History October

October History

Α Ω
Daughter and Sons of Albion
The development of language among the Celts, and all the other tribes, can best be summarized as, ‘the locals on a slow burn.’ Their writings, even more so. To come to some language uniformity, with the help of the church and, of course, the Normans, the original Celts, were driven from a system of pictures and symbols, dating back before the founding of Rome. These words, or ideas of words, were full of imagination. Non-verbal communication was really the best way to express a conversation with these folk. The Celts, it was said, could read another’s mind. Found were old tablets, many of them full of curses, with similar symbols developed by the Vikings. However, recent discoveries of much older artifacts may prove otherwise. What makes this topic even more convoluted are the different artifacts found, the local dialects, and imaginative stories passed down for generations.

As time moved forward, along with the development of Greco-Roman Society, modern words, symbols, and writings were added to specific locations. This has helped to understand and identify where and when these different ethnic cultures met or collided. What we know is, the Celts were originally and predominately in Central Europe, Indo-European. Over great periods of time, they spread out, becoming: Juts, Picts, Saxons, Anglo, and Belgae. Still, all Celts. Eventually, they all ended up butting heads with the Vikings in the north and coastal areas, the Greeks, and Latins to the South, save one tribe in northwestern Ireland, and those wee folk have yet to be explained. Perhaps they were leprechauns?

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History October

OCTOBER

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Α Ω The Veil Thins — Celts, Saints, Kings, and the Shadow of the Normans

Throughout October, November, and December the History Lecture Series moves through the world of the Celts — their gods, their druids, their language, and their long collision with Rome, Christianity, and the Viking north. October is the threshold month. The veil thins. The harvest ends. The fires are lit. It is the right time to sit with the ancestors.

History Lecture Series

Week 1 — The Ancient Celts: Hallstatt, Druids, Language, and the Roman Encounter. Friday 7PM. Lecture Hall I. [confirm date] Week 2 — Ireland and the Coming of Patrick: Hibernia, the High Kings, and Celtic Christianity. [confirm speaker, date, location] Week 3 — Arthur, King of the Brits: Legend, History, and the Birth of Chivalry. [confirm speaker, date, location] Week 4 — The Anglo-Saxons: Alfred, Beowulf, Vikings, and the End at Hastings. [confirm speaker, date, location] Celtic Tales Radio — Every Saturday in October. PEACH Radio. 7PM. Great Mysteries Preview — Druids, Shape-Shifting, and the Liminal World. [confirm date, time, location]

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Show Image The Celtic World Through the Dark Ages Show Image

October opens with the ancient Celts and closes at Hastings, 1066 AD. Along the way we move through druids and saints, legendary kings and real ones, the mystery of Arthur and the blunt fact of William the Conqueror. These are our people — their blood, their language, their saints and their stories run directly into us.

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Α Ω Daughter and Sons of Albion

The development of language among the Celts, and all the other tribes, can best be summarized as, ‘the locals on a slow burn.’ Their writings, even more so. To come to some language uniformity, with the help of the church and, of course, the Normans, the original Celts were driven from a system of pictures and symbols dating back before the founding of Rome. These words, or ideas of words, were full of imagination. Non-verbal communication was really the best way to express a conversation with these folk. The Celts, it was said, could read another’s mind. Found were old tablets, many of them full of curses, with similar symbols developed by the Vikings. However, recent discoveries of much older artifacts may prove otherwise. What makes this topic even more convoluted are the different artifacts found, the local dialects, and the imaginative stories passed down for generations.

As time moved forward, along with the development of Greco-Roman Society, modern words, symbols, and writings were added to specific locations. This has helped to understand and identify where and when these different ethnic cultures met or collided. What we know is, the Celts were originally and predominately in Central Europe, Indo-European. Over great periods of time, they spread out, becoming: Juts, Picts, Saxons, Anglo, and Belgae. Still, all Celts. Eventually, they all ended up butting heads with the Vikings in the north and coastal areas, the Greeks, and Latins to the South — save one tribe in northwestern Ireland, and those wee folk have yet to be explained. Perhaps they were leprechauns?

. . . .

Rome Arrives When Caesar arrived, his recounting of those on the island was not kind. Regarding the Gaul,

. . . .

“The Druids are in charge of all religious matters, superintending public and private sacrifices, and explaining superstitions. A large crowd of young men, who flock to them for schooling, hold the Druids in great respect. For they have opinions to give on almost all disputes involving tribes or individuals, and if any crime is committed, any murder done, or if there is contention about a will or the boundaries of some property, they are the people who investigate the matter and establish rewards and punishments. There is one arch-druid of supreme power. On his death, he is succeeded either by someone outstanding among his fellows, or, if there are several of equal calibre, a decision is reached by a vote of all the Druids. At a fixed time of year, they assemble at a holy place… Anyone with a grievance attends and obeys the decisions and judgments which the Druids give. The general view is that this religion originated in Britain and was imported into Gaul, which means that any keen student of Druidism now goes to Britain for information.”

“They are the most ignorant people I have ever conquered. They cannot be taught music.” — Julius Caesar, 54 BC

Cicero, in writing to his friend Atticus, advised him not to buy slaves in England, “because,” said he, “they cannot be taught to read, and are the ugliest and most stupid race I ever saw.”

Both Julius and Cicero exaggerate. These barbarian tribes, as described by Caesar, had been trading throughout the region for hundreds of years. Before the Romans, the Celts on the Islands had developed extensive trade with the Etruscans, Latins, and even the Greeks, far into Asia Minor and into the Volga and Mongolia. They were, however, a very superstitious and ritualistic people. So when did the first people, the Celts, arrive in Great Britain and Ireland? Legend says, they have always been there, that the last piece of heaven to fall from the sky at the end of Atlantis was Ireland. The Indo-European Celtic were a large, flourishing tribe that broke up into family groups, and over long periods of time became known as the Native Tribes of Europe. Celtic Gauls and Vikings, mingled with the ancient people on the islands, and developed not only their customs, but also their mystical powers of sight and magic. More details will be discussed during Great Mysteries, in January.

