Knotwork Stained Glass Pic: Three Swans Studios

We welcome our Guest Blogger today, Tim Lazaro, with this fascinating piece giving his views on Celtic Knotwork. He says: The Celtic knot is perhaps the most identifiable of all Celtic art. The knot work is designed in a way that has neither a beginning or an end to the lines and are designed with more in mind than to be pleasing to the eye. They are symbols which show us how we can all be part of the never ending cycle of life and where we add our own strand in the fabric of time. The symbolic meanings attached to knot work may or may not have any truth to their historical basis though and is not concrete as there are no written records of what the various Celtic knots were originally created for.

The knots are not designed to be merely pleasing to the eyes. They are also symbols that can show us how we are all part of a never ending cycle of life, where we each add our particular strand in the fabric of time and space.

These designs are not only exquisite and beautiful…they also compel the beholder to ascribe the knot meaning, even though the Celtic knot meanings may or may not have any historical basis in fact, and their meanings lie in the eyes of their creators. The symbolic meanings are however abstract in the sense that they relate to the universe and life rather than human emotions or the relationships we have with one another.

The endless strands indicate the bonds that tie us together and as each generation passes, the weave gets stronger and larger as this happens the Celtic knot patterns get more complex. The strands begin to bring themselves back on one another; much like the forthcoming generations will continue to bring the next chapter of generations after that.

The interwoven lines in the Celtic knot are symbolic to the how we are interwoven with those around us and how we continue on into eternity just as others do. They are a reminder of how we are all wrapped up with those who will be joining us in the life and in the life after. Each loop in the Celtic knot is individual and cannot be separated from the whole, just as our relationships in life do the same.

Spiritual Beliefs

It is believed that the interlacing of the strands is a protection against evil. Those who are joined together can defeat evil more so than when we are on our own. The more intricate the interlacing is, the more powerful the protection.

Celtic knots have also been referred to as the endless knot or mystical knot because of their esoteric or spiritual meaning which alludes to beginnings and endings. On looking at a Celtic knot is not easy to find where the strands begins and where they end. This translates into our primal selves and how we contemplate the infinite cycles of rebirth in both the physical and ethereal realms.

On a less spiritual note, Celtic knots also relate to the knots own endless nature. The Celtic knot has an infinite path and because of this it can also represent a life cycle which is uninterrupted. Celtic knots can be used as charms to ward off sickness or ill fortune which might disrupt or interrupt our peaceful, stable existence. Celtic knots were used as an emblem and were either worn or placed in a home.

The Celtic Trinity knot represents unending love whether it is between lovers or spouses or between friends, and even the love that exists between a father and a daughter, parent and child. This knot is a fine example of one of the Celtic love symbols.

Mythology

There exists a myth in Celtic tradition which tells of a woman called Bridget and her father. Bridget sat and meditated close to her dying father. As she meditated, she began weaving a Celtic knot using rushes she found near the river. Rushes were common materials found in all Irish homes and which were used to cover the floor. While she was weaving her father noticed that she was making a knot, he asked her to explain what she was doing and after she told him the significance of those Celtic knot designs, he was moved to accept Christianity and was baptized before he died.

About the Author:

Tim Lazaro is a Celtic Symbol enthusiast. He owns and maintains All About Celtic Symbols, a resource for Celtic Knot Patterns lovers and hobbyists.

Author: Tim Lazaro
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Low-volume PCB maker

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Wizzard-Media-Celtic-Myth-Podshow/dp/B004W8QR58 or by using the QR code opposite.
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This is the seventh in the series of Albion Diaries filmed courtesy of MEV Productions, and is taken from ‘The Spirit of Albion’ filming from The Dijo Café in Horley and a Solicitors Office in Crawley. Keep your eyes sharply peeled during these clips and you might see some very familiar faces.

