Taliesin the Bard
Whence come night and flood? How they disappear? Whither flies night from day; And how is it not seen? These lines are taken from a poem by Taliesin, a Welsh poet who lived roughly between 534 and 599 AD. His poetry has survived in the medieval Red Book of the Hergest, and The Book of Taliesin, found here: http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=bookoftaliesinpeniarthms2. “It is this manuscript which preserves the texts of famous poems such as ‘Armes Prydein Fawr’, ‘Preiddeu Annwfn’ (which refers to Arthur and his warriors sailing across the sea to win a spear and a cauldron), and elegies to Cunedda and Dylan eil Ton, as well as the earliest mention in any western vernacular of the feats of Hercules and Alexander. The manuscript is incomplete, having lost a number of its original leaves, including the first.” He is associated with Arthur, Read more…
New Covers!
Christine DeMaio-Rice of flipcitybooks.com has been reworking my covers for the last few months. I am happy to announce progress on the After Cilmeri Series. My former covers I produced myself, for better or for worse (mostly worse :)), but I’m excited to be stepping into an improved world by working with her … Daughter of Time: Footsteps: Prince of Time: And the Bundle cover, which pleases me to no end. It’s so much nicer than what I threw up there on my own reconnaissance back in April. Other covers for Crossroads in Time (book 3 in the series) and Winds of Time (a short story about Meg) are coming soon!
Lord Rhys ap Gruffydd, King of Deheubarth
In my book, The Good Knight, the King of Deheubarth, Anarawd, dies in the opening chapter. This is in 1143 AD, and King Owain of Gwynedd rules Gwynedd–and much of the rest of Wales–with a strong hand. After Anarawd’s death, the rule of Deheubarth falls to his younger brother, Cadell. “Cadell’s career was effectively ended in 1151. When out hunting, he was attacked by a Norman force from Tenby, who left him assuming him to be dead. In fact he survived, but was so badly injured as to be unable to resume his activities. In 1153 he left on a pilgrimage to Rome, leaving the rule of Deheubarth to his younger brothers Maredudd and Rhys. Cadell is not heard of again until 1175, when he entered the abbey of Strata Florida after a long illness and died there.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadell_ap_Gruffydd The bastard son of Owain Gwynedd, Hywel, plays a key Read more…
The Names for the Days of the Week
*updated for today because my 7-year old son was asking about ‘Thursday’ 🙂 People have named the days of the week since ancient times. We tend to take them for granted, even the bizarre spelling of ‘Wednesday’. The Greeks had a seven day week associated with heavenly bodies. Vettius Valens, an astrologer writing around 170 CE in his Anthologiarum, gave their order as: Sun, Moon, Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Cronos. Following the Greeks, the Romans named the days according to their gods (modified, of course, from the Greeks), and then spread them throughout the world as they conquered Europe. The Roman days were: Lunae, Martis, Mercurii, Jovis, Veneris, Saturni, and Solis. From this come the Spanish (for example), Lunes, Martes, Miercoles, Jueves, Viernes, Sabado, and Domingo (which is the only one that doesn’t fit–see below). In English, the Roman Read more…
Bards and Poets
In Welsh society before the conquest–in all Celtic societies in fact–the bard/poet played a very important role in the life of society. “The three principal endeavors of a Bard: One is to learn and collect sciences. The second is to teach. And the third is to make peace And to put an end to all injury; For to do contrary to these things Is not usual or becoming to a Bard.” ~THE TRIADS OF BRITAIN http://www.joellessacredgrove.com/Celtic/history.html “In the Celtic cultures, the Bard/Filidh/Ollave was inviolate. He could travel anywhere, say anything, and perform when and where he pleased. The reason for this was, of course, that he was the bearer of news and the carrier of messages, and, if he was harmed, then nobody found out what was happening over the next hill. In addition, he carried the Custom of the Read more…
A Medieval Siege
A medieval siege was a far more common form of warfare than a fight on an open battlefield. Sieges had the element of surprise and required fewer men than battle too, such that a ruler could beseige a castle with his enemy inside, while freeing other forces to wage war elsewhere. The goal in beseiging a castle was not to destroy it, but to take it, since castles were pawns in the great game of controlling land. They were usually heavily fortified and defended, so a beseiger had several options when he was on the outside looking in: 1) to starve/wait them out 2) harassment and trickery 3) a straight assault Often, attackers employed all three tactics at various times. The defenders, on the other hand, hoped and prayed for relief. As Saladin says in Kingdom of Heaven “One cannot Read more…
Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd, brother to the King