376 The Barbarian Conspiracy, 367 AD, was perhaps the true end of Rome as an Empire. By 376 AD, the Northern Tribesmen did something they hadn’t done in hundreds of years. They united, and in Rome’s weakness laid the Empire North of the Rubicon to rest.

However, we can attribute Constantine (306 to 337 AD) with the conversion of the Celts to Christianity — but we cannot disregard how Celtic influences defined Christianity, as we learn during the Byzantium Era. Regardless, the Holy Roman Empire throughout Europe was taking on a new shape.

After the Barbarian Conspiracy, Rome as an Empire quickly dissolved. Soldiers who had fought in faraway battles returned home to the lands promised by the Generals. Those who stayed, especially in Briton and Ireland, didn’t last long. They crossed the Channel into Gaul for better weather and more sophisticated people. Forts, towns, and cities that sprung up on the Isles and ports were abandoned. Most of the native folk moved further inland, creating small villages and hamlets. The Northern Europeans took root and power on the Mainland, and with the spreading of Christianity began a new idea of Empire.

Ireland — Hibernia “land of winter” [Classical Latin]

Greek geographical accounts. 320 BC Pytheas of Massalia called the island Iérnē (written Ἰέρνη). Roman historian Tacitus, 98 AD, uses the name Hibernia. The people Hibernie Ἰουερνία Iouerníā was a Greek rendering of the Q-Celtic name *Īweriū, from which eventually arose the Irish names Ériu and Éire.

“That island, compared with Britain, is of smaller dimensions, but it is larger than the islands of our own sea. In regard to soil, climate, and the character and ways of its inhabitants, it is not markedly different from Britain; we are better informed, thanks to the trade of merchants, about the approaches to the island and its harbours.

Agricola had given shelter to one of the petty chieftains whom faction had driven from home, and under the cloak of friendship held him in reserve to be used as opportunity offered. I have often heard my father-in-law say that with one legion and a fair contingent of irregulars Hibernia could be overpowered and held, and that the feat would pay as against Britain also; for so Roman troops would be everywhere and liberty would sink, so to speak, below the horizon.”

The Agricola, by Roman historian Tacitus, c. 98 CE. Gnaeus Julius Agricola was a Roman general and politician responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain.

Claudius — geography and tribes of Hibernia, referred to as little Britain, 16 tribes
432 — written annals begin

Saint Patrick, 385 or 386 AD — The Apostle of Ireland

Born into a Romanized British family — his father a deacon, his grandfather a priest — Patrick was captured at sixteen by Irish raiders and carried off to serve as a slave shepherd on the hills of Connacht. Six years of cold, hunger, and isolation turned him inward. He prayed without ceasing. When at last a vision told him a ship was waiting, he walked two hundred miles to the coast and made his escape.

He returned to Britain, studied for the priesthood, and then received another vision: “The Voice of the Irish,” calling him back to the island that had enslaved him. He went. He is the only person in late antiquity to leave an autobiographical confession, the Confessio, and it is raw — a man who wrestled with shame, with his lack of Latin education, and with the enormity of what he had been asked to do.

What Patrick brought to Ireland was not the church of Rome in its full bureaucratic weight. He moved on foot, he negotiated with kings, he baptized in rivers, and he built around the existing rhythms of Celtic life. He confirmed what the Celts already sensed — that the spiritual world was close, that the soul was immortal, that the sacred lived in rivers, trees, and hills. He simply named the source differently.

His encounter with the Druids is legendary. At Tara, the seat of the High King, he lit the Paschal fire on the Hill of Slane in direct defiance of the royal decree that no fire could burn before the king’s own fire. The Druids warned the king that if that fire was not extinguished, it would never be extinguished in Ireland. They were right.

Lugaid mac Lóegairi — High King of Ireland at the time of Patrick’s mission
Shakus Moore — [tbc, confirm speaker reference]
Roman Christianity vs. Celtic Christianity — a lasting tension; the Irish church was monastic, artistic, locally governed, and deeply mystical long before Rome fully absorbed it
The Synod of Whitby, 664 AD, was the formal moment when the Celtic church in Britain submitted to Roman practice on the dating of Easter — a small dispute with enormous symbolic weight

“Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me.” — from the Lorica of Saint Patrick (The Breastplate), c. 5th century

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Arthur, King of the Brits 400/500 AD

Who was Arthur? Arthur was a bastard child of Uther Pendragon. He was raised by a sorcerer named Merlin. Through his heroic deeds, and by uniting the tribes under Roman Rule, he became the First King of the Brits. He was known for gathering twelve loyal, true, and brave men called the Knights of the Round Table. Their mission was to search and find the Holy Grail. They fought many battles in the name of Christ and Christendom. Arthur’s final battle was at Camlann. He was buried on the island of Avalon. I dare say no more, for the lecture given on the life of Arthur is not to be missed.

The historical kernel: Early mentions appear in Welsh sources — Gildas, c. 540 AD, and Nennius’ Historia Brittonum, c. 830 AD, which lists twelve battles including the great victory at Badon Hill. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, c. 1136 AD, will later expand the legend into its full form. But the roots are here, in the chaos after Rome’s withdrawal — a Romano-British war leader holding the line against the Saxon advance. Whatever he was in history, what he became in legend is one of the most powerful stories the Western world has ever produced.

