Neil Thomas

Reading the Nibelungenlied is an introduction to a German example of the 'heroic' genre which provides an interpretative commentary aimed at students and readers with an interest in both medieval and modern receptions of the Nibelungen legends.

Reading the Nibelungenlied

Corinne J. Saunders

Françoise Hazel Marie Le Saux

Essays consider the variety of responses to warfare and combat in medieval literature.

Medieval Literary Responses to Warfare

Writing War

Black walnut has been felled indiscriminately for timber for everything from fine furniture to rifle stocks. But few know that it is really an extraordinary perennial oil-crop (as are most nut trees to varying degrees). The author takes you on a journey into biomass nut production. With the focus on his style of management, he examines the components of volume output and the internal rate of return to investment in a nut-based enterprise. Above all, the author suggests that the reforestation of the landscape with non-select black walnut for biomass nut production has the potential for sustainable multiple income streams for long-term partial rural livelihoods. Operator of a farm with more than 2,000 black walnut trees, the author uses his everyday interaction with his 'forest' to draw out the experiences that shape productivity, and provide ecosystem services in so doing.

Biomass Nut Production in Black Walnut

University professor Neil Thomas was a committed Darwinist and agnostic-until an investigation of evolutionary theory led him to a startling conclusion: "I had been conned!" As he studied the work of Darwin's defenders, he found himself encountering tactics eerily similar to the methods of political brainwashing he had studied as a scholar. Thomas felt impelled to write a book as a sort of warning call to humanity: "Beware! You have been fooled!" The result is Taking Leave of Darwin, a wide-ranging history of the evolution debate. Thomas uncovers many formidable Darwin opponents that most people know nothing about, ably distills crucial objections raised early and late against Darwinism, and shows that those objections have been explained away but never effectively answered. Thomas's deeply personal conclusion? Intelligent design is not only possible but, indeed, is presently the most reasonable explanation for the origin of life's great diversity of forms.

A Longtime Agnostic Discovers the Case for Design

Taking Leave of Darwin

The findings of recent archaeological and folkloric studies are subsumed into this study where they possess literary relevance. The author finds that the Thomas/Gottfried branch of the legend has little to do with an uncritical glorification of courtly love as that term has been commonly understood. Rather, the tension arising from within the amorous triangle of Tristan, Isolde, and Marke is finally resolved on terms favourable to the collective and the adultery is not finally permitted to injure the fabric of courtly civilization which Tintagel symbolizes. Gottfried von Strassburg emerges less as a critic of the chivalric order than as a staunch defender of the feudal status quo.

A Study of Gottfried Von Strassburg's Tristan Together with the Tristan of Thomas

Tristan in the Underworld

Study of neglected 13c German romance by Heinrich von dem Turlin: Gawain achieves the Grail, Arthur struggles through reverses to assert his authority. Heinrich's reinvention of the Arthurian ideal asserts its vigour in the latermiddle ages.

Diu Crône and the Medieval Arthurian Cycle

This work studies the transformations of the Arthurian legend on German soil from the late medieval period up to the threshold of the Renaissance. The following works are analyzed: Wigamur, the Arthurian trilogy of Der Pleier, Parzival, Der Jüngere Titurel, Diu Crône, the Prose Lancelot, the Tristan narratives, and Der Nüwe Parzival.

Ideology and Intertextuality in the "post-classical" German Romances of the Matter of Britain Cycle

The Defence of Camelot

In 1989, deep in the South American jungles of Suriname, a former commando and Falklands War veteran discharged from the SAS found himself with a group of contract soldiers training a rebel army against a violent dictator regime. Things were not so clear cut in this war-torn country and as cracks began to appear in finding out who had the moral high ground, cracks also began to appear in the team itself. It seemed the leader of the group had other agendas which he was keeping from the mixed bag of former British commandos and French Foreign Légion soldiers. Now, as all-out war has got ever closer, this becomes increasingly difficult for the author, as he too, has not been totally truthful with the others.

The Odd-Job Man

David Horner

"Thrilling examination of some of the actions the SAS has been involved in up to and including its service in East Timor."--Publisher's website.

In Action with the SAS

Director of the Social Policy Group Neil Thomas

Reappraisal of Wirnt von Gravenberg's Wigalois, showing how it confronts and takes issue with - rather than simply imitating - earlier German Arthurian romance.

Intertextuality and Interpretation

Wirnt Von Gravenberg's Wigalois

John Eric Adair

This text is rich in practical advice and guidance and addresses key areas such as setting and achieving goals and objectives, decision making and problem solving, creative and innovative thinking, self-development, and much more."

Neil Thomas

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