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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark" data-source="post: 930226" data-attributes="member: 5">I'm enjoying The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Translated by G. N. Garmonsway (1953).  My copy is reprinted in 1972 by Aldine Press.  It's more than a bit dry in places, but the gems I am rediscovering through this translation are phenominal.In short, it is translated annals written in the monasteries of Winchester, Canterbury, Peterborough, Abingdon and Worchester.  It's collated to give the feel of a continuous (if sparse) chronicle.  The first half a dozen centuries are spotty, as one would expect, but the seventh century up through the twelfth have a wealth of information that reflects on the times, gives laudatory praise to the various rulers and conquerors of the day, and even has mentions of astral or mundane events.  Sometimes the writing is straight prose and sometimes verse.Here's a sample from 937-In this year king Athelstan, lord of warriors,Ring-giver of men, with his brother prince Edmund,Won undying glory with the edges of swords,In warfare around Brunanburh.With their hammered blades, the sons of EdwardClove the shield-wall and hacked the linden bucklers,As was instinctive in them, from their ancestry,To defend their lands, their treasures and their homes,In frequent battle against the enemy.The foemen were laid low: the ScotsAnd the hosts from the ships fell doomed.  The fieldGrew dark with the blood of men after the sun,That glorious luminary, God's bright candle,Rose high into the morning above the horizon,Until the noble being of the Lord EternalSank to its rest.  There lay many a warriorOf the men of the North, torn by spears,Shot o'er his shield; likewise many a ScotSalted with battle, lay lifeless.All through the day the West Saxons in troopsPressed on in pursuit of the hostile peoples,Fiercely, with swords sharpened on grindstone,They cut down the fugitives as they fled.Nor did the Mercians refuse hard fightingTo any of Anlaf's warriors, who invadedOur land across the tossing waters,In the ship's bosom, to meet their doomIn the fight.  Five young kings,Stretched lifless by the swords,Lay on the field, likewise sevenOf Anlaf's jarls, and a countless hostOf seamen and Scots.  There the princeOf Norsemen, compelled by necessity,Was forced to flee the prow of his shipWith a handful of men.  In haste the shipWas launched, and the king fled hence,Over the waters grey, to save his life.Passages such as that, the index of persons and the index of places make this a fine book for any gamer's shelf. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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