07/29/12

Demons of the Ancient World

The Dark Age Celts had their share of supernatural creatures within the various mythologies (Welsh/Brittany/Ireland/Scotland), in addition to the pantheon of actual gods and goddess (for Wales, see Children of Don; Children of Llyr: http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/the-sidhe/).

Here are some notable demons from Celtic mythology:

Cwn Annwn (Welsh hellhounds): Yes, they really do exist outside of the TV show, Supernatural (great show, by the way. Watch it at Netflix). The Cwn Annwn are the hunting dogs of Arawn, Lord of the Otherworld and are associated with the Welsh form of the Wild Hunt. ”The Cwn Annwn resemble small wolves. The pack leader, Fflyddmyr, is black while the other three hounds are white with red-tipped ears. Their abilities include super-speed and super-strength.” http://otherworldseries.wikia.com/wiki/C%C5%B5n_Annwn

The Fomori: ”In Celtic mythology, the Fomori are demons that live in the impenetrable darkness of the sea’s depths and in lakes and dark pools in the upper world. They were once ruled by Balor, who provided them with victims, but after his death they returned to their waters and prey on people, taking the form of sea-monsters, lake spirits, and the boggarts who lurk in the fens.” http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/D_FOMORI.HTM

Ysbaddaden Bencawr, Chief of the Giants (Welsh): “A vicious giant residing in a nigh unreachable castle, he is the father of Olwen and uncle of Goreu fab Custennin. So huge is his frame, he requires great forks to prop up his eyelids.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ysbaddaden

The Crow: ”The Crow features prominently within all Celtic cultures as a symbol of death. As carrion birds they act like vultures of the Celtic lands and soon arrive in droves after every battle. In the warrior culture of the Celts seeing the crows flock to a battle site and attack your fallen comrades, does much to anger a survivor. From anger, fear is just a stepping stone away. An excellent example of the use of Crows in Celtic Myth is found in the ancient Irish epic Tain Bo Cuilnge, the story of the death of Cu Chulainn. Here the goddess Morrigu attacks the hero Cu Chulainn in the form of a crow in response to his spurning of her love. In Scotland the term “Hoodie” has been applied to that of a crow and described as a half man, half crow figure who abides his presence in one form or the other depending on day or night. It is possible that this may be the early version of the Irish Banshee. In some stories of Hoodies, they are described as drinkers of Blood and may also be the Celtic version of Vampires.” http://celticevents.com/2007/03/09/roots-history-legends-the-crow-%E2%80%93-demon-of-the-celtic-world/

The Bean-Sidhe (Banshee)–Irish: ”An ancestral spirit appointed to forewarn members of certain ancient Irish families of their time of death. According to tradition, the banshee can only cry for five major Irish families: the O’Neills, the O’Briens, the O’Connors, the O’Gradys and the Kavanaghs. Intermarriage has since extended this select list.

Whatever her origins, the banshee chiefly appears in one of three guises: a young woman, a stately matron or a raddled old hag. These represent the triple aspects of the Celtic goddess of war and death, namely Badhbh, Macha and Mor-Rioghain.) She usually wears either a grey, hooded cloak or the winding sheet or grave robe of the unshriven dead. She may also appear as a washer-woman, and is seen apparently washing the blood stained clothes of those who are about to die. In this guise she is known as the bean-nighe (washing woman).” http://www.irelandseye.com/animation/explorer/banshee.html

07/27/12

Mob Ball, Football, and the Origin of Sports

This post is of particular relevance not only because my husband is a soccer fanatic and am I about to tell you about the origin of soccer (football), but because there’s been two stories about Wales football recently, both fraught with ancient grudges and political implications of the relationship between Wales and England for the last 1000 years.

The first is about listing a Welsh footballer as English http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18997930

and the second is the elevation of a Welsh footballer for a best player in Europe award: http://www.bigsoccer.com/soccer/david-bolt/2012/07/18/messi-ronaldo-and-les-davies/

People (and by that I generally mean ‘men’) played sports a thousand years ago or more, even if those sports wouldn’t have looked quite like what we experience today. Soccer (or Football) even existed, with the rather ominous name of ‘mob ball’ or ‘mob football’ (see below).

