Originally published April 2015 Swords & Watery Tarts “Then Sir Bedivere departed, and went to the sword, and lightly took it up, and went to the water side; and there he bound the girdle about the hilts, and then he threw the sword as far into the water as he might; and there came an […]
Category: Blast from the Past
Celtic Hist. Newsltter Blast from the Past
Originally published February 2015 The Fianna Wikipedia describes the Fianna (singular fian) as “small, semi-independent warrior bands in Irish mythology and Scottish mythology. They are featured in the stories of the Fenian Cycle, where they are led by Fionn mac Cumhaill. They are based on historical bands of landless young men in early medieval Ireland […]
Celtic Hist Newsletter Blast from the Past: Udny Church Mort House
Udny Church Mort House I confess I have a taste for horror/macabre stories and films and not too long ago I was watching the movie Burke and Hare, a 2010 black comedy about the true life Scottish body snatchers who, in 1828, resorted to murder to supply an Edinburgh anatomist with bodies for dissection. Burke, […]
Celtic Hist. Newsletter blast from the past: Murder of Honor Bright
Originally Published December 2014 The Murder of Honor Bright “In 1925 Dublin was a hive of activity ’cause change was a-coming down Frank Duff wasted no time with his ladies of the L.O.M they set about to clear out Monto town but across the City Quays a woman from the Liberties was doing all she […]
Celtic Hist. Newsletter Blast from the Past: The Fairy Minister
Originally Published November 2014 The Fairy Minister Reverend Robert Kirk (1644 – 1692) was born the seventh son of Rev. James Kirk, minister of Aberfoyle in central Scotland. Robert Kirk studied theology at St Andrews and received his master’s degree at Edinburgh in 1661. Kirk became minister of Balquhidder in 1664, and eventually, like his […]
Celtic Hist. Newsletter Blast from the Past: Celtic “Suttee”?
Celtic “Suttee”? The practice of suttee or “Sati” in Sanskirt is the term used for the Hindu ritual where a wife would either sacrifice herself on the pyre of her dead husband, or kill herself in some other fashion soon after his death. Although it was never as widely practiced as some claim, it was […]
Celtic Hist Newsletter Blast from the Past: Brooches & Kilts
Originally published June 2014 Brooches & Kilts I was just talking to our partners in crime at the Celtic Croft about something I haven’t thought about for a while. Back in my early days of being in a Scottish reenactment group I used to make a little beer money selling simple brass penannular brooches that […]
Celtic Hist. Newsletter Blast from the Past: Our Daily Bread
Originally published February 2014 Our Daily Bread A friend recently posted a link on his Facebook page to an interesting article on a historical reenactors’ page about Roman military bread and the portable hand mills the army traveled with to grind grain into flour. Each legionary would carry a ration of wheat grain rather than […]
Celtic History Newsletter Blast from the Past: Trees & Kings
Originally Published January 2014 Trees & Kings Sacred trees, or groves of trees, seem to have been an important part of Norse and Gaelic pagan customs. Yggdrasill, of course, is the “World Tree” or tree of life in Norse mythology whose branches extend over the nine worlds of that cosmology. Sacred trees or groves also seem […]
Celtic Hist. Newsletter Blast from the Past: Of Swords & Stones
Originally published December 2013 Of Swords & Stones I recently ran across a paper with an interesting theory. There are a number of stone monuments in Ireland which have grooves cut into them that have often been passed off as things like vandalism damage from farming implements like plows. Occasionally they are referred to as […]