Welsh Idioms

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To understand a language’s idioms, is to be fluent in the language.  Maybe this isn’t entirely true, but it’s close. When I lived in England, I remember being stumped by the phrase, “it’s like money for old rope.”  I didn’t know if that meant: 1) someone had given me money for old rope–in which case, that was a good thing; or 2) I was paying money for old rope–meaning I was getting ripped off.  As it turns out, the saying “originates from the days of public hangings. It was a perquisite of the hangman to keep the rope used to hang his ‘customer’. The rope, however, was popular with the macabre crowds, so the hangman used to cut the rope up and sell it.”  That still doesn’t tell me whether paying for it a good or bad thing 🙂  This site tells me “if a job Read more…


Maps of Welsh Castles

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To say I love castles would be to considerably understate the case.  But how to find a castle without a map?  Here are several great resources . . . A map of castles in SW Wales: This castle shows both the native castles and the Welsh ones.  Some of them are obviously close together, and this indicates a vassal/lord relationship among the barons, or just the passage of time, when a castle was destroyed, a new one was often built close by (if it wasn’t built right on top). Native Welsh castles from the Castles Wales site (http://www.castlewales.com/native.html): From the Welsh government site (cadw.wales.gov.uk): Neither of these maps show the Edwardian castles that were either built right next to a destroyed Welsh castle or on top of one.  Neither shows Aber Garth Celyn either, which was Llywelyn ap Gruffydd’s seat, Read more…


Welsh Names and Places from the Books

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  Aberystwyth –Ah-bare-IH-stwith Bwlch y Ddeufaen – Boolk ah THEY-vine (the ‘th’ is soft as in ‘forth’) Cadfael – CAD-vile Cadwallon – Cad-WA/SH/-on Caernarfon – (‘ae’ makes a long i sound like in ‘kite’) Kire-NAR-von Dafydd – DAH-vith Dolgellau – Doll-GE/SH/-ay Deheubarth – deh-HAY-barth Dolwyddelan – dole-with-EH-lan (the ‘th’ is soft as in ‘forth’) Gruffydd – GRIFF-ith Gwalchmai – GWALK-my (‘ai’ makes a long i sound like in ‘kite) Gwenllian – Gwen-/SH/EE-an Gwladys – Goo-LAD-iss Gwynedd – GWIN-eth Hywel – H’wel Ieuan – ieu sounds like the cheer, ‘yay’ so YAY-an Llywelyn – /sh/ew-ELL-in Maentwrog – MIGHNT-wrog Meilyr – MY-lir Owain – OH-wine Rhuddlan – RITH-lan Rhun – Rin Rhys – Reese Sion – Shawn Tudur – TIH-deer Usk – Isk


Possible King Arthur (s)

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I have very definite opinions about who King Arthur was, as evidenced by my book, Cold My Heart, as well as the numerous posts I’ve written on the subject. That said, his identity is up for debate … The web site, Early British Kingdoms, has an entire section devoted to King Arthur, particularly who he could have been if he wasn’t ‘Arthur’, as no leader of that name in the middle 6th century or earlier seems to fit that profile. The possibilities are quite endless, especially if you consider Scots as well as Welsh rulers.  For example, Norma Lorre Goodrich places Arthur at Carlisle (as Camelot) and as Arthur ic Uibar, in her book ‘King Arthur’.   In the book “Arturius – A Quest for Camelot,” David Carroll suggests that King Arthur is, in fact, the historical late 6th century Prince Artuir, Read more…


The Fallen Princess Available now!

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The next Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mystery, The Fallen Princess, is now available at Amazon US and all Amazon stores, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, the Apple iBookstore and in paperback.  If you haven’t read the first book in the series yet, it’s available for free everywhere: all Amazon stores  Kobo  Smashwords  Apple iBookstore  Barnes and Noble   The Fallen Princess Hallowmas 1144. With the harvest festival approaching, Gareth has returned from fighting in the south, hoping for a few months of peace with Gwen before the birth of their first child. But when an innocent foray to the beach turns up the murdered body of Prince Hywel’s long lost cousin, a woman thought to have run away with a Dane five years earlier, it is Gareth and Gwen who are charged with discovering her killer. The trail has long since gone cold, or so Gareth and Gwen think, until their investigation threatens to expose dangerous Read more…


Dafydd ap Llywelyn, Prince of Wales (d. 1246)

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Dafydd ap Llywelyn, the only legitimate son of Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn ap Iowerth), was stuck between a rock and a hard place.  His father was determined that he become the Prince of Wales and hold the country together upon Llywelyn’s death, but at the same time, his illegitimate older brother, Gruffydd, by Welsh law had an equal claim to the throne.  The possibility that Gruffydd was erratic and temperamental and perhaps not as suited to ruling a princedom as Dafydd was irrelevant. Even had Gruffydd been all that Llywelyn wanted in a son, he was not legitimate.  Among the Welsh, any child was reckoned legitimate if his father acknowledged him, which Llywelyn had.  But the Church did not and the powers-that-were in England believed that the Welsh were barbaric for allowing a illegitimate child to inherit anything.  Much less the crown Read more…


