Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Olaf Tausch, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf paints a word-picture of heaven and the seraph-band that swoops and soars before the throne.
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From ‘Lenin’ (1930), by F.A. Ossendowsky, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
As a last, desperate throw of the dice in the Great War, the Germans detonated an unusual kind of weapon in St Petersburg.
© Alexander Hoernigk, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Don Pedro’s brother John tries to ensure that the course of true love does not run smooth.
By Nikolay Koshelev (1840-1918), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain
St Bede says that Christ’s Transfiguration should remind us that we live in two worlds at the same time.
© Christine Matthews, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Henry VII must decide how to deal with a boy calling himself ‘King Edward VI’.
Bodleian Collections, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Sir Walter Scott warned that schoolchildren must not expect to be entertained all the time.