Why I Wrote This Book
History has always fascinated me. It fuels my creativity, sparks the wilder corners of my imagination, and often leaves me questioning the neat conclusions others have drawn. I spend hours reading about archaeological discoveries and historical finds, but just because someone presents an answer doesn’t mean I believe it’s the right one.
The bog bodies are a perfect example. The more I read about them, the less satisfied I became with the dominant explanation. That dissatisfaction is what led me to write this book.
The Mystery of the Bogs
For centuries, the peatlands of northern Europe have given up their dead - men, women, even children, preserved in startling detail.
As I open the book:
For over two centuries, the peat bogs of Northern Europe have given up their dead. Perfectly preserved faces staring back through time, their hair intact, their skin tanned and leathery, their final meals still in their stomachs.
The haunting question has always been: why were they killed?
Ritual or Something Else?
The mainstream story is ritual sacrifice. These people, it is said, were offerings to forgotten gods - fertility, war, land.
But as I explore in the book, that story might be too neat.
The story is neat. Perhaps too neat.
When you look closer at the evidence, contradictions appear. The deaths are inconsistent, the supposed symbolism feels forced, and the practical cost to small communities doesn’t add up.
Another Possibility
What if these weren’t sacrifices at all? What if the bogs were not temples, but places of exile?
The bog bodies deserve better than that. They deserve to be seen as the product of human societies wrestling with human problems, just as we do today.
This is the heart of my book: a challenge to the dominant theory, and an argument for a different interpretation - one rooted not in superstition, but in law, justice, and survival.
Why It Matters
The way we interpret the bog bodies changes how we see the past.
If we accept sacrifice, we keep the Iron Age at arm’s length - a world of superstition and mystery. But if we see justice, we find something uncomfortably familiar: communities grappling with crime, betrayal, grief, and punishment.
Looking Ahead
This book isn’t about closing the debate - it’s about opening it wider. It’s about asking whether we’ve been too quick to accept ritual as the answer, and whether justice, in all its brutality and necessity, might bring us closer to the truth.
Stick with me - when the final copy is ready, I’ll be excited to welcome anyone who wants to explore this unsettling but deeply human mystery.