Esther, Annie and George are 3 people whose lives have reached a crisis point. On the night of 31st October, all three find themselves drawn to a clearing in the woods. Secrets are revealed and nothing will ever be the same again as an ancient power emerges from the shadows…

As you know this movie was inspired by the works of Damh the Bard and the Director, Gary Andrews, has put the whole story together into something new and astounding, something with a powerful message for today’s youth and we are so excited to see the film’s launch sometime around the end of 2011.

The Albion Diaries tell the Behind the Scenes story of the production of the Spirit of Albion movie. Marq English of MEV Productions is producing these video diaries of the film’s production, so you can get some idea of what’s coming and how it has all been put together.

Video Diary Filmed and Edited by Marq English.

Written and Directed by Gary Andrews.

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Wizzard-Media-Celtic-Myth-Podshow/dp/B004W8QR58 or by using the QR code opposite.
If you come to the site and listen or listen from one of our players – have you considered subscribing? It’s easy and you automatically get the episodes on your computer when they come out. If you’re unsure about the whole RSS/Subscribing thing take a look at our Help page.

Philo-Celtic Hound Pic: Irish Tribes

Thanks to the Irish Tribes website, specialists in Irish Genealogy, for this article exploring the importance of Genealogy to the Ancient Irish Celt and its’ relationship to the Brehon Law. They begin with:- No doubt you have friends who descend from the Laighin, or the Dál Riata, the Eoghanachta, the Corcu Laoidhe, the Seven Laois (part of the Cruithne), etc., etc., etc.  Maybe you’ve heard of “Guinness”, a drink made by the Mag Aonghusa family who descend from the Uí Eachach Cobha, who descend from the Dál nAraide, another part of the Cruithne.

The Tuath – People or ‘Tribe’

Each one of these tribes had rights and privileges which they earned during the early history of the Gaeil in Ireland, Scotland, or Man. I descend from the Cinéal Chonaill on my father’s side and from the Cinéal nAeda on my mother’s side. Here are examples of my ancestors’ rights and privileges according to Féineachas, called ‘Brehon Law’ in English.

On my father’s side:

Twenty rings, twenty sets of chess, and twenty horses to the king of Cenél Conaill (from the King of Tara) and one month’s refection from the king of Cenél Conaill to him (to the King of Tara), as he escorts him into Tír nEógain. (1)

On my mother’s side:

Ua Briúin and Síl Muiredaig and Uí Fiachrach and Cenél nAeda are free tuatha and of equal status with the king (i.e., the King of the Kingdom of Connacht), and they go not on an expedition or a muster save for a payment of cattle, and they go not into battle with the king save for pay; and if any such are brought and they happen to be killed, their king is entitled to their eric from the king (of the Kingdom of Connacht). (2)

In other words, each one of you had sets of rights and privileges under Féineachas in Ireland, Scotland, or Man, and those different sets of rights and privileges depended upon your membership in a tribe. Genealogy was the way to demonstrate and claim your tribe’s rights and privileges for yourself, your family, and your descendants.

Lóg n-Enech – ‘Price of Face’ or ‘Honor-Price’

Let’s imagine that my ‘honor-price’ (i.e., my status in society) is measured as six cows, and your honor-price is eight cows. If you should go to a court of law against me, you would win because under Féineachas your sworn word is better (i.e., more believable) than my sworn word because your honor-price is greater than my honor-price. (3)

Now imagine that you kill me. You have to pay six cows to my extended family “in éiric” (i.e., in compensation) or my extended family would have the right to kill you. (4)

My honor-price depended in large part upon my personal genealogy. For example, if I were a bó-aire or free husbandman (these were typically engaged in raising cattle), and if I assembled enough wealth to support clients, I wouldn’t have the right to claim the title of ‘lord’, and my son wouldn’t have the right to claim that title even if he also had clients, but my grandson would be a lord if he also had clients as I had and my son had. (5)

In other words, the Gaeil could step up (or down) in society every three generations.

Now imagine I don’t have an honor-price because I don’t know my genealogy. If you kill me, you don’t have to pay an éiric because I don’t have an honor-price, and my family can’t kill you because I don’t have any family.

