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The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10) QUOTES

The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10) QUOTES

1 " You will not say how you are haunted by the faces of the men you killed, how in their last gasp of life they sought your pity and you had none. You will not speak of the boys who died screaming for their mothers while you twisted a blade in their guts and snarled your scorn into their ears. You will not confess that you wake in the night, covered in sweat, heart hammering, shrinking from the memories. You will not talk of that, because that is the horror, and the horror is held in the heart’s hoard, a secret, and to admit it is to admit fear, and we are warriors.
We do not fear. We strut. We go to battle like heroes. We stink of shit. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

2 " It will never end.
Till the world ends in the chaos of Ragnarok, we will fight for our women, for our land, and for our homes. Some Christians speak of peace, of the evil of war, and who does not want peace? But then some crazed warrior comes screaming his god's filthy name into your face and his only ambitions are to kill you, to rape your wife, to enslave your daughters, and take your home, and so you must fight. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

3 " The shield wall reeks of shit, and all a man wants is to be home, to be anywhere but on this field that prepares for battle, but none of us will turn and run or else we will be despised for ever. We pretend we want to be there, and when the wall at last advances, step by step, and the heart is thumping fast as a bird’s wing beating, the world seems unreal. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

4 " When a man cannot fight he would curse. The gods like to feel needed. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

5 " I remember laughing at that moment, and I remember my son frowning at me in puzzlement. What I remember best of all, though, was the sudden certainty that the gods were with me, that they would fight for me, that my sword would be their sword. ‘We’re going to win,’ I told my son. I felt as if Odin or Thor had touched me. I had never felt more alive and never felt more certain. I knew there would be no more mistakes and that this was no dream.
I had come to Bebbanburg and Bebbanburg would be mine. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

6 " When rumours fly, when false tales are being told, be the storyteller. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

7 " So long as we remember names, so long those people live. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

8 " We should know who they are," I said, "before we kill them. That's just being polite. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

9 " We are almost men, not quite warriors, and on some fateful day we meet an enemy for the first time and we hear the chants of battle, the threatening clash of blades on shields, and we begin to learn that the poets are wrong and that the proud songs lie. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

10 " It's better to make the wrong choice," my father had continued, "than to make no choice at all. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

11 " You should always plan your battles form the enemy's point of view. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

12 " I was still screaming at the enemy, promising them death. I was Thor, I was Odin, I was the lord of battle. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

13 " I remember Ragnar laughing one day. "It is so kind of the Christians! They put their wealth in one building and mark it with a great cross! It makes life so easy. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

14 " Except we were there, and I was in a vengeful mood. My cousin was still in Bebbanburg. Æthelhelm was trying to destroy my daughter and her husband. Constantin had humiliated me by driving me from my ancestral land. I had not seen Eadith, my wife, in a month. So someone had to suffer. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

15 " When a man cannot fight he should curse. The gods like to feel needed. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

16 " We were the wolf pack, we were the killers of Britain, we had fought from the south coast of Wessex to the northern wilds, from the ocean to the sea, and we had never been beaten, and these men knew it. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

17 " I was born a Saxon, but raised by Danes, my daughter had married a Norseman, my dearest friend was Irish, my woman was a Saxon, the mother of my children had been Danish, my gods were pagan, and my oath was sworn to AEthelflaed, a Christian. Whose side was I on? "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

18 " Idle men make mischief, especially idle men supplied with ale, whores, and weapons. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

19 " Prisoners!" Finan shouted, and I suspected he was shouting at me because I had so blatantly ignored my own insistence that we take men captive. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)

20 " We are going to soak this rock with blood! I am Uhtred! I am the lord here. This is my rock! "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories, #10)