his half brother to scratch out a living as a mercenary. With little prospects, Richard must take whatever work comes his way, even when it leads to being thrown into the middle of a plot for the throne. But when his impulsive sibling draws attention from his wrathful family, the pair barely escapes with their lives.

Kingdom of Gododdin, AD 580: After defeating the Angles at the Battle of the Caledonian Wood, Languoreth, her daughter Angharad, brother Lailoken, and the warrior Artúr mac Aedan are reunited. But all too soon, fate pulls each back to their own path. Artúr receives a mysterious summons from his father in Dalriada. Languoreth and Lailoken return to Strathclyde with the dangerous former bishop Mungo in tow, determined to maintain the fragile peace between the Christians and the people of the Old Way.

King Henry's blue-eyed champion has been sent to quell a nation's rebellion. He vows to seal their peace by wedding Gilbert de Lontaine's beautiful daughter, but although the girl with smoky eyes holds his heart in peril, the real danger lurks in unexpected quarters. Can true love bind two hearts and bring the Wolf's bride home?

Bernard Cornwell, the New York Times best-selling "reigning king of historical fiction" (USA Today), tackles his most thrilling, rich, and enthralling subject yet - the heroic tale of Agincourt. The epic battle immortalized by William Shakespeare in his classic Henry V is the background for this breathtaking tale of heroism, love, devotion, and duty from the legendary author of the Richard Sharpe novels and the Saxon Tales.

Wrongly accused of murdering his father, Drake Thornton MacDougall wanted nothing more than to strike back at his guilty, duplicitous half brother. So he made the fiend pay by abducting his bride-to-be. But as Drake carried his captive off to a windswept Scottish isle, he soon found that vengeance wasn't the only thing on his mind. Lady Averyl Campbell proved herself no biddable maiden but an alluring, strong-willed beauty who could tame his dark moods with her touch.

When Nicholas Elyot and his friends set out to spend the Christmas season in the country, they are prepared for a hard journey in winter. They are also wary of violence on the road, for these are troubled times after the Great Pestilence, when bands of dispossessed and desperate men roam the countryside of England. It is not surprising, therefore, when the troubadours hired to provide entertainment at Leighton Manor are attacked in Wychwood. Yet why should this group draw the attention of outlaws, who are searching for something? Is one of the troubadours not quite what he seems?

Beginning in prehistoric times, West Africa has always been an incredible region. Early nomadic tribes settled into some of the earliest communities on Earth and learned how to work with metal. Various West African tribes then became adept at working with metal and were some of the most skilled artisans in the world. As civilizations developed in West Africa, nomadic tribes turned into urban societies that built kingdoms. Eventually, some of the greatest leaders in the world created mighty West African empires.

A reckless princess. An enemy kingdom. And a mistake that could cost her everything.

Pick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa? On the periphery. This pioneering book tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of how categories of ethnicity, race, gender, and caste emerged in Africa and in global history.