Wolves of God (Deluxe Edition)

Listen! We are the English, the sons of conquerors and the fathers of kings, who came over the whale-roads to whelm the Wealh and take from them the land they had lost by their weakness. We are a great people, in sin and strength alike, and God has used us for His ends. Once we were His wolves upon the wicked, to wound the faithless and condemn their crimes, and now we are His children in the true faith. But our sins hang heavy on our hearts yet, and a shadow falls upon us from the deeds we have done.

I write this book so that the gamesmen of other lands may know of us and our ways, and may play at our mighty deeds as they do their own. The dicers of the Franks may add English heroes to their tale-makings, the Greeks may smile at our customs from the carved halls of Constantinople, and even the distant men of Tang may make curious stories of our far-off isle in that land of silks and strangeness. We are a poor people before the riches of Rome and the splendors of the Persians, but we are conquerors still, and our tales are worthy of telling.

Few are the gamesmen who can bear to be told ten thousand things before the dice rattle on the board, so I spare for now the many things I might say, and tell you only what you must know to fashion a hero of your own, and what grave perils await the work of your thoughts.