Dolwyddelan Castle
The site of Dolwyddelan Castle has been on a major thoroughfare through Wales for millenia. Before the present castle was built by Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn ap Iorwerth) early in the 13th century, an older castle sat on a knoll on the valley floor below it. http://www.castlewales.com/dolw.html Before that castle, a major Roman road through Snowdonia passed just to the east, connecting Tomen y Mur with the small fort of Bryn y Gefeilliau and the larger fort of Canovium (Caerhun). (See Roman Roads: https://www.sarahwoodbury.com/roman-roads/) and the Sarn Helen (named also for Elan, the wife of Macsen Wledig or Magnus Maximus, emperor of Rome). https://www.sarahwoodbury.com/sarn-helen/ The present Dolwyddelan Castle has been heavily restored, in keeping with it’s position as the birthplace of Llywelyn Fawr, even if that even really occured a quarter of a mile southeast of the present castle. The newer Read more…
Rhuddlan Castle (s)
Rhuddlan Castle was begun by Edward I in 1277, immediately after he defeated Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. In fact, Llywelyn made his submission to Edward in the bailey of the old castle, after which Edward immediately had it torn down. “Rhuddlan first appears in recorded history in the last years of the eighth century, when there was no town of Rhyl and the shore road from Prestatyn to Abergele did not exist. Instead, the Clwyd and the marshes off its estuary, now reclaimed and drained and cultivated, formed a natural barrier athwart the coastal approach to the mountainous heart of North Wales. The settlement of Rhuddlan is likely to have owed its origin to the presence at this point, from very early times, of the lowest fording-place on the river, from which a track led across the marsh to Vaynol Read more…
The Pillar of Eliseg
The Pillar of Eliseg is a 9th century tribute to Eliseg, a king of Powys. “The first mentioning is an indirect one: the Brut y Tywysogion mentions that the Abbey of Valle Crucis was founded in A.D. 1200 ‘near the old cross in Yale‘. This so-called fragmentary free-standing pillar-cross stands in a field overlooking the ruined Valle Crucis Abbey (SJ 2142), a few miles from Llangollen in Clywd (former Denbighshire), en route to Horse-Shoe Pass. … The Pillar inspired the name Valle Crucis (Valley of the Cross). It was once erected by Cyngen, Prince of Powys for his great-grandfather Elise or Eliseg. The cross was defaced, thrown down and broken by Cromwell’s troops in the 17th century, hence the ‘pillar-shape’ now. This pillar stands on a large artificial mound where it was re-erected in 1779. At that time the mound Read more…
Denbigh Castle
The present Denbigh Castle was built by Edward I after 1282 as a way to control the Welsh populace he’d just defeated. The castle was built on the site of a Llys (or seat) of the Welsh Princes dating back several hundred years. Building the new Norman Castle on this site was a deliberate attempt to project the power of the King of England. “Along with over half a mile of town walls, Denbigh Castle is a classic fortress of Edwardian proportions. Edward I’s successful 13th-century campaign in the region was cemented by the creation of an English borough in Denbigh from 1282 onwards. He simply built on top of what was a traditional Welsh stronghold. In so doing, he made sure all traces of Dafydd ap Gruffudd, the previous unlucky incumbent, were removed for ever. Henry de Lacy, one Read more…
The History of Chester
The City of Chester is the first stop of our Wales Odyssey! We began with a tour of the walls, which were begun when the city was called ‘Deva’, and fortified by the Romans. “The Roman military presence at Chester probably began with a fort or marching camp at the mouth of the Deva Fluvius (River Dee) very likely established during the early campaigns of governor Publius Ostorius Scapula against the Deceangi in north-east Wales sometime around AD47/48. There is some evidence of pre-Flavian occupation, possibly even a timber-built fort, but proof positive of a Scapulan foundation has yet to emerge. After the first tentative forays of Scapula, the next military activity in the area was conducted during the early administration of governor Sextus Julius Frontinus sometime around AD74 when an auxiliary fort was constructed at Chester. The placement of this fort was a strategic move by Frontinus Read more…
SeaTac Airport — 24 May 2012
We’ve made it as far as SeaTac … now sitting through a few hours while we wait for our flight to Manchester, via Iceland!
