Was King Arthur real?
Historians are still asking themselves was King Arthur real? Whether or not King Arthur was a real person is an either/or query. He either was or he wasn’t. Many scholars, researchers, and Arthurophile’s have strong opinions on this topic, both for and against. Because of the paucity of written records (most notably, Gildas fails to mention him), much of the academic work has come down on the side of ‘wasn’t’–or at least if Arthur was a real person, his name was not ‘Arthur’ and he possible wasn’t even a king. In another blog (here), I list the original sources that posit the existence of King Arthur. Obviously, since I’ve written a novel about King Arthur, he’s very real to me! Wikipedia has a remarkably thorough analysis of the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Arthur For now, I’d like to point to two aspects of the ‘wasn’t’ Read more…
William de Braose and The Red Wedding
In the Game of Thrones, ‘the red wedding’ (not to ruin it for anyone) is a massacre of epic proportions. While the author, Martin, says he based the scene on real events in Scotland, Wales had a similar incident, sad to say, this one on Christmas Day. Here is the entry from Wikipedia which is accurate as far as events go: “In 1175, William de Braose carried out the Abergavenny Massacre, luring three Welsh princes and other Welsh leaders to their deaths. His principal antagonist was a Seisyll ap Dyfnwal, of Castell Arnallt near Llanover in the valley of the River Usk near Abergavenny, whom he blamed for the death of his uncle Henry. After having invited the Welsh leaders to a Christmas feast at Abergavenny Castle under the pretence of peace and the start of a new era at the end of the year (a traditional time for settling outstanding Read more…
Bird by Bird by Leslea Tash
My friend, Leslea Tash, has just published her debut novel, a romance called Bird After Bird. Here’s the blurb: Dear Birdy, Princess Birdzilla von MuffinStuff, Keeper of Dreams, Lover of our Fine Feathered Friends, queen of my life and light of my world, I hope this letter finds you well. If you are reading this then I am gone, and sweetheart, I am so sorry. Chi-town professional Wren Riley is 25 and a rising star in the business world. She can eat a man alive and laugh about it to her girlfriends in seconds flat–and she does, on the regular. Behind the power suits and the flashing, flirty eyes, however, Wren has a secret, vulnerable side. Following a devastating loss and the discovery of a bird journal she and her father made together years before, Wren sets out to seek peace, closure, Read more…
Ashes of Time is here!
The eighth novel in the After Cilmeri series, Ashes of Time, is here! It is available at Amazon US and all Amazon stores, Barnes and Noble, the Apple iBookstore, and in paperback (coming soon to Kobo). November 1291. Meg and Llywelyn gather their family at Rhuddlan Castle to celebrate their seventh anniversary and David’s twenty-third birthday. But the joyful reunion goes grievously awry when an old enemy raises the banner of rebellion, followed immediately by an even more catastrophic betrayal by an old friend. Meanwhile, facing war at every turn and still haunted by his decision to leave Cassie and Callum in the modern world, David chooses a dangerous path forward, one that will either change the course of the future forever—or burn his world to ashes.
Life Expectancy in the Middle Ages
What was the typical life expectancy in the Middle Ages? Life expectancy varied according to diet, climate, location, relative wealth, etc., but the answer is definitive: not as long as we do now. For starters, infants and children died at a horrific rate (some say up to 1/3 of all died before the age of 5) and a significant percentage of women died in association with childbirth: 5% perhaps from the birth itself, often dying with the child, and a further 15% from childbed fever–the infections that followed a poorly managed delivery (by our standards). Following that, if a person made it out of childhood, they could be expected to live into their middle forties, provided they maintained good health and weren’t killed in war. Both those, of course, are big ‘ifs’. Below is the recorded birth and death date for the adult royal Read more…
The Little Ice Age and the MWP
We all realize that temperature is not a constant. It’s hard enough to imagine what life was like in the Middle Ages, without adding in differences in temperature. As it turns out, many of my books falls directly into the ‘medieval warm period’ of 950 to 1250. “The Medieval Warm Period (MWP) is generally thought to have occurred from about AD 950–1250, during the European Middle Ages.[9] In 1965 Hubert Lamb, one of the first paleoclimatologists, published research based on data from botany, historical document research and meteorology combined with records indicating prevailing temperature and rainfall in England around 1200 and around 1600. He proposed that “Evidence has been accumulating in many fields of investigation pointing to a notably warm climate in many parts of the world, that lasted a few centuries around A.D. 1000–1200, and was followed by a decline of temperature levels till between Read more…
Welsh Idioms
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
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
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)
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!
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)
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…
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