Archives for dark ages
The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker [Book Review]
The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker My rating: 5 of 5 stars It took me a very long time to read The Half-Drowned King, mostly because it's a long story, although it never felt that long when I was reading it. Based on a couple of sagas the Half-Drowned King starts the story of Ragnvald and his sister Svanhild that continue in two more volumes. The Half-Drowned King is historical fiction done well, rather than fantasy. The characters are credulous enough that there's an element of the latter there, with visions and a fight with a draugr. The Half-Drowned King Ragnvald is a descendant of a King, in a time where there were many Kings. His stepfather tries to have him murdered, and the story is a combination of how Ragnvald gets his inheritance and gets involved in the rise…
The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman by Nancy Marie Brown [Book Review]
The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman by Nancy Marie Brown My rating: 5 of 5 stars An awesome mix of documentary history and archaeology, to bring a character to life. Even though we can't be sure hat Gudrid was a real woman that actually existed the combination of the sagas and the archaeology give a great understanding of life in the viking period, and particularly from a female perspective. This is not a tale of warriors and raiders, but one of persuasion and influence and a hard life on the very frontiers of where humans could exist. Gudrid was born in Iceland, and went to America with Erik the Red. Later in life she went to Rome. Far Traveler I read this last year, the Far Traveler was the first book that I read in 2020 but for…
A Dark History: Vikings by Martin J. Dougherty [book review]
A Dark History: Vikings by Martin J. Dougherty My rating: 4 of 5 stars A Dark History: Vikings is a really good introduction for grown ups interested in Vikings. It's fairly modern and has lots of illustrations to bring the text to life. Way more informative than the stuff your kids might read, but also easily accessible compared to some of the more academic histories. A Dark History: Vikings What I enjoyed about it was that there was a mix of social and cultural history along with the usual timelines. It also gave me a sense of 'Viking' being a product of lazy thinking in the same way that 'Celts' are. The reality was that there were lots of people over a vast geographic area and a couple of centuries. There's no central drive or common ethos for the entire…
Book Review – The Place-names of Scotland: A First Introduction by George Harris
The Place-names of Scotland: A First Introduction by George Harris My rating: 4 of 5 stars A very short introduction to where the place names of Scotland come from by George Harris, who is on twitter as This is a little tour around the peoples that lived in Scotland in the dark ages and a bit about the languages that they spoke. There are a few example etymologies of place names, but not a whole list of them, that would need to be a much longer work than this. I got this for free on an promotion, and it passed an entertaining half-hour one evening. View all my reviews Related articles Nae Gods, an' precious few heroes: no place for racism in the new Scotland Top Twenty scariest road names Crowdsourcing to Record Welsh Place Names
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CLWG June 2010 Meeting
What you missed at Sunday's chestnut lodge meeting (unless you were one of those present) were some good conversations and two games: Come One, Come Eorl - another megagame tryout from Andy Hadley; and D-Day beach landing - an improvised game by Jim Wallman We started with a chat as Jim, Mukul & I watched some of the Stalingrad episode of World at War which Jim had on DVD on his laptop. This while we cut out some of the cards for playing Come One Come Eorl. Once John Rutherford, Andrew Hadley & Brian Cameron also arrived we started ; Come One Come Eorl This was another tryout of the streamlined rules using the Welsh part of the game. I found that it was relatively easy to pick up, although there was obviously come benefit to be had from having…