Stones & Bones

Almost two-thousand years ago, a Celtic queen proved the truth of the famous saying “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

Samuel Johnson, considered England’s greatest man of letters, famously said: “When a man is tired of London, he’s tired of life.” London’s fascinating history is one reason why.

Chess is battle on a board. There can only be one winner. 

Any mentor can only go so far. Eventually the hero – or heroine – MUST face the unknown ALONE. 

Any mentor can only go so far. Eventually the hero—or heroine—MUST face the unknown ALONE. 

Of Emma of Normandy, Sir Winston Churchill wrote: "Few women in history have stood at the centre of such remarkable converging forces." But another powerful woman stood in her way.

How did one of history’s most famous kings come to be? Yet without Emma of Normandy, he would be a fleeting figure through time.

This figure is indispensable to British history and to Emma's story. But he didn't last long on her chessboard.

Even in the winter of life, love knows no yesterdays.

It’s been said that home is where the heart is. But for Emma, only one place will do.

A woman desperate for her bloodline to continue fights at every turn for her sons to rise as kings. But first, she needs the oath.

From her first days in England, young Emma of Normandy had a formidable adversary. She could not imagine then how formidable. Soon she would know. The proverbial Fox and Hedgehog are about to square off.

As the Vikings carve a path of fire and blood through Saxon England, its weak king flies at the first shout of battle. Is this the work of history’s first recorded wicked stepmother?

Queen Emma wishes everyone NOEL! The holiday greeting she likely would've given. As a French import herself, NOEL originated in France but became a favored traditional greeting in the medieval era. Let's join Emma for Christmastide. A joyous time, a joyous greeting, a joyous wish to all!

Dr. Daniel Gerrard is a British historian of the High Middle Ages and the author of three books. Professor Gerrard teaches medieval history at Regents Park College, Oxford University and specializes in the biography of Emma of Normandy, the first biography of an English queen, the Encomium Emmae Reginae. This interview focuses on the early days of Emma of Normandy in England and the trauma she experienced just months after her arrival as young bride and queen, the St. Brice’s Day Massacre. Flashpoint for the Viking conquest of England.

Oxford. Key hub at the crossroads of Roman roads. And the flashpoint of the Viking conquest of England. The Saxon king orders a massacre of all Danes, his queen’s kith and kin. As England sinks beneath the Viking yoke, she asks, is this why she came?

One creature is instantly recognized the world over. Remarkably similar in all cultures. To Queen Emma, these creatures were not mythical. They were real. But they don’t exist, do they? So why are they everywhere?

Lord, what fools these mortals be! Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream transports us to the Otherworld. For Emma of Normandy fairies and elves were never far below the surface. There are countless stories of their origins. This is one. 

A 1000 years ago a treasure was buried. Not of gold. A chess set. A Viking chess set. How do we know? Berserkrs. Vikings who’d go berserk and kill and kill ‘til there was no one left to kill. Who said chess was just a game?

From the fury of the Northmen, oh Lord, deliver us! A prayer not for deliverance from a bunch of long-haired tourists who roughed up the neighbors. But a merciless scourge who executed the Blood Eagle.