Auden My people didn’t fade into humanity, melding into them as seasons changed. We disappeared. We found a way to go on, a way to thrive and let our power flow. We are one with today’s people yet apart from them, traveling between the modern world and New Midgard through our magical portals. Today’s Earth does not know of our magic, does not know of our ways. We are separate, and contact with old humanity is forbidden. Then I see her. She’s mine, and I’m taking her. Echo I’ve seen him over and over for the past six months, almost as long as I’ve existed in silence. He’s always in the same place. Always on the same day. Always watching me. If he speaks to me, I don’t know. All I hear is the echo of the screams, the never-fading memory of what happened to change my life. I’m lost in my own world, unable to reach for what I want and unable to communicate with this stranger, who watches me like one obsessed. I should be frightened, but I’m not. He’s the only constant in my ever-changing existence. Then my existence tilts again. I don’t know this place. I don’t know these ways. There’s only him—and all the people who despise my intrusion into their community. And even the man who’s brought me here may be unable to keep me. Not if his people have their way. But now that I’ve seen their world, I can’t go back to mine. Which leaves me one fate. And it’s not life.

Over one thousand years ago, kingdoms across Europe were changed forever as the Vikings sailed in. Prepare here to board an iconic Norse ship and be transported into the battles, the legacies, and the everyday lives of these intrepid warriors. From buried treasure to noble laws, to murderouos myths: this the story of the Vikings. The Vikings were the original explorers with a legacy going back to 800 AD. Popular culture thinks the 1600s was the Age of Discovery when Europe discovered the Americas. Did you know some of the most exciting days of seafaring expansion took place close to a thousand years before that when a group of seafaring Scandinavians departed their homelands for the British Isles, seeking great power and prosperity at all costs? For the next three centuries, the daring voyagers pillaged and plundered their way to a vast kingdom, and in the process, developed new trade routes, spreading everything from commerce to art to language from the Far East to the New World. The pages of this book will take you into the Norseman's universe - their daily lives and ritual deaths. We’ll explore the magical mythology of the Norse gods, go behind-the-scenes of the hit History series Vikings, and examine their lasting legacy on the today's world. We even cover pop culture too — much of Game of Thrones was based on the vikings (and countless other shows and movies too). Here, in these richly illustrated pages, is everything you need to know about the medieval warriors of the sea.

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For the last seven centuries the Vatican has been at war with an organization known as the Knights Templar. The Templars fled Europe in order to rebuild. They crossed the ocean to America. The Vatican has one mission: to destroy the Templars. The Templars have guarded their secrets and treasure for centuries in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Vatican. The Vatican has sent the Knights of Columbus, one of their most deadly orders.

A comprehensive new history of the infamous Vikings. Those men and women raided and traded their way into history whilst at the same time helping to build new nations in Scandinavia and beyond.

What do our myths say about us? Why do we choose to believe stories that have been disproven? David M. Krueger takes an in-depth look at a legend that held tremendous power in one corner of Minnesota, helping to define both a community’s and a state’s identity for decades. In 1898, a Swedish immigrant farmer claimed to have discovered a large rock with writing carved into its surface in a field near Kensington, Minnesota. The writing told a North American origin story, predating Christopher Columbus’s exploration, in which Viking missionaries reached what is now Minnesota in 1362 only to be massacred by Indians. The tale’s credibility was quickly challenged and ultimately undermined by experts, but the myth took hold. Faith in the authenticity of the Kensington Rune Stone was a crucial part of the local Nordic identity. Accepted and proclaimed as truth, the story of the Rune Stone recast Native Americans as villains. The community used the account as the basis for civic celebrations for years, and advocates for the stone continue to promote its validity despite the overwhelming evidence that it was a hoax. Krueger puts this stubborn conviction in context and shows how confidence in the legitimacy of the stone has deep implications for a wide variety of Minnesotans who embraced it, including Scandinavian immigrants, Catholics, small-town boosters, and those who desired to commemorate the white settlers who died in the Dakota War of 1862. Krueger demonstrates how the resilient belief in the Rune Stone is a form of civil religion, with aspects that defy logic but illustrate how communities characterize themselves. He reveals something unique about America’s preoccupation with divine right and its troubled way of coming to terms with the history of the continent’s first residents. By considering who is included, who is left out, and how heroes and villains are created in the stories we tell about the past, Myths of the Rune Stone offers an enlightening perspective on not just Minnesota but the United States as well.

Archaeologist Neil Oliver ventures beyond the myths about seafaring Norsemen to reveal the true lives of their chieftains, warlords, and explorers. The Vikings are infamous for taking no prisoners, relishing cruel retribution, and priding themselves on their bloodthirsty skills as warriors. But their prowess in battle is only a small part of their story, which stretches from their Scandinavian origins to America in the West and as far as Baghdad in the East. As the Vikings did not record their own history, we have to discover it for ourselves, and their tale, as Neil Oliver reveals, is an extraordinary story of a stalwart people who came from the brink of destruction to develop awesome seafaring power that reached a quarter of the way around the globe, building an empire that lasted nearly two hundred years. Drawing on discoveries that have only recently come to light, Oliver follows the Vikings’ trail to uncover what drove them to embark on such extraordinary voyages more than 1,000 years ago. An epic tale of one of the world’s great empires, The Vikings will fascinate all history buffs interested in finding out more about these real-life adventurers.