"One of the most valuable and original works on the Grail yet to appear in any language." --John Matthews, author of The Mystic Grail "The definitive work on the historical background to the Grail Romances of the mediaeval age." --Trevor Ravenscroft, author of The Spear of Destiny Much plagiarized and its contents distorted over the years, Stein's seminal work is a classic of original scholarly and spiritual research. In studying the central Grail narrative of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, Stein takes a twofold approach. On the one hand, he searches historical records for the identity of actual people and events concealed behind the Grail epic's veil of romance. On the other hand, Stein deciphers Eschenbach's hidden spiritual messages, showing Parzival to be an esoteric document containing powerful pictures of the human being's inner path of development. Stein reveals the period of the ninth century to be far deeper and more important than to be of mere historical and academic interest. It is the karmic ground from which grows the very destiny of our modern era--the grand battle that must take place between the powers of the Grail and the hindrance of sinister anti-Grail forces at large today.
A Game of Life and Death (Warning: Contains violence as well as adult situations and language) Ben sat down to play a brand-new MMORPG, Eternal Journey Online. Next thing he knew, he had been transformed into his character, first-level Paladin Hawke Lightseeker, and found himself in a corpse-filled cavern complex crawling with monsters and undead. Armed with a sentient sword, Hawke must learn the rules of a reality where magic and power-leveling are as real as swords and knives, and where you only get a limited number of respawns before you die for good. Follow Hawke as he explores the mysterious Common Realm, meets new friends and foes, battles to survive, and learns more about his growing power and inner strength. Note to LitRPG Fans: This novel concentrates primarily on action-adventure, with a focus on power-leveling and learning new magic and class subsystems. Future novels will deal with town and stronghold management. There is also a harem-lite subplot that plays a part in the story without detracting from it.
"Learn all about what it takes to be a Paladin of Voltron in this epic guide to the hit Netflix series DreamWorks Voltron Legendary Defender!"--Back cover.
This is a first book in "the Battle" series. The story tells about clashes between The Light and the Darkness from the times of Jesus. The exciting journey of The Light protectors in the fight against the evil, aka The Darkness to save the world.
"Imagine Game of Thrones with less blood and more gender confusion and you get a taste of this knightly epic." -- The Guardian Brash, cocky, and unbeatable with a sword (well, almost), Sam of Haywood is the most promising Paladin trainee in the kingdom of Thule... and knows it. The only problem is that Sam is really Lady Samantha, daughter of the seventeenth Duke of Haywood, and if her father has his way, she'll be marrying a Paladin, not becoming one. But Sam has never held much interest in playing damsel-in-distress, and so she rescues herself from a lifetime of boredom and matrimonial drudgery. Disguised as a boy, Sam leaves home behind to fight demons---the most dangerous monsters in Thule---alongside the kingdom's elite warriors. Pity that Tristan Lyons, the Paladin assigned to train her, is none other than the hero of her childhood. He hasn't recognized her-yet-but if he does, he'll take away her sword and send her packing. Sam is not the only trainee hiding secrets: Braeden is a half-demon with a dark past that might be unforgivable. Whether he can be trusted is anyone's guess, including his. As demons wreak havoc across the land, rebellion stirs in the West, led by a rival faction of warriors. A war between men is coming, and Sam must pick a side. Will saving the kingdom cost her life-or just her heart?
A Country Shattered by War -- For generations, warlords fought bitterly for dominance in a land without a king, leaving a fractured, war-torn country plagued by thieves, slavers, and the servants of dark gods and darker magic... A Fallen Knight -- Allystaire Coldbourne, former castellan of Wind's Jaw Keep, walks away from his privileged position and into self-imposed exile amidst the ruins he's spent a lifetime creating. In the smoking remains of a destitute village, he finds an improbable survivor, a young girl named Mol. Reluctantly, he pursues the marauders who leveled Mol's village and sold the villagers into slavery. He follows their trail to a town of pirates and fugitives and exacts a bitter and violent justice. This sudden act of bravery and righteousness draws the attention of jealous and angry gods, embittered warlords, a downtrodden populace, and awakens a very ancient power, a long-absent goddess of mercy. A Legendary Journey -- Allystaire travels a treacherous path toward his Ordination as a holy knight of legend, a Paladin, a savior of the people. But to fulfill this role, he -- and the unexpected allies he finds along the way -- must face the demonic, sorcerous evil that stalks the land, the wrath of gods and men, and his own dark past.
The history of European integration did not begin in the aftermath of the 20th century AD: only the epilogue of a very long political, religious and socio-cultural formation process that started with the great adventure of Alexander the Great and his impromptu universal empire. In the centuries that followed, Europe became a land of immigration of peoples of Asian origin and Indo-European matrix, who found themselves on a continent that had emerged from the ice and occupied their own 'living space'. People still essentially present today who recognise themselves in Europe as an entity that retains its own characteristic identity in political, religious and historical-cultural terms. This book tells the story of the forces and ideas that enabled different 'gentes' to integrate and live together through facts, characters, thoughts, faiths, royal dynasties and power struggles. The text is conceived with a plural thematic structure that aims to reflect the various European 'souls' and offer each specific interpretation. The Introduction sets out principles, concepts, questions, but also the philosophical/cultural paths along which the overall European culture was formed, even if not entirely homogeneous and for long periods dramatically conflicting, highlighting the turning milestones of the common continental thought thanks to an oriental and classical philosophical discourse. Part One, on the other hand, recounts the history of European events, personalities and evolutionary lines, with a Greek historical approach, relating them to the action and function of the Empire (especially the Christian one), which over the centuries 'attracted' the various peoples settled in Europe and trained them in a model of civilisation and socio-political organisation still visible today in every corner of the continent: the formation of the European states and nations now included in the EU is thus the product of the 'budding' of the Empire over two thousand years. Part Two examines the evolution of European legal and political thought using the method of Roman jurist treatises, following the development of the function of auctoritas, from its first configuration in the ancient Res Publica of Rome through the medieval, renaissance and modern eras to demonstrate the continuity of its conceptual reworking in every political and legal form of power established at every latitude of Europe, up to the so-called 'modern states' of today's democratic and constitutional republics. Part Three is a synthesis of the history of Christianity, from the events of the first 'communities' formed in the imperial age and then spread to the whole of Europe thanks to the evangelical action of the missionary monks and the policy of Christianization of the peoples of Europe conducted by the Empire and the institutional Church, under the sign of the biblical eschatological vision of 'salvation for all believers in Christ' which has an evident Jewish matrix and draws strength from the unique figure in human history of Jesus of Nazareth. The story also deals with the events that have marked the history of the Christian Church in every era, from the original conceptual controversies to imperial dogmatism, from the confrontation between the different 'churches' that arose in Europe in the Middle Ages to the struggles between Papacy and Empire, up to the Protest and Reformation that shaped the state of Christian religiosity today. Part Four is a cryptic narrative that seeks to 'unveil' (and thus end the evolutionary process underway) European history by its cultural roots, its founding myths and the journey of the 'European people', inspired by a Celtic metaphysical approach: only by delving into the various 'mysteries' collected in Eastern Greek cosmogony, in ancient Greco-Roman mythology, in the biblical letter and again in the most famous medieval legends narrated by the Chanson de geste, can one Translator: Alessandra Cervetti PUBLISHER: TEKTIME
