Heroic Fantasy in Dark Age Wales
I was invited to guest post about my book, The Last Pendragon. at http://keithcblackmore.com/blog/ Come check it out 🙂
Original Sources for Welsh history
J. Beverley Smith, in his exhaustive history of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, lists primary sources for his research in the back of his book Llywelyn ap Gruffydd: The Prince of Wales, (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1998). In perusing the documents, it becomes clear that while the thirteenth century was no longer officially the ‘dark ages’, there is very little documentation for an enormous amount of what happened in Wales during Llywelyn’s reign. On one hand, we have the cryptic Chronicle of the Princes (from which I quoted a few days ago), but no other record, official or otherwise, of the events leading up to Llywelyn’s death. In addition, we don’t know: 1) When Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was born 2) If Senana was definitively his mother, though there is reference to him as the ‘uterine brother’ of Owain and Dafydd. 3) Read more…
Writing Historical Fantasy: a Conversation with Jules Watson
Guest Post by Anna Elliott: A Conversation with Jules Watson. Jules Watson writes amazing, lyric historical fantasy set in the Dark Age Celtic world. Her newest book, The Raven Queen, will be out next month. And she has an absolutely fantastic historical fiction workshop on her website. If you write historical fiction or fantasy, go check it out immediately, it’s one of the best resources for writers in the genre I’ve seen. http://juleswatson.com/fictionworkshop.html Where do your ideas for a book start? With a known historical fact or myth? A ‘scene’ that pulls you into a story? A particular character? Or maybe none of those? The Raven Queen and my previous book The Swan Maiden were inspired by the heroines of two ancient Irish myths. For The Swan Maiden, I had always adored the Celti story of Deirdre of the Sorrows, Read more…
Working Archaeology in Wales
Archaeologists are always working on new projects in Wales. A shortage of workers and funding inhibit the work, but the Dyfed Archaeological Trust conducted seven different digs, mostly using volunteer labor, in 2010. A look at their page is a good review of what ‘real’ archaeology is like: lots of digging, frustration, and grunt work, interspersed with occasional finds. http://www.cambria.org.uk/ They worked on: Fan Barrow Excavation 2010 Capel y Groes 2010 Pantybutler Round Barrows 2010 Tir y Dail Castle, Ammanford Dig Diary July 2010 Upper Newton Roman Villa at Wolfscastle, Pembrokeshire – Dig Diary 2010 Wernfawr Dig Diary 2010 Nevern Castle Summer Excavation 2010 Nevern Castle Spring Excavation 2010 Each of these is a fascinating study in luck and circumstance (and hard work). There are four archaeological trusts in Wales (Dyfed, Gwynedd, Glamorgan-Gwen, and Clwyd-Powys), found here: http://www.archwilio.org.uk/ Gwynedd’s digs Read more…
Welsh Cantrefs and Commotes
In medieval Wales, for legal and administrative purposes the country was divided into cantrefs, which were relatively large areas (like US counties) and commotes, which were smaller jurisdictions. “A cantref is a measurement of a hundred (literally, it means “one hundred”). A commot is a community, the word ultimately deriving from the same root as Cymru–comrad, compatriot, neighbor.” The list of cantrefs and commotes from the Red Book of Hergest is found here: http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/cantref.html In the Middle Ages, Gwynedd had and fifteen cantrefs and thirty-six commotes. Overall, it was the largest of the regions of Wales. “The antiquity of the cantrefi is demonstrated by the fact that they often mark the boundary between dialects. Some were originally kingdoms in their own right, others may have been artificial units created later. (Davies, John; Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur I. Lynch (2008), The Welsh Academy Read more…
Myth and Religion in the Dark Ages
While many fictional accounts of the Dark Ages describe conflict between pagan religions and Christianity, that seems to be a product of the medieval mind, rather than an accurate analysis of Dark Age religion. For there to be conflict there must be a power relationship as well as organization, and for both the pagans and the Christians in Wales in 655 AD, there were neither. When the Romans conquered Wales in 43 AD, although Rome was not Christian at the time (Emperor Constantine didn’t convert until 311 AD), the legions systematically wiped out the reigning religion of Wales at the time, which was druidism. Why did they do this? The Romans themselves were pagans, with a pantheon of gods and goddesses. Why did they not simply incorporate the native gods into their own religion as they did in most other places, Read more…
The origins of the name ‘Woodbury’
The name ‘Woodbury’ has its origins in the old English word wudu, meaning ‘wood’ and byrig, dative of burh ‘fortified place’. While not native to Britain (as in, not Welsh), it’s roots are Saxon, and thus the place-name ‘Woodbury’ in Devonshire predates the Norman conquest of 1066. The name was recorded “as ‘Wodeberie’ in the Domesday Book of 1086, and the latter ‘Ve(s)burg’. The derivation of both placenames is from the Olde English pre 7th Century . . . The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of David de Wodebir, which was dated 1273, Hundred Rolls Devon, during the reign of King Edward I.” http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Woodberry In 1848, there were three locations in England with the name ‘Woodbury’ (and lots in the US, but that’s another story): “WOODBURY, a hamlet, in the parish of Gamlingay, poor-law Read more…
Dark Moon of Avalon by Anna Elliott released!
