The Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to build a publicly accessible digital library of human languages. Since becoming a National Science Digital Library collection in 2004, the Rosetta Archive has more than doubled its collection size, now serving nearly 100,000 pages of material documenting over 2,500 languages—the largest resource of its kind on the Net. This great and worthwhile project has also been responsible for compiling a Rosetta Disk which has been shipped with the Voyager space-craft in the hope that other galactic inhabitants can become familiar with Earth culture and language.

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I found this great site called Astronomy Picture of the Day here and today’s picture is fascinating as well as incredibly beautiful. The picture shows the night skies above Flagstaff, Arizona. For fifty years now they have had a restricted lighting ordnance which prohibited search-lights originally and now they have been awarded the prestigious title of the first International Dark Sky City. Astronomers are gathering as Flagstaff provides a unique opportunity to view the galaxy through an atmosphere unpolluted by light-pollution.

I think what amazes me about this photograph, and I do encourage you to go to the site and see that full image, is that this must be close to how our ancestors used to view the sky all the time! We get used, especially in city areas, to seeing a few stars dotted about – the rest being obscured by the light-pollution from our cars and street-lights, not to mention the other types of pollution in our atmosphere. What an incredible panorama of natural beauty opened up to them every night! Wow!

Source

Direct link to the full image

A NEW crime thriller, set on the mysterious Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, is to be published this month. Written by a well-known west country crime writer, Kelvin I Jones, Witch Jar deals with a series of bizarre and gruesome murders and features the veteran police detective John Bottrell. Bottrell first made his appearance in 2006 in the highly successful novel, Stone Dead, a fast paced occult thriller set in West Cornwall.

Kelvin Jones is no stranger to the crime genre and the occult, being a renowned authority on Conan Doyle and the Sherlock Holmes stories and the author of numerous books on west country folklore, including a history of Cornish witchcraft. For many years he lived and worked in West Cornwall. Witch Jar uses many well-known Cornish locations, including the town of Helston, to atmospheric effect. Continue Reading »

At the end of the classical Celtic period, the Irish tribes were harried by Viking invaders. Several battles of historic import occurred from between 719 AD, the first recorded Norse raid to the battle of 1014 AD in which Brian Boru repelled the Vikings in a very costly encounter. It is said that out of 6600 warriors, only 600 survived the day. Thanks to the War and Game wargaming site, we have some details about this three hundred year period of Viing occupation.

In 795 the first recorded Norse raid took place on Ireland’s north coast. This Irish raid came soon after the first attacks in England. Iona was also attacked in 795 and again in 802. In 806 sixty-eight persons were killed at Iona by raiders. In 807 a new monastic community was begun at Kells, Co. Meath, and was completed by 814, by which time much of the administration had been moved from Iona to Kells. It was during this period or immediately before it that the magnificent illuminated manuscript, the Book of Kells, was completed.

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Our latest episode, part 5 of the Book of Invasions, is on the site and available for your download. It is already available via iTunes and other podcatchers. We hope that you enjoy the show. It’s slightly longer than our normal episodes at just over 31 minutes and it comes with a WARNING. This story, in the original Celtic Myth, was ribald and full of humour. With a view to keeping our site and stories kid-friendly, we have retained the toilet humour and toned down the sexual references to either allusion or just plain statement.

Having said that, there are two main themes to our story in this episode. The first is a murder which is the beginning of a sub-story about the Sons of Tuireann and the second concerns the adventures of the Dagda as he seeks to delay the attack of the Fomori and aid the Children of Danu.

You can listen to the episode on the website here and find the accompanying Shownotes here.

We are really keen to hear your views about the series so far, whether by email or voice feedback – something that we can share with other listeners. So, if you get a chance, drop us a line and let us know what you think. We would love to hear it all.

If you fancy writing us a review for any of the podcast directories, in particular iTunes, that would be absolutely fantastic – we’ll certainly give you a shout out. The more people come to hear about us, the more friends we will all discover on this site and the more people will come to know and love the Celtic Tales as we do.

Thanks for listening

Belief in the Sidhe, or the Good People was once common throughout all the Celtic countries, in localised forms. The Sidhe are considered to be a distinct race, quite separate from human beings yet who have had much contact with mortals over the centuries, and there are many documented testimonies to this.

