You've made me all nostalgic now. First year of university - 17 going on 18 - living 84 miles down the road from my home town, with my sister and pain of a brother in law and two baby nephews. Plunging into my Heinrich Schliemann phase because we were studying Homer for Ancient History.
And you're right - Menelaos is gorgeous. I always loved Cassandra too.
So excited to hear about the battle scene in progress - one son is reading Bernard Cornwell's "The Winter King" at the moment and it is making increasingly impatient for Kai in that river.
I reckon Bernard Cornwell must have seen AotB - the world he evokes is very similar in feel, and his young Arthur talks so like ours! And there are other little touches too, like the bit where the dye on his red and white banner runs in the rain (just like the cross outside the AotB longhouse, which is looking distinctly the worse for the wear during the later episodes)... oh, and Arthur's Saxon sidekick who narrates the whole thing. Loved all three books - but it took me weeks to pluck up courage to read right to the end of the last one!
Oh, when we studied the Iliad at school... I was about 12 or 13. Also in translation. Into Russian. A good one, if archaic... and the original metre was killing me at times, but I loved myths back then and still do. And the story was gripping! Cassandra - that one is special for me... Probably in part Vladimir Vysotsky is to blame, he wrote a sad and overall wonderful song about Troy and history in general (and what happens to people in it).
Good point about Arthur's banner! If the dye was natural (and no synthetic materials for the banner itself either), it makes everything even more realistic.
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And you're right - Menelaos is gorgeous. I always loved Cassandra too.
So excited to hear about the battle scene in progress - one son is reading Bernard Cornwell's "The Winter King" at the moment and it is making increasingly impatient for Kai in that river.
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Loved all three books - but it took me weeks to pluck up courage to read right to the end of the last one!
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I think that banner with the cross on it has been through one too many skirmishs by the time Benedicta rolls into (and thankfully out of ) town
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Good point about Arthur's banner! If the dye was natural (and no synthetic materials for the banner itself either), it makes everything even more realistic.
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