The deeper current: Arthur is not only a king. He is the once and future king — the one who does not die but sleeps, waiting to return when Britain needs him most. This is the Celtic soul speaking. The Druids believed the soul does not end. Arthur is the supreme expression of that belief carried forward into Christian clothing.

The Mabinogion

The Mabinogion is the oldest prose literature of Britain, a collection of eleven tales preserved in two medieval Welsh manuscripts — the White Book of Rhydderch, c. 1350, and the Red Book of Hergest, c. 1382–1410 — but rooted in oral tradition reaching back centuries before either manuscript was written.

The word mabinogi likely derives from the Welsh mab, meaning son or youth, suggesting these were originally tales of a hero’s formation and initiation. Lady Charlotte Guest first translated and published them for an English audience in 1838–1845, and the title Mabinogion — her coinage — has remained.

The tales fall into loose groups. The Four Branches are the oldest and most mythological, tracing the deeds of figures from the Otherworld — Pwyll, Branwen, Manawydan, and Math — through a landscape where the veil between worlds is paper-thin. Gods walk as men, women are transformed into owls, kings make bargains with death, and the natural and supernatural world are in constant conversation.

The Arthurian tales within the collection — Culhwch and Olwen, The Dream of Rhonabwy, Gereint and Enid and others — present an Arthur quite different from the French chivalric romances. Here Arthur is rougher, more Celtic, more magical. His court is not Camelot in the French sense; it is a war band of extraordinary men operating at the edge of the known world.

The Mabinogion matters because it is the memory of a people in the act of being displaced — by Romans, by Saxons, by Normans — who encoded their entire cosmology, their values, their sense of beauty and justice and grief, into story. Every tale is also a lesson in how to live.

Key tales for October:

Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed — the Otherworld bargain, the testing of a man’s honor
Branwen, Daughter of Llŷr — war, sacrifice, and the cauldron of rebirth
Culhwch and Olwen — the oldest Arthurian tale; thirty-nine impossible tasks and a young man who refuses to give up
The Dream of Macsen Wledig — Rome and Britain entwined in a single dream

The Grail Legend

Christian Mysteries — Recounts the life of Christ from the Gnostic perspective.

The Grail — The cup Christ used at the Last Supper, and which Joseph of Arimathea used to collect the blood from the dying Savior on the cross after the Roman soldier stabbed him with the Spear of Destiny.

Spear of Destiny — The Spear fashioned from the tree of Adam, used throughout history, including when Christ was stabbed on the cross. It has a long history and is known to defeat all manner of daemons and to win many battles.

Tree of Adam — The seed placed in Adam’s mouth upon his burial that sprung forth a tree. The wood from that tree was used in the building of the Ark, the cross Christ died on, and the shaft of the Spear of Destiny.

Joseph of Arimathea — He is the bridge between the Crucifixion and Britain. The legend holds that Joseph carried the Grail to Glastonbury, on the Isle of Avalon — the same island to which Arthur was carried after Camlann. Two mysteries, one place, one thread.

Parsifal — The Question of the Grail — The great failure at the heart of the legend is not a lack of courage but a failure of compassion. Parsifal sees the Grail King suffering and says nothing. The question he fails to ask is simply this: What ails thee? The Grail cannot be seized by force or cunning. It can only be found by one who has suffered enough to ask another man about his pain. The lecture on Parsifal is scheduled for a Sunday afternoon. [confirm date, time, location]

The Anglo-Saxons

By 500 AD every village had a local Priest, Smythe, Farmers, and Woodsmen. Male children were expected to take on their father’s craft. The practiced skills were: Smythe, Carpentry, Pottery, Farming, and Animal Husbandry. Skills were passed down to their sons, if they lived. Women worked with the other women in the kitchen and whatever else needed to be done. They were expected to marry and bear live children. Families would choose a proper husband for their daughters. However, if the girl did not wish to marry a particular man, they were not forced to do so. Men did much of the hard work while the women raised the children, kept busy grinding kernels for flour, baking bread, foraging in the forest, tending the animals, sewing and weaving clothes. Sadly, both men’s and women’s hygiene was atrocious. They suffered from fleas, lice, ticks, and several horrible internal parasites.

The King would mint all coins used, called silver pennies. A new batch was made every seven years. These coins were used as trade, and if any were found to be stolen or counterfeit, one could expect to lose a hand and have that hand nailed to the door of their house. They also had police — mostly a group of watchmen who kept the peace — however, they had little to no real judicial powers.

Travelers who passed through the villages or hamlets would recite the news or current events as poetic verse and song. The priest could read books; working men and women, peasants, were not literate. However, all knew the Epic Tale of Beowulf by heart, having been taught since childhood. Kin, travelers, and poets would sing it often. Beowulf is the true poem of the Anglo-Saxon and Barbarian Tribes. It is what still unites and identifies them as a people today.

Beowulf Listen!

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah, oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra ofer hronrade hyran scolde, gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning.

Listen! We of the Spear-Danes in days of yore Of those folk-kings the glory have heard, How those noblemen brave-things did. Often Scyld, son of Scef, from enemy hosts From many people mead-benches took, terrorized warriors. After first he was helpless found, he knew the recompense for that, grew under the sky, in honors thrived, until to him each of the neighboring tribes over the whale-road had to submit, tribute yield. That was a good king!

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From Vikings to Normans

The Viking age proper begins around 793 AD with the raid on Lindisfarne — the great monastery off the Northumbrian coast — and it does not truly end until 1066. For nearly three centuries the peoples of Albion lived under the threat, and often the reality, of the longship.

But the Vikings were not only raiders. They were traders, settlers, and colonizers. In the north and east of England they planted themselves so thoroughly that the region became known as the Danelaw — a territory operating under Norse custom, Norse law, and Norse language. Place names ending in –by (farm), –thorpe (village), and –thwaite (clearing) are their fingerprints still visible on the English map today.

