A second reason is an aversion to medieval-fantasy material that is ludicrously inauthentic when compared with real history and genuine mythology and legend. I’ve no problem with the Arthurian legends because they arise from a bona fide cultural impulse. As an Irishman of a certain age, I could talk to you till your eyes fell out about the magic of An Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid at Cooley), the central story of the Ulster cycle of legends. It’s about an attempt to steal a particularity fertile bull. But it teems with warriors and magicians, dominated by the god-like warrior Cú Chulainn. There are even ravens swirling in the mist. It shares much with Game of Thrones in surface detail but there’s a powerful, authentic poignancy to An Táin, and a rawness to the action, the work of many hands and storytellers, generation after generation. In comparison, Game of Thrones is slick and contrived.
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I have always loved maps and history. Growing up in the USA in the early 60s, the Southeast Asian war gave me the opportunity to learn geog...
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...if you are very, very rich. (Most mss. of this age and quality are in national or university libraries and are not for sale at any price... -
In 1388, the Good Duke (Louis of Bourbon) was campaigning on the German frontier. As he besieged a castle, one of the duke's servants, ...
Senin, 02 April 2012
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I have always loved maps and history. Growing up in the USA in the early 60s, the Southeast Asian war gave me the opportunity to learn geog...
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...if you are very, very rich. (Most mss. of this age and quality are in national or university libraries and are not for sale at any price... -
In 1388, the Good Duke (Louis of Bourbon) was campaigning on the German frontier. As he besieged a castle, one of the duke's servants, ...
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I am in the middle of this very interesting book. You might expect that the book would have a lot to say about the history of dividing blac...
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From the Guardian: Leading foreign academics from the LSE acting as expert advisers to the UK government were told they would not be asked ...
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I was reading one of Uncle John's trivia books -- which are designed with bathroom readers in mind -- about harmonicas. It listed Ameri...
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A new translation of this fascinating treatise on horsemanship by a fifteenth-century king. This interview with Jeffrey Forgeng comes from...
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David Poyer's publisher sent me a proof copy of this book in hopes I would comment on it. I was a little hesitant since it is a "b...
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Mcleans reports : And then there’s Patrick McGovern, an archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania who, after analyzing the residue tha...
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Two experts in the Middle East have been more useful to me than most of the more prominent ones. They are Juan Cole and Joshua Landis. If yo...
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