Without genealogy, I wouldn’t have the normal protections of Gaelic society. (6)

Summary

As we see, our rights and privileges depended upon the deeds of our tribes in the early history of Ireland,  Scotland, or Man. Our honor-prices also depended upon our personal genealogies. The combined, interwoven, traditions of history, genealogy, and Brehon Law were called “Seanchas”, and Seanchas provided the entire framework of Gaelic society.

Those are some of the primary reasons why genealogy was so important. And like any tradition of such importance, it’s been difficult to break the habit.

_____________________

1. http://celt.ucc.ie/published/G102900/index.html
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T102900/index.html, p. 4, líne 35:
2. http://celt.ucc.ie/published/G102900/index.html
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T102900/index.html, p. 48, líne 686
3. Kelly, Fergus. A Guide to Early Irish Law. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1998, p. 199
4. Ibid., pps. 125-157
5. Ibid., p. 12
6. Ibid., pps. 5-6

[source]

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Appbrain at http://www.appbrain.com/app/celtic-myth-show/tv.wizzard.android.celticmythpodshow841 or by using the QR code opposite.
If you come to the site and listen or listen from one of our players – have you considered subscribing? It’s easy and you automatically get the episodes on your computer when they come out. If you’re unsure about the whole RSS/Subscribing thing take a look at our Help page.

Irish Lady and young girl, c. 1570 Pic: Irish Tribes

Thanks to the Irish Tribes website, specialists in Irish Genealogy, for this article exploring the significance of the ‘Seanchas’. For the Ancient Celts, Law, History and Genealogy were all very much an integral part of their society and background. They begin with:- Seanchas   Until the 17th century, Seanchas was the indivisible combination of Gaelic law, history, and genealogy, carefully conserved by each clan’s hereditary scholars.  It was the underpinning of your ancestors’ lives, the very foundation of Gaelic society since the first Celts came to Ireland about 800 B.C.

Gaelic Society

This is how Professor Daniel Binchy described ancient Irish society:

“tribal, rural, hierarchical, and familiar (using the word in its oldest sense, to mean a society in which the family, not the individual, is the unit) — a complete contrast to the unitary, urbanised, egalitarian and individualist society of our time.”

Daniel Binchy was the Senior Professor of the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Celtic Tribes & Ancient Irish History

With this mindset, Ireland’s ancient Celtic tribes created pre-Christian and early Christian Ireland.  We know of the Cruithin, Bolg, Laighin, Connachta, Eoghanachta, Uladh, Féini, and more.  We know the impact they had on Ireland’s early history before the Fall of Rome, rarely (although without much detail) even before the Sack of Delphi.  And we can trace their direct descendants to the modern day.

Kingship & Leadership

As a further demonstration of this mindset, men and women like Eochu Mugmheadhon, Niall Naoighiallach, and Gráinne Ní Mháille acted within and in cooperation with their kinships rather than as their dictators.  Irish kings were elected and leaders were chosen.  They were not arbitrarily imposed by concepts like divine right and primogeniture.

Rights & Privileges

Your ancestors’ rights and privileges depended upon belonging to their particular kinship group.  The rights and privileges of the Dál gCais were different from the rights and privileges of the Connachta.  Those of the Connachta were different from those of the Eoghanachta, and so forth.  Hence the importance of genealogy to the Irish for millennia.  Without it, your ancestors could not claim their rights.

The Intertwining of Genealogy, Law, and History in Gaelic Society

Genealogy identified kinship.  Kinship determined rights and privileges.  Competition for rights and
privileges helped make history.  Seanchas tracked it all.

Summary

Seanchas is a river of information about our ancestors, created by our ancestors, for our ancestors.  And for you.

Find out more about your own Irish Genealogy on the Irish tribes website.

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Appbrain at http://www.appbrain.com/app/celtic-myth-show/tv.wizzard.android.celticmythpodshow841 or by using the QR code opposite.
If you come to the site and listen or listen from one of our players – have you considered subscribing? It’s easy and you automatically get the episodes on your computer when they come out. If you’re unsure about the whole RSS/Subscribing thing take a look at our Help page.

