Mystery Blowout Sale!
Mystery Blowout Sale! Get 12 books for free or 99 cents!Some friends and I got together for a massive 12-book sale on historical mysteries, from medieval times to modern, through Sunday November 4! Scroll down for the links. By Sarah Woodbury (me!) 99 cents! … Medieval to Modern (containing The Bard’s Daughter) FREE! … The Good Knight 99 Cents! … The Uninvited Guest 99 Cents! … The Fourth Horseman By M. Louisa Locke FREE! … Maids of Misfortune FREE! … Pilfered Promises By M. Ruth Myers FREE! … No Game for a Dame 99 Cents! … Maximum Moxie By Anna Castle FREE! … Murder by Misrule 99 Cents! … Death by Disputation By Libi Astaire FREE! … Tempest in a Tearoom 99 Cents! … The Doppleganger’s Dance The After Cilmeri Series Companion Releasing November 6, 2018 Available now for preorder! https://sarahwoodbury.com/the-after-cilmeri-series/the-after-cilmeri-series-companion/
The After Cilmeri Series Companion releases November 6, 2018!
Open a door to the world of the After Cilmeri series! With chapters on historical context, the Welsh language, characters, places in the books, and the writing process, and including hundreds of photographs, maps, timelines, and family trees, this guide highlights the characters, places, and worlds brought to life by the series’ first fifteen novels. Release date: November 6, 2018 Get in paperback: Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon DE Worldwide Amazon Link to digital version: https://www.books2read.com/corneroftime After November 6th, the book will be available in paperback at other Amazon stores as well as through payhip.com in a navigable PDF , which can be read across devices, including in the Kindle app, Google Play app, Adobe app, or other PDF readers on any smartphone, tablet, or computer. I very much wanted the book available directly from retailers besides Amazon, but none of them are Read more…
Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales
Dafydd ap Gruffydd was the younger brother of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the Prince of Wales who ruled portions of Wales, to a greater or lesser degree, since the death of his uncle (also named Dafydd) in 1246. The younger Dafydd was born in 1238, at least a decade after Llywelyn. This Dafydd spent the majority of his life in England, to which his family was forced to come when his father was imprisoned at the Tower of London by King Henry. At the time, Llywelyn had refused to leave Wales with the rest of his family, and thus was on the spot, so to speak, when his uncle Dafydd died. The family itself, however, was not imprisoned, and Dafydd grew up as a close companion to Prince Edward himself, a fact which could explain much of his later behavior. At that Read more…
The Vikings (Danes) in Ireland
Before I learned of the Danish role in the assassination of Anarawd, King of Deheubarth, I had no idea that the Danes had ever conquered parts of Ireland. The Danes, as a group, were part of a vast migration of men of the North to other regions of the world, initially for plunder and eventually for settlement. Coming from regions that now make up Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, these men went a Viking, and created widespread settlements: to the south, in Normandy and Sicily; to the east into Russia; and to the west in England, Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, and the coast of Newfoundland. The Dublin Danes were part of that tradition, and Ottar and Brodar were real people as described in The Viking Prince, both ruling Dublin in the mid-twelfth century. Brodar and Godfrid were part of an extensive Read more…
My books are available in Audio!
All the books in both the After Cilmeri series and the Gareth & Gwen Medieval Mysteries are available in Audiobook! The After Cilmeri Series: Amazon Apple Books Audible The Gareth & Gwen Medieval Mysteries: Amazon Apple Books Audible If you have never listened to an audiobook or are not an Audible member, you can get any one of my books for FREE by signing up for a free trial (cancel within 30 days). Just click on the link below for the book you want: Daughter of Time Footsteps in Time Winds of Time Prince of Time Crossroads in Time Children of Time Exiles in Time Castaways in Time Ashes of Time Warden of Time Guardians of Time Masters of Time Outpost in Time Shades of Time Champions of Time The Good Knight The Uninvited Guest The Fourth Horseman The Fallen Read more…
Gruffydd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd
One of the greatest kings of Gwynedd was Owain Gwynedd, but his father Gruffydd ap Cynan can equally lay stake to such a claim. His rule was certainly eventful. Gruffydd ruled in Wales on and off since he was a young man, in between his flights to Ireland when the English—or other Welsh barons—ousted him from Gwynedd. Gruffydd’s grandfather had been the King of Gwynedd once upon a time, and Gruffydd had claimed the throne as its lawful heir. But staking his claim hadn’t been easy. That first time, Gruffydd landed on Anglesey with an Irish and Danish, not Welsh, force. After he defeated Trahaearn, the man who’d usurped his throne, Gruffydd led his army eastwards to reclaim territories the Normans had taken over during the unrest. Despite the prior assistance given to him by the Norman, Robert of Rhuddlan, Read more…
