Following a hugely successful first series, Rattus Rattus and the rest of the Horrible Histories gang are returning to the smallcreen for another 13 episodes in spring 2010. In this special tie-in edition readers can discover all the foul facts about the Smashing Saxons including who got cow pats as Christmas presents, why wearing a pig on your head is lucky and how to make a dead Saxon happy.

Readers can discover all the foul facts about the SMASHING SAXONS, including who got cow pats as Christmas presents, why wearing a pig on your head is lucky and how to make a dead Saxon happy.

Discover all the foul facts about the Smashing Saxons, including who got cow pats as Christmas presents, why wearing a pig on your head is lucky and how to make a dead Saxon happy. With a bold, accessible new look and revised by the author, these bestselling titles are sure to be a huge hit with yet another generation of Terry Deary fans.

Readers can discover all the foul facts about the Stormin' Normans, including why Norman knights slept with a dolly and which pirate hung up his eye-patch. With a bold, accessible new look and revised by the author, these bestselling titles are sure to be a huge hit with yet another generation of Terry Deary fans.

An entertaining and illuminating collection of weird, wonderful, and downright baffling words from the origins of English—and what they reveal about the lives of the earliest English speakers Old English is the language you think you know until you actually hear or see it. Unlike Shakespearean English or even Chaucer’s Middle English, Old English—the language of Beowulf—defies comprehension by untrained modern readers. Used throughout much of Britain more than a thousand years ago, it is rich with words that haven’t changed (like word), others that are unrecognizable (such as neorxnawang, or paradise), and some that are mystifying even in translation (gafol-fisc, or tax-fish). In this delightful book, Hana Videen gathers a glorious trove of these gems and uses them to illuminate the lives of the earliest English speakers. We discover a world where choking on a bit of bread might prove your guilt, where fiend-ship was as likely as friendship, and where you might grow up to be a laughter-smith. The Wordhord takes readers on a journey through Old English words and customs related to practical daily activities (eating, drinking, learning, working); relationships and entertainment; health and the body, mind, and soul; the natural world (animals, plants, and weather); locations and travel (the source of some of the most evocative words in Old English); mortality, religion, and fate; and the imagination and storytelling. Each chapter ends with its own “wordhord”—a list of its Old English terms, with definitions and pronunciations. Entertaining and enlightening, The Wordhord reveals the magical roots of the language you’re reading right now: you’ll never look at—or speak—English in the same way again.

Sail back to a vicious time with fearsome seafaring Viking warriors with big boats, big shields and enormous ginger beards. Readers can discover all the foul facts about the Vicious Vikings, including Viking gods in wedding dresses, corpses on trial and Death by booby-trapped statues. With a bold, accessible new look, these bestselling titles are sure to be a huge hit with yet another generation of Terry Deary fans. Revised by the author and illustrated throughout to make Horrible Histories more accessible to young readers.

Horribly Hilarious Joke Book is full of hundreds of horribly hilarious historical jokes and illustrations in one laugh-out-loud book. A must-have book for any Horrible Histories fan, you'll literally laugh your head off at this comical collection of nasty bits.