Bulletin Board

I am so glad you found my message about Warburton and St Werburgh of interest. Needless to say, if you decide to use her story in one of your Saxon stories I will be absolutely thrilled. Your view of the various miracles of the Saxon saints seems remarkably similar to Uhtreds. When learning to read, under Beoccas instruction, from a life of one of the saints, Uhtred questions why the saint didnt do a more useful miracle. Well, yes. And much the same applies to St Werburgh. She apparently performed other miracles, but the one with which she is most associated concerned geese. There are two parts to this. One is about subdueing the wild geese which were destroying her fields of corn (theres that word corn again and her? fields of corn??) and the corollary is about resurrecting one of the wild geese stolen, cooked and eaten by her greedy steward. You can find amazing amounts of information about her story on the internet. Who knew? Clearly this speaks to a different way of looking at the world. Elizabeth Smith

Hello Mr. Cornwell, Thanks very much for so many hours of enjoyment and excitement. I'm especially excited tonight because I've just found that Lords of the North has arrived in the only library in my county! And since I haven't had my hands on a book in this series since the spring, this is a special treat. I also enjoy the work of Conn Iggulden, and bought his first Caesar novel because of a favourable comment by you on the back cover. I e-mailed him to express my appreciation of his work, and now I'm happy to do the same for your work -- thanks very much and may you write many more! Yours sincerely, John Stevens

Dear Bernard Cornwell, This may be a bit esoteric for the Your Questions bulletin board, but I thought you might be interested. Thank you for your generous reply to my question about the Three Fates in Greek and Norse myth and religion. I have had a quick look on Wikipedia and found an interesting article with a number of references which I hope to follow up. I see what you mean about Gravess White Goddess but will try to get hold of a copy, anyway. The Wikipedia article included the following. *The term Triple Goddess was popularised by poet and scholar Robert Graves who noted that an archetypal goddess triad occurred throughout Indo-European mythology. He was not the originator of this concept, and it appears as a recurrent theme in the Myth and Ritual school of classical archaeology at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. *Another cross-cultural archetype is the three goddesses of fate. In Greek Mythology there are the Moirae; in Norse mythology there are the Norns. The Weird Sisters of Shakespeare's Macbeth and Wyrd Sisters of Terry Pratchett's novel of the same name are most definitely inspired by these deities.* My initial thinking is that the transmission of the Indo-European Fates triad may have happened at the same time as the transmission and development of Indo-European languages during the pre-historic migrations throughout Europe. Perhaps some proto-myth of three women spinning our fates existed and moved with the migrating peoples, changing as it went. I hope to follow this up. Would you be interested in hearing any results of my search? If this was the case, it would overcome the difficulty of geographic distance between Greece and the Nordic countries. That is, the transmission occurred over a long period of time, rather than being the result of immediate contact by, for example, missionaries or traders. However, that said, the Norse people did get at least as far as far as Istanbul, or, as it was then, Byzantium or possibly Constantinople, by sailing down the Danube to the Black Sea. (The portage around the rapids and gorges must have been a challenge!) The guards of the Byzantine emperor were at one time former Vikings, though I am not sure how long they had been there. One of the lions outside the Arsenale in Venice, which were stolen from Constantinople in the so-called fourth crusade in the 14th century, in reality, the sack of the city, has Viking runes scratched into its marble flank, no doubt by a rather bored guard. Or so I understand. Elizabeth Smith

B.C.....the first read was "redcoat" and next "the sharpe's series" and on and on....look forward to reading "Lords of the North"...I hope to see some future works in regards to Jamestown's John Smith and his escapades or the characters in King Phillips war and one last appeal...expand the Redcoat character into a series....and finally; I love the era of the French and Indian wars and all of it's rascallion characters and villians...the frenchies , the brits and the colonials...great dynamics... keep your head down as you know there is "no rest for the wicked"...thank you ...chuck johnson

Dear Mr. Cornwell, This is a humble request that you require that the audio versions of your books be released unabridged. I am sure that the 40% that is heartlessly sliced away is as valuable and wonderful as the bits left. Please do not underestimate your audio audience- we want all the words too! Thanks, Steve

Mr Cornwell im just glad that you found your gift and it was one you could share with the word. I loved your Arthur books, I just this minute finished Excalibur, great read, thanks.

Scott Husband

In reference to the question "Why do men love war" in the "Your questions" section, a clear, lucid, academically grounded answer can be found in John Keegan's "A History of Warfare." Happy Holidays!
James

I wanted to start off by saying thanks for the books; I have always found them entertaining. Especially your warlord chronicles, which I believe is your best work. I was wondering whether there was any talk of them being made into movies. You have written them in a cinematographic way and I would think they would translate well to the screen. And if so, I believe Ridley Scott would be well suited to direct. He has done similar work in the past, often has strong women in his work similar to you and has to my understanding wanted to do a Tristan and Isolde story of his own. Thanks for the books, Gareth.

Dear Mr Cornwell, You may recall that several years ago I sent you a transcript of an old newspaper story about a British naval hero who had sunk several American ships on a raid into enemy territory? Well, I remain a Bernard Cornwell addict and thought I would tell you how much I have enjoyed reading the first three "Saxon Stories", not the least because my wife descends from a Saxon family who were with Alfred when he was hiding out in the Somerset marshes at Athelney. Later her ancestors we part of the Saxon settlement in the Winkleigh area of Devon, at Lug's Farm or settlement, we believe. In 1238 Nicholas Lug was 'a juror' in the Winkleigh Hundred. The family name evolved into Luxton, and in Devon there is still a village of Luxton Barton. Needless to say I am eagerly awaiting the next "Uhtred" novel. You do seem to come up with some splendid heroes. Warmest Regards, Ian. ps I haven't read the latest "Sharpe" yet but it is next in line after I have finshed reading Manda Scott's "Boudica" quartet. Ian M. Green

Hi Bernard, I have just finished the Arthurian trilogy and i can't put words what a fantastic series. I'm trying to write a novel myself and compared to this brilliance i might as well set fire to it and forget my dreams. I just wanted to copy in an interesting piece i found on the website www.imdb.com under the film King Arthur. Please find below the list of actors - characters of your series that someone would like to see: Peter Jackson; Director (Lord of the Rings) Ewan McGregor; Derfel (Former captain in Arthur's army who tells the story) Sean Bean; Arthur (Sharpe, Boromir, Odysseus etc. Sean just has that ability to do anything) William Hurt; Bishop Sansum (William is perfect for a slippery slimeball kind of guy (A History of Violence)) Kiera Knightly; Nimue (The young woman who is filled with sorcery) Brendan Gleeson; King Gundleus (A villainous killer) OR Culhwch (sidekick of Derfel (Braveheart)) Christopher Lee; Merlin (The unpredictable wizard on no one's side) Christian Bale; Galahad (Younger brother of Lancelot) Marton Csokas; Lancelot (Bit of a faker) Bryan Cox; King Gorfydded (Another villain) Personally i think this is an awful wishlist! Regards, Dave Cook