Welsh Lesson Two
Taken from Basic Welsh: A Grammar and Workbook by Gareth King Welsh Lesson Two: Nouns and noun plurals Nouns are sorted by whether the word denotes man or woman Tad – father mam – mother When the two vowels in a word are a/e: feminine When the two vowels in a word are o/y: masculine Masculine endings: Feminine endings: -ad -iad -aeth -as -der -did -dod -en -es -dra -fa -eb -edd -had -I -iant -ni -rwydd -wch -wr -ydd -yn Plural endings: -au -iau -on -ion -i -od -ed -edd -oedd -ydd -ys (English loanwords) Exceptions: Words that change internal vowels: Corff/cyrff pabell/pebyll Words that change internal vowels and endings: Braich/breichiau Total exceptions: Dail – leaves/foliage deilen – leaf Moch – pigs mochyn – pig Exercise 1: Plural or Singular Read more…
Welsh Lesson One
Taken from Basic Welsh: A Grammar and Workbook by Gareth King Welsh Lesson One: Identification Sentences hwn this hwnna that y rhain these y rheina those e/o he hi she hwn this person (m) hon this person (f) hwnna that person (m) honna that person (f) hwnnw that person who honno that person who is out of sight (m) is out of sight (f) Read more…
King Edward’s complicated relationship with the Welsh
Sparked by a post yesterday, in which a historian commented that King Edward had a Welsh guard and didn’t ‘hate’ all Welsh as some people seemed to think, I feel compelled to comment. First off, Edward was an English king who had the interests of the English crown and the English people first and foremost. He conquered all these countries from that position, with the idea that English law/church/language/culture (and that means Norman, really) was far superior to the barbaric north and west. That doesn’t mean he hated all Welshmen. A lot of what he did initially, in fact, was because he loved Dafydd, Llywelyn’s brother, in particular, and felt horribly betrayed by him when he started the rebellion in 1282. And really, fine that he had a guard of Welshmen, but really, what were their choices? Nobody can prove Read more…
The Saxon Invasions
It is a matter of record that the Saxons invasions of Britain began in the last years of the Roman occupation, and then started in in full force after the Romans left the island in 410 AD. They marched away, seemingly without a backward glance, leaving the Britons–after 400 years of occupation–to fend for themselves. Map retrieved from: http://historiarex.com/e/en/225-anglo-saxon-invasions From Gildas, writing in the 6th century: From Britain envoys set out with their complaints, their clothes (it is said) torn, their heads covered in dust, to beg help from the Romans. … The Romans … informed our country that they could not go on being bothered with such troublesome expeditions; that Roman standards, that great and splendid army, could not be worn out by land and sea for the sake of wandering thieves who had no taste for war. Rather, Read more…
Lancelot
Here’s the real deal on Lancelot: In the Welsh tales, he doesn’t exist. The only adultery that may or may not have occurred is between Gwenhwyfar and Modred and not by Gwenhywfar’s choice. The French made him up. There. I said it. “Sir Lancelot first appears in Arthurian legend in ‘Le Chevalier de la Charrette’, one of a set of five Arthurian romances written by the French poet Chrétien de Troyes (completed by Godefroy de Lagny) as a large collection of verses, c.1180 to 1240. Lancelot is characterised alongside other knights, notably Gawain, Kay, and Méléagant (or Meliagaunce) – a consistent rival and parallel anti-hero against Lancelot – and is already heavily involved in his legendary romance with Guinevere, King Arthur’s queen. …Chrétien de Troyes composed ‘Le Chevalier de la Charrette’ at the request of the Countess Marie de Champagne, Read more…
What did medieval people drink?
What did medieval people drink? It wasn’t just alcoholic beverages, though alcohol was so commonly drunk at every meal that it was almost a food rather than a beverage. Water–Yes, people drank water in the Middle Ages! https://io9.gizmodo.com/no-medieval-people-didnt-drink-booze-to-avoid-dirty-w-1533442326 All over the internet, sources say that water was not drunk in the Middle Ages due to impurities. Certain sources question that, in large part because people didn’t know where disease came from, so how would they have pinpointed water as the source of the problem? Maybe because it didn’t taste good? Other sources indicate that water might not have been drunk often, but that it may have been more of a class thing, rather than a health issue. Poor people drank water, since they couldn’t afford wine or beer. Medieval people did have access to well water, which was a relatively Read more…
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