The BGS and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) have collaborated to produce a new navigation chart of Loch Lomond. The chart dataset can also be analysed for a variety of scientific purposes including geological interpretation.

The image below shows how one of Britain’s largest ‘lakes’ would look if the water was taken out.

Loch Lomond, pic source: BGS

On the video: pink colours indicate shallow areas; dark blues are the deep areas.

 Underwater Glacial Features

The loch lies at the southernmost edge of the ice limit during the last glaciation to affect Scotland. The survey shows glacial features, which will add to our understanding of how quickly the ice retreated. The Highland Boundary Fault, which separates the Scottish Highlands from the Central Valley, runs through the loch and the survey also provided an opportunity to acquire underwater data across this important structural feature.

Data were collected during a 7-week period from December 2007– January 2008. The BGS has extensive experience of using multibeam data in the marine and coastal environment, where the data have been used for a wide range of scientific research topics including mapping the habitats of marine flora and fauna.

The data are also widely used by marine management organisations with responsibilities for fisheries, oil and gas, cables/pipelines, conservation etc. This project is the first occasion that BGS have used echo-sounding equipment in freshwater.

Highland Boundary Fault

The geology of the loch is strongly influenced by the Highland Boundary Fault, a fracture formed several hundreds of million years ago that forms the boundary between the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands. The fault crosses Loch Lomond and can be seen on the elongate islands of Inchmurrin, Creinch and Inchcailloch. To the north of the fault the hard metamorphic rocks were more resistant to erosion and weathering than the softer sedimentary rocks to the south.

Evidence of the Highland Boundary Fault and the glacial features of the last Ice Age can be seen onshore around the loch, but for the first time, a sonar survey of the loch floor has revealed the detailed landscape that remained after the ice melted. The survey, conducted by the British Geological Survey and the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authoritywill help geologists to understand the changes that took place in our climate over 10 000 years ago and can be used to produce detailed charts of the loch floor.

Read more on the British Geological Survey website or contact Alan Stevenson for further information from the BGS.

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Appbrain at http://www.appbrain.com/app/celtic-myth-show/tv.wizzard.android.celticmythpodshow841 or by using the QR code opposite.
If you come to the site and listen or listen from one of our players – have you considered subscribing? It’s easy and you automatically get the episodes on your computer when they come out. If you’re unsure about the whole RSS/Subscribing thing take a look at our Help page.

Educational Visit Pic: The Clanranald Trust

You may remember a news post in the past about Russell Crowe  giving a prop Battering Ram from the set of The Robin Hood movie to the Charity  The Clanranald Trust. Well this weekend he is visiting  Duncarron Fort which is being built by the trust to help educate people on Scottish History.  The BBC reports : The actor is a friend of the trust’s chief executive Charlie Allan, after the pair met on the set of Gladiator.

Crowe announced his visit on Twitter saying:

“First time in Scotland, special.”

The star said he had  ”Scottish heritage”   in his family.

He is expected to arrive at the fort later, tour the site and meet those working on the project.

The Clanranald Trust is creating a motte and bailey, typical of a Scottish clan chief’s residence, where people will eventually be able to to experience the atmosphere of an authentic medieval working community.
The charity also provides extras for film battle scenes and the hope is that the site at Duncarron may be used as a filming location in the future.
Crowe has been supporting the trust’s work since meeting Mr Allan while filming Gladiator.

In 2009 he gifted a battering ram used as a prop on the set of Robin Hood to the fort project.

Last month he used Twitter to urge his 200,000 followers to support the work being done at Duncarron.

Work began to create the medieval village at Duncarron in 2008He also tweeted a “shout out” to First Minister Alex Salmond and other government ministers to thank them for backing the trust.
He said:

“Clanranald educating folks on Scottish history, also focus on helping the long-term unemployed and the criminal reform service, tough jobs.”

