The Curse of the Kings – Victoria Holtby – Victoria Holt
Absolute top-notch Holt this one. Clearly inspired by The Curse of Tutankhamun (she even names a patch of land Carter’s Meadow, presumably after Howard Carter), Egypt is the perfect setting for a Holt mystery romance. The first half of the book though is set back in England, with Our Heroine, Judith, becoming obsessed with her glamorous archaeologist neighbour, Sir Tybalt Travers. Judith though is having to earn a crust working as a downtrodden companion to the horrible Lady Bodrean, and doesn’t think she has a hope of attracting Tybalt’s attentions. Of course she does, they get married, and she joins him on an archaeological dig ..
Like their regal counterparts in societies around the globe, ancient Maya rulers departed this world with elaborate burial ceremonies and lavish grave goods, which often included ceramics, red pigments, earflares, stingray spines, jades, pearls, obsidian blades, and mosaics. Archaeological investigation of these burials, as well as the decipherment of inscriptions that record Maya rulers' funerary rites, have opened a fascinating window on how the ancient Maya envisaged the ruler's passage from the world of the living to the realm of the ancestors.
"The Earliest English Kings" is a sweeping and thorough overview of Anglo-Saxon History from the sixth century to the eighth century and the death of King Alfred. Kirby explains and explores the 'Heptarchy' or the seven kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, as well as the various peoples within them, wars, religion, King Offa, and the coming of the Vikings. In this completely revidsed edition, the author brings this classic book up to date to reflect on current findings on this line of rulers. With maps and family trees, this book reveals the complex, distant and tumultuous events of Anglo-Saxon politics.
This original and compelling study argues against the traditional identification of Arthur as a king in Celtic Britain. Instead, Graham Anderson explores the evidence for two much older figures, known to classical writers as kings of Arcadia and Lydia, over a millenium before. He shows how these kings can be clearly connected with traditional Arthurian characters and adventure, including an ancient Gawain, a Lady of Shallott, and a predecessor of Excalibur, and shows that the Arthurian universe found in Welsh tales and French romances is already anticipated in these earliest of Arthurian materials.
The Kings and Their Hawks - Falconry in Medieval England
This reviewer greatly anticipated the results of Professor Oggin's decades long interest in falconry, and was gratified with a opus that honored the balance between factual, scholarly work but still offered easily digested prose. This work can be enjoyed on many levels, from several points of view: from the falconry angle, from the medieval history angle, and from the economics of power and monarchy angle.
