Lords of the North Quotes

“I am no Christian. These days it does no good to confess that, for the bishops and abbots have too much influence and it is easier to pretend to a faith than to fight angry ideas. I was raised a Christian, but at ten years old, when I was taken into Ragnar’s family, I discovered the old Saxon gods who were also the gods of the Danes and of the Norsemen, and their worship has always made more sense to me than bowing down to a god who belongs to a country so far away that I have met no one who has ever been there. Thor and Odin walked our hills, slept in our valleys, loved our women and drank from our streams, and that makes them seem like neighbours. The other thing I like about our gods is that they are not obsessed with us. They have their own squabbles and love affairs and seem to ignore us much of the time, but the Christian god has nothing better to do than to make rules for us. He makes rules, more rules, prohibitions and commandments, and he needs hundreds of black-robed priests and monks to make sure we obey those laws. He strikes me as a very grumpy god, that one, even though his priests are forever claiming that he loves us. I have never been so stupid as to think that Thor or Odin or Hoder loved me, though I hope at times they have thought me worthy of them.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“Did you become a Christian in your nunnery?' I asked her.

'Of course not.' she said scornfully.

'They didn't mind?'

'I gave them silver.'

'Then they didn't mind.' I said.

'I don't think any Dane is a real Christian.' she told me.

'Not even your brother?'

'We have many gods,' she said, 'and the Christian god is just another one. I'm sure that's what Guthred thinks. What's the Christian god's name? A nun did tell me, but I've forgotten.'

'Jehovah.'

There you are, then. Odin, Thor and Jehovah. Does he have a wife?'

'No.'

'Poor Jehovah.' she said.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“I hated Alfred. He was a miserable, pious, tight-fisted king who distrusted me because I was no Christian, because I was a northerner, and because I had given him his kingdom back at Ethandun. And as reward he had given me Fifhaden. Bastard.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“If a man can’t remember the laws,” Ragnar said, “then he’s got too many of them.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“You're a bastard," I said.

"Uhtred," he began, but could find nothing more to say.

"You're a piece of weasel-shit," I said, "you're an earsling."

"I'm a king," he said, trying to regain his dignity.

"So you're a royal piece of weasel-shit. An earsling on a throne.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“Tell me how Gisela can be married to a man she's never met?'

Aidan glanced across at Guthred as if expecting help from the king, but Guthred was still motionless, so Aidan had to confront me alone. 'I stood beside her in Lord Ælfric's place,' he said, 'so in the eyes of the church she is married.'

'Did you hump her as well?' I demanded, and the priests and monks hissed their disapproval.

'Of course not.' Aidan said, offended.

'If no one's ridden her,' I said, 'then she's not married. A mare isn't broken until she's saddled and ridden. Have you been ridden?' I asked Gisela.

'Not yet.' she said.

'She is married.' Aidan insisted.

'You stood at the altar in my uncle's place,' I said, 'and you call that a marriage?'

'It is.' Beocca said quietly.

'So if I kill you,' I suggested to Aidan, ignoring Beocca, 'she'll be a widow?”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“Wyrd bið ful aræd”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“In madness lies change, in change is opportunity, and in opportunity are riches.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“I put my hands over Saint Cuthbert's fingers and I could feel the big ruby ring under my own fingers, and I gave the jewel a twitch just to see whether the stone was loose and would come free, but it seemed well fixed in its setting. "I swear to be your man," I said to the corpse, "and to serve you faithfully." I tried to shift the ring again, but the dead fingers were stiff and the ruby did not move.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“Putting a cat into a stable doesn’t make it a horse”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“At sea, sometimes, if you take a ship too far from land and the wind rises and the tide sucks with a venomous force and the waves splinter white above the shield-pegs, you have no choice but to go where the gods will.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Lords of the North

“I was just twenty-one and my name was known wherever men sharpened swords. I was a warrior. A sword warrior, and I was proud of it.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“Of the stupidity of men there seems no end.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“the Christian god has nothing better to do than to make rules for us. He makes rules, more rules, prohibitions and commandments, and he needs hundreds of black-robed priests and monks to make sure we obey those laws.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“the Christian god has nothing better to do than to make rules for us. He”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“There is no number so unlucky as thirteen. Once, in Valhalla, there was a feast for twelve gods, but Loki, the trickster god, went uninvited and he played his evil games, persuading Hod the Blind to throw a sprig of mistletoe at his brother, Baldur. Baldur was the favorite god, the good one, but he could be killed by mistletoe and so his blind brother threw the sprig and Baldur died and Loki laughed, and ever since we have known that thirteen is the evil number. Thirteen birds in the sky are an omen of disaster, thirteen pebbles in a cooking pot will poison any food placed in the pot, while thirteen at a meal is an invitation to death. Thirteen spears against a fortress could only mean defeat. Even the Christians know thirteen is unlucky. Father Beocca told me that was because there were thirteen men at Christ’s last meal, and the thirteenth was Judas.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“The monks had murdered Danes and Ragnar had punished them, though these days the story is always told that the monks were innocently at prayer and died as spotless martyrs. In truth they were malevolent killers of women and children, but what chance does truth have when priests tell tales?”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“And then I had ridden from the east in the glory of a warrior, which is what I am and always have been. All my life I have followed the path of the sword. Given a choice, and I have been given many choices, I would rather draw a blade than settle an argument with words, for that is what a warrior does, but most men and women are not fighters.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“It was the year 878, I was twenty-one years old and believed my swords could win me the whole world. I was Uhtred of Bebbanburg, the man who had killed Ubba Lothbrokson beside the sea and who had spilled Svein of the White Horse from his saddle at Ethandun. I was the man who had given Alfred his kingdom back and I hated him. So I would leave him. My path was the sword-path, and it would take me home. I would go north.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“Alfred is a good man,” Hild chided me. “He is,” I answered, “but do you ever look forward to his company? Do you brew special ale for him? Do you remember a joke to tell him? Does anyone ever sit by a fire and try him with riddles? Do we sing with him? All he ever does is worry about what his god wants, and he makes rules to please his god, and if you do something for him it’s never enough because his wretched god just wants more.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“that the gods like bravery, and they love defiance, and they hate cowardice and loathe uncertainty. “We”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“but he dared not move. He was a whipped”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“show”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Lords of the North

“Because fate cannot be cheated, it governs us, and we are all its slaves.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“Wyrd bi ful aræd, we say, and it is true. Fate is inexorable.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“And in the darkness, as I listen to the sea beat on the sand and the wind fret at the thatch, I remember what it was like to be young and tall and strong and fast. And arrogant.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“The other thing I like about our gods is that they are not obsessed with us. They have their own squabbles and love affairs and seem to ignore us much of the time, but the Christian god has nothing better to do than to make rules for us.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“would rather draw a blade than settle an argument with words, for that is what a warrior does, but most men and women are not fighters. They crave peace. They want nothing more than to watch their children grow, to plant their seeds and live to see the harvest, to worship their god, to love their family and to be left in peace.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“genuflect”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North

“... without learning, a kingdom is a mere husk of ignorant barbarism.”
― Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North