#this is apparently a frankish influence

[0mega-x]

What do you mean the personal pronoun being optional is a Latin language thing??!??!

I thought that was only a Spanish thing?!??!?

WHY DIDN'T THEY TELL US FRENCH?!?? IT'S A NECESSARY THING IN OUR LANGUAGE

[rederiswrites]

My grand dream for reenactment, at the moment, is to--actually hol' up, there are two.

Have a good (not perfect; I'm not gonna kill myself over handstitching hidden seams or the perfect fabric weaves) kit for every major era of Awesome Beads. So, garments, headdress, belt, and metal accessories, basically. Shoes for some but that gets into expensive-ass shit I'm not gonna make myself, so my super-basic turnshoes will have to cover a lot, and skirts the rest. The metal accessories are also balls expensive but uhhhhh I want them. So that'd be, roughly, Phoenician, Roman, La Tene/Hallstatt Celtic (I'm fine rolling them together a bit), Merovingian/Frankish, early medieval Slavic, "Viking", and Anglo Saxon/early medieval English. (Apparently there's some scholarly push to replace Anglo Saxon with the more inclusive Early English, but I've not yet educated myself on the arguments.) All that isn't as bad as it sounds, because for example the same unbleached, undyed linen undertunic will serve for almost all of those. I am kinda ignoring some North African awesomeness for the simple reason that I'd be starting 100% from scratch researching that and I am just not up to it right now.

Two is directly related--I wanna see how many cultures I can accurately portray with a very limited number of garments. Like, how far can I get with one wool peplos, one unbleached linen undertunic, and accessories. Cuz honestly I think I can get at least three early cultures out of that. The peplos was worn across Europe in the sphere of Roman influence, for one thing. And the unbleached/white linen undertunic is basic virtually until it started being cotton and some of us are STILL wearing it as dresses and slips and nightgowns, because, well, form follows function.

I lied there are three. This one's pretty basic for a historical lampworker though. I've got to get my design boards together with sample recreations organized by culture/dig site. I already regularly make more than enough styles to fill them.

I lied there are four. The next complete necklace recreation I have my eyes on is this phenomenal recent find in Finland. Fucking amazing.

[renaissancefailmarriage]

random name thoughts+headcanons

"françois bonnefoy" is something that he came up with when he was the nation equivalent of 10-12, because it really sounds more like a medievalbrained Cool Title than a real name.....hello i am a frenchman of the good faith. d'accord jeunehomme! people might have already been calling him something like The Frank or the frankish child (in their various dialects) so he really just....took this to the logical conclusion. (side note: i like the idea of his roman cognomen having been flavius/flaviulus, "yellow" for his hair)

"veneziano" is pretty self-explanatory, just a place-of-origin name, in fact iirc there were some people historically who having no last name, just used this one, like the painter bartolomeo veneziano. "feliciano" is apparently not a real italian name(?correct me if this is wrong?) but could have come through any number of vulgar latin takes on "felix" ("happy") i'm very attached to feliciano as a name of his even though its linguistically questionable, because i think it makes so much sense for this name to have stuck with him...sometimes it's happily accurate and sometimes its darkly ironic.

"romano" is another one that probably rose from a nickname given to him by others. i'm not sure if the italybros ever even met their "father" and romano's primary childhood memories would probably be of east rome/byzantium (who imo is a separate character from rome) and an aging mama graecia, if she's still around. (southern italy had been greek-influenced for awhile and was controlled by east rome for a time after the fall of west rome) but these older nations would have known who this new nation-child is, and perhaps called him romulus ("little roman" basically) in remembrance of his father.

"antonio" is a pretty obvious descendent of "antonius" or "antoninus" in latin. i hc antonio to be one of the characters who remembers rome the best, so it makes sense his name would be relatively unchanged. ive toyed with the idea that "fernandez" is from one of his kings (there were a LOT of iberian kings called fernando) but its just as likely thats a story he tells to justify the name after picking it up randomly.

for my florence OC i was considering something like simonetta or clarice after famous florentine women, but eventually i was like....why fight it. her name is fiora/flora, depending on inconsistent medieval spelling. fiorella if she's being babied or teased. i think it would have grown naturally out of the name of her city, with people calling her "the florentine girl" or "the little florentine" before it slowly became less of a title and more of a name.

imo rome is lucius (taken from @absolvtely-barbaric who is so so smart) but he could have any number of cognomen (in roman naming conventions, thats the name you're more likely to be identified by) from the ever popular romulus (little roman. little rome man. little guy from rome. lmao) to marius (for mars, his patron god/probably dad) to my favorite, crispinus ("curly-top", basically, which is funny and also connects him to the italies with their special curls)

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (February 24)

Saint Ethelbert of Kent (552-616), King of Kent and Confessor.