Other sports included: Archery–always popular and in the reign of Edward I, a required activity for all villagers on Sunday afternoons; ‘Bowls’–a form of bowling, which also included another game called ‘skittles’; ‘Colf’, the precursor to golf; hammer-throwing; ‘shinty’–a hockey-like game; wrestling; horseshoes; quarterstaff contests; and ‘stoolball’–a precursor to cricket.

http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/entertainment-middle-ages.htm

‘Mob football’ developed between the 7th and 9th centuries in Britain. This site writes: “It was explicitly violent and played between villages, at the time of celebration and festivity. In fact, it was so violent that people living nearby would barricade their windows during matches. Both “teams” tried to force a ball into the center square of the enemy village or they might have played across different parts of town, again centered at a market place or a town square. There are many theories as to how exactly mob football came about. Some of the earlier versions, like Shrovetide football, had vague rules restricting only murder or manslaughter. Legends (from Derby) preach that the game originated in Britain around 3rd century as a celebration over the defeated Romans. Others (Kingston-on-Thames and Chester) claim that the game was originally played with the severed head of a vanquished Danish prince. The game may also have been a pagan ritual in which the ball, representing the sun, had to be conquered and driven around the field, ensuring good harvest. There is also evidence (from Scotland) of this early rugby being played in teams between married men and bachelors, probably also as a heretic rite.”

Not everyone loved ‘Futeball’, as you can imagine. King Edward II issued a proclamation, that said: “For as much as there is a great noise in the city caused by hustling over large balls, from which many evils may arise, which God forbid, we command and forbid on behalf of the King, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city future.”

http://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-soccer.htm

This site (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Fwales.htm) claims that soccer was slightly different in Wales than in England. According to George Owen (c. 1550) “There is a round ball prepared… so that a man may hold it in his hand… The ball is made of wood and boiled in tallow to make it slippery and hard to hold… The ball is called a knappan, and one of the company hurls it into the air… He that gets the ball hurls it towards the goal… the knappan is tossed backwards and forwards… It is a strange sight to see a thousand or fifteen hundred men chasing after the knappan… The gamesters return home from this play with broken heads, black faces, bruised bodies and lame legs… Yet they laugh and joke and tell stories about how they broke their heads… without grudge or hatred.”

Fun, huh? Hmmmm. Maybe not.

07/19/12

At Indie Chicks Cafe … celebrating my 44th birthday!

I have an article about learning new things posted over at Indie Chicks Cafe today …

As children, we were expected to learn something new every day. Whether it was math in school, or a better way to hit a baseball, it was part of how we did things. Some kids react better than others to an initial failure to learn new things easily, but even so, you can’t be a child without learning all the time. Kids learn as easily as they breathe.

Adults—maybe not so much.

07/19/12

Guest posting about historical fiction today ….

Writing Historical Fiction

Back in high school, I overheard two girls lamenting how awful their classes were and how they ‘hated’ history. Since I was hiding in a bathroom stall at the time, I didn’t give voice to my horror at their sentiment, but it has stuck with me in the thirty years since. How could they ‘hate’ history?

Unfortunately, all too easily if by ‘history’ they meant the memorization of facts and dates that had little or no bearing on their lives. Why did they care what year the Civil War began? Or who was the tenth president of the United States? Or what happened in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia (though knowing might clarify our wars in the Middle East today, but that’s a different topic).

That’s not what history is about. History is about people. It’s the anthropology of the past. It’s about finding out why people did what they did; what they cared about; and the nitty gritty of how they lived and died.

I strongly believe with Donna Tartt that: “The first duty of the novelist is to entertain. It is a moral duty. People who read your books are sick, sad, traveling, in the hospital waiting room while someone is dying. Books are written by the alone for the alone.”

But along with entertaining, what I love about historical fiction is that it can bring history to life.

…. read the rest at:

http://melissasmithbooks.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/iwu-blog-tour-sarah-woodbury/

07/17/12

The Great Prophecy of Britain

Armes Prydein Fawr, the Great Prophecy of Britain, is a poem attributed to Taliesin (although could not be his work as it was composed in the 10th century) in which he sings of the return of Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon (the hero in my book, The Last Pendragon) and Cynan, another dark age leader of the Welsh people. Among the Welsh, it was these two, not Arthur, who would return in the future to save Britain. The motivation was the same, however, in that the poet desires to drive the invading Saxons out of the land that had belonged to the Cymry.

In the poem, Taliesin predicts the allliance of the Irish and Scots with the Welsh towards that purpose. John Davies, in his book, The History of Wales, writes that the poem expresses frustration with the peaceful, compromising policies of Hywel Dda (c. 930) towards the Saxons (2007:93). Further, the poem finds the root of its anguish in the deep sense of loss which became the motivating force behind much of Welsh mythology–the loss of their country to the Saxons after the fall of Rome (2007:48).

Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon was a King of Gwynedd, born in 633 AD. His father, a powerful king himself who’d allied himself with Mercia in marrying Alcfrith, sister of King Penda, was killed in battle in 634. With Cadwallon’s death, Gwynedd was left in disarray, and Cadwaladr’s people (whoever they were–there is no record of what happened to Alcfrith so perhaps she died in childbirth), fled Gwynedd with him. His place was taken by a man named Cadfael of unknown origin.

http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/cadwagd.html

Cadwaladr grew up and returned to overthrow the usurper, ruling from 655 to 682 AD and is recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth as the last great King of Wales. Consequently, anything that we ‘know’ about Cadwaladr that is based on his story, is probably apocryphal. What is well established is that the red dragon of Wales–The Red Dragon of Cadwaladr–is attributable to him.

Far less is known about Cynan, who ruled in the middle/late 6th century Powys in the east and southeast of Wales.

http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/cynangpw.html

From Taliesin’s poem (not a fabulous translation, but a free one

http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/t06.html):

With sharp-ground blades utterly they will kill.
There will be no advantage to the physician from what they do.
The armies of Cadwaladyr, mighty they come,
The Cymry were exalted, a battle they made.
A slaughter without measure they assailed.
In the end of their taxes, death they know.
0thers, large branches they planted.
For age of ages their taxes they will not leave off.
In wood, in plain, on lull,
A candle in the dark will go with them.
Cynan opening a forward way in every descent.
Saxons against the Brython, woe they will sing.
Cadwaladyr a pillar with his princes.
Though prudence utterly attending to then.
When they drop their covering over their support.
In affliction, and the crimson gore on the cheeks of the Allmyn.
At the end of every expedition spoil they lead.

Also included in the Book of Taliesin is an enigmatic poem, cut off almost before it begins. It is called The Prediction of Cadwaladr.

The knight of the swift bay horse
with the double face, creates turmoil:
With treachery afoot, a blessing his
death and burial in Snowdonia.
When our war-lord comes he will make,
in a mead in Prydein, a chief place.
His manifest life will invigorate morals:
and his confines will be to us an Eden.
There will come, thither,
A Saxon seeking hospitality.
Grief he will know; from excess
of presumption, he will sin
The yoking of a wife by a vassal
will renew old hatred: he will
know grief: from presumption
comes contempt; he commits treason.
Did you see my friend
playing with my spouce?
I saw a slim corse,
and crows full of activity.
But the catastrophe lacks the prostrate form
of the sword-stroke.
And beyond the bank of… (the manuscript is cut off)

07/13/12

The History of Chicken Pox

Sadly, this post is relevant because my youngest son, who is eight, came down with chicken pox two days ago. I have no idea where he got it and even worse, he has had it before, though as a five month old child, which seems to be why he was able to get it again. I’d hoped that having it a second time might mean a milder infection, but it’s not looking good right now. He has spots in some VERY uncomfortable places.

Chicken Pox, so named, has been around for a long time. From the CDC: ”Chickenpox, also known as varicella, is an infectious disease. Chickenpox is highly contagious and spreads from person to person by direct contact or through the air from an infected person’s coughing or sneezing. A person with chickenpox is contagious 1-2 days before the rash appears and until all blisters have formed scabs. It takes from 10-21 days after contact with an infected person for someone to develop chickenpox.” http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/pregnancy_gateway/infections-chickenpox.html

My son exhibits the classic chicken pox blister, which his doctor describes as ‘a water droplet on a rose petal’. That sounds better than it is.

Historically speaking: ”There was a description of an affliction similar to chicken pox more than 2,000 years ago in ancient Babylonia. In the late 800’s/early 900′s AD, Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi, also known as Razi, recorded some of the first known information on chicken pox and noted the differences between measles and small pox. Later in the 1500′s Giovanni Filippo was able to give a more detailed description of chicken pox.” http://www.thechickenpox.com/history-of-chicken-pox.php

“Numerous explanations have been given on the emergence chicken pox, as the name. The English literary critique recommended that disease was not more dangerous than small pox. It got the name chicken pox because the blisters that appeared seemed like the skin that has been pecked by the chicken. Another theory is that the blistered that appeared looked like the chickpeas and was similar to the size of a seed. The term chicken pox is derived from an Old English term called “giccin”, meaning itching. During the medieval period, the word “pox” meant curse. People believed that chicken pox was a curse, which was brought down on children with black magic.” http://www.chickenpoxsymptoms.info/history-of-chicken-pox/

“Giovanni Filippo (1510-1580) of Palermo gave the first description Chicken Pox. In 1600s, English Physician named Richard Morton mistook this disease with small pox he thought it was a milder form of smallpox.

In 1767, William Heberden, English physician became the first person demonstrated that small pox was different from chicken pox. Heberden showed how chicken pox was a mild disease and stressed that a person who has had chicken pox remained immune.

