Medieval English

The Castle of Indolence was published early in the summer of 1748, four months after the poet’s death. The work was a slow and leisurely composition, which took nearly fifteen years to complete. The poem consists of 158 stanzas, divided into two cantos. It is presented as an allegory and was professedly written in imitation of The Faerie Queene. The origin of the poem appears to be the frequent remonstrances of Thomson’s friends about the poet’s well-known indolence, regarding both life and composition.

Brunhild was a foreign princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet - in sixth-century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport - these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms, changing the face of Europe.

Garrick Sinclair, an expert archer and Robert the Bruce's best mercenary, is sent on a covert operation to the Borderlands by his older brother, Laird Robert Sinclair. He never expects to meet the most beautiful woman he's ever seen - who turns out to be the sister of Raef Warren, his family's mortal enemy. Though he knows he shouldn't want her - and doesn't deserve her - can he resist the passion that ignites between them?

The Devil, Satan, Lucifer, Mephistopheles - throughout history the Prince of Darkness, the Western world's most powerful symbol of evil, has taken many names and shapes. Jeffrey Burton Russell here chronicles the remarkable story of the Devil from antiquity to the present. While recounting how past generations have personified evil, he deepens our understanding of the ways in which people have dealt with the enduring problem of radical evil. Russell uncovers the origins of the concept of the Devil in various early cultures and then traces its evolution in Western thought from the time of the ancient Hebrews through the first centuries of the Christian era. Next he turns to the medieval view of the Devil, focusing on images found in folklore, scholastic thought, art, literature, mysticism, and witchcraft.

Homer is one of the most important figures in ancient Greek literature, believed to have lived in the 8th century BC. He is most famous for his epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which are considered to be the founding works of Western literature. The Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War, focusing on the hero Achilles, while the Odyssey recounts the adventures of the Greek hero Odysseus as he attempts to return home after the war. Both works are celebrated for their vivid storytelling, complex characters, and profound exploration of human nature.

When a red-haired woman tries to steal Sir Gybbon Murray's horse on his journey back to the Murray stronghold, he thanks his lucky stars his horse is a rude lout - and that the pretty thief is not so injured that she can't tell her tale. He's no nursemaid to delicate lasses, but Mora Ogilvy is fleeing her ruthless cousins, fearing for her life. And when she tells him of the home they've taken from her and the man they say she murdered, Gybbon cannot let such injustice stand....

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and no one is more desperate than Highlander Alasdair MacRae. His clan is on the verge of disaster thanks to continuous raids from the lying, thieving, murdering MacKenzies. Their latest strike has left Alasdair’s family on the precipice of starvation, and his brother badly wounded. The time has come to hit back, and what better blow to deliver than to kidnap his enemy’s daughter and use her to negotiate much-needed peace.

The day Elena MacLeod’s arrow pierced Rolland MacKay’s arse, she fell in love with the ruggedly handsome Scot, despite her better judgment. After all, he was known as the Highland Heartbreaker. Given that, it should have come as no surprise when he disappeared without a trace the day before they were to be wed. But she had become a hopeless fool for the warrior and was devastated. Four years later, when the Highlander resurfaces just as mysteriously as he vanished, Elena is thrilled…until it’s clear the rogue doesn’t deserve her unwavering devotion.

Lady India Lindley is accustomed to having her own way in everything, and marriage is no exception. Determined to elope, she boards a ship bound for Italy with her intended. But when Ottoman pirates capture the vessel, Lady India finds herself a slave to the mysterious and very commanding Caynan Reis, ruler of the Barbary state of El Sinut. He makes it quite clear that she is no longer in charge - and that's his first mistake.

Highland warrior Cameron MacLeod's mission for the king has just gone dangerously awry, and the best chance he has of saving it is the fair-haired beauty he encounters during the ambush. Injured during the battle, the enchantress has lost her memory, but Cameron harbors one of her. Long ago, a seer foretold that this woman had the power to destroy him. He's confident he's not so weak as to succumb to her charms, but the mysterious woman soon proves herself brave, guileless, and after one foolish, searing kiss, impossible to resist.

