The Pictorial History of the Sword

The Pictorial History of the Sword

Author: Harvey J. S. Withers

Publisher: Southwater Publishing

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781844768394

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Tracing the fascinating history of swords, spears and lances through to the 21st century, this book includes information on Japanese, Chinese, African and Indian swords as well as covering in detail the development of the weapon in Western Europe.


Kiss Across Time Box Two

Kiss Across Time Box Two

Author: Tracy Cooper-Posey

Publisher: Stories Rule Press

Published:

Total Pages: 889

ISBN-13: 1772638560

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The next four fabulous stories in the time travel paranormal romance series! New friends and relationships expand time travel for Brody, Veris and Taylor. Meet Alexander, Rafe and Sydney and share their adventures across the timescape—while old enemies and time itself threatens the friends at every turn. Kiss Across Deserts Time travel is not for the weak of heart. When a kiss sends Alex and Sydney back to Alex’s beloved desert, and he realizes that Taylor is not the only one who can time travel, the questions pile up like gunpowder. The flint that strikes the spark is Sydney’s past, which is exposed when Rafael reaches through time and uncovers her dangerous secret. Kiss Across Kingdoms They must go back in time because history says they already have. A secret cipher inside an ancient seal insists Rafe and Sydney travel back through time to Powys, the most powerful kingdom of old Wales, but when they jump back they are separated. Rafe finds himself in Powys, scribe to the king. Sydney is in the land of the Lady of Mercia, alone in a time she doesn’t know. The two must find a way back to each other across the warring kingdoms, while Alex tries desperately to help them, from eleven centuries into the future… Time And Tyra Again* One hundred years ago, a meeting was arranged that would alter the course of history. In 1191 at the Siege of Acre, Alexander Karim helped Brody Gallagher escape death by immolation. When Alex arrives in York, England, one hundred years later for their appointed meeting, he sees instead someone from his human life—Tyra of Norwich, who died two hundred years ago. Kiss Across Seas History doesn’t always repeat. Sometimes, it destroys. To protect everyone she loves from the threats of their greatest enemy, Sydney flings herself back in time to eleventh century Egypt, where she meets a very human Alexander. Her arrival causes the death of the knight who would have drawn Alex to Jerusalem, and destroys a chain of events that ends with Sydney, Rafe and Alex meeting in the twenty-first century. Time travel has always been an interesting concept, but Cooper-Posey takes it to another level because her stories arc over an entire series - and over several centuries. I LOVE IT!!! – Reader Review. Reader Advisory: This paranormal time travel box set features super-hot alpha vampire heroes, and explicit sex scenes. Do not read this series if frank sexual language offends you. The time-space continuum was restored to order at the end of this book. Promise. This book is part of the Kiss Across Time paranormal time travel series: 1.0: Kiss Across Time 2.0: Kiss Across Swords 2.5: Time Kissed Moments* 3.0: Kiss Across Chains 3.5: Kiss Across Time Box One 4.0: Kiss Across Deserts 5.0: Kiss Across Kingdoms 5.1: Time And Tyra Again* 6.0: Kiss Across Seas 6.5: Kiss Across Time Box Two 7.0: Kiss Across Worlds 7.1: Time and Remembrance* 8.0: Kiss Across Tomorrow 8.1: More Time Kissed Moments* 9.0: Kiss Across Blades 10.0: Kiss Across Chaos 11.0: Kiss Across the Universe 11.1: Even More Time Kissed Moments* 12.0: Kiss Across Forever [*Time Kissed Moments are short stories, novellas and collections featuring the characters and situations featured in the Kiss Across Time series.] The series has ongoing storylines and characters. Reading the books in order is recommended. A Time Travel Vampire Romance Boxed Set


The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in 'Beowulf'

The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in 'Beowulf'

Author: Edward Pettit

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

Published: 2020-01-14

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 1783748303

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The image of a giant sword melting stands at the structural and thematic heart of the Old English heroic poem Beowulf. This meticulously researched book investigates the nature and significance of this golden-hilted weapon and its likely relatives within Beowulf and beyond, drawing on the fields of Old English and Old Norse language and literature, liturgy, archaeology, astronomy, folklore and comparative mythology. In Part I, Pettit explores the complex of connotations surrounding this image (from icicles to candles and crosses) by examining a range of medieval sources, and argues that the giant sword may function as a visual motif in which pre-Christian Germanic concepts and prominent Christian symbols coalesce. In Part II, Pettit investigates the broader Germanic background to this image, especially in relation to the god Ing/Yngvi-Freyr, and explores the capacity of myths to recur and endure across time. Drawing on an eclectic range of narrative and linguistic evidence from Northern European texts, and on archaeological discoveries, Pettit suggests that the image of the giant sword, and the characters and events associated with it, may reflect an elemental struggle between the sun and the moon, articulated through an underlying myth about the theft and repossession of sunlight. The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in 'Beowulf' is a welcome contribution to the overlapping fields of Beowulf-scholarship, Old Norse-Icelandic literature and Germanic philology. Not only does it present a wealth of new readings that shed light on the craft of the Beowulf-poet and inform our understanding of the poem’s major episodes and themes; it further highlights the merits of adopting an interdisciplinary approach alongside a comparative vantage point. As such, The Waning Sword will be compelling reading for Beowulf-scholars and for a wider audience of medievalists.


