Charlemagne and the Paladins

author: Julia Cresswell

name: Wayne

average rating: 3.62

book published: 2014

rating: 4

read at: 2014/12/07

date added: 2014/12/07

shelves:

review:

'Charlemagne and the Paladins' is another great entry in the Osprey Myths and Legends collection. This time around a subject is tackled that seems to have fallen out of favor.



I was always more of a King Arthur and Robin Hood fan, so was much less familiar with the tales of Charlemagne. The reasons for that are explained, but it's not because the stories aren't as fantastical. Charlemagne was a historical figure, but there are many fictional stories about Charlemagne and his paladins. The most famous of these is Roland (and I have read The Song of Roland), but we do meet Guy of Burgundy and Ogier the Dane. We learn the names of their swords and horses and battle trumpets. We also see how these stories look in the Italian versions and in Robert Browning's poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, which served as a sort of inspiration for Stephen King's character of Roland Deschain in his Dark Tower series.



As well as text, there are plenty of illustrations, photographs and woodcuts to go along with the text. I continue to love this series for it's ability to be so concise in nature. There is a lot of information packed in here as well as the illustrations. The bibliography was a bit briefer this time around, but that is likely due to the briefer amount of modern work about the subject.



I was given a review copy of this ebook by Osprey Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.





via Wayne's bookshelf: read http://ift.tt/1qgRflg