De Brevitate Vitae (frequently referred to as On the Shortness of Life in English) is a moral essay written by Seneca the Younger, a Roman Stoic philosopher, to his father-in-law Paulinus. The philosopher brings up many Stoic principles on the nature of time, namely that men waste much of it in meaningless pursuits. According to the essay, nature gives man enough time to do what is really important and the individual must allot it properly.

Alexander MacNichol, the epitome of a hot-blooded Highland warrior, loyal to Scotland, lover of women, and a merry time. The last thing he expected from his King, Robert the Bruce, was an order to marry a whey-faced English lass from the wrong side of the border. Lady Grace Worthington, one moment betrothed to an Englishman she fears and the next, thrust into the arms of a Scottish brute named MacNichol. All the while, battling her own inner demons. Yet, life in the Highlands is not at all what Grace expects.

The word medieval conjures images of the “Dark Ages”. But the myth of darkness obscures the truth; this was a remarkable period in human history. The Bright Ages recasts the European Middle Ages for what it was, capturing this 1,000-year era in all its complexity and fundamental humanity, bringing to light both its beauty and its horrors. The Bright Ages takes us through 10 centuries and crisscrosses Europe and the Mediterranean, Asia, and Africa, revisiting familiar people and events with new light cast upon them.

For over two millennia in the West, familiarity with the literature, philosophy, and values of the Classical World has been synonymous with education itself. The traditions of the Greeks explain why Western Culture’s unique tenets of democracy, capitalism, civil liberty, and constitutional government are now sweeping the globe. Yet the general public in America knows less about its cultural origins than ever before, as Classical education rapidly disappears from our high school and university curricula.

AD 1192 - Sir Christopher de Lohr is Richard the Lion Heart's champion, a man the Muslims nicknamed "The Lion's Claw". Blond, battle scarred, and powerful, he is what all men fear. After the fall of Acre, Christopher makes a promise at the deathbed of a dying comrade to marry the man's incorrigible but wealthy daughter. Christopher returns home to marry the woman, but the only thing he is interested in is her substantial dowry. He has no use for a wife and resents being forced into the marriage.

Faolan McKay was the spawn of recklessness. A child conceived by moonlight outside the bonds of wedlock. His mother was banished to the rocky shores of the Highlands where she committed an even greater sin than seducing the laird's son - she survived. And raised her son to be everything everyone whispered about him. To be feared was better than any position or sword. Cora Mackenzie has been promised since she was five. But her intended has never even penned her a single note. Cora takes to the moors, finding satisfaction in building strength and pitting herself against the elements.

Spring, AD 777. Sigurd Hring, new King of the Svear, is summoning all the greatest warriors of the North to his banner. He invites Bjarki Bloodhand, the famous berserkr, to swear an oath of fealty to him. But Bjarki has already sailed away to rescue a beautiful Saxon princess. Tor Hildarsdottir, sister of Bjarki, now oath-bound to a powerful Svearland jarl, finds herself unwillingly enrolled in Sigurd’s mighty army. When Sigurd Hring arrogantly rejects the overlordship of Siegfried, King of the Dane-Mark, red war is inevitable.

Laura Amy Schlitz wrote the Newbery Medal winner Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! for the students at the school where she is a librarian. The 22 monologues introduce readers to everyone in a medieval village, from the town half-wit, to Nelly the Sniggler, to the Lord's daughter.

Until Scandinavia converted to Christianity and came under the rule of powerful kings, the Vikings were a dominant force in the medieval world. Outfitted with wind-powered sailing ships, they left their mark, spreading terror across Europe, sacking cities, deposing kings, and ransacking economies. But as much as we know about this culture, there is a large missing piece: its women. In this revisionist portrait, science journalist Heather Pringle turns those assumptions on their head, using the latest archaeological research and historical findings to reveal this group as they actually were.

Mourn me but briefly. Then find your destiny, Lara, my love, my life. Now let me go.... With those words, the spirit of Magnus Hauk, Dominus of Terah, departs his body - leaving the fate of his nation to his wife, the half faerie Lara. While Lara's son Prince Taj is well loved by the people of Terah, he is too young to rule, so Lara must obey Magnus's dying command and govern in his stead. Yet some in Terah still believe that a female must never wear the crown...and Lara and her children will face old enemies who are not finished with their schemes for revenge.