The relationship was not simply violence. Anglo-Saxon and Viking cultures cross-pollinated continuously. Viking craftsmen were extraordinary. Their poetry — the skaldic verse — was as complex and technically demanding as anything the Celts produced. Their cosmology, with its world-tree Yggdrasil, its nine realms, its doomed gods fighting against inevitable destruction at Ragnarök, was a mythology of tragic grandeur that deeply impressed the peoples they lived among.

From Viking to Norman is not a story of two separate invasions. It is one story. The Normans — Northmen — were Vikings who had settled in northern France in 911 AD under their leader Rollo, accepted baptism, learned French, and spent a hundred and fifty years becoming the most militarily sophisticated people in Western Europe. When William crossed the Channel in 1066, he brought with him Viking ferocity dressed in the language and manners of France. The result was England.

Key figures and events:

Rollo of Normandy, c. 860–930 AD — Viking chieftain who accepted the Duchy of Normandy from the Frankish king; founder of the Norman line
King Canute (Cnut), 994–1035 AD — King of England, Denmark, and Norway; perhaps the most powerful ruler in northern Europe in his time; the story of Canute and the tide is almost certainly misunderstood — it was an act of humility before God, not arrogance before the sea
Edward the Confessor, 1003–1066 AD — Last Anglo-Saxon king in the old mold; deeply pious, childless, and the man whose ambiguous death-bed wishes set three men on a collision course for the throne

Alfred the Great, 849–899 AD King of the West Saxons, 871 to 886. Anglo-Saxon King, 886–899.

From Alfred to Godwinson

Alfred is one of the most important men in English history — and one of the least celebrated in popular memory. When he took the throne, the Danes had overrun nearly every Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Alfred was pushed back to the marshes of Somerset, hiding in the fens, famously burning the cakes of a woman who did not know she was sheltering a king. He came back. He rebuilt his army, defeated the Danish king Guthrum at the Battle of Edington in 878 AD, and then did something no English king had done before: he made Guthrum a Christian and created a peace that held.

But Alfred was not only a general. He was a scholar. He learned Latin in middle age and personally translated Boethius, Gregory the Great, and Orosius into English. He established the first English school system. He created the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle — the first sustained record of English history in the English language. He issued a comprehensive legal code. He built a navy.

Alfred understood that a people without their own language, their own literature, and their own law were a people who could be erased. He was right, and the irony of history is that it happened anyway — not from the Danes, but from the Normans, 167 years after his death.

“So clean and so clear was his mind that he could not forget anything that he had once read or heard.” — Asser, Life of King Alfred, c. 893 AD

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Key Biographical Profiles

Saint Patrick TITLE: Apostle of Ireland; Patron Saint of Ireland PRIMARY OCCUPATION: Bishop, Missionary FULL NAME: Maewyn Succat (birth name); Patricius (ecclesiastical name) BIRTH: c. 385–386 AD — Roman Britain (possibly Bannavem Taburniae, location debated) DEATH: c. 461 AD — Ireland PARENTS: Calpurnius (father, deacon and Roman official), Conchessa (mother) SIBLINGS: Unknown EDUCATION: Studied for the priesthood in Gaul; largely self-taught in scripture during captivity PHILOSOPHY/RELIGION: Celtic Christianity; deeply personal, mystical faith ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Converted Ireland to Christianity; established churches and monasteries; authored the Confessio and the Letter to Coroticus — the only surviving first-person voice from Roman Britain AFFILIATIONS: Celtic Church; Diocese of Armagh YEARS OF RULE OR VOCATION: Active in Ireland c. 432–461 AD SPOUSES: None (celibate) CHILDREN IN WEDLOCK: None OUT OF WEDLOCK: None recorded NAME OF SUCCESSOR: [tbc] WORKS/BOOKS: Confessio; Letter to Coroticus SYMBOL/EMBLEM: Shamrock (Trinity); serpent (the expulsion of the old gods) CONTEMPORARIES/RIVALS: The Druids of Tara; High King Lugaid mac Lóegairi; Roman church bishops skeptical of his mission LEGACY/INFLUENCE: Shaped Irish Christianity into its distinctive monastic, artistic, and mystical form; his feast day, March 17th, is celebrated on every continent MEMORABLE QUOTE: “Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me — Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me.” — Lorica of Saint Patrick

Alfred the Great TITLE: King of the Anglo-Saxons PRIMARY OCCUPATION: Monarch, Scholar, Military Commander FULL NAME: Ælfrēd of Wessex BIRTH: 849 AD — Wantage, Berkshire, England DEATH: 26 October 899 AD — Winchester, England PARENTS: Æthelwulf of Wessex (father), Osburh (mother) SIBLINGS: Four older brothers, all kings before him; one sister EDUCATION: Largely self-taught; traveled to Rome twice as a child; learned Latin in his thirties PHILOSOPHY/RELIGION: Devout Christian; Augustinian in temperament ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Halted the Danish conquest of England; defeated Guthrum at Edington (878); created the Danelaw peace; established England’s first school system; translated key Latin texts; founded the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; built the first English navy AFFILIATIONS: House of Wessex; Kingdom of England YEARS OF RULE OR VOCATION: 871–899 AD SPOUSES: Ealhswith of Mercia CHILDREN IN WEDLOCK: Five, including Edward the Elder (successor) and Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians OUT OF WEDLOCK: None recorded NAME OF SUCCESSOR: Edward the Elder WORKS/BOOKS: Translations of Boethius, Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care, Orosius, Bede; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (commissioned) SYMBOL/EMBLEM: The Alfred Jewel — ÆLFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN (“Alfred ordered me made”) CONTEMPORARIES/RIVALS: Guthrum (Danish king); Pope John VIII LEGACY/INFLUENCE: Called “the Great” — the only English monarch to hold that title; father of English prose literature; architect of the English national identity MEMORABLE QUOTE: “So long as I have lived, I have striven to live worthily.” — attributed

