Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Writing Craft: Manoeuvre Warfare

If you're writing war and especially if your heroes are outnumbered, having them bull their way through it head to head isn't anywhere near as interesting or believable as having them break and Destroy their enemies will.

It can be every ounce as bloody and hair raising as fighting a war of attrition, trading man for man, asset for asset.

It just works better.

It is not a paint by numbers concept. It is not a set of hard and fast rules.

It is a mindset.

Here's an introduction.

Get cracking. Go do your homework, and write a better story.


Friday, January 13, 2017

Viking Archeology Blog Has 2 More: Still Discovering, Still Learning, Still Fascinating

Viking Archeology Blog 

Thursday, 12 January 2017

Bringing Vikings Back to the East Midlands


The Centre for the Study of the Viking Age is pleased to report that we have been awarded a substantial grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council Follow-On Fund for a project called Bringing Vikings Back to the East Midlands. The project will fund a variety of initiatives and events related to the British Museum/York Museums Trust travelling exhibition on the Vikings which will be on at Lakeside from November 2017 to March 2018. CSVA alumnus Dr Roderick Dale will start as Cultural Engagement Fellow on the project on 1st February. More details to follow.

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Tuesday, 20 December 2016

Dressed up with bling stolen in Viking raids


When a female Norwegian Viking died some time during the 9th century, she was buried wearing a status symbol: a beautiful piece of bronze jewellery worn on her traditional Norse dress.
In the summer of 2016, 1200 years after her death, the piece of jewellery was found by chance at Agdenes farm, at the outermost part of the Trondheim Fjord in mid-Norway. The well-preserved object is an ornament with a bird figure that has fish- or dolphin-like patterns on both "wings."
The decorations suggest that the jewellery was made in a Celtic workshop, most likely in Ireland, in the 8th or 9th century. It was originally used as a fitting for a horse's harness, but holes at the bottom and traces of rust from a needle on the back show that it had probably been turned into a brooch at a later stage.
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Viking Age Iceland, Privatization Run Amok or Libertarian Paradise?

If you didn't like the services your Chieftain charged you a nominal fee to provide, you could contract with another Chieftain on the ot...