A Circle of Stones

According to AP, by way of Yahoo, Professor Judith S. Young, Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has built a sun circle, a celestial computer along the lines of Stonehenge, or Avebury. I've taken pains to point out elsewhere that Stonehenge, like Avebury, or the passage tomb at Brugh Na Boine (that's Newgrange, Ireland to you), wasn't built by the Celts (its earliest stage predates their arrival in Britain by over a thousand years) but Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments are too deeply entrenched with things druidic and Celtic in the popular imagination to ever be disassociated.

Stonehenge looms large in our imaginations—even though Averbury—the largest such circle in Europe, is physically much larger, and Woodhenge, one of several circles at Stanton Drew, is older. Folklore names Stonehenge the "Giants Dance," and credits Merlin as the chief architect, but those myths are comparatively recent. The circle has had a surprisingly small role in British myth, given its age and magnitude. The passage tomb at Brugh Na Boine, constructed to mark the solstice, plays a much larger role in Irish myth, and is featured in several of the tales that preface the Táin.

The Eisteddfod

Beth am gystadlu yn unig e-steddfod y byd? Cliciwch yma am y rhestr testunau a hanes yr eisteddfod.
Why not compete in the world's only on-line e-steddfod?, or "poetry competition" Click here for competition details and a history of the eisteddfod.

For they are Welsh, you know

Thanks to Nick Davies, I now know about at least one Welsh blog--his Morfablog.

The Twelfth International Congress of Celtic Studies will be held at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth between the 24th and the 30th of August 2003. You can find the call for papers here. Proposals are due April 3oth, 2002.