Harold Godwinson, 1022–1066 TITLE: King Harold II of England PRIMARY OCCUPATION: Monarch; Military Commander; Earl of Wessex FULL NAME: Harold Godwinson BIRTH: c. 1022 AD — England DEATH: 14 October 1066 — Battle of Hastings, East Sussex, England PARENTS: Godwin, Earl of Wessex (father); Gytha Thorkelsdóttir (mother, Danish noble descent) SIBLINGS: Several, including Tostig Godwinson (rival brother, killed at Stamford Bridge) EDUCATION: Noble Anglo-Saxon military and administrative training PHILOSOPHY/RELIGION: Christian ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Defeated the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, 25 September 1066 — one of the decisive battles of the Viking Age. Marched his army 300 miles south in four days to meet William. Reigned 282 days. AFFILIATIONS: House of Godwin; Kingdom of England YEARS OF RULE OR VOCATION: 6 January 1066 – 14 October 1066 SPOUSES: Edith of Mercia (hand-fast wife); Ealdgyth of Mercia (formal queen) CHILDREN IN WEDLOCK: Several with Ealdgyth; many with Edith OUT OF WEDLOCK: Several NAME OF SUCCESSOR: Edgar Ætheling (uncrowned); William I in fact WORKS/BOOKS: None SYMBOL/EMBLEM: Dragon standard of Wessex; the Fighting Man standard CONTEMPORARIES/RIVALS: William the Conqueror; Harald Hardrada; his own brother Tostig LEGACY/INFLUENCE: Last Anglo-Saxon king of England; his death at Hastings closed a world. Depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry with an arrow through the eye — almost certainly a later literary addition, but the image endures. MEMORABLE QUOTE: “He bore the weight of two kingdoms in one year — and gave his life for one of them.”

William the Conqueror — William of Normandy, c. 1028–1087 TITLE: Duke of Normandy; King of England PRIMARY OCCUPATION: Monarch; Military Commander FULL NAME: William I of England; Guillaume le Conquérant BIRTH: c. 1028 AD — Falaise, Normandy, France DEATH: 9 September 1087 AD — Rouen, Normandy, France PARENTS: Robert I, Duke of Normandy (father); Herleva, a tanner’s daughter (mother, unmarried) SIBLINGS: Several half-siblings through his father EDUCATION: Military training; Norman court; deeply practical intelligence PHILOSOPHY/RELIGION: Christian; politically shrewd in his use of papal support ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Won the Battle of Hastings, 14 October 1066; was crowned King of England on Christmas Day 1066 at Westminster Abbey; ordered the Domesday Book (1086) — the most comprehensive survey of a medieval kingdom ever undertaken; rebuilt England’s administrative, legal, and ecclesiastical structure from the ground up AFFILIATIONS: Norman Dynasty; Catholic Church YEARS OF RULE OR VOCATION: Duke of Normandy 1035–1087; King of England 1066–1087 SPOUSES: Matilda of Flanders CHILDREN IN WEDLOCK: Four sons including William II (Rufus) and Henry I; several daughters OUT OF WEDLOCK: At least one NAME OF SUCCESSOR: William II (Rufus) in England; Robert Curthose in Normandy WORKS/BOOKS: None authored; the Domesday Book was commissioned under his order SYMBOL/EMBLEM: Two lions passant (Norman heraldry); the Bayeux Tapestry (commissioned by his half-brother Odo) CONTEMPORARIES/RIVALS: Harold Godwinson; Harald Hardrada; Philip I of France LEGACY/INFLUENCE: Changed the English language, law, architecture, and ruling class permanently. Modern English is his doing as much as anyone’s — the French he imposed collided with Anglo-Saxon and produced something new. Every English monarch since is his descendant. MEMORABLE QUOTE: “By the splendour of God, I have taken possession of my realm; the earth of England is in my two hands.”

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Show Image Bayeux Tapestry

Show Image Harold Godwinson, 1022–1066, Crowned King Harold II of England. He was the last Anglo-Saxon English King. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066, until his death at the Battle of Hastings, 14 October 1066.

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Show Image William the Conqueror — William of Normandy

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Albion

In Albion, by 1000 AD, the now Anglo-Saxons were baptized Christian. They had an established hierarchy, with a king at the top and slaves at the bottom — slaves in this culture were those who could not pay their debts or had committed crimes. The people were mostly farmers, growing wheat and barley, foraging in the forests, picking what grew naturally around their lands. If there was water nearby, they fished, used bows and arrows for wild game, and stone wheels to grind their grains. They lived above ground in low thatched roof hutches and in rounds. They raised and domesticated animals: goats and rabbits, boars, and, most importantly, sheep. Sheep provided them with food, wool, milk, and tallow.

Still, the Anglo-Saxons found themselves in endless battles and raids by the Viking hoards. Men took on the burden of defending their families and villages. The Vikings would often burn down a small village, sending a message to the next. This would force the next village to organize a collection of silver to pay a tribute — extortion was more like it — in order to leave a village alone. At least for that season. When the Vikings weren’t paid, or paid enough, poor farming folk could lose everything, including their life.

Overall, the Anglo-Saxons and Celts of the Middle Ages lived very much as a naturalist might live today. Although simple changes in hygiene, medicines, and safety have allowed us to live longer and smell better, outside the elite they were always fit and never fat. They were a religiously superstitious people, believing in ghosts, goblins, fairies, angels, and saints — but they also enjoyed a good joke or limerick. They were well organized in their systems of government, in the raising of their children, in the importance of family and traditions. They were hardworking people full of compassion. Most of all, roughly 80% of them, were us.

