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Informationen zum Autor Tony Davis; illustrated by Gregory Rogers Klappentext A laugh-out-loud chapter book series filled with knightly adventures! Roland Wright wants to be a knight in armor. The problem: Roland's dad is a blacksmith, and only boys from noble families can even dream of becoming knights. When mysterious visitors arrive in the village one day, everything changes. Roland finds himself in the contest of a lifetime, with a real chance to become a page, the first step on the road to knighthood. But how can skinny, clumsy Roland beat an opponent who is bigger, stronger, and older—and who doesn't play by the rules?These days it is considered rude to chop a man's arm off with a battle-axe, even when you don't like him. And when someone is really annoying, or is standing in your way and will not move, it is not polite to take a large silver sword and swing it with all your force at eye level, neatly removing the top of that person's head. But it wasn't always like that. Six centuries ago, a boy named Roland Wright turned ten. Well, nearly ten. It was the year 1409, in a period known as the Middle Ages. Almost everything was different from the way it is today. For a start, there were no cars. There were no planes either. Television? Not even in black-and-white. Books had to be written out by hand because the man who was going to invent printing wasn't even a teenager yet. People went from one place to another by foot or, if they were very lucky, by horse. But even traveling by horse wasn't easy or comfortable. The roads of the Middle Ages were made of dirt, and the dirt was dirtier than it is today. When it rained the roadsturned to mud, and the mud was muddier too. Most people lived in the country, not in cities. The houses in Roland's village had roofs made of straw, and no chimneys. All through winter they were full of smoke because the only way to heat them was to light a fire inside. The only way to cool housesin summer was to open a window, and the windows were made of wood. Worse still, many families had to share their house with their animals, particularly when it was cold or wet. Everything would smell of pig and donkey and chicken, except for pigs and donkeys and chickens, which probably smelled of house. Life in the Middle Ages wasn't only tough and a bit pongy, it could also be pretty dangerous. Many arguments, large and small, were sorted out by knights in armor fighting each other with large and terrible weapons. Sometimes they used huge broad_swords, sharp on both sides and capable of slicing a tree in two. They had big ugly maces too, with a long handle and a metal ball at the end covered with horrible spikes. When the mace was swung hard enough, these spikescould even puncture armor. Some knights had long poleaxes, or spears. These were so pointy that they could poke right through someone's body, causing blood to squirt out both sides like tomato sauce squirts out of those little plastic-and-foil tubs that you turn upside down overa meat pie and bend in half. Of course, arguments in 1409 were not always sorted out in such a way. Jenny Winterbottom, who lived near Roland Wright in a small white house at the edge of the woods, said that birds could fly because they weighed less than clouds. Roland knew this wasn't right. But he didn't grab his big, spiky steel mace and hit her over the head so hard that her brain shot out her earholes like lengths of gray rope. He simply said, "No, they don't. You are wrong." "I am not," Jenny said. Her brown curls swung as she spoke. "And you're stupid." No boy who is almost ten likes being called stupid, especially by a girl who is only just nine and has curly hair. But Roland still didn't grab his big, spiky steel mace with both hands and bring it down like a sledgehammer over her forehead. This was because Roland quite liked Jenny and was happy to play with her, as long as there was no one else around. I...
