History
It's worth remembering that history derives from Middle English histoire, from Old French, from Latin historia, from Greek historiā, from historein, to inquire, from histōr, learned person. The same Latin root historia gives us story, as well: Middle English storie, story, from Medieval Latin historia, picture, story (probably from painted windows or sculpture on the front of buildings). Old Irish scél, plural scéla also means story, news, tiding, and yes, sometimes, even historical tales. History is a collection of true tales, stories, scéla, tidings, news, about the past. These are posts that true stories about the past.
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It’s a Carnival
My body in the bog post, The Girl of Uchter Moor, got linked at the History Carnival XI, under the category “Fun and Phantasmagoria. Cool — I’m ashamed to admit that this is my first exposure to a blog carnival; I think it’s a very clever idea, and while it’s a lot of work, it looks like fun as well.
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A New Bog Body: “The Girl of the Uchter Moor”
There are a number of well-known bog bodies; the most recent, and the one we have the best data on, is Lindow Man. But recently a body was found in a peat bog in in the town of Uchte, in Lower Saxony (that’s in the northern part of Germany). Peat bogs are now mined with heavy machinery which remove blocks of peat for fuel. That means that bog finds, usually the remnants of Iron Age sacrifices, of humans as well as objects, are damaged. In this case, the bog has given up the preserved body of a young girl between 16 and 20, committed to the bog about 650 BC,…
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Philological Public Service Announcement
Beowulf is in Old English. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is in Middle English. Every fall, and then again every spring, as various colleges and universities begin their semesters, I see a dramatic increase in the number of people visiting my site after using search phrases like: canterbury tales in old english general prologue old english chaucer old english chaucer angled saxon chaucer anglo-saxon Old English requires some special effort to read and understand; it really is a different language. Middle English is much closer to our own Modern English, albeit with funny spelling. You can get a good idea of how different Old and Middle English are by looking at the…
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Beunans Ke Update
If Sara Zettle sent you, I’m especially pleased that I can tell you there’s more news about the medieval Cornish mystery play fragment rediscovered in 2000. Thanks to Alan Hawke, I can tell you that the National Library of Wales has added high quality digital images of both the Beunans Ke manuscript NLW MS 23849D and the Beunans Meriasek manuscript Peniarth 105B, to their Digital Mirror collection. Andrew Hawke adds that Michael Polkinhorn has provided a collaborative translation online here.
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Saynt Valentyn, that art ful hy on-lofte
Thanks to Andy Kelly; I know it’s not really Valentines day yet. But a lot of people still think it’s today that Chaucer had in mind when he wrote: “Saynt Valentyn, that art ful hy on-lofte;— Thus singen smale foules for thy sake— Now welcom somer, with thy sonne softe, That hast this wintres weders over-shake. “Wel han they cause for to gladen ofte, Sith ech of hem recovered hath his make; Ful blisful may they singen whan they wake; Now welcom somer, with thy sonne softe, That hast this wintres weders over-shake, And driven away the longe nightes blake.” And with the showting, whan hir song was do, That…
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I’m [less] Ashamed
Washington, DC, Dec. 10 (UPI) — The inaugural committee for U.S. President George Bush is looking to raise more than $40 million — a record price tag for the event. Washington Times And then here’s what we’re spending on immediate quake and tsunami relief. WASHINGTON : Two days after being criticised for not doing enough to aid in the Asian tsunami disaster relief effort, US President George Bush has announced a major American contribution. US$35 million will be made available immediately, with more to follow in the days and months ahead. Channel News Asia If President Bush had any class, or any true decency, he would minimize the inauguration expenses…
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From Kings to Bowmen
I’m pleased to see that Wessex Archaeology have stopped pushing the idea that the ancient remains of archers found near Stonehenge are the “Kings of Stonehenge.” The Boscombe Bowmen is a much better description.
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Taliesin
My review of John Matthews Taliesin: The Last Celtic Shaman is up at The Green Man Review. I’m not overly impressed with Matthews’ Taliesin as a scholarly work. I do think a case can be made for Celtic poets engaging in and writing about shamanic behaviors, and I’ve written about some of the standard scholarly sources regarding Taliesin here.
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Pope Beatifies “Father of Cappuccino”
Marco d’Aviano, bron in Aviano, in the north of Italy in 1631, was friar from the Capuchin was beatifued for his efforts to rally Catholics and Protestants on the eve of the Battle of Vienna in 1683, a battle fought as part of an effort to stem Turkish incursion into Europe. He’s not yet been canonized as a saint, but this is the penultimate step in the process. Aviano is also, on a less Catholic note, famed as the person who inspired cappuccino style coffee. Suppsedly, after the victory, the Viennese discovered sacks of coffee abandoned by the Turks (who imbibed enormous quatities of extremely finely ground coffee brewed in…
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Amebury Archer
Thanks to this story from MetaFilter, I’m elated to see new data about the so-called “Amebury Archer.” Last May Wessex Archaeology discovered the richest Bronze age grave ever discovered in Britain. The grave was discovered during a standard preliminary excavation of a future housing development, about three miles south-east of Stonehenge. Based on the physical attributes of the skelton and the goods buried with him, the 35-45 year old man was an archer, and possibly, part of the Stonehenge construction team. Shortly after the first grave was discovered, excavators discovered a smaller companion grave. The artifacts— well over a hundred of them, including three copper knives, two small gold hair…
