oloriel | Life is tough, send more books

fusselbiene, I enjoyed the book meme a lot, and as I am too tired to talk about building or uni or life in general, I'll just have a second instalment.

Three books were unguessed last time, so they'll go up here again. I am shocked - shocked, I say - that nobody ~~knew~~ admitted to know Siþen þe sege..., quite possibly ~~one of~~ the finest pieces of English narrative poetry written in ~~the Middle English period~~ ever, and that's before there even was the English language as we know it today, and you should all know it, and if you don't I'll have to draw the ~~comic~~ graphic novel after all, and I really don't have the time for that.

... anyway.

So, the three unguessed first sentences from last time, plus seven new ones to make up the number and keep things exciting. Crappy translations, if present, are mine.

1. Pick 10 of your favorite books or series.
2. Post the first sentence of each book. (If one sentence seems too short, post two or three!)
3. Let everyone try to guess the titles and authors of your books.

1. Siþen þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye,
Þe borȝ brittened and brent to brondez and askez,
Þe tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wroȝt
Watz tried for his tricherie, þe trewest on erthe.
[After the siege and the assault at Troy had been ceased,/ The fortress demolished and burned to embers and ashes,/ The man who had plotted the stratagems of treason there/ was tried for his treachery, the most factual case on earth.]
Unknown Author, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (fusselbiene)

2. Der Zug blies sein Signal und setzte sich in Bewegung. Ein Junge stand in einem der Waggons am Fenster und sah den Mann und die Frau an, die ihm vom Bahnsteig winkten, der Mann mit einer Hand, knapp und verstohlen, die Frau mit beiden Armen und einem riesigen, roten Tuch.
[The train whistled its signal and began to move. A boy was standing at the window in one of the carriages, staring out at the man and the woman who stood waving on the platform, the man waving with one hand, curtly and surreptitiously, the woman with both arms and a gigantic red scarf.]

3. These days I look at twenty-year-olds and think they're pathetically young, scarcely weaned from their mothers' tits, but when I was twenty I considered myself a full-grown man.

4. Polly seufzte und legte das Buch aufgeschlagen hin.
[Polly sighed and laid the book aside face-down.]
Diana Wynne Jones, Feuer und Schierling/ Fire and Hemlock (munditia)

5. Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
Douglas Adams, The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (munditia, barbardin, fusselbiene)

6. He knew at once it was a human bone, when he took it from the baby who was sitting on the floor chewing it.

7. Someone had written 'godforsaken' between 'Welcome to' and 'Caithness' on the road sign. When he saw the emendation, the surveyor almost smiled.
Tom Holt, Who's Afraid of Beowulf? (mirien)

8. Now consider the tortoise and the eagle.
Terry Pratchett, Small Gods (munditia, barbardin, chili_das_schaf, fusselbiene)

9. The deck of the French ship was slippery with blood, heaving in the choppy sea; a stroke might as easily bring down the man making it as the intended target.
Naomi Novik, Temeraire/ His Majesty's Dragon (munditia)

10. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
George Orwell, 1984 (munditia, chili_das_schaf, fusselbiene)

*rubs hands* Let the guessing begin!

Edit: Three to go! :D