If ever your family gets on your nerves, you can be glad that you don’t have a family like Owain Gwynedd. Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd was Owain Gwynedd’s brother. A royal family in Wales wasn’t the same as in England, where the eldest son inherited most everything. In Wales, upon the death of a king, an entire kingdom was to be split among the brothers, even the illegitimate ones. (yes, the Catholic Church objected to this, but the Welsh didn’t much care). This caused problems for Wales time and again–as the brothers fought over lands among themselves and what had been a united kingdom under the father became divided under the sons. Cadwaladr and Owain were often at odds. Owain became the eldest son when his brother, Cadwallon, died, leaving Owain and Cadwaladr to rule without him. Owain and Cadwaladr seemed Read more…
Welsh Pronunciation
“Names are not always what they seem. The common Welsh name BZJXXLLWCP is pronounced Jackson.” Puddinhead Wilson (Mark Twain, Following the Equator) For an English speaker, Welsh is not easy. The following is a quick guide: a ‘ah’ as in ‘rah’ (Caradog) ae ‘eye’ as in ‘my’ (Cadfael) ai ‘eye’ as in ‘my’ (Owain) aw ‘ow’ as in ‘cow’ (Alaw) au ‘eye’ as in ‘my’ (Dau) c a hard ‘c’ sound (Cadfael) ch a non-English sound as in Scottish ‘ch’ in ‘loch’ (Fychan) dd a buzzy ‘th’ sound, as in ‘there’ (Ddu; Gwynedd) e ‘eh’ as in ‘met’ (Ceri) eu ‘ay’ as in ‘day’ (Ddeufaen) f ‘v’ as in ‘of’ (Cadfael) ff as in ‘off’ (Gruffydd) g a hard ‘g’ sound, as in ‘gas’ (Goronwy) i ‘ee’ as in ‘see’ (Ceri) ia ‘yah’ as in ‘yawn’ (Iago) ieu sounds like the Read more…
The Good Knight has a new cover!
I spent twenty years telling myself I didn’t have a creative bone in my body. I told myself I wasn’t a visual person. I don’t paint and photoshop is beyond me, but I know when something is beautiful and right. Christine DeMaio-Rice (http://flipcitybooks.com/) is my cover designer. So far she’s revamped Cold My Heart, The Last Pendragon series, and now The Good Knight. And here it is: It’s going to take a while to filter through all the channels, so please be patient if the old cover still pops up for you at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Apple. She has also designed the full book cover for the paper copy. Isn’t it gorgeous? It should go live in a day or two as well. You may note that the tag on the Kindle book is now “A Gareth and Read more…
Guest Post at David Gaughran’s Blog
I don’t usually link to all my guest posts, but today, David Gaughran (I was one of the authors featured in his book, ‘Let’s Get Digital’) is special and a friend. ________________ A New Strategy for a New Year – Guest Post by Sarah Woodbury To enroll or not to enroll, that is the question on a lot of writers’ minds. I have had several posts on KDP Select, because it’s a complex issue, without one “right” answer that will fit all self-publishers. If you are just catching up, I came out against the programbefore Christmas, but featured two authors recently that are doing well out of it: Marilyn Peake and Patrice Fitzgerald. To wrap up this mini-series, I have a guest post from bestselling author Sarah Woodbury, who hasn’t enrolled in KDP Select. Instead she’s exploiting the increased opportunities on other retailers. Here’s Sarah: *** Read more…
SOPA and Internet Piracy
Wikipedia is blacked out today. Here’s why: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SOPA_logo.png I am opposed to internet piracy. I make my living off my books and if people pirate my books, they don’t pay me. At the same time, I see no point in going after readers–who might actually like my book and want to read more, that they’ll then pay for. This is Neil Gaiman on why we shouldn’t care about piracy of books: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/02/10/neil-gaiman-piracy-lending-books/ The present internet piracy acts before Congress don’t address the real problem, which is companies (foreign, mostly) that pirate work wholesale and sell it. Slate has a great article about why online piracy is not a bad thing. A TED talk that gives the history of this bill: From the explanation at Wikipedia: What are SOPA and PIPA? SOPA and PIPA represent two bills in the United Read more…
Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn
Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn was a contemporary of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the last Prince of Wales who died in 1282. He was father to Owain, who with Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Llywelyn’s brother, conspired to murder Llywelyn in 1274. Gruffydd was born sometime before 1216, the date of his father’s death. Llywelyn Fawr had driven the family from their lands in Powys and Gruffydd subsequently grew up in England. “Gwenwynwyn seized Arwystli in 1197 when he was aligned with England. Following the marriage of Llywelyn Fawr and Joan of England in 1208, warfare broke out once more between Gwenwynwyn and Llywelyn. In 1212 Gwenwynwyn’s ancient royal seat at Mathrafal was destroyed and he was evicted from his territories. He changed allegiances again and was restored to his realm in 1215 making a new capital at Welshpool. In 1216 he was defeated in battle with the forces of Read more…
^