Stan and Elsa learn that the coexistence of the human and the primitive populations of the Quad Consortium is threatened when Tokal announces his intention to retire as president of the Grand Council. Despite Stan's impulse to avoid becoming involved in political conflict, they felt obliged to return to Bale, the coldest planet in the Consortium.
Over 15 years in the making, an unprecedented one-volume reference work. Many of today's students and teachers of literature, lacking a familiarity with the Bible, are largely ignorant of how Biblical tradition has influenced and infused English literature through the centuries. An invaluable research tool. Contains nearly 800 encyclopedic articles written by a distinguished international roster of 190 contributors. Three detailed annotated bibliographies. Cross-references throughout.
The Blood Angels Chapter and their successors mount a desperate defence of their home world of Baal from the predations of the tyranid hive fleet Leviathan. After a brutal campaign in the Cryptus System fighting the alien tyranids, Lord Dante returns to Baal to marshal the entire Blood Angels Chapter and their Successors against Hive Fleet Leviathan. Thus begins the greatest conflict in the history of the sons of Sanguinius. Despite a valiant battle in the void around Baal, the Blood Angels are unable to stop the tyranids drawing ever closer, but their petitions for reinforcements are met with dread news. The Cadian Gate, the Imperium’s most stalwart bastion against Chaos, has fallen. In their darkest hour, no help will reach the beleaguered Dante and his warriors. Is this truly then the Time of Ending?
Drs. Stan and Elsa Mercer learn that the peaceful coexistence of the human and the primitive populations of the Quad Consortium is threatened when Tokal announces his intention to retire as president of the Grand Council. Despite Stan's innate impulse to avoid becoming involved in any sort of political conflict, they felt obliged to return to Bale, the coldest planet in the Consortium, when their friend Tokal asked for their help in keeping the Sword of Bale from getting into the hands of those who would use its power to gain control of the Consortium. As they attempt to save the Sword of Bale, they realize that they must deal not only with an ambitious and callous government official but also with his prior nemesis, Nathan Taylor, the former president of the Grand Council who has escaped from life imprisonment on the distant red-dwarf-star planet, Planet 1251. Nathan, who had previously experienced the power of the Sword of Bale, is determined to possess it, no matter the cost. At the same time, Stan and Elsa must protect Tokal and his daughter, Roval, from Tokal's own son, Naril, who believes he is the rightful heir of the Sword of Bale and its power, and who is willing to kill to attain it.
Argues for a new reading of Beowulf in its contemporary context, where honour and violence are intimately linked. This book examines violence in its social setting, and especially as an essential element in the heroic system of exchange (sometimes called the Economy of Honour). It situates Beowulf in a northern European culture where violence was not stigmatized as evidence of a breakdown in social order but rather was seen as a reasonable way to get things done; where kings and their retainers saw themselves above all as warriors whose chief occupation was thepursuit of honour; and where most successful kings were those perceived as most predatory. Though kings and their subjects yearned for peace, the political and religious institutions of the time did little to restrain their violent impulses. Drawing on works from Britain, Scandinavia, and Ireland, which show how the practice of violence was governed by rules and customs which were observed, with variations, over a wide area, this book makes use of historicist and anthropological approaches to its subject. It takes a neutral attitude towards the phenomena it examines, but at the same time describes them fortnightly, avoiding euphemism and excuse-making on the one hand and condemnation on the other. In this it attempts to avoid the errors of critics who have sometimes been led astray by modern assumptions about the morality of violence. PETER S. BAKER is Professor of English at the Universityof Virginia.
Beowulf is an Old English epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative lines. It may be the oldest surviving long poem in Old English and is commonly cited as one of the most important works of Old English literature. A date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating pertains to the manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025. The author was an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, referred to by scholars as the "Beowulf poet".