In 1875, a scientist discovered that chickenpox was caused by an infectious agent. Rudolf Steiner, took fluid from the chickenpox blisters of an infected person and rubbed it on the skin healthy volunteers. They too developed the itchy, bumpy rash.

In 1909, Von Bokay suggested that chickenpox and shingles were related infections, and idea that was confirmed in the 1920s and 1930s when children inoculated with fluid from zoster vesicles were shown to contract chickenpox.” http://historyshortnotes.blogspot.com/2011/08/history-of-chickenpox-disease.html

Update 1/11/2013: as it turned out, all three of my boys came down with chicken pox, even though the middle one (15 years old) already had it, and we thought the 19 year old had as well. The 15 year old had been infected when he was 4 years old by a preschool classroom of vaccinated kids, every single one of whom came down with chicken pox. Guess it wasn’t a strong enough strain to provide a longer lasting immunity. My nineteen year old had such a serious case that he had upwards of fifty pox on each forearm. Hideous. Thankfully, they all recovered well.

07/10/12

The Welsh Longbow

Bows and arrows have been around since Paleolithic times, with evidence of them as early as 8000-9000 BC in Germany. http://www.newarchaeology.com/articles/history_bow_and_arrows.php

Kennewick man, the controversial skeleton found in the banks of the Columbia River inKennewick,Washington dates to roughly 7500 BC. A CT scan revealed a stone, projectile point embedded in his hip.

Oetzi the Iceman was found with a quiver of arrows with flint heads and an unfinished yew longbow–taller than he was–in his pack. He dates to 3300 BC.

The confirmed first use of the longbow was in 633 AD, in a battle between the Welsh, led by Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd, against the Northumbrians. (Though I haven’t been able to find the original source that confirms this). http://www.themiddleages.net/longbow.html

The shot killed Ofrid (or Osric?), son of Edwin of Northumbria, who just happened to be Cadwallon’s foster-uncle. Cadwallon had allied himself with Penda of Mercia in an attempt to drive the Northumbrians from Gwynedd, after Edwin had defeated his father and taken over the country. Cadwallon was successful. http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/cadwagd.html

Saxons, as a rule, were not archers. It is another five centuries before there is any recorded use of a longbow in England. The men of Wales used longbows against the Normans, from the moment they arrived to conquer England and Wales, up through the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. One of the greatest victories for Llywelyn was in 1257 before the Battle of Cymerau where the Normans lost 3000 men (http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/cymerau/). At Llandeilo Fawr, they cowered for two days under a hail of arrows from the Welsh.

Starting 1252 in England, the longbow was finally accepted as a formal military weapon. “In 1252 the Assize of Arms required that all landowning yeomen with an annual income between 40 to a 100 shillings were to be armed and trained with a longbow (war bow) and the more wealthy yeomen were also required to possess a sword, buckler, dagger and to be trained in their use.” http://robinhode.webs.com/yeomen.htm

“C.1280: Longbow adopted by Edward I during the Welsh campaigns after seeing how effectively the Welsh used the bow.

1331-1333: Longbow used by Edward III during the Scottish Campaign.

1337-1453b: The hundred years war with France:During this time, the English and Welsh longbowmen were the most prominent part of the English army, sometimes outnumbering the Men-at-Arms by as much as 10:1. The average was a ratio of about 3:1.” http://www.archers.org/default.asp?section=History&page=longbow

What is it about the longbow that is both effective and also prevented its earlier adaptation? This has to do with 1) it’s size, and 2) the length of time required to learn its use.

The standard yew longbow was over 6 feet long (6 ft. 6 inches), with a yard long arrow. They are powerful weapons that require enormous strength to draw. In general, the draw weight is 120-150 pounds, with a range between 200 and 300 yards. “In battle, longbow formations fired 10-12 volleys per minute. Each archer was provided 60-72 arrows. A force of 4,000 longbowmen could loose 240,000 arrows within the space of five minutes.” http://www.militaryhistory.teamultimedia.com/History%20of%20Weapons/Welsh%20and%20English%20Longbow.html

Thus, in order to master its use, a man must practice. A lot. Once King Edward of Englandrealized the longbow’s full potential, he adopted it from the Welsh, such that “To ensure a steady stream of bowmen for his army, Edward I banned all sports except archery on Sundays. Shooting ranges were set up on or near church property so parishioners would follow worship services with archery practice.” http://www.militaryhistory.teamultimedia.com/History%20of%20Weapons/Welsh%20and%20English%20Longbow.html

Edward III used the long bow to great effect during the Hundred Years War, filling his ranks with Welsh and English longbowmen that decimated the French ranks, particularly at the Battles of Crecy and Agincourt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_longbow

Sarah Woodbury

Writing Historical Fiction and Fantasy

Monthly Archives: July 2012