Belief in this race of beings who have powers beyond those of men to move quickly through the air and change their shape at will once played a huge part in the lives of people living in rural Ireland and Scotland. It is difficult to pin-point an exact historical era as the time when fairy lore began. Many writers maintain that the people of Ireland and their Gods before the coming of the Gaels are the ‘ancestors’ of the sidhe. Clearly the belief in the sidhe is part of the pre-Christian religion which survived for thousands of years and which has never been completely wiped out from the minds of the people. When the first Gaels, the sons of Mil, arrived in Ireland, they found that the Tuatha De Danaan, the people of the goddess Dana, already had control of the land. The sons of Mil fought them in battle and defeated them, driving them ‘underground’ where it is said they remain to this day in the hollow hills or sidhe mounds. Continue Reading »

I remember with fondness my visit to Tintagel in Cornwall. The area seems steeped in an aura of mystery and magic. The shops, village and people bring an atmosphere of life and excitement to the area. The climb down and up to the Castle is no mean feat, however – and a sure test not only of the muscles in the legs but of faith and determination to see what can be seen. What a worthwhile result though!

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The Fairy Cube by Kaori Yuki is reviewed at the Dear Author Manga blog. It is described as a series that is gothic in tone, sometimes veering into the macabre. There are three volumesd in the series, all described as being for older teens – no sex, but violence. Jan says: But there’s one thing for sure about her stories, and that’s that you’ll get angst, angst, and more angst, and teenagers eat this stuff up. This one is no exception.

It is of interest to us because it is another example of the cross-cultural impact of the Fey realms. The story is basically:

As usual, the premise is a complex one. Ian’s mother was a fairy. No one believes it. But she left him a legacy of a twin spirit who hates him and the ability to see fairies. It’s an ability that got him named Ian the Liar and abused by his father. No one except Rin believes him. She’s a girl his age and his one true friend and love.

The twin spirit, Tokage, makes Ian’s father murder Ian, and Tokage takes over the body sending Ian into the spirit world while he lives Ian’s life and hurts those Ian loves. Ian finds out that a number of fairies have done this, and the device they use is the fairy cube, a dormant state that lets them lie in wait for a body to possess. Ian makes a deal with a devil of shopkeeper who holds the cubes. He gets a body of his own and revenge, but in return he must betray the world.

To be honest, that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the plot I read in this first volume. Trips to Faery and battles with monsters from Celtic mythology, a battle between the Seelie and Unseelie court taking place in the human world, plots to rule the world, plots to rule the high school. No one is who they seem. Everyone has ulterior motives. Everyone has an angsty back-story to explain their behavior.

Manga is not really my cup of tea as an art-form, but there are plenty of readers out there who love it (my sons, for two!). As an introduction to Celtic Myth, the Seelie and Unseelie Courts and the rtealm of faerie, it is one of a growing number of great introductions.

Full review can be found here.

King Arthur is an empire-building strategy game set in a medieval, mystical Britain where you will play the role of legendary Arthur, the Once and Future King. You build Camelot, enlist the Knights of the Round Table, unite the country and ultimately challenge the powers threatening the essence of all their previous endeavors. You choose their own path, be it the way of virtuous glory, the might of the Sidhe or your wish to succumb to the dark powers.

King Arthur’s Britannia, though rooted in the actual historical past, is an innovative mixture of medieval chivalry, fantasy and myth. Its background, a mythical Dark Age Britain is an amalgamation of different cultures, tribes and petty kingdoms constantly on the brink of war, when the appearance of Merlin changes the order of nature and his protegée, Arthur upsets the balance and the flow of history with his very presence. Continue Reading »

A new fun project has just been launched called Becky’s Arthurian Challenge! She has come up with a superb way of organising her Arthurian reading and encouraging others to do the same. Check out Becky’s Arthurian Challenge 2008-2009 here. What a shame that we have not got to the Arthurian Tales yet – it would be a great way for our listeners to share in the experience.

The aim is to read between 6 and 12 books based on or around the Arthurian myths, legends and characters. It runs between April 1st 2008 and March 31st 2009. She says: Continue Reading »