As part of a joint project between the trust and North Lanarkshire Council offenders on community service orders have helped with building and labouring work at the fort.
Chief executive, Mr Allan, who starred alongside Crowe in Gladiator and Robin Hood, said:

“Russell has always been interested in what we are doing ”He is the only guy on the planet I look up to. He is pleasant, generous and a great laugh.”

He added:

“His ongoing interest, support and encouragement in our project means an awful lot to us.”

To Find out more about this exciting project visit http://www.clanranald.org

Source

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Descripition Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Appbrain at http://www.appbrain.com/app/celtic-myth-show/tv.wizzard.android.celticmythpodshow841 or by using the QR code opposite.
If you come to the site and listen or listen from one of our players – have you considered subscribing? It’s easy and you automatically get the episodes on your computer when they come out. If you’re unsure about the whole RSS/Subscribing thing take a look at our Help page.

Pic: Robert Holdstock Website

On Sunday, November 29, 2009 the author of an outstanding series of books left us for new realms and our good wishes go with him and our deepest sympathies are with his family and friends. The Guardian, apparently his favourite newspaper carries an obituary as does The Times. I won’t quote personal memories from either of these obituaries because, regretfully, I did not know the man but his work! Now there is a different thing! So intensely mythological and magical was his writing and creation that it definitely broke out of the bounds of the Fantasy genre.

The Guardian said:

Mythago Wood was at odds with readers’ expectations of literary fantasy at the time. Rob’s world was brutal, disturbing and almost unknowable, rather than being simply our world in medieval fancy dress.

Set in the late 1940s, in a small Hertfordshire forest that has been undisturbed since the last ice age, where time flows more slowly and the forest protects itself by disorientating those who try to enter, Mythago Wood is a history, not of the British Isles, but of our pre-Christian, shamanistic subconscious. It is a place impossible to map, one that defies attempts to catalogue, photograph or constrain it. The mythagos of the title are beautiful, sometimes deadly personifications of myth drawn from subconscious snatches of the stories we have been told about characters such as Robin Hood and Herne the Hunter – not the figures we know, but their earlier forms. (In later books the psychologist father of the main character is revealed to have studied with Carl Jung.)

It has to be said that when I first read Mythago Wood, I did not know what to make of it. It did not lend itself to categorisation very easily. It stalked through my love of mythology, crossed easily into my admiration of classic works of fantasy and even sent tendrils of new growth into the my knowledge of the realms of magic, paganism, shamanism and the inter-personal psychology of the subconscious mind. As I read it, I could feel my own perceptions of these things being tinkered with in a way that would take some time after completing the novel to unravel and come to terms with. In other words, the book was a true life experience and not just a work of entertainment.

The Times carries on the story:

… in 1984 Mythago Wood was published. The premise of this fantasy is that time and space are different at the heart of this ancient wood, and those able to penetrate it encounter beings from the collective unconscious, at first recognisable figures such as King Arthur or Robin Hood, but eventually more primal beings, monsters from the earliest dreams of stone age people. These are “mythagos”, or living myth-images.

Although he had no intention of writing a sequel, Holdstock returned to Ryhope Wood a few years later in Lavondyss, in part a magical, female coming-of-age story, much darker and more disturbing than the first book, and thought by many to be an even greater achievement. Avilion, published this year, was a direct sequel to Mythago Wood, following the fates of its main characters, and the adventures of their children.

In addition to the five books that make up the Mythago cycle (“the sequence as a whole is a central contribution to late 20th-century fantasy” according to the Encyclopedia of Fantasy), Holdstock wrote three volumes of the Merlin Codex: Celtika, The Iron Grail and The Broken Kings, an adventurous reimagining of the Matter of Britain combined with Ancient Greek legends, bringing Merlin together with Jason and Medea. The Ragthorn, a novella written in collaboration with Garry Kilworth, created an entire imaginary mythos around a thorn tree and won both the British Science Fiction Award and the World Fantasy Award in 1992.

