The Big Book of Swashbuckling Adventure, edited by Lawrence Ellsworth

My wife found me this gem: a thick collection of swashbuckling tales from several masters of the field - many of them unknown to me until now. You can find all of the big names here, from Alexandre Dumas and Baroness Orczy to Rafael Sabatini, but also some less well known names such as Stanley J. Feyman and Anthony Hope. Pirates, swordsmen, nobles - you can find it all here. It is pretty impossible to review an entire collection of stories from so many authors: a lot depends on the quality of the individual stories and they are still all of them unique and would deserve a separate paragraph of their own. I don't have time such a deep review, unfortunately, but I will try to give you my overall impression.

Review: The Brethren by Robert Merle

When an author comes with the praise of being the Alexandre Dumas of the 20th century, a sworn fan of Alexandre Dumas is pretty much forced to pick up a book and start reading. Robert Merle is a French author and his Fortunes of France series tells the story of a Huguenot family from around 1550 to 1660. The first three parts have been translated in to English and the first of them is The Brethren.

Attending the Opening Ceremony of the Heavy Metal exhibition

My wife and I were invited to attend the opening ceremony of the Heavy Metal exhibition at the Häme Castle on the 21st April. First things first, the exhibition has next to nothing to do with certain genre of music, and a lot to do with heavy metal armour and weapons used in the 16th to 18th centuries. The arms and armour come from the Universalmuseum Joanneum in Graz, Austria and they are, therefore, historical equipment used by the soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire under the Hapsburg rule. These are displayed for the first time in Northern Europe, so it was simply a chance of a lifetime to be one of the first people to enjoy the exhibition.

Review: Wolfshead by Robert E. Howard

Robert E. Howard was a prolific writer perhaps best known for his Conan the Cimmerian and Solomon Kane stories, but he wrote a lot of other stories as well, including westerns and horror stories. In the Forest of Villefère and Wolfshead are his two short stories dealing with werewolves, first published in Weird Tales in 1925 and 1926. They were therefore written in a time when werewolf stories were still in their infancy and manage to take a refreshing look at the genre and steer away from the kinds of tropes that more modern stories tend to be riddled with. Although Howard never specifically sets the stories at any particular time period, it can be assumed from the references to rapiers, arquebusiers and slave trade that they are set in the 16th century.

Video Footage of the New Exhibition at the Olavinlinna Castle

It is not too often that one gets to dress up as a historical figure and star in a movie (even a short one). So, I beg of you to forgive me if I use this chance to express my elation about such an opportunity.

The new Accessible Exhibition has just opened at the Olavinlinna Castle, located in Savonlinna, Finland. Last year, me and my family were invited to take part in the production of the video footage that is a part of this exhibition (read all about it here). Although you will have to travel to Savonlinna to see the entire 10 minute video, the Finnish National Museum has released two trailers of the video that you can enjoy anywhere you may want to.

The first of these is a so-called short trailer and you can spot yours truly at around the 12 second mark, walking down a castle hallway.

The second one is a so-called long trailer, featuring quite a lot of scenes not seen in the short one. You can spot me and my wife and daughter at around the 30 second mark. I'm standing in the background while my wife and daughter are seated at a table, playing a historical board game.

The Three Musketeers in an Alternate Universe

The Three Musketeers (2011) is a film that really should not be viewed as historical fiction. Rather, it is an example of historical fantasy, where realistic historical aspects are mixed with fantastical creations in the style of airships and biker leather jackets. In short, if you go in the theatre with an open mind, not expecting the movie to have much to do with Alexandre Dumas' classic story or actual history, you might well expect to be entertained. Unfortunately, the movie has other shortcomings that detract from the experience even when one's expectations are as low as that.

The Sword of Gustavus Vasa

Because of my interest in swords in general and in the early 17th century specifically, I've always had a certain fondness for rapiers. The title image of this blog entry depicts one of the rapiers of Gustavus Vasa, who was the king of Sweden in the 16th century and pretty much created Sweden by uniting the country under his rule and ridding it of Danish influence.