Once upon a time, JRR Tolkien wrote a fairy-tale retelling, an attempt to reconstruct an alternative version of the ancient poem called Beowulf*, and he called it Sellic Spell: 'strange tale' or 'wondrous tale'.

Once upon a time, on the long road home from the Lonely Mountain, Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf travelled with Beorn to his home and spent the ( Read more... )

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I was just reading this interesting blog about possible origins of the place name Teversham, and came across this quote from Eilert Ekwall:

Old English tīefran ['to paint'] corresponds to German zauburn, Dutch tooveren 'to practice sorcery', and Old English tēafor 'red pigment' to Old High German zoubar, Old Frisian tāver, Old Norse taufr, ' ( Read more... )

"The justice of a consecrated king is that he condemn no man [unjustly?]* ; and that he defend and protect widows and orphans and foreigners; and forbid theft; and correct adulteries; and separate those who commit incest; and completely forbid witches; destroy spells; drive kin-murderers and perjurers out of the country; feed the needy with alms; ( Read more... )

Just came across this news story from March.

"Scientists recreated a 9th Century Anglo-Saxon remedy using onion, garlic and part of a cow's stomach.
They were "astonished" to find it almost completely wiped out methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, otherwise known as MRSA.

Their findings will be presented at a national microbiology ( Read more... )

Well, OK, hurray Saxons, hurray Vikings. But why does it all have to be so *muddy* ?    Here we are at the tragic end as Northumbria's Golden Age finally ends in fire, can we not have some leftover bling? Or at least some nice embroidery?  Silk hangings? The odd fancy woodcarving, or some nice trim around a tunic at least?    Even the box of ( Read more... )

Here is a thing I painted. ( Read more... )

( Preparing to weave the crimson gown )

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(  Cut for painting )