I just went for a walk in the woods up Ryans Creek Mountain here in Whitley County with my mom and dad, and as usual, I got to learn a lot about my families’ subsistence methods when they were still in thrall to the coal mining camps of the region. As you walk up the… Read more A Walk in the Kentucky Woods
St Illtud was one of the most famous scholar-saints in pre-Norman Wales and throughout Medieval Britain, having founded a renowned monastery and school of divinity in Wales during the 6th century. St Illtud was devoted to spreading the teachings of Christianity, and for centuries his monastery was the epicenter of Celtic Christianity in Sub-Roman Britain.… Read more St Illtud, Welsh Saint and Scholar
The sheela-na-gig, once seen, are hard to forget. These carvings can be found on medieval churches and buildings across Northern Europe, but more frequently in the British Isles and in the greatest numbers in Ireland. A popular hypothesis is that sheela na gigs represent a pagan goddess, but academics believe the situation was more complex,… Read more Sheela-na-gig and Cultural Function
Jousting was a dangerous sport, and on 10 March 1524 King Henry VIII was very nearly maimed — or killed — during a tournament. Edward Hall’s Chronicle recounts: “Then [Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk] set forward and charged with his spear, and the king likewise unadvisedly set off towards the duke. The people, seeing… Read more Justly Jousting in 1524
Valentine’s Day has been celebrated a lot longer than many people realize, but it wasn’t until the ideas of courtly love started to spread in the Middle Ages that the holiday become more about flirtations than fertility. Part of the romance of Valentine’s Day was the belief that the 14th of February was day when… Read more Saint Valentine’s Day
John Llewellyn Lewis was born in a coal mining company town just east of Lucas, Iowa on 12 February 1880. His parents, Thomas H. Lewis and Ann Watkins Lewis, had both immigrated to the USA from Llangurig, Wales and his father was a respected coal miner in the community. Lewis would follow in the family… Read more John Llewellyn Lewis, a Welsh-American Hero
I’m currently reading a fascinating book, written by Matthew Champion, about church graffiti of the medieval period. It is all kinds of interesting, not only for the information about witch marks and symbology, but also for the various cultural/historical asides it contains. For example, he explained the medieval – nay, pre-Christian – roots behind the shape of… Read more From Little Acorns Mighty Oaks Grow
Joan of Valois, Duchess of Berry, formerly a princess and a queen of France and now a founding member of the Order of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, passed away at the Annonciades of Bourges on 4 February 1505. Although she died a nun, she had not been born to wear the veil.… Read more Joan of Valois: Princess, Queen, Duchess, and Saint
On 30 January 1607 the Bristol Channel experienced a sudden influx of flood water, which scientists and historians believe was either a severe storm surge or may even have been the result of a tsunami. The flooding effected several hundred miles of coast along both the Welsh and English sides of the channel, inflicting severe… Read more A British Tsunami? The Great Flood of 1607
On 22 January 1552, Edward Seymour, the eldest brother of Henry VIII’s third queen Jane Seymour and uncle of King Edward VI, was beheaded on Tower Hill. I’m not particularly sorry for him. I’m schooled in postmodernism enough to assume everyone studying history develops partialities whether they admit it or not. One of the people… Read more Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Fratricidal Monster