Today I'm going to list some of my Dark Ages/Saxon/Viking reference books, but first, a moan of dismay. I was trying to find out if the new BBC Robin Hood, featuring my man Richard Armitage, was going to have a third season. So I googled and...at once I am spoiled! I now know how the second season ends.Okay, first? I think it's a trick. But if it's not, well, at least I'll get to see RA in the throes of emotional turmoil and that should be something.
Although I haven't yet seen Season Two (soon, soon, the DVD shall be mine!), I still think they need a strong foil/feminine counterpart to Sir Guy, with Other Woman going after him while he's going after Marion. Sadly, this is not the Sir Guy of Gisborne Show, so the focus must be elsewhere, but if it were up to me, I'd not only have the Other Woman, I'd have him seriously tempted by her. Yet deep in his heart, he knows Marion would be better for him -- she'd bring out his good, redeemable qualities, while Other Woman would bring out the bad/ambitious side (but with great sex implied). Love vs. lust: what's the Guy to do? And maybe Other Woman could be hedging her bets and putting the moves on Robin at the same time. She could claim she was doing it to further Sir Guy's interests, should she be caught.
Sheesh, somebody stop me, because I don't write that show!
Now, should somebody watching Robin Hood be inspired to write their own story, set a little farther back in time, here are the books I own that I used for THE VIKING and THE SAXON.
THE FALL OF SAXON ENGLAND by Richard Humble
THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE, C. 400 - 1042 by D.J.V. Fisher
A HISTORY OF THE VIKINGS by Gwyn Jones
THE VIKING by Bertil Almgren et al, published by Crescent Books, NY
THE ANGLO-SAXONS, edited by James Campbell
BARBARIAN EUROPE, Time-Life Books
Tomorrow: The Restoration Library of Margaret Moore