Boudicca’s Revolt

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The Romans conquered Britain over the course of one hundred and fifty years.  Julius Caesar was the first to attempt it.  He established a beachhead in the east, but never got further into the country despite multiple expeditions. “His first expedition, however, was ill-conceived and too hastily organised. With just two legions, he failed to do much more than force his way ashore at Deal and win a token victory that impressed the senate in Rome more than it did the tribesmen of Britain. In 54 BC, he tried again, this time with five legions, and succeeded in re-establishing Commius on the Atrebatic throne. Yet he returned to Gaul disgruntled and empty-handed, complaining in a letter to Cicero that there was no silver or booty to be found in Britain after all.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/questions_01.shtml 100 years later, in 43 AD, the Emperor Claudius determined Read more…


Happy (Roman) New Year!

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In the Roman calendar before Caesar, a year consisted of 12 months, for a total of 355 days plus an intercalary month between February and March. For the Romans, the ideal intercalary cycle consisted of ordinary years of 355 days alternating with intercalary years (377 and 378 days long). On this system, the average Roman year would have had 366¼ days over four years, giving it an average drift of one day per year. Later, it was refined so that for 8 years out of 24, there were only three intercalary years, each of 377 days. This refinement averages the length of the year to 365¼ days over 24 years. In practice, intercalations did not occur as they should, according to the whims of the priest in power at the time. According to Wikipedia:  If managed correctly this system allowed the Read more…


Santa Claus and the Wild Hunt

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The origins of Santa Claus, like most Christmas traditions, are rooted in a blend of Christian and pagan traditions. ‘Santa Claus’, as he is currently represented in the United States, most resembles Sinterklaas, the Dutch St. Nicholas. “In the year 303, the Roman emperor Diocletian commanded all the citizens of the Roman Empire, including the citizens of Asia Minor, to worship him as a god. Christians, who believed in only one god, resisted the emperor’s orders and as a result were imprisoned. Saint Nicholas was among the many imprisoned. He was confined for more than five years, until Constantine came to power in 313 AD and released him. Later in life, Saint Nicholas became the Archbishop of Myra and the guardian of merchants, sailors and children. He performed many good deeds including miracles. It is said that Saint Nicholas stopped storms Read more…


What is the significance of ‘After Cilmeri’?

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Today is the anniversary of the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in a field at Cilmeri, Wales. I titled my books after Cilmeri because the books are an alternate timeline of what happened after the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd at Cilmeri. It has been over 700 years since Llywelyn ap Gruffydd’s death on 11 December 1282. J. Beverley Smith writes: “Intimations of treachery, of breach of faith, are so often conveyed darkly, and no chronicle, nor any other source, provides the unequivocal testimony which might enable us to unravel the threads in the various accounts of the tragic happening in the vicinity of Builth.  It was alleged at the time, or shortly afterwards, in the most explicit statement we have, that the prince’s decision to venture into the area was influenced by one of the sons of his old Read more…


The Eagle (movie review)

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At last!  At long last!  A movie set in Roman Britain that I really quite liked! Though …  I just looked The Eagle up on the tomato-meter which gives this movie a 39.  Wow. I thought it was way better than that and here’s why: 1)  The book.  The Eagle of the Ninth is a wonderful book by Rosemary Sutcliffe.  It was one of my mother’s favorite books and she gave it to me to read in one of those old hardback editions with fraying edges.  A story of a son trying to redeem his family’s honor after his father led the Ninth Legion to their doom in Scotland.  Great stuff.  The movie follows the book plot better than you might expect. 2)  The beginning.  It drew me in.  I felt for this guy.  I wanted to find out what Read more…


The Earliest Universities

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My second child graduates from college this year.  I’m sort of stunned that we’re here already 🙂  But millions of kids have gone before him, dating all the way back to 1088. “The word university is derived from the Latin: universitas magistrorum et scholarium, roughly meaning “community of teachers and scholars”. The term was coined by the Italian University of Bologna, which, with a traditional founding date of 1088, is considered the first university. The origin of many medieval universities can be traced to the Christian cathedral schools or monastic schoolswhich appear as early as the 6th century AD and were run for hundreds of years as such before their formal establishment as university in the high medieval period.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_universities_in_continuous_operation The next three oldest schools are the The University of Salamanca in 1134 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Salamanca), The University of Paris in 1150, and University of Oxford. The dates of all these vary depending upon Read more…