Medieval English

Celtic mythology, Arthurian romance, and an intriguing interpretation of British history - these are just some of the themes embraced by the anonymous authors of the eleven tales that make up the Welsh medieval masterpiece known as The Mabinogion. They tell of Gwydion the shape-shifter, who can create a woman out of flowers; of Math the magician whose feet must lie in the lap of a virgin; of hanging a pregnant mouse and hunting a magical boar.

In the fair autumn of Our Lord's grace 1431, the nuns of England's St. Frideswide's prepare for the simply ceremonies in which the saintly novice Thomasine will take her holy vows. But their quiet lives of beauty and prayer are thrown into chaos by the merciless arrival of Lady Ermentrude Fenner and her retinue of lusty men, sinful women, and baying hounds. The hard-drinking dowager even keeps a pet monkey for her amusement. She demands wine, a feast.... And her niece, the angelic Thomasine.

Sleep disorders specialist Kennedy Plain has been diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. When her research subject dies after trying to convince her he has achieved dream-induced time travel and her study is shelved, she enlists herself as a subject to complete her research.

Laird Diocail Gordon has just come into his title and inherited his father's run-down castle and rag-tag clan. He knows the sorry sight of the castle would send any woman running, but is determined to find a wife to help return his home to its former glory. Widow Jane Stafford is on a mission - return to England even if it means trudging through the Scottish Highlands on foot. Her travels lead her straight to the path of danger until a mysterious, brawny man comes out of nowhere and saves her - and the spark between them is immediate.

In the small village of Berring, Calder runs the Broken Mug tavern. He was a gifted swordsman and would have been a war hero if only his side had won. His injured leg tells him his days of fighting are over. When a dark portal opens in his village’s main square and orcs stream through it, slaughtering his neighbors and setting everything on fire, it brings with it a second chance. A soldier of light appears and grants Calder a weapon stone so he can help fight against the forces of darkness.

Thrice wedded, but never bedded, Mathilde Martindale has long lived in the shadow of her indomitable mother, and meekly done as she was told. Until one day she decides to become mistress of her own destiny and leave the royal court to find her own path.

Three years ago, a Carnelian bead came into Catrine Jarman's temporary possession. River Kings sees her trace the path of this ancient piece of jewelry back to eighth-century Baghdad and India, discovering along the way that the Vikings' route was far more varied than we might think—that with them came people from the Middle East, and that the reason for this unexpected integration between the Eastern and Western worlds may well have been a slave trade running through the Silk Road, all the way to Britain.

Defeated on the field of Poitiers, Jean Le Bon, King of France, honored his treaty with England until his death. His son and heir, Charles V, has no intention of doing the same. War is coming and the predators are circling. Sir Thomas Blackstone, Edward III's Master of War, has been tasked with securing Brittany for England. In the throes of battle, he rescues a young boy, sole witness to the final living breaths of the Queen of Castile. The secret the boy carries is a spark deadly enough to ignite conflict on a new front-a front the English cannot afford to fight on.

Lachlan Maclean will do whatever it takes to protect his clan - even if it means abducting the most willful woman in the Highlands with the secret intention of wooing her for marriage. A leader possessing brute strength and an imposing command, Lachlan is unprepared for the beautiful spitfire Flora MacLeod, who jeopardizes his plans to save his clan and digs beneath his hard, chiseled exterior to expose a tenderness that may be his undoing.

For over two millennia in the West, familiarity with the literature, philosophy, and values of the Classical World has been synonymous with education itself. The traditions of the Greeks explain why Western Culture’s unique tenets of democracy, capitalism, civil liberty, and constitutional government are now sweeping the globe. Yet the general public in America knows less about its cultural origins than ever before, as Classical education rapidly disappears from our high school and university curricula.

John Gaunt was the son of Edward III, brother to the Black Prince, father to Henry IV, and the sire of all those Tudors. He has had pretty bad press: supposed usurper of Richard II’s crown and the focus of hatred in the Peasants’ Revolt, as they torched his home, the Savoy Palace. Helen Carr paints a complex portrait of a man who held the levers of power on the English and European stage, passionately upheld chivalric values, pressed for the Bible to be translated into English, and patronized the arts.

Richard "Roi" de Lohr is the second son of Richard the Lionheart's champion, Christopher de Lohr. Roi was raised in the finest homes and with the finest training. Emerging as a powerful and intelligent knight, he married the woman he wanted and enjoyed the life of prestige he had earned. When his wife gave birth to a son, Roi's life was complete. Until tragedy strikes. When Roi's wife dies in childbirth with their second child, he is devastated. But he's a de Lohr, and de Lohrs don't crumble. He raises his son alone, proud that the lad promises to take his place among the great de Lohrs.

A reckless princess. An enemy kingdom. And a mistake that could cost her everything.

The Inquisition conducted its last execution in 1826-the victim was a Spanish schoolmaster convicted of heresy. But as Cullen Murphy shows in this provocative new work, not only did its offices survive into the twentieth century, in the modern world its spirit is more influential than ever.

Fearsome Scots laird Gabriel MacLachlan must take a bride, but not just any bride. Magdalene, his liege lord's younger sister, is known to be as bonny as any Highland lass but as mad as a loon. Mad Maggie, they call her - and Gabriel has no choice. Not if he wants to put food in his clansmen's bellies, clothes on their backs, and repair the crumbling castle he calls home. A fat dowry in exchange for a madwoman, whose life will be in danger from the MacLachlan family curse the instant she becomes his wife.

Jamie MacKay has spent a lifetime serving as the right hand to the Laird of the MacKays. Now that he possesses his ancestral home again, he has his own plans for the future, including the ambition to start a new branch of the MacKays. Lady Helen Sutherland has lived to please her father and honor the family name. But when her sire forces her into a betrothal with a man who is a known murderer, she finally finds the courage to say no. Helen flees to the one place where she knows she'll find sanctuary.

Fenella Thane is a desperate woman. Her absentee husband of eight years has served her with divorce papers, and she looks likely to lose her beloved home and be forced into a convent. There is just one slim chance to avoid this fate, one person of prominence at court who she knows has the ear of the King. Oswald Vawdrey, the man who cruelly jilted her when she was a starry-eyed 15-year-old with a head full of romantic dreams.

Best-selling author Monica McCarty transports listeners to the 14th-century Scottish highlands in this dazzling novel. Warrior Tor MacLeod is picked by Robert the Bruce to lead the fight against English rule. Despite Tor’s rigid disposition and devotion to his craft, his new bride is determined to warm his heart.

One of the foremost achievements in Western literature, Homer's Iliad tells the story of the darkest episode in the Trojan War. At its center is Achilles, the greatest warrior-champion of the Greeks, and his refusal to fight after being humiliated by his leader, Agamemnon.

Award-winning historian Brian A. Catlos rewrites the history of Islamic Spain from the ground up, evoking the cultural splendor of al-Andalus, while offering an authoritative new interpretation of the forces that shaped it. Prior accounts have portrayed Islamic Spain as a paradise of enlightened tolerance or the site where civilizations clashed. Catlos taps a wide array of primary sources to paint a more complex portrait, describing how Muslims, Christians, and Jews together built a sophisticated civilization that transformed the Western world.