The Trip to Wales Is Upon Us!
Tomorrow! We leave tomorrow! We don’t arrive in the UK until the 25th because of the nature of the flights and time zones, but … can’t wait! From May 24th to June 6th, my husband and I will be traveling through Wales, feasting our eyes on what I haven’t been able to see in far too many years. We will be spending time mostly in the north, where my books are predominantly set. Our itinerary is so extensive, we haven’t a hope of seeing everything on it, if we are to sleep at all, but we’re going to try. If anyone has any suggestions as to what we have to see if we can, please leave a comment! Here’s our map for what we are going to see in North Wales: View 2012 Tour of Wales in a larger map. If Read more…
Guest Post from Athanasios, cover artist and author
You are both a cover artist and an author. Does one art inform the other? Only with my own covers. My own knowledge of the subject matter makes my own covers for Mad Gods, Commitment, I Am Eternal or any of the Predatory Ethics series richer with symbolism and content. I’ve been working as a graphic artist for half my life so the visual comes much easier than the literary. Graphics, from broadcast for video or television, web for online viewing or print, is my bread and butter. I’m very comfortable in it. Writing is getting easier but still doesn’t come as easily as graphics does. How did you get started designing covers? A friend from IWU got me started after I gave my opinion once too many times to indie writers who wanted their covers critiqued. My points were Read more…
Wooly Mittens
My mother and I quilt, and we were working on some charity quilts, which prompted me to think about what fabric-work was like in the Middle Ages. When I was writing The Last Pendragon, I wondered about winter hats, since it is cold and snowy in Wales in February. Knitting, however, was developed in the Middle East and not brought to Britain until the late thirteenth century. Even though wool was spun and turned into thread, clothing was woven on looms. Crochet work was developed later, not until the 1800s. “The history of knitting is mostly a big mystery, guessed at from fragments kept in museums around the world. Knitting is made of wool, silk, and other fibers that decay rapidly, even under perfect conditions; knitting needles are essentially sharpened sticks, and hard to identify as knitting needles beyond a Read more…
Inheritance and Welsh Law
The Laws of Hywel Dda, codifed formally before 950 AD. The historical consensus is that the laws had been effect for hundreds of years, but Hywel Dda ruled much of Wales and that allowed a more cohesive approach to the law. “Most of the surviving manuscripts of Welsh law start with a preamble explaining how the laws were codified by Hywel. The introduction to the Book of Blegywryd is a typical example: “ Hywel the Good, son of Cadell, by the grace of God, king of all Wales… summoned to him from every commote of his kingdom six men who were practised in authority and jurisprudence… to the place called the White House on the Taf in Dyfed. … And at the end of Lent the king selected from that assembly the twelve most skilled laymen of his men and the one Read more…
Exploring the Lives of Real Historical Figures
Welcome to my friend and fellow historical fiction writer, N. Gemini Sasson, talking about her history and writing … Great to have you here, Gemini! ___________________ Exploring the Lives of Real Historical Figures by N. Gemini Sasson Ten years ago, when I sat down to write about the early 14th century Scottish War of Independence, my intention was to tell a story in one book—just one, about Robert the Bruce, King of Scots. What did I end up with? Five. Three of those make up The Bruce Trilogy and the other two are about Queen Isabella of England. So how did that project expand so exponentially? It has everything to do with scope and complexity. As I discovered, real people are/were complex and the times in which historical figures lived were fraught with socio-political entanglements, perhaps even more so Read more…
Reading Fiction is Good for You!
As a writer, this should go without saying, but several new studies show that fiction does more than spark the imagination and take us to other worlds. And article in the Boston Globe (http://articles.boston.com/2012-04-29/ideas/31417849_1_fiction-morality-happy-endings) follows a series of studies by researcher (and anthropologists) about what fiction does to us–how it shapes us, makes us think, and changes our sensitivities. “… Perhaps the most impressive finding is just how fiction shapes us: mainly for the better, not for the worse. Fiction enhances our ability to understand other people; it promotes a deep morality that cuts across religious and political creeds. More peculiarly, fiction’s happy endings seem to warp our sense of reality. They make us believe in a lie: that the world is more just than it actually is. But believing that lie has important effects for society?—?and it may even Read more…
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