My votes for good historical reads are:

Alfred Duggan
The Little Emporers - A tale of a senior civil servan in Britain at the time of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire
The Cunning Of the Dove - A novel of Edward The Confessor
The Lady For Ransom - A novel of Roussel De Balliol - the life of a Norman mercenary in the service of the Byzantine Empire in the 11th Century
The Conscience of the King - The life of Cerdic, founder of Wessex (I have to say I loved this immoral swine murdering and betraying his way to a kingdom)
Knight In Armour - a rather ordinary knight during the 1st Crusade

What I like is that few of his narrators are noble (in any sense of the word), but there is frequently a strain of rather dark humour running through the stories. The stories were written during the Fifties (Duggan died in 1964) but have fortunately been re-issued in paperback by Phoenix Fiction. I'd highly recommend them to anyone.

Out of period but good nevertheless:
Eagle In The Snow - Wallace Breem (allegedly the inspiration for the film "Gladiator" - but don't hold that against it as it bears no relation to the film)
The Legate's Daughter - Wallace Breem

Imperial Governor - George Shipway (the diary of Suetonius Paulinus as he defeated Boudicea)

George Shipway was a god. His other work besides IG above that I love was "the knight": http://www.amazon.com/Knight-Anarchy-Ge ... 0583118453

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That one had already been mentioned a few pages ago so I didn't feel the need to belabour the point

Also not Harnic but very good nevertheless are the Matthew Shardlake stories by CJ Sansom set during the Dissolution (the background to these stories is extremely well researched). I also like "A Conspiracy Of Paper" and "A Spectacle Of Corruption" both by David Liss - the story of Benjamon Weaver, a Jewish ex-boxer turned thief-taker in early 18th Century London. I used a lot of the slang, situations and characters in a Traveller campaign - it went very well as the locale seems very far removed from the present day. I'd highly recommend both these authors.

Browsing in Waterstones yesterday I happened across a couple of books I hadn't seen before and picked one up - so far (I'm only on p57). Called "The Road To Jerusalem" by Jan Guillou it is the first of a trilogy about a Swedish crusader called Arn Magnussen or Arn de Gothia. I'm demonstrating my raging ignorance of medieval Europe outside of the British Isles and France when I say I had to search to see whether or not there was such a historical figure (there wasn't - he was fictional but set pretty tightly against the backdrop of real events).

Evidently the books were first published in Swedish in 2002 - according to Amazon my copy was released in January 2009 with the second volume just out and the final volume coming in March 2010I guess the popularity of Crusader Lit (is it just me or does every second book you see now seem to be about some guy in the Holy Land?) and the success of the Stieg Larrsen books has persuaded some publisher to start publishing more Swedish translated work.

Anyway so far it seems pretty good stuff (nice and gritty) set in 1150's Sweden (a time when Sweden was a patchwork of petty kingdoms) with some good Harnic material to feed off.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Jerusalem- ... 746&sr=8-1

Evidently they have made a film (the most expensive Swdish production ever) "Arn: The Knight Templar" and mini-series (it certainly looks a better prospect than the god-awful Kingdom of Heaven, Orlando Bloom wielding a sword? please!):
http://www.arnthemovie.com/

Malcolm

Amazon.com in the USA has the first volume of that trilogy new (and used copies of Vol. 2); eBay has copies of "The Road to Jerusalem" in several languages (at least 3 that I saw this morning), and possibly copies of the other two volumes as well (at least if one reads Swedish). If I decide that I can't wait until next year for Vol. 3, perhaps I can dig out my old Swedish-English dictionary from university and have a go at the Swedish edition. (I call dibs on the copy of Vol. 1 I'm bidding on on eBay, though!) Thanks for the tip, Malcolm!

I recently obtained a copy of Book 2 of Jan Guillou's Crusades trilogy from a UK seller on eBay -- can't wait for Vol. 3 to be released in English (according to what PoorMerchant learned, not until March 2010). (For those who read Spanish, there is a Spanish translation available on Amazon.com, at least as used copies from Amazon Marketplace.) Apparently, Mr. Guillou also wrote a "generational sequel" to the trilogy (Arvet efter Arn), which supposes that Birger Jarl, the founder of the city of Stockholm, is Arn Magnusson's grandson. I'm not sure if that's available in translation yet, but I'd prefer to wait until after I've finished the Crusades Trilogy to read it anyway (keeps the fictional events in the proper chronological sequence that way).

Catherine,
I'm glad you are enjoying them - after galloping through the first one, Road to Jerusalem, for various reasons the second novel, The Knight Templar, took me a little longer. Of the two so far, I prefer the first one - I enjoyed the details of the setting rather more (although I haven't read many novels set in the Holy Land I suspect I'm Crusadered out for quite some time). Anyway I'm definately looking forward to the next volume.

Malcolm

I just finished this: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... /aliwei-20 and it gave me some ideas for a few Harnic and Lythia kingdoms. (Rethem, Harbaal, Shorkyne, esp.)