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Pre-Christian Celtic Influences —

Druids, myths, and rituals linger in medieval culture.

Leo IV’s Proto-Crusade (849 AD): Battle of Ostia, early holy war. Photian Schism (869–870 AD): East-West split; church wealth breeds corruption; end of the Holy Spirit in the East-West agreement. Rollo and Normandy (911 AD): Viking-Christian pact births the powerful duchy that will become the Conqueror’s base. Anglo-Saxon England (~900–1066 AD): Alfred to Hastings — a kingdom forged, defended, and lost. Monasticism’s Rise (~1000–1100 AD): Benedictine monasteries drive culture and faith. Anselm’s Scholasticism (1033–1109 AD): Ontological argument fuses faith with reason. Investiture Controversy (1075–1122 AD): Popes battle emperors over bishop control.

Celtic Thresholds & Mythic Dawn

Organized Druidism & Its End, c. 1st century BC – c. 600 AD. Druids as the intellectual, religious, and political elite of Celtic society: priests, judges, poets, astronomers, and keepers of oral tradition. Roman campaigns accelerate decline: Tiberius bans Druidism, 1st century AD; Claudius intensifies suppression, c. 54 AD; final stronghold on Anglesey crushed by Suetonius Paulinus, 61 AD. Christianization completes the process: Patrick’s mission in Ireland, 5th century, undermines remaining structures. Organized Druidism effectively extinct by c. 600 AD in Britain and Ireland. Traces linger only in folk practices and oral memory, scattered among rural communities.

Celtic Conversion to Christianity, c. 400–800 AD. Early adoption in Ireland: St. Patrick, active c. 432–461 AD, establishes churches, monasteries, and a uniquely Celtic form of Christianity relatively free from direct Roman oversight. Insular Christianity flourishes: Irish monastic foundations — Clonmacnoise, Iona by Columba c. 563 AD — blend Celtic artistic motifs with Christian theology. Missionaries like Columbanus (d. 615 AD) carry Irish-style monasticism to Gaul and Italy. Anglo-Saxon missions, Augustine of Canterbury (597 AD), and the Synod of Whitby (664 AD) gradually align practice with Rome. Synthesis rather than erasure: Celtic knots, high crosses, and illuminated manuscripts — the Book of Kells, late 8th century — preserve pre-Christian aesthetic and spiritual echoes within a Christian framework.

Arthurian Myths & the Seeds of Chivalry, c. 500–late 800s AD. Possible historical kernel: a Romano-British leader, c. 500 AD, resisting the Anglo-Saxon advance. Early mentions in Welsh sources — Gildas c. 540 AD; Nennius’ Historia Brittonum c. 830 AD lists the battles, including Badon. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, c. 1136 AD, will later expand the legend, but the roots form in 9th-century Welsh poems. Arthur as a symbol of lost Celtic glory, gradually Christianized and ready to bloom into full medieval romance in later centuries.

Summary — Key Pillars

~Threshold Reflection — Druidic Twilight: Organized pagan wisdom fades under Roman and Christian pressure, leaving only whispers in the wind — and in the stories we still tell each other on October nights.

~Celtic–Christian Synthesis: A unique fusion emerges — monastic golden age in Ireland and Britain preserves both old artistry and new faith. Patrick does not destroy Druidism; he transforms it.

~Arthurian Dawn: Seeds of heroic myth sprout amid loss, planting the knightly ideals that will flower in the high medieval world. The Round Table is the Druid’s circle with a cross at the center.

~The Fall of Hastings: In 1066 the Anglo-Saxon world ends. Harold falls. William rises. The English language, as we speak it, begins to take its modern shape in the collision that follows.

~Threshold Crossing: October’s thinning veil and falling leaves mirror the Celtic liminal spirit — old pagan world yielding to the Christian light, old kings yielding to new conquerors, old gods becoming the saints who replace them. Nothing ends cleanly in Celtic history. Everything becomes something else.

From Samhain fires to the fires at Hastings, October holds the whole arc: the world before Rome, the world Rome made, the world that outlasted Rome, and the world that came after. These are the bones of who we are.

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Rome Arrives
When Caesar arrived, his recounting of those on the island was not kind. Regarding, the Gaul,
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“The Druids are in charge of all religious matters, superintending public and private sacrifices, and explaining superstitions. A large crowd of young men, who flock to them for schooling, hold the Druids in great respect. For they have opinions to give on almost all disputes involving tribes or individuals, and if any crime is committed, any murder done, or if there is contention about a will or the boundaries of some property, they are the people who investigate the matter and establish rewards and punishments. There is one arch-druid of supreme power. On his death, he is succeeded either by someone outstanding among his fellows, or, if there are several of equal calibre, a decision is reached by a vote of all the Druids. At a fixed time of year, they assemble at a holy place… Anyone with a grievance attends and obeys the decisions and judgments which the Druids give. The general view is that this religion originated in Britain and was imported into Gaul, which means that any keen student of Druidism now goes to Britain for information.”

“They are the most ignorant people I have ever conquered. They cannot be taught music.” – Julius Caesar 54 BC

Both Julius and Cicero exaggerate. These barbarian tribes, as described by Caesar, had been trading throughout the region for hundreds of years. Before the Romans, the Celts on the Islands had developed extensive trade with the Etruscans, Latins, and even the Greeks, far into Asia Minor and into the Volga and Mongolia. They were, however, very superstitious and ritualistic people. So when did the first people, the Celts, arrive in Great Britain and Ireland? Legend says, they have always been there, that the last piece of heaven to fall from the sky at the end of Atlantis was Ireland. The Indo-European Celtic were a large, flourishing tribe that broke up into family groups, and over long periods of time became known as the Native Tribes of Europe. Celtic Gauls and Vikings, mingled with the ancient people on the islands, and developed not only their customs, but also their mystical powers of sight and magic. More details will be discussed during Great Mysteries, in January.

