Vikings: Godhead


Book Description

From the chronicles of the History Channel's truly epic series comes a new saga of glory and plunder! A brand new graphic novel featuring Ragnar, Lagertha and their legendary kin! An all-new epic tale as the Vikings set sail once more for England and run straight into a shield wall of politics, intrigue, betrayal and, of course, axe-wielding, blood-spraying, sword-swinging combat!




The Goddess


Book Description

For as long as we have sought god, we have found the goddess. Ruling over the imaginations of humankind’s earliest agricultural civilizations, she played a critical spiritual role as a keeper of nature’s fertile powers and an assurance of the next sustaining harvest. In The Goddess, David Leeming and Christopher Fee take us all the way back into prehistory, tracing the goddess across vast spans of time to tell the epic story of the transformation of belief and what it says about who we are. Leeming and Fee use the goddess to gaze into the lives and souls of the people who worshipped her. They chart the development of traditional Western gender roles through an understanding of the transformation of concepts of the Goddess from her earliest roots in India and Iran to her more familiar faces in Ireland and Iceland. They examine the subordination of the goddess to the god as human civilizations became mobile and began to look upon masculine deities for assurances of survival in movement and battle. And they show how, despite this history, the goddess has remained alive in our spiritual imaginations, in figures such as the Christian Virgin Mother and, in contemporary times, the new-age resurrection of figures such as Gaia. The Goddess explores this central aspect of ancient spiritual thought as a window into human history and the deepest roots of our beliefs.




Norse Mythology: The Illustrated Edition


Book Description

The #1 New York Times bestseller—a “gripping, suspenseful” (Washington Post) retelling of Norse myths—now with spectacular illustrations. In this dazzling, illustrated edition of the instant classic that has sold more than a million copies, award-winning illustrator Levi Pinfold brings Neil Gaiman’s bravura rendition of the Norse gods and their world to life. Bursting off the page with breathtaking, full-color art are tales of fierce battles with giants, storied quests for knowledge, and the gods in Asgard: Odin, the highest of the high, wise, daring, and cunning; Thor, Odin’s son, incredibly strong, yet not the wisest of gods; and Loki—son of a giant—blood brother to Odin and a trickster and unsurpassable manipulator. Gaiman fashions these primeval stories into a novelistic arc that takes us from the genesis of the legendary nine worlds to Ragnorak, the twilight of the gods and the rebirth of a new time. Through his epic storytelling and Pinfold’s enthralling images, these gods emerge with their fiercely competitive natures, their susceptibility to being duped and to duping others, and their tendency to let passion ignite their actions, breathing vivid life into these long-ago myths. “Who else but Neil Gaiman could become an accomplice of the gods, using the sorcery of words to make their stories new?” —Maria Tatar, translator and editor of The Annotated Brothers Grimm “Gaiman brings rakish mischief and severe glamour to the Norse canon.” —The New Yorker “Remarkable. . . . Gaiman has provided an enchanting contemporary interpretation of the Viking ethos.” —Lisa L. Hannett, Atlantic “A lively, funny and very human rendition of Thor the thunder god, his father Odin and the dark-hearted trickster Loki (plus countless other gods and monsters).” —Petra Mayer, NP




Walking the Great North Line


Book Description

Robert Twigger, poet and travel author, was in search of a new way up England when he stumbled across the Great North Line. From Christchurch on the South Coast to Old Sarum to Stonehenge, to Avebury, to Notgrove barrow, to Meon Hill in the midlands, to Thor's Cave, to Arbor Low stone circle, to Mam Tor, to Ilkley in Yorkshire and its three stone circles and the Swastika Stone, to several forts and camps in Northumberland to Lindisfarne (plus about thirty more sites en route). A single dead straight line following 1 degree 50 West up Britain. No other north-south straight line goes through so many ancient sites of such significance. Was it just a suggestive coincidence or were they built intentionally? Twigger walks the line, which takes him through Birmingham, Halifax and Consett as well as Salisbury Plain, the Peak district, and the Yorkshire moors. With a planning schedule that focused more on reading about shamanism and beat poetry than hardening his feet up, he sets off ever hopeful. He wild-camps along the way, living like a homeless bum, with a heart that starts stifled but ends up soaring with the beauty of life. He sleeps in a prehistoric cave, falls into a river, crosses a 'suicide viaduct' and gets told off by a farmer's wife for trespassing; but in this simple life he finds woven gold. He walks with others and he walks alone, ever alert to the incongruities of the edgelands he is journeying through.




Sophie's World


Book Description

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.




Thunder God


Book Description

A gripping, acclaimed action-packed Viking epic.Set in the 10th century, when Viking raids were at their peak, Paul Watkins spins a tale that covers three continents. After centuries of ranging unchecked across the northern world, the fortunes of the Vikings have begun to turn. In this time of violent change, a young man, struck by lightning, is believed to be marked by the gods as a keeper of the Norse religion's greatest secret. To save the Norse faith and himself, he embarks upon a journey that takes him far beyond the boundaries of the known world, where he must confront not only his own gods but the gods of a people yet more savage.'Few contemporary novelists have the ability to grab readers by the throat with such intense story-telling power and not release them until the final page has been turned.' Sunday Times




The Secret Yoga of the Vikings


Book Description

With their secretive poetic lore and even more mysterious pantheon of gods led by Odin the All-Father; Thor, the great Hammer-Striker; Loki, the Evil One, and Heimdal, the Cosmic Horn Blower, it is almost impossible not to love the Vikings. But there are even more fans of the multi-faceted yoga systems devised by the ancient Hindustani in India more than five thousand years ago. Steven A. Key makes the case that transcendental yoga has not only endured over the millennia, but that it has traveled in different forms of spiritual or religious expression in The Secret Yoga of the Vikings. Drawing on the writings of Joseph Campbell, the famous mythologist who hinted at a link between the cultures of the Eastern Hindus and the Northern Vikings, as well as other great thinkers, the author shows that yoga has influenced Buddhism, Christianity, and yes – even the tenth-century Vikings. Discover how a spiritual cult of anonymous Odin warriors who died long ago was likely responsible for the writing of the Poetic Edda itself as well as the role transcendental yoga played in the life of the Vikings.




Norse Mythology


Book Description

Provides information on the gods, heroes, rituals, beliefs, symbols, and stories of Norse mythology.




The Pocket Book of British Patriotism


Book Description

"In late 2004 in Britain, a little, self-published book called The Pocket Book of Patriotism created a publishing sensation in the United Kingdom. Rejected by every major British publisher because "patriotism is an obsolete concept." Written initially for his own three boys, Courtauld was appalled that British children didn't know basic facts of their history and set out to create a simple book that would make his children proud of their heritage. The result, The Pocket Book of Patriotism, is a bare-bones, uniquely British timeline of historic events, with no judgement or padding, brought to life by soul-stirring quotations and placing British history along side the rest of the world in a simple history chart. From Stonehenge 2000 BC to the England rugby team's World Cup triumph in 2003, The Pocket Book of Patriotism contains the essential dates, quotes and speeches of British history." from the publisher.




Viking Warriors


Book Description

In Viking Warriors, the Norse invaders, as infamous for their brutality as their exploration, come to life. Students will read about raids, battles, and key fighters and leaders. Illustrations, engravings, and relics depict the Norse culture, marine and combat technology, and fighting styles that gave them the advantage in battle. Maps and diagrams demonstrate their ambitious expansion and conquest of cities and people throughout the Northern hemisphere. With their far-reaching longships and fierce tactics, the influence and violence of the Vikings spread from America to the Middle East, leaving behind traces of an iconic culture and combative strategy.