Viking Britain Quotes

“Of all the compass points from which terror might emanate, there was one which held the greatest dread. This was not just because the sea had repeatedly disgorged boatloads of child-snatchers and hall-burners from precisely this direction, nor indeed because empirical observation demonstrated that this was the horizon over which the most wretched weather tended to hurtle, but because the Anglo-Saxons already knew full well that it was here that Satan had set his throne. This was the medieval world’s heart of darkness: the North.”
― Thomas J.T. Williams, Viking Britain: An Exploration

“It is this bloody-mindedness - the obsessive quest for wisdom though it brings no peace, the desire to gain knowledge of a future that cannot be circumvented, the relentless preparation for a doom that cannot be avoided - that reminds us of our own self-defeating consciousness, the knowledge of mortality that defines our humanity.”
― Thomas Williams, Viking Britain