The best thing that I think I can do to honour this man and the work that he has accomplished is leave you with an introduction to each of these amazing books and my firm recommendation to read them. Travel well, Robert!

Mythago Wood

Pic: Robert Holdstock Website

Deep within the wildwood lies a place of myth and mystery, from which few return, and none remain unchanged. Ryhope Wood may look like a three-mile-square fenced-in wood in rural Herefordshire on the outside, but inside, it is a primeval, intricate labyrinth of trees, impossibly huge, unforgettable … and stronger than time itself. Stephen Huxley has already lost his father to the mysteries of Ryhope Wood. On his return from the Second World War, he finds his brother, Christopher, is also in thrall to the mysterious wood, wherein lies a realm where mythic archetypes grow flesh and blood, where love and beauty haunt your dreams, and in promises of freedom lies the sanctuary of insanity.

Lavondyss

The unique setting of Mythago Wood is a tract of ancient English woodland, in which mythological people and creatures from the human collective unconscious still live and interact. Mythago Wood followed the adventures of a modern young man, Harry Keeton, as he discovered and became enthralled by its mystic power. Now, in Lavondyss, young Tallis Keeton, Harry’s sister, grows up possessed by the magical allure of Mythago Wood. Believing that Harry is lost somewhere inside, Tallis becomes adept at mysterious rituals that allow her to witness events in the mythic past and future. Still not finding Harry, Tallis at last begins a quest to rescue her brother that leads her to Lavondyss, the place that is the source of all myths at the centre of Mythago Wood. The rich, mysterious environment of the wood — which, like the human mind, is larger on the inside than on the outside — opens for her, and for us.

Pic: Robert Holdstock Website

The Bone Forest

Pic: Robert Holdstock Website

In the novella ‘The Bone Forest’ which forms the centrepiece of this outstanding collection, Holdstock goes back to the events preceding Mythago Wood. It is 1935, and two scientists, George Huxley and Edward Wynne-Jones, are attempting to map the wood and analyse the curious manifestations which they have christened ‘mythagos’. At the same time, Huxley’s obsession with his work threatens to alienate him from his family, and in particular his son Steven. The collection contains the following short stories: The Bone Forest Thorn The Shapechanger The Boy who Jumped the Rapids Time of the Tree Magic Man Scarrowfell The Time Beyond Age

The Hollowing

Simon Bradley, a highly imaginative child, brain-damaged after a bizarre attack, vanishes one day from his home. Months later a body is found on the edge of Ryhope Wood. The wood shields a heart of primeval forest wherein live phantoms and strange creatures – mythagos – those shades generated over time by our dreams and nightmares. Alex has in fact been absorbed by the wood, drawn into its green heart – through a ‘hollowing’. There his dreams will continue to populate the wood with its mythagos. But like Alex, they too are damanged: the great heroes he conjures are wrped, incomplete and dangerous. Savage and lost, they are compelled to seek their creator. The havoc they wrek threatens those who search for Alex, including his father, Richard.

Pic: Robert Holdstock Website

In the end, it will threaten the very existence of the wood itself and of its natural mythagos. Richard must quest repeatedly through Ryhope’s hollowings in an attempt to bring his son to safety and quiet the monsters Alex has created.

There his dreams continue to populate the wood with “mythagos”, warped, dangerous hero figures, threatening all those who come in search of the boy.

Merlin’s Wood

Pic: Robert Holdstock Website

In those days Broceliande was a terrible place, an ancient gloomy forest growing over misty dells, forgotten stones, a place of hidden lakes and strangling thickets. Though the true heart of Broceliande could never be found, the stink of its corruption oozed from the edgewood, shedding ghosts like autumn leaves. This was the forest of legend, where Merlin had come to dream his magic and the enchantress Vivien had come to beguile that magic from him. Martin and Rebecca have long since fled the forest, but when they are forced to return years later for their mother’s funeral, they are at once ensnared in the forest’s net of enchantment, an evil that has held the local villages in a root-strong grip. And when Rebecca gives birth to Daniel, a beautiful child who is deaf, dumb and blind, she finds herself sucked into a twilight world where she can see only strange mysterious shadows.

