Norse sagas concern tales of ancient Nordic and Germanic history, detailing early Viking voyages, the battles that took place during these voyages, exotic adventures in foreign lands and the migration to Iceland. These prose sagas were written in the Old Norse language, sharing similarities with epic poetry, telling of heroic deeds of days long gone. The tales offer an endless panorama of pagan chieftains, Viking warriors, historic saints, noble bishops and ordinary men and women, ...

A collection of Old English annals, the original manuscript of ‘The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ was created late in the ninth century, during the reign of Alfred the Great. It is the oldest history of a European country in its vernacular, offering a treasure trove of knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon period. Along with Bede’s ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’, it provides an insight into the history of the English in the period following Roman rule up until the Norman Conquest, ...

Regarded by some as the greatest genius of the early Christian church, Origen of Alexandria was a third century scholar, ascetic and theologian. He was a prolific writer of approximately 2,000 treatises in multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism, biblical exegesis and hermeneutics and spirituality. His treatise ‘On the First Principles’ systematically lays out the principles of Christian theology and became the foundation for later theological writings; while the treatis...

The thirteenth century Italian Dominican friar, Thomas Aquinas was a philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism. His two masterpieces, the Summa Theologiae and Summa contra Gentiles, helped develop the classical systematisation of Latin theology, while as a poet he produced some of the finest eucharistic hymns in the church’s liturgy. The foremost classical proponent of natural theology, Thomas had an immense influence on Western thought, as much of modern philoso...

The fantasy pioneer A. Merritt was an American Sunday magazine editor and a writer of fantastic fiction. Seminal classics such as ‘The Moon Pool’ and ‘The Metal Monster’ had a major influence on the development of science fiction and fantasy literature, primarily through Merritt’s genuine imaginative power, creating surreal, yet hypnotically attractive alternative worlds and realities. He was extremely popular during his life and considered by many as the supreme fantasy genius of his day....

The French seventeenth century philosopher, Blaise Pascal was also a mathematician, physicist and master of prose. A child prodigy, Pascal had numerous interests and an innovative, untiring mind, making a significant contribution to a range of fields and studies. He laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities, formulating what came to be known as Pascal’s principle of pressure. He also propagated a religious doctrine that taught the experience of God through the heart rather...

A second century theologian from Carthage, Tertullian was an important early Christian writer, who produced an extensive corpus of literature. As the initiator of ecclesiastical Latin, he was instrumental in shaping the vocabulary and thought of Western Christianity. Tertullian has been described by some as the father of Latin Christianity and the founder of Western theology. Delphi’s Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical world, with both Englis...

The early nineteenth century philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is an important figure of German idealism, who achieved wide recognition within the continental tradition of philosophy. He has since become increasingly influential in the analytic tradition and his canonical stature within Western philosophy is universally recognised. Hegel’s principal achievement was his development of a distinctive articulation of idealism, in which the dualisms of mind and nature and subjec...

The Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus was the greatest scholar of the northern Renaissance, as well as the first editor of the New Testament. A classical scholar that wrote in a pure Latin style, Erasmus earned the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists". Using the philological methods pioneered by Italian humanists, he helped lay the foundations for the historical-critical study of the past. This comprehensive eBook presents Erasmus’ collected works, with numerous illustrations, rare ...

The Roman historian Eutropius flourished in the fourth century AD and is the author of ‘Breviarium historiae Romanae’, a compendium of ten books of Roman history, from the foundation of the city to the accession of Valens. It has come down to us complete and was compiled with considerable care and written with impartiality in a succinct style. It is particularly useful to historians for its account of the First Punic War, as Livy’s books spanning that period have not survived. Delphi’s Anc...

The Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst. Freud developed therapeutic techniques including the use of free association and transference, establishing its central role in the analytic process. Freud’s redefinition of sexuality led him to formulate the Oedipus complex as the central tenet of psychoanalytical theory. His analysis of dreams as wish-fulfilme...

An Egyptian priest that flourished in the third century BC, Manetho wrote ‘Aegyptiaca’ (History of Egypt), which provided a detailed history of his homeland to the Hellenic world. Although his original texts are now largely lost, important remains have survived, transmitted to us as fragments from several ancient authors. For many centuries, before hieroglyphics could be read, Manetho’s writings were one of the chief sources of information on Egyptian history. Delphi’s Ancient Clas...