376
The Barbarian Conspiracy, 367 AD, was perhaps the true end of Rome as an Empire. By 376 AD, the Northern Tribesmen did something they hadn’t done in hundreds of years. They united, and in Rome’s weakness laid the Empire North of the Rubicon to rest.

However, we can attribute Constantine (306 to 337 AD) with the conversion of the Celts to Christianity, but we can not disregard how the Celtic influences and defined Christianity, as we learn during the Byzantium Era. Regardless, the Holy Roman Empire throughout Europe was taking on a new shape.

After the Barbarians Conspiracy, Rome as an Empire quickly dissolved. Soldiers who had fought in faraway battles returned home to the lands promised by the Generals. Those who stayed, especially, in Briton and Ireland, didn’t last long. They crossed the Channel into Gaul for better weather and more sophisticated people. Forts, towns, and cities that sprung up on the Isles and ports were abandoned. Most of the native folk moved further inland, creating small villages and hamlets. The Northern Europeans took root and power on the Mainland, and with the spreading of Christianity began a new idea of Empire.

Ireland – Hibernia “land of winter”[Classic Latin] Greek geographical accounts. 320 BC Pytheas of Massalia called the island Iérnē (written Ἰέρνη). Roman historian Tacitus (98 AD), uses the name Hibernia. The people Hibernie Ἰουερνία Iouerníā was a Greek rendering of the Q-Celtic name *Īweriū, from which eventually arose the Irish names Ériu and Éire.

The Agricola by Roman historian Tacitus, c. 98 CE

Gnaeus Julius Agricola was a Roman general and politician responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain.

Tacitus, was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars.

Claudius – geography and tribes of Hibernia

referred to as little Britain

16 tribes

432 written annals

Saint Patrick (385 or 386 AD) and the Druids

Shakus Moore –

Lugaid mac Lóegairi – High King of Ireland

Roman Christianity vs Celtic Christianity

Arthur, King of Brits
400/500 AD
Who was Arthur?
Arthur was a bastard child of Uther Pendragon. He was raised by a sorcerer named Merlin. Through his heroic deeds, and by uniting the tribes under Roman Rule, he became the First King of the Brits. He was known for gathering 12 loyal, true and brave men called the Knights of the Round Table. Their mission was to search and find the Holy Grail. They fought many battles in the name of Christ and Christendom. Arthur’s final battle was at Camlann. He was buried on the island of Avalon. I dare say no more, for the lecture given on the life of Arthur is not to be missed.

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The Mabinogion
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The Grail Legend
Christian Mysteries — Recounts the life of Christ from the Gnostic perspective.

The Grail — The cup Christ used at the Last Supper, and Joseph of Arimathea used to collect the blood from the dying Savior on the cross after the Roman soldier stabbed him with the Spear Of Destiny.

Spear of Destiny — The Spear fashioned from the tree of Adam, used throughout history, including when Christ was stabbed on the cross. It has a long history, and is known to defeat all manner of daemons and win many battles.

Tree of Adam — The seed placed in Adam’s mouth upon his burial that sprung forth a tree. The wood from the tree used in the building of the Ark, the cross Christ died on, and the shaft of the Spear of Destiny.

The Anglo-Saxons
By the 500 AD every village had a local Priest, Smythe, Farmers and Woodsmen. Male children were expected to take on their father’s craft. The practiced skills were: Smythe, Carpentry, Pottery, Farming, and Animal Husbandry. Skills were passed down to their sons, if they lived. Women worked with the other women in the kitchen and whatever else needed to be done. They were expected to marry and bear live children. Families would choose a proper husband for their daughters. However, if the girl did not wish to marry a particular man, they were not forced to do so. Men did much of the hard work while the woman raised the children, kept busy grinding kernels for flour, baking the bread, forging in the forest, tending the animals, sewing and weaving clothes. Sadly, both men’s and women’s hygiene was atrocious. They suffered from fleas, lice, tics and several horrible internal parasites.

The King would mint all coins used, called silver pennies. A new batch was made every 7 years. These coins were used as trade, and if any were found to be stolen or counterfeit, one could expect to lose a hand and have that hand nailed to the door of their house. They also had police, mostly a group of watchmen who kept the peace. however, they had little to no real judicial powers.

Travelers who passed through the villages or hamlets would recite the news or current events as poetic verse and song. The priest could read books, working men and women, peasants were not literate. However, all knew the Epic Tale of Beowulf by heart, having been taught since childhood. Kin, travelers and poets would sing it often. Beowulf is the true poem of the Angelo-Saxon and Barbarian Tribes. It is what still unites and identifies them as a people today.

Beowulf
Listen!

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra
ofer hronrade hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning.

Listen! We of the Spear-Danes in days of yore
Of those folk-kings the glory have heard,
How those noblemen brave-things did.
Often Scyld, son of Scef, from enemy hosts
From many people mead-benches took,
terrorized warriors. After first he was
helpless found, he knew the recompense for that,
grew under the sky, in honors thrived,
until to him each of the neighboring tribes
over the whale-road had to submit,
tribute yield. That was a good king!

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Alfred the Great, 849 – 899. King of the West Saxons, 871 to 886, Anglo-Saxon King, 886 – 899.

