LONDON'S RIVER TURNED MURKY: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London sweltered in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that parched the metropolis. An even more repellent force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial effluents had transformed London's lifeblood into a stench. The stench was all-consuming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and satura

The year eight hundred forty-five AD. A chill wind swept across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent of salt and fear. The Norsemen had arrived, a stormy swarm of warriors seeking riches. Their longships, like wolves, sliced through the waters, their flags fluttering in the wind. A city once peaceful now trembled beneath the menace of Valhal