The 300 (or 303)

When you think of 'the 300' you probably think of the recent movie on the famous Spartan-Persian battle of antiquity. Considered by historians all around as a pivotal battle in antiquity, the number 300 either spawned a legend that spread all the way to the British Isles or was such a common symbolic number that...

The Red Ravagers

Welsh lore often presents a very different version of Arthur than is commonly found in most post-Geoffrey Arthurian literature. I ran across this the other day while browsing Bromwich's Trioedd Ynys Prydein: Traid 20 W: Three Red Ravagers of the Isle of Britain Rhun son of Beli; and Lle(u) Skilful Hand, and Morgan(t) the Wealthy,...

LKM: Bernicia/Bryneich

Bernicia or Bryneich? We know that the name of the kingdom was British and their name for it was Bryneich. No one has put forth a compelling translation for Bryneich. It appears to have been the southern part of Votandini (Gododdin) territory under the Romans, although it may have been independent then just without its...

The Long Seventh Century

There seems to be a new trend to name certain transitional centuries as "long centuries" because the important events that happened tend to wrap over both century marks. Its not surprising that real life doesn't match our numbering system. I've heard of the long 19th century* - from the American Revolution to World War I...

St Columba of Iona: A Complicated Legacy

Blessed St. Columba's Day! Today we remember the Apostle to Scotland. An involuntary exile from Ireland, Columba arrived in the Scottish kingdom of Dalriada in the 560s and founded a small monastery on the island of Iona, on the then northern border of Dalriada and Pictland, a likely frontier region between the relatively new Scottish...