14 September 2010! from Simon & Schuster (Touchstone) She is a healer, a storyteller, and a warrior. She has fought to preserve Britain’s throne. Now she faces her greatest challenge in turning bitter enemies into allies, saving the life of the man she loves . . . and mending her own wounded heart. Book II in the Twilight of Avalon Trilogy The young former High Queen, Isolde, and her friend and protector, Trystan, are reunited in a new and dangerous quest to keep the usurper, Lord Marche, and his Saxon allies from the throne of Britain. Using Isolde’s cunning wit and talent for healing and Trystan’s strength and bravery, they must act as diplomats, persuading the rulers of the smaller kingdoms, from Ireland to Cornwall, that their allegiance to the High King is needed to keep Britain from a despot’s hands. Their Read more…
Women in Celtic Myth
Women in Celtic societies had more freedom and autonomy than women in feudal Europe. It is not surprising, then, that women play an important role in Celtic myth, beyond the wives, lovers, and mothers of male gods. Within Celtic myth, warrior goddesses such as Babd, Aoifa, and Scathach have a significant role; Don (Danu in Ireland) was the mother goddess, giving birth to male and female goddesses such as Gwydion and Arianrhod. The Irish word, Tuatha de Dannan means “Children of Danu”, the equivalent of the Welsh “Sons of Don” as popularized in Lloyd Alexander’s The Book of Three series. Note that their children are not referred to as “Sons of Beli” or “Bile”, who was her husband and the god of death. Also among the Welsh is Cerridwen, keeper of the cauldron of knowledge. Within Irish mythology, the Morrigan, Read more…
Announcing the Witch Queen’s Secret
In the shadow of King Arthur’s Britain, a young mother will need all her courage to save the Queen’s castle from the hands of a traitor… A stand-alone story of Trystan and Isolde featuring a secondary character from the universe of Anna Elliott’s Twilight of Avalon. Between Books I and II in the Twilight of Avalon Trilogy Dera owes Britain’s former High Queen Isolde her life. But as an army harlot, the life she leads is one of degradation and often desperate danger, with small hope for the future either for Dera or for her small son. Through a Britain torn by war with Saxon invaders, Dera makes her way to Dinas Emrys, last stronghold of Britain’s army, to beg Queen Isolde’s help once more. Isolde offers Dera a new life, both for herself and for her child. But when Dera Read more…
Women in Celtic Society
It is a stereotype that women in the Dark Ages (and the Middle Ages for that matter) had two career options: mother or holy woman, with prostitute or chattel filling in the gaps between those two. Unfortunately, for the most part this stereotype is accurate. The status and role of women in any era prior to the modern one revolves around these categories. This is one reason that when fiction is set in this time, it is difficult to write a self-actualized female character who has any kind of autonomy or authority over her own life. Thus, it is common practice to make fictional characters either healers of some sort (thus opening up a whole array of narrative possibilities for travel and interaction with interesting people) or to focus on high status women, who may or may not have had more autonomy, but their Read more…
Update on King Arthur’s ’round table’ in Chester
Yes–slacking off today. But I did find this interesting piece on King Arthur’s round table by Keith Fitzpatrick-Mathews. It is a much more lengthy rebuttal than mine (https://sarahwoodbury.com/?p=1186), but makes many of the same points (also see, https://sarahwoodbury.com/?tag=king-arthur). Fitzpatrick-Mathews also takes to task Christopher Gildow’s article entitled “Top Ten Clues to the Real King Arthur”. What’s particularly great is the exchange between the two in the comments at the end. Worth a read for anyone who thinks King Arthur might have really existed. http://badarchaeology.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/king-arthur’s-round-table-discovered-in-chester/
^