Everything is connected…

I’ve been down the ogham rabbithole – still there in fact -, but I am surfacing just a little to share an amused observation. In the course of my “Are ogham letters named for trees?” research I’ve discovered a side tunnel that joins up to my “tell me about dyeing in Ireland” research that I’m…

Letters from the Trees

I’ve been putting this post of for an age because I’ve been reluctant to find out that a lot of what I thought was true about the subject would turn out to be Victorian fabrication, as this has been a far bigger element in my research in the last few years than I would like….

Never underestimate someone who sucks their thumb

There is a place, hidden in the gloaming, where the waters of Connla’s Well rise unfailing.  By tide it roars, full of gush and turmoil to the circling sea, by other tide it mirrors the slumber of the Universe, glinting far off worlds above and below its silk, silver surface. From this well, in its…

Méadar an Mháistir (the Master’s Mether)

I had a sekrit project, it’s one of the reasons I went quiet here again despite being back in SCA circles, the other being that I’ve moved out of my old house and am currently in weird limbo waiting to be able to start work on my new home. That’s a story for another day…

Adventures in castle camping and camp cooking

Art and I recently (June bank holiday weekend) went along to Strawberry Raid at Sigginstown Castle, Tacumshane Co. Wexford, hosted by Liz and Gordon – who are doing the incredible work at the castle itself (and Dun in Mara generally) – and Agnes Boncuer and her event team. To say it was fantastic is an…

timthacmang

I couldn’t resist it, I think it’s a fabulous word.  As I think I mentioned, I’m currently researching forestry and the importance of trees in Medieval Ireland.  In the course of it I’ve run across this word, which gives me the perfect opportunity to tell you about eDIL – the Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language…

Of honey, bees and beekeeping in Medieval Ireland

One of the newest participants in Eplaheimr, the newly named Alice de la Wode, formerly known as Alison of Cantebury, is one of those naturally fantastic at everything, really interested in everything, extremely knowledgeable about cool stuff people (I’m not jealous, honest 🙂 ) On Facebook recently she posted a picture of a little of her…

16th century images of Irish people (from irisharchaeology.ie)

I’ve been following @irarchaeology on twitter for a while now, lots of great stuff, but I thought this  16th century images of Irish people | Irish Archaeology might be of interest to SCAdians trying to find images of period Irish dress.  Too late for my current persona, unfortunately.   (www.irisharchaeology.ie has some lovely things in the shop too) 

The Voyage of Mael Dúin

As I was trying to gather more information about my persona I realised that it has been a very long time since I paid any serious attention to the Irish stories I loved as a child. The kids have heard the more obvious ones (Cú Chulainn, the Children of Lir, Tir n nÓg etc), but…

A little more about Medieval Ireland and some thoughts about personas

I meant to add a bit more to the post about what Geraldis Cambrensis said about the Irish, basically to point out that the man was describing the country by way of an invitation – “it’s a nice place, it’s got the stuff you want, there’s nothing poisonous there, the rain is a good thing…

Of the character, customs and habits of this people (medieval Irish folk)

I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to find out what it was that Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) said about the Irish people in Topography of Ireland, first published in 1188.  He first began visiting and writing about the Irish when, as a royal clerk and chaplain to King Henry II, he was chosen to…

Whatever shall we eat?

I got to thinking today that there will be events at which it will be handy to bring a basket of food, like a more period version of the picnics we bring when we go walking in the mountains etc.  Being in research mode I took a starting point of “Say we were going to a…