The Great Hunt

The Great Hunt

Author: Robert Jordan

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 1991-10-15

Total Pages: 743

ISBN-13: 0812517725

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The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow. For centuries, gleemen have told of The Great Hunt of the Horn. Now the Horn itself is found: the Horn of Valere long thought only legend, the Horn which will raise the dead heroes of the ages. And it is stolen. THE WHEEL OF TIME Book One: The Eye of the World Book Two: The Great Hunt Book Three: The Dragon Reborn Book Four: The Shadow Rising Book Five: The Fires of Heaven Book Six: Lord of Chaos Book Seven: A Crown of Swords Book Eight: The Path of Daggers Book Nine: Winter's Heart Book Ten: Crossroads of Twilight


The Sword and the Cross

The Sword and the Cross

Author: Fergus Fleming

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Published: 2007-12-01

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 0802197523

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“[A] searing story of France’s attempt to colonize the vast Sahara desert and of two unforgettable men who dedicated their lives to the effort.” —Rob Mitchell, The Boston Herald Whether writing of the Alps, the high seas, or the North Pole, Fergus Fleming has won acclaim as one of today’s most vivid and engaging historians of adventure and exploration. The Sword and the Cross takes us to the Sahara at the end of the nineteenth century, when France had designs on a hostile wilderness dominated by deadly Tuareg nomads. Two fanatical adventurers, Charles de Foucauld and Henri Laperrine, rose to the cause of their country’s national honor. Abandoning his decadent lifestyle as a sensualist and womanizer, Foucauld founded a monastic order so severe that during his lifetime it never had a membership of more than one. Yet he remained a committed imperialist and from his remote hermitage continued to assist the military. The stern career soldier Laperrine, meanwhile, founded a camel corps whose exploits became legendary. During World War I the Sahara’s fragile peace crumbled. In the desert mountains Foucauld paid a tragic price for his role as imperial pawn. Laperrine, by then recalled to the Western Front, returned to avenge his friend. “Fleming captures the hopelessness of the French efforts to conquer the Saharan expanse . . . Provides a vital lesson about the limits of power.” —Zachary Karabell, Los Angeles Times


The Sword

The Sword

Author: Lisa Deutscher

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1783274271

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A multidisciplinary overview of current research into the enduringly fascinating martial artefact which is the sword.


Soul of the Sword

Soul of the Sword

Author: Robert L. O'Connell

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 0684844079

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Mankind's history has been determined by war. And throughout history, the way that wars are won and lost, and whether they are fought at all, has been determined more by weapons than any other single force. Before there was man, there were weapons. In his investigation of arms and culture, noted military historian Robert O'Connell goes all the way back to the first weapons: the claws, horns, and hooves of our evolutionary antecedents. Even then, a species' weaponry determined its future. So it has been for the human animal. From the ancient Assyrians' conquest of bronze, to the Toledo steel of the Spanish conquistadors, to the MIRV missiles of nuclear deterrence, the great weapons have set their own agendas. They continue to shape our culture and our lives today. THE SOUL OF THE SWORD gives world history from a club, gun, or aircraft carrier's perspective. Along the way, sidebars and drawings from premier military illustrator John Batchelor illuminate the weapons themselves. In this fascinating book O'Connell unearths the extraordinary weapons of our past, and explains our most basic weapons as never before. Our killing tools are much more than fearsome curiosities; they are the engines of history.


Living by the Sword

Living by the Sword

Author: Kristen Brooke Neuschel

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2020-11-15

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 1501752138

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Sharpen your knowledge of swords with Kristen B. Neuschel as she takes you through a captivating 1,000 years of French and English history. Living by the Sword reveals that warrior culture, with the sword as its ultimate symbol, was deeply rooted in ritual long before the introduction of gunpowder weapons transformed the battlefield. Neuschel argues that objects have agency and that decoding their meaning involves seeing them in motion: bought, sold, exchanged, refurbished, written about, displayed, and used in ceremony. Drawing on evidence about swords (from wills, inventories, records of armories, and treasuries) in the possession of nobles and royalty, she explores the meanings people attached to them from the contexts in which they appeared. These environments included other prestige goods such as tapestries, jewels, and tableware—all used to construct and display status. Living by the Sword draws on an exciting diversity of sources from archaeology, military and social history, literature, and material culture studies to inspire students and educated lay readers (including collectors and reenactors) to stretch the boundaries of what they know as the "war and culture" genre.


The Medieval Crossbow

The Medieval Crossbow

Author: ELLIS-GORMAN STUART

Publisher: Pen & Sword Military

Published: 2022-05-30

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9781526789532

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The crossbow is an iconic weapon of the Middle Ages and, alongside the longbow, one of the most effective ranged weapons of the pre-gunpowder era. Unfortunately, despite its general fame it has been decades since an in-depth history of the medieval crossbow has been published, which is why Stuart Ellis-Gorman's detailed, accessible, and highly illustrated study is so valuable. The Medieval Crossbow approaches the history of the crossbow from two directions. The first is a technical study of the design and construction of the medieval crossbow, the many different kinds of crossbows used during the Middle Ages, and finally a consideration of the relationship between crossbows and art. The second half of the book explores the history of the crossbow, from its origins in ancient China to its decline in sixteenth-century Europe. Along the way it explores the challenges in deciphering the crossbow's early medieval history as well as its prominence in warfare and sport shooting in the High and Later Middle Ages. This fascinating book brings together the work of a wide range of accomplished crossbow scholars and incorporates the author's own original research to create an account of the medieval crossbow that will appeal to anyone looking to gain an insight into one of the most important weapons of the Middle Ages.