From Alfred to Goodwin

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From Vikings to Normans —

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Albion
In Albion, by 1000 AD, the now Anglo-Saxons were baptized Christian. They had an established hierarchy, with a king at the tops and slaves at the bottom; slaves in this culture were those who could not pay their debts or had committed crimes. The people were mostly farmers, growing wheat and barley, foraging in the forests, picking what grew naturally around their lands. If there was water nearby, they fished, used bows and arrows for wild game, and stone wheels to grind their grains. They lived above ground in low thatched roof hutches and in rounds. They raised and domesticated animals: goats and rabbits, boars and, most importantly, sheep. Sheep provided them with food, wool, milk, and tallow.

Still, the Anglo-Saxons found themselves in endless battles and raids by the Viking hoards. Men took on the burden of defending their families and villages. The Vikings would often burn down a small village, sending a message to the next. This would force the next village to organize a collection of silver to pay a tribute; extortion was more like it, in order to leave a village alone. At least for that season. When the Vikings weren’t paid or paid enough, poor farming folk could lose everything, including their life.

Overall, the Anglo-Saxons and Celts of the Middle Ages lived very much as a naturalist might live today. Although simple changes in hygiene, medicines and safety have allowed us to live longer and smell better. However, outside the elite, they were always fit and never fat. They were a religiously superstitious people, believing in ghosts, goblins, fairies, angels and saints, but they also enjoyed a good joke or limerick. They were well organized, in their systems of governments, in the raising of their children, in the importance of family and traditions, and they were hardworking people full of compassion. Most of all, roughly 80% of them, were us.

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Bayeux Tapestry
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Harold Godwinson, 1022 – 1066, Crowned King Harold II of England.
He was the last Anglo-Saxon English King. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066, until his death at the Battle of Hastings, 14 October 1066.
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.William the Conqueror – William of Normandy
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Pre-Christian Celtic Influences- Druids, myths, and rituals linger in medieval culture.

Leo IV’s Proto-Crusade (849 AD): Battle of Ostia, early holy war.

Photian Schism (869–870 AD): East-West split, church wealth breeds corruption.
End of the holy spirit

Rollo and Normandy (911 AD): Viking-Christian pact births powerful duchy.

Anglo-Saxon England (~900–1066 AD): Alfred to Hastings, kingdom forged, lost.

Monasticism’s Rise (~1000–1100 AD): Benedictine monasteries drive culture, faith.

Anselm’s Scholasticism (1033–1109 AD): Ontological argument fuses faith, reason.

Investiture Controversy (1075–1122 AD): Popes battle emperors over bishop control.

Anselm’s Scholasticism (1033–1109 AD): Ontological argument fuses faith, reason.

Celtic Thresholds & Mythic Dawn

Organized Druidism & Its End, c. 1st century BC – c. 600 AD. Druids as the intellectual, religious, and political elite of Celtic society: priests, judges, poets, astronomers, and keepers of oral tradition.Roman campaigns accelerate decline: Tiberius bans Druidism, 1st century AD; Claudius intensifies suppression (c. 54 AD); final stronghold on Anglesey crushed by Suetonius Paulinus, 61 AD. Christianization completes the process: Patrick’s mission in Ireland, 5th century, undermines remaining structures; organized Druidism effectively extinct by ~600 AD in Britain and Ireland. Traces linger only in folk practices and oral memory, scattered among rural communities.

Celtic Conversion to Christianity, c. 400–800 AD, Early adoption in Ireland: St. Patrick, active c. 432–461 AD establishes churches, monasteries, and a uniquely Celtic form of Christianity relatively free from direct Roman oversight. Insular Christianity flourishes: Irish monastic foundations, e.g., Clonmacnoise, Iona by Columba c. 563 AD. blend Celtic artistic motifs with Christian theology. Conversion on the mainland and Britain: Missionaries like Columbanus, d. 615 AD. Carry Irish-style monasticism to Gaul and Italy; Anglo-Saxon missions, Augustine of Canterbury 597 AD, and synods, e.g., Whitby 664 AD, gradually align practices with Rome. Synthesis rather than erasure: Celtic knots, high crosses, and illuminated manuscripts, e.g., Book of Kells, late 8th century, preserve pre-Christian aesthetic and spiritual echoes within a Christian framework.

Arthurian Myths & the Seeds of Chivalry, c. 500–late 800s AD. Possible historical kernel: a Romano-British leader, c. 500 AD, resisting Anglo-Saxon advance; early mentions in Welsh sources, Gildas c. 540 AD, Nennius’ Historia Brittonum c. 830 AD lists battles, including Badon. Mythic growth in oral and early written tradition: Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, c. 1136 AD, will later expand the legend, but roots form in 9th-century Welsh poems and tales of a heroic war-leader. Emerging knightly ideals: stories of valor, loyalty, and resistance begin to circulate among Britons; faint seeds of courtly honor and the “Matter of Britain” take shape by the late 800s. Cultural bridge: Arthur as a symbol of lost Celtic glory, gradually Christianized and ready to bloom into full medieval romance in later centuries.

Summary – Key Pillars

~Threshold Reflection Druidic Twilight: Organized pagan wisdom fades under Roman and Christian pressure, leaving only whispers in the wind.
~Celtic–Christian Synthesis: A unique fusion emerges—monastic golden age in Ireland and Britain preserves both old artistry and new faith.
~Arthurian Dawn: Seeds of heroic myth sprout amid loss, planting the knightly ideals that will flower in the high medieval world.
~Threshold Crossing: October’s thinning veil and falling leaves mirror the Celtic liminal spirit—old pagan world yielding to the Christian light.

Living Pan-European and American Cultural and Heritage Community Center

SEEDS Projects

SUBSCRIBE STAR

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EMAIL: peachcommunity yahoo.com

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