7 posts tagged “history”
I've started a new blog, since this one is mainly techy-geeky stuff. My other blog is here:
and deals with my other interests, archaeology, Welsh history, paganism, myths & legends. Particularly the area of the old "Silures" tribe, Gwent, Glamorgan, into Herefordshire. Feel free to add it to your feedreaders.
It's not on Vox, because I wanted to try out Windows Live Writer, and that works well with Blogger/Picasa. So yeah..
fnarr lol
I went down to Caerleon today, where the fantastic Ermine Street Guard were giving a military re-enactment. Wicked stuff, the sight of all that armour glinting in the sun. I got a free pass too ;) A splendid time was guaranteed for all.
The National Roman Legion Museum hosted the event, exactly 35 years since the eight founder members of the society first paraded at the historical pageant in the combined Gloucestershire villages of Witcombe and Bentham.
Its like - say they found the remains of a sword. Amazing find, it is catalogued and preserved. But what does it tell us? That they used swords? Duh. No, in and of itself it is a valuable find, but aside from giving come context it tells us nothing really. But let a metalworker try and recreate it. Then you'll find out how it was made, and by association, how metal generally was treated and worked. Give the recreation to someone to swing around, and you'll find out how it was used, or more importantly how it wasn't used. From that one lump of rusty iron, you suddenly bring history to life, from the smithy to the warrior. Short of getting a time machine, thats as close to the past as you're going to get. To understand something, you have to see it, living, breathing, being used. Practicality beats academic speculation every time.
Sorry, babbling now.
When I was a nipper, growing up in New Tredegar, I used to go for walks on Brithdir mountain. It fascinated me. At the time there was a big pine plantation up there, and the rumour in school (1981ish) was that there was a band of bloodthirsty devil-worshippers in them-there woods. Well, we went up there and didn't find any lol. There was also the tale of the woman with one leg who was buried in the graveyard on top - she would come out at night looking for her other leg (Apparently) : whoa betide anyone up there after dark! But I loved the quiet of the place. As I got older I used to go up there for long walks on my own, I used to love to go exploring, and sit at the bottom of the Tegernacus stone.
The original stone in now in the National Museum of Wales, there is just a marker stone there now. The latin inscription is commonly thought to read :
TEGERNACUS FILIUS MARTI HIC IACIT (Tegernacus, son of Marti(us) lies here)
This in itself is fascinating, if you do some research. The inscription is thought to be 7th century, although the stone itself may be earlier. Tegernacus is probably a Latin spelling of Teyrnog, an early British name that crops up in the list of Cambrian saints. However, this Teyrnog was a Silurian, and probably gave his name to the place where Tintern Abbey now stands (Tin-Tern is English, the Welsh would be Din-Tern). Teyrnog also crops up, of a fashion, in the Welsh Chronicles: `A.D. 1179, this year a convent was completed at Nant Teyrnon'. Teyrnon/Teyrnog lived in the 7th century (the date of the inscription)
He crops up again on an inscribed stone in Cwmdu, Powys, where the inscription reads:
CATACUS HIC IACIT / FILIUS TERENACUS (Catacus lies here / son of Tegernacus)
Is this Teyrnog the mysterious Sir Tegyr, who is King Arthurs's cup bearer in Culhwch & Olwen? No idea, but I love making links like that :)
Back to the Brithdir stone, another fascinating thing. The antiquarians who took the stone to Cardiff argued politely over the name Martius. On the actual stone, it is written Marii or Marti. One scholar (who no-one seems to agree with except me lol) says this is wrong, its probably Mar. A famous Mar in this area is Mar, son of Gwynlliw, brother of Cadoc or St Cattwg. This Mar gives his name to several local places: Mar-stow in Herefordshire, Mar-Cross in Glamorganshire, and Mar-gam. Margam was originally Mar-gan, literally "Mar's Chant" or Mar's Choir.
So was Tegernacus/Teyrnog a dark-age chieftain of the Romano-Silurians, who maybe fought with Arthur against the Saxons? Who knows. It would be nice to have that connection right on the doorstep. And whether its true or not, its there in spirit :)
sources:
University College London
New Tredegar.com
On the opposite mountain, overlooking New Tredegar, above Phillipstown, is Twyn Cornicyll, which (I found out today) was apparently an iron-age settlement. Got to say, growing up with "the pimple" towering over the town, it does look a lot like an iron-age hillfort, of sorts. I'll have to investigate that, see if any research has been done on it, or if it's all just folk-rumour.
Celtic Nationalists should invest in their heritage instead of flogging it off
from the Guardian website
Surely the money spent on big wobbly red people on sticks could be put to better use preserving the fantastic landmarks we already have? Instead, our landmarks and greenspace gets sold off for landfill and open-cast mining, but never mind! Here's a hideous "installation" you can be proud of! Crap.
...what is it with those geezers who descend on Stonehenge at the Solstice, draped in white sheets? Excuse me, but WHAT THE HELL? Who said Druids wore the contents of their Victorian linen closet? This geezer looks like a proper Druid, I recon.
Oooo... and while I'm about it, you should really read this book, if you're interested in pre-Roman culture and religion:
Hmm... something else, I'm a big believer in Genius Loci, the "Spirit of the place". I'll write about that next.
..since it generally occurs to most men, that, in their dependence on writing,
they relax their diligence in learning thoroughly, and their employment of
the memory
Caius Julius Caesar
Caesar there, talking about the Druids, pondering on the reason they never wrote anything down. Still true, innit? 2000 years later... we're so used to writing things down, looking things up on Google, putting phone-numbers into our cellphones, that our memories turn to jelly from lack of use. Hell.. I don't even know MY OWN phone number.. but I can look it up for you, if you like :)
Just thinking aloud..
Not even the Emerald Isle is safe from the lunatic road-builders. The latest example of "destroy our history and culture to shave 10 minutes off your travel time" is the beautiful Tara in Ireland. Yup, the Teamhair na Rí, the center of Ireland, the seat of the High Kings.. is, well... obviously pointless and unimportant, at least according to the Irish government, who have agreed to plans to build a bloody motorway through the Tara-Skryne valley, up to half a mile away from the monument. But its not just the hill, it's all the sacred sites and archeology that surround it are going to be bulldozed and tarmacked. Something 70% of locals surveyed were opposed to. Feck it, watch this:
It doesn't matter if you're not Irish really, what we're talking about here is a world-important archeological and cultural site. Please, if you have time, visit the following websites, sign the petitions, get involved (if you can). This is bloody important. Thanks.
www.tara-foundation.org
www.tarawatch.org
www.savetara.com
www.savetaravalley.com
Save Tara on MySpace
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