National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)
NaNoWriMo is a demented, unrelenting, insane way to write a book, and November, the 2010 NaNoWriMo, is one month away. It’s time to start planning now! 50,000 words in a month. You can’t do it on 1000 words a day. But you can do it with 2000, which is terrifying because it sounds doable. As The Last Pendragon started out as my 2008 NaNoWriMo novel and Cold My Heart was NaNoWriMo 2010, I believe it is well worth the attempt. However, I didn’t bother with any of those pesky daily wordcounts in either outing. The first time around, I wrote 15,000 words in 5 days and gave it up as a lost cause. 2 1/2 weeks later, I had a brainwave, and with the urging of my writing partner, wrote 35,000 words in 6 days. That was insane. The next year, 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…
Sunrise and Sunset in Wales
For those who live in a far northern or southern region of the planet, this will not be news, but for the vast majority of people who do not, the idea that the sun will not set in the summer until what is traditionally viewed as ‘night’ and will rise far too early in the morning is very foreign. Look at the chart below, showing sunrise and sunset times for Cardiff (which is in southern Wales) for June 2010. Note that for the entire month, the sun rise varies by 7 minutes: rising at 5:02 am, reaching 4:55 am in the middle of the month, and by the end of the month is again at 4:59 am. Sunset varies by 13 minutes, peaking at a 16 hour, 38 minute ‘day’. 1-Jun-10 5:02 AM 9:20 PM 16h 18m 32s 2-Jun-10 5:01 AM 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/
Medieval Women, Riding, and the Side Saddle
Women and riding is not a common topic in the historical annals. Did women ride side saddle or astride in the Middle Ages? To the right is a side saddle from the 17th century. It is clearly designed to limit a woman’s ability to ride athletically–more of a way to carry her from one place to another at a walk, then as a sensible mode of transport. This saddle is, however, a later invention. In England (and Wales) it appears that women in the Middle Ages rode astride much of the time, either on their own or pillion behind a man. Here are two pictures of women riding: The Prioress from The Canterbury Tales (dated to 1532) rides aside and The Wife of Bath (1410) rides astride (the Ellesmere Manuscript, c. the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA). For more discussion http://ilaria.veltri.tripod.com/sidesaddle.html Read more…
King Arthur’s Round Table
. . . has not been found, despite recent news to the contrary. This article states with the very generalized ‘historians believe’ that King Arthur’s round table is actually the ampitheatre in the City of Chester. When the Romans abandoned Britain, they left their forts and roads behind. Many archaeologists believe that in the ensuing chaos, the Britons no longer used the ampitheatres for their original purpose, if they used them at all. As I said in this post of the Romans, “within a generation or two, little trace of them, except for their roads and ruined forts–and their religion, Christianity–remained. Everything had fallen into disrepair. The ‘Saxons’ descended from the east, the Scots from the North, and the Irish from the West, driving the original Britons west, into what is now Wales.” The Chester ampitheatre was discovered in the Read more…
Buried Treasure
The impulse to bury treasure, gold, or much-valued objects is long-standing. “An amateur treasure hunter armed with a metal detector has found over 52,000 Roman coins worth $1 million buried in field, one of the largest ever such finds in the UK, said the British Museum. Dave Crisp, a hospital chef, came across the buried treasure while searching for “metal objects” in a field near Frome, Somerset in south-western England.” http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/07/09/uk.roman.coin.treasure/ “The find includes more than 760 coins from the reign of Carausius, the Roman naval officer who seized power in 286 and ruled until he was assassinated in 293. “The late third century A.D. was a time when Britain suffered barbarian invasions, economic crises and civil wars . . . Roman rule was finally stabilized when the Emperor Diocletian formed a coalition with the Emperor Maximian, which lasted 20 Read more…
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