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Robert Louis Stevenson's "Travels with a Donkey"is an excellent description of the difficulties encountered by intelligent but inexperienced adventurers traveling among mountain villages with a donkey. It starts with his detailed outfitting and purchase of the donkey, and proceeds through his misadventures from village to village.
It would certainly help any GM to add color to his PCs' rural travels.

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Heroes should be uncommon. They just happen to be the PCs.

Just finished reading CJ Sansom's Dissolution...(gotta love being poorly )

Although a bit later than medieval in feel and subject matter; it reminded me of Dead of Winter being set in a snowbound murder ridden monastery

It is also a quite well written ripping yarn; with some historical frisson moments too. Not to the standards of Pillars of Heaven in depth or breadth or Name of the Rose in brilliance; but possibly more readable beacause of this!

It is particularly good at showing the power of power so to speak (in this case of the Monarchy and of Cromwell). In this sense I thought it brutally Harnic in feel

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I don't recall if this has already been mentioned, but I just received "The Year 1000" by Robert Lacey & Danny Danziger. Anyone know of it? It's a slim book that claims to speak knowledgeably about such topics as clothes fasteners, medical practices, and marital laws.

Has anyone read it? I'm going to crease its spine on my commute to work.

Arthur

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Great book. Changed my entire view of Harn.

Anborn

Danziger also did a book titles "1215, Year of the Magna Carta", which is the same general idea is "1000", but (obviously) in the year 1215. I can't recommend it enough. Not enough information to be too dense, but enough to give you a very nice overview of all aspects of medieval life in that period.

Knight's Acre by Norah Lofts was an interesting read set around 1450. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/nor ... s-acre.htm

Younger son, very successful tournament bachelor knight in his mid 30s with a wife, children and some minor heritable lands which produced a modest income (fixed rents) with enough land to build a house 100L+ and sizable country farm for his own household IMO around 60 - 120 acres or so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norah_Lofts

Here's what I want to read:

1. Take Harn
2. Remove Annoying Tolkein Elements
3. Rationalize Religion
4. Integrate Subtle Noir/Hardboiled Sensibilities
5. Style ala James Ellroy/Dashiell Hammett

A series of short stories linked by character, theme, and/or plot; or a dark opera of the kaldoric succession crisis of shakespearean magnitude would do it.

...but I agree. IMO what Harn needs is a couple of good stories that capture the tone and feel of this particular environment. There are some writers about fit for that job. Rebecca Downey is a writer, ain't she? She used to have some pretty good harnic episodes on her website IIRC.

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-by Munin from the forum-

I must get round to finishing off my murder mystery detective... thing. Started off as a short story, already at novella.

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Hear, hear!

Found several good medieval-themed reference books (& a couple of DVDs) at the annual village garage sales today:
1) Barbarian Europe (1 of 5 volumes I found from Time-Life Books' "Great Ages of Man" series);
2) Ancient Costumes of Great Britain and Ireland: From the Druids to the Tudors, by Charles Hamilton Smith (1989 single-volume reprint of original 2-volume 1814 work, with lots of color plates);
3) The Arthurian Book of Days: The Greatest Legend in the World Retold Throughout the Year, by Caitlin and John Matthews (Little snippets of Arthurian legend for each day of the year, with illustrations reproduced from medieval manuscripts, and with cross-indexes & a "Chronicle" in the back, for those who'd prefer to follow the legendary events in the order they happened);
4) Life in a Medieval City, by Joseph and Frances Gies (Troyes, France, ca. 1250; a work previously mentioned in this thread, I believe); and the DVDs:
5) Barbarian (2003; sounds like a "Conan the Barbarian" ripoff, with Michael O'Hearn ("3 times Mr. Universe") trying to fill Arnold Schwarzenegger's . . . sandals); and
6) Nomad the Warrior (2006; sounds vaguely Mongol/Genghis Khan; apparently filmed in Kazakhstan with the cooperation of that country's Ministry of Culture -- includes both English & Kazakh soundtracks (as well as English & Spanish subtitles)).
These are just the sort of things my spouse the history buff will love looking at, too. (And if he doesn't? Expect to see them on eBay within the next month!)

Without reading the preceeding million pages on this thread so it may hav ebeen mentioned but..... Perhaps a collaborative Harn similar to the Theives' World franchise?

Golotha is begging for something like that

I've long thought Harn would be a great setting for a collaborative fiction project, in which writers share each other characters and events in their own stories, much as in Thieves' World. But when I bring it up, it gets no replies

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Heroes should be uncommon. They just happen to be the PCs.

Personally I think a collaborative fiction set in Harn is a great idea.

Here's my collection of Medieval and Viking Age Period Novels at My Library Thing: http://bit.ly/9oIXMe

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Anders Bersten, Kingdom of Sweden.
"Better to die at sea than as a cow in the barn"

The Pillars of the Earth starts as a TV miniseries on starz.

Pillars of The Earth: http://bit.ly/adZi7x

And George RR Martin's Song of Fire & Ice will be TV-series in October too.

Much to look fwd too. Robert Kirkman's The Waking Dead too: http://bit.ly/darLRe

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Anders Bersten, Kingdom of Sweden.
"Better to die at sea than as a cow in the barn"