The 2009 Gollancz edition of Merlin’s Wood, also contains the following short stories:

• Scarrowfell
• Thorn
• Earth and Stone
• The Bone Forest

Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn

Several years ago, Christian Huxley’s father, George, obsessively documented the strange phenomena emanating from Ryhope Wood at the edge of their property. He watched the ancient heroes emerge, shouting both incomprehensible warnings and unmistakable invitations. Recklessly, George followed them into the mysterious sylvan shadows that changed him forever. Christian himself was not untouched by these living dreams. A childhood encounter with a phantom from another time draws him to the Wood as an adult. Deep in Ryhope, Christian uncovers the lie that permeates his worst nightmares. And like his father, he will be consumed with the mythagoes of Ryhope, especially a young Celtic warrior called Guiwenneth. She is the key to the mystery of the universe, an ancient heroine caught in a timeless tale of bravery and sacrifice.

Pic: Robert Holdstock Website

Now, together with a band of crusaders from a world long gone, Christian and Guiwenneth become part of the unfolding stories both remembered and forgotten. They meet sorcerers in battle and giants who can travel miles in one step. And they discover the meaning of the two gates, Ivory and Horn — one the lie, the other the truth.

Avilion

Pic: Robert Holdstock Website

At the heart of Ryhope Wood, Steven and the mythago Guiwenneth live in the ruins of a Roman villa close to a haunted fortress from the Iron Age, from which Guiwenneth’s myth arose. She is comfortable here, almost tied to the place, and Steven has long since abandoned all thought of returning to his own world. They have animals, protection and crops. They also have two children, a combination of human and mythago. Jack is like his father, an active boy keen to know all about the outer world’; Yssobel takes after her mother, even to her long auburn hair. But this idyll cannot last. The hunters who protected Guiwenneth as a child have come to warn her she is in danger. Yssobel is dreaming increasingly of her Uncle Christian, Steven’s brother, who disappeared into Lavondyss, and Jack wants to see ‘the outer world’ more than anything. Events are about to overtake them.

The Mythago Cycle – Volume 1

Ryhope Wood is three square miles of Herefordshire woodland which is, once inside, much, much more: a labyrinth which spreads over space and time, wherein live all the creatures and configurations – the mythagos – of ancient legend. This great primal forest is fascinating and terrible, steeped in myth and mystery, and no one who passes into it comes out unchanged – if they come out at all. Ryhope Wood is quite unlike anything anyone could ever have foreseen, beyond reality, beyond imagination. The Ryhope Wood Omnibus contains two novels: In Mythago Wood, Stephen Huxley has already lost his father to Ryhope Wood; he returns from war to find his brother Christian has followed the family obsession. Lavondyss finds young Tallis Keeton adventuring into the very heart of the realm.

Pic: Robert Holdstock Website

The Mythago Cycle – Volume 2

Pic: Robert Holdstock Website

Ryhope Wood holds ancient secrets and memories from legend and history, both real and imagined, that take on physical form. Known as mythagos, they are unpredictable and dangerous. Ryhope Wood is ancient, sentient, and it has its own agenda: it calls to those who have an aptitude for creating mythagos to constantly refresh itself. And it has its own formidable defences, to keep out those who would bring its mysteries out into the light of day. The Ryhope Wood Omnibus contains: In The Hollowing Alex Bradley is a damaged, visionary child, but he has no idea that the distorted creatures of his mind are alive inside nearby Ryhope Wood until he is summoned by the strange forest. Like so many others before him, he disappears into the green depths, but the frightened child’s vivid fantasies are so powerful that the forest itself starts changing.

Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn follows the adventures of Christian Huxley. As a boy he watched his father’s obsession with Ryhope Wood change to madness. He witnessed his mother’s suicide after a horde of questing warriors broke out of the wood and into their home. Now a young man back from the Second World War, he is drawn into the wood, where a series of dangerous quests, a heart-breaking love affair and the most difficult decision of his life lead him to the Gates of Ivory and Horn, the gates of truth and lie.

I’ll leave the final words to the wonderful maintainer of the Robert Holdstock website that has been so helpful in creating this tribute.

Rob was one of the best fantasy writers of his generation, and a man with a huge appetite for life. There was nothing he liked better than the company of good friends, a cracking meal, drink and laughter.  His departure at only 61 years old is a tremendous loss.

He will be greatly missed.

Rest in peace, Mr Holdstock.

Originally posted 2009-12-27 08:31:39. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Pic: My Guide Ireland   The sculpture photographed above is from a 1988 commission entitled Tóraigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne (The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne), a large bronze relief in Sligo.

Taken from the magical article by Brendan Patrick Keane on Irish Central. We would like to apologise to Brendan Patrick Keane and www.irishcentral.com for inadvertently breaching copyright and thank them for their understanding and patience in this matter. Ruth & Gary

"Marriage is not a love affair. A love affair is a totally different thing. A marriage is a commitment to that which you are. That person is literally your other half. And you and the other are one. A love affair isn’t that. That is a relationship of pleasure, and when it gets to be unpleasurable, it’s off. But a marriage is a life commitment, and a life commitment means the prime concern of your life. If marriage is not the prime concern, you are not married…..When you make the sacrifice in marriage, you’re sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship."

[Read more of this magical article by Brendan Patrick Keane on Irish Central]

Pic: Acoustic

Unlike other Irish Festivals around the world which just stage festivals on the 17 March which is St Patrick’s Day. Manchester festival stage a two week extravaganza. The festival which is now in its fifteenth year features two hundred events, staged at thirty two different venues throughout Greater Manchester.

 Established in 1996 it has played host to the likes of award winning dance shows such as Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, top comedy shows by the award winning Peter Kay and Ardal O’Hanlon, along with a host of Irish plays, special art exhibitions, Irish food markets and one of the biggest St Patrick’s Day parades in Europe.

Lawrence Hennigan the marketing executive of the Manchester Irish Festival website said:

This years festival will feature two weeks of Art, Culture, Comedy, Community, Dance, Music, Sport and Theatre events, making it one of Europe’s biggest Irish Festivals. We have tried to include something for everyone to enjoy in the community and a warm Irish welcome awaits all our visitors.

The official dates for this year’s celebration are Friday 5 March to Saturday 21 March, but there are also a number of pre and post festival events from February through to April.

Festival highlights include the award winning ‘Young, Gifted & Green’ show at the Manchester Town Hall on Saturday 6 March, the annual St Patrick’s festival parade and market on Sunday 14 March in the city centre and a whole host of St Patrick’s day celebrations leading up to the feast day on the 17 March.

Levenshulme which is home to the biggest Irish community outside of London will be staging its own two week Guinness sponsored Tradfest (5-21 March) to coincide with the festival and the 250th anniversary of Ireland’s favourite black stout. Just over two hundred and fifty hours of Irish Culture, Film, Dance, Music, Theatre and fun will take over the village’s pubs clubs and parks.

Highlights include a six day St Patrick’s weekend Guinness tradfest party starting on Thursday 11 March with a Irish Comedy night and running through to St Patricks day itself on Wednesday 17 March with its own outdoor Funfair and traditional Irish Music tradfest.

Continue Reading »

Pic: BBC

The BBC reports that people from around the world are aiming to unlock the secrets of their ancestors during a trip to Tayside. Visitors from places including the US, Australia, Canada and the UK are involved in the first Angus and Dundee Roots Festival.

They will attend workshops on local surnames and tracing family histories and will visit graveyards and historic tourist attractions over the next week. Organisers are aiming to cash in on the growing ancestral tourism market.

It is estimated that there are about 2.5 million people with Dundee and Angus ancestry across the world.

Originally posted 2008-09-24 09:48:45. Republished by Blog Post Promoter