Ethelbert was born in 552 and died of natural causes on 24 February 616 at Canterbury, England.

St. Ethelbert of Kent is not to be confused with St. Ethelbert, King of East Anglia, who died in 794 as a Martyr – also known as Albert or Albrigh.

He was raised as a pagan worshipper of the pagan god Odin. He was the first English king to be converted to Christianity, which proved to be a crucial event in the development of English national identity.

In 597, a Roman monk, St. Augustine of Canterbury, arrived in Kent as leader of a group of missionaries sent by St. Pope Gregory the Great.

There were already Christians in Britain and had been ever since Roman and early Celtic times, before the country was invaded from the mid-fifth century onwards by pagan English of various Germanic tribes who, in time, set up small kingdoms.

Ethelbert’s wife, Bertha, was a daughter of the Merovingian Frankish king, in what is now known as France.

She was a Christian and it was a condition of the marriage that she would be free to practise her religion.

Ethelbert evidently considered that as an acceptable price for a close connection with the most powerful ruler in western Europe.

The two had three children, including Saint Ethelburgh of Kent.

The details and dates were often uncertain but Bertha brought a bishop with her from France as her Chaplain. She presumably had her own Christian retinue as well.

For worship, she restored the ancient Church of St. Martin of Tours, which dated back to Roman times.

Ethelbert had consequently been in close touch with Christianity. He soon accepted it for himself and was baptised by St. Augustine.

His example led to the baptism of 10,000 of his countrymen within a few months. He also supported Augustine in his missionary work with land, finances and influence.

Ethelbert now presided over the creation of a law code, which gave the Roman Church a secure place in the Kingdom.

St. Augustine was made Archbishop of the English on the Pope’s orders. He also appointed bishops of London and Rochester before his death in 604.

London was in the Kingdom of Essex, which was ruled by Ethelbert’s nephew Sebert, who had also became a Christian convert.

Bertha died in or soon after 601. Ethelbert apparently took a second wife.

He was succeeded by his son Eadbald, who had reverted to paganism.

He horrified the Roman clerics by marrying his father’s second wife, which was strictly against the rules, but he afterwards reverted to Christianity.

In time, other pagan English kings were impressed by the Roman Church’s positive support for strong regimes, which in turn made religious control easier.

These kings accepted the Roman Church and carried their people with them. Over the centuries, the process would lead to the creation of a single unified English nation.

When he died in 616, St. Ethelbert was buried in the side chapel of Saint Martin in the Abbey Church of Saints Peter and Paul.

His relics were later translated to Canterbury.

[queenfredegund]

Female households and political agency

Reginae’s households

As royal members, reginae possessed households fulfilled with various members, either male or female, servile or noble, who served them in their life, but also supported them all along.

Puellae and ancillae

Obviously, reginae were surrounded by an important number of female servants, such as puellae and ancillae, both probably servile ones, though not so sure for the sole case of the puellae: indeed, as the term “puella” is often used to speak about slave girls, the exact nature of the puellae is questioned as some of them seem to have been from wealthy families, such as Nantechildis Regina, consort of Dagobert, a puella, but whose brother, Landegiselus, was a rich landowner. Their tasks are not fully known, but can consist on the same as usual, such as cleaning the rooms, preparing their mistresses, keeping them company, and perhaps also weaving clothes. Several ancillae and puellae are known, such as:

Marcovefa Regina, consort of Charibert I Rex (DLH, IV, 26).

Merofledis Regina, consort of Charibert I Rex (DLH, IV, 26).

Nantechildis Regina, consort of Dagobert I Rex (Chron, IV, 58).

The unnamed puellae trying to cheer up Radegund Regina (Vita Radeg, I, 9).

The unnamed ancilla of Fredegund Regina (DLH, V, 39).

The unnamed slave-girl favoured by Chlodovech Rex, son of Chilperich I Rex (DLH, V, 39).

Several male officials were also known, even it is sometimes difficult to fully understand in what their roles consisted, due to a lack of sources, and even the names of all of them:

The referendarius 

High-ranking officer, he was apparently the superior of the chancellor. Depositary of the royal seal, he directed the chancellery where the royal acts were written (diplomas, precepts, etc.), kept the royal archives, and sealed official acts with wax. We know two referendarii, such as:

Ursicinus, to Ultrogotho Regina, consort of Childebert I Rex (DLH, V, 42).

Bobolenus, to Fredegund Regina, consort of Chilperich I Rex (DLH, VIII, 32).

The maior domus 

A high-ranking officer who managed the household for the regina, such as commanding the whole pool of servants and high-ranking officers, managing the wealth and probably acting as a private councelor for the regina. Their influence will later grow in importance, but for the majority of the period, they were only palatine officers and were probably one per important household. We know at least two maior domus specically attache to a regina:

Florentianus, to Brunehilde Regina, consort of Sigebert I Rex (DLH, IX, 30).

Waddo, to Rigund Regina, daughter of Chilperich I Rex (DLH, VI, 45).

The camerarius

An officer close to a chamberlain, i. e. a high-ranking officer who received tributes and welcomed embassies. On an other hand, based on the papal administration, he could also have had financial duties, mostly managing the regina’s charity. We do not have a specific name in the sources.

The comes stabuli

An officer in charge of the royal stables and horses, and whose role originally derived from the late-roman office in charge of the pack animals in use for the army and the imperial court. He had under his lead the marescalci and during military campains, he was responsible of the whole logistic. As a member of the regina’s household, they were probably responsible of her horses and the security of her travels. We know at least one:

Leudastes, to Marcovefa Regina, consort of Charibert I Rex (DLH, V, 48).

Cuppa, to Fredegund Regina after the death of Chilperich I Rex (DLH, VII, 39.)

The cubicularii

A palatial officer, he was in the strict intimacy of the rex and his family. While in the late antiquity, they were emancipated slaves, it is possible that they were noble personages during the Merovingian period. They fulfilled specific duties at court, like palatial ones (i.e ostiarios), or administrative ones (i.e saccellarius).

Contrary to the Byzantine Empire, it is unknown if the Frankish cubicularii were actual eunuchs, as the Frankish records never speak clearly of an usage of eunuchs in palatial administration. Yet as the Byzantines had also forbidden the castration and still made use of eunuchs, the question pursues for the Merovingian dynasty. A cubicularius is known around a regina:

Eberulf, to Fredegund Regina, consort of Chilperich I Rex (DLH, VII, 21).

The cancellarii

A royal officer, the cancellarius was basically the chief of the chancellery, where he led the whole of the scribes, the notarii, in charge of redacting and preserving officials acts (diploma or decretio), under the lead of the referendarius, the only one to dispose of the regal seal. Their numbers, as well as the name of at least one of them is unknown, but as reginae had refendarii like reges, they could be present in their households.

Some high-ranking members were also known around reginae, like bishops, but also men in charge of military or diplomatic matters, such as Claudius and Protadius for Brunehilde Regina, or Ansoaldus for Fredegund Regina.

A “gynecocracy”?: women’s influence in the Merovingian court

Back on Fredegar’s mention about the royal women around Chlothacar II Rex, the chronicler had made it obvious that the rex was more than prone to take councels from his female relatives. As I have shown it before, royal women were a fully distinct social group inside the Merovingian court, so it would a mistake to think that they just can not enhance political influence over a reign, or take part in some political factions, especially for women from the elite, as they can count on their relatives to support them and their sons.

Acoustic dimension of the reginae

An interesting thing to work on with royal palaces, and especially with royal women, is the potential of acoustic dimension they have on their own, i.e. the way they can hear of events or be heard by people, as we then will be able to determine how they can influence things or act for themselves. For example:

Beretrudis Regina, consort of Chlothacar II Rex, receives in audience Bishop Leudemund, come to ask her to take part in a future conspiration led by the patricius Alethius against her husband, a thing she promptly refused, and after his leaving, she locks up in her appartments while crying (Chron, IV, 44). This means that Beretrudis is not only fully aware about the situation as she can receive audience in her own appartments, but that she is also considered as a respectable speaker by a bishop, and most of all, that she can express herself and be heard of, as it is because she was crying in her room that the rex finally learns about the matter.

Bilichildis I Regina, consort of Theodebert II Rex, c. 609, maintains a regular correspondence with Brunehilde Regina, living at that moment at the court of Theodorich II Rex, and the two of them discuss about diplomatic matters and even the holding of a plaid in order to maintain peace between the two regna; however, as the austrasians nobiles are afraid that Brunehilde could eventually lash out against their popular young regina, they dissuade her to take part on that project (Chron, IV, 35). Which means that Bilichildis was fully known as the corresponding partner of Brunehilde, that she was supported in her business by the nobiles and that they were aware of the progression of the situation, probably because she had made statments about it to have their opinions.

Rigund Regina, daughter of Chilperich I Rex, who in 580, in the last part of the council of Brennacum, announces that she is practicing a fasting with her household in support of Bishop Gregorius, who is waiting for his sentence (DLH, V, 49). Which means that a young girl between 11 and 14 years old was absolutely not segregated, and that she can hear of events outside her own appartment, and even she can hold a specific position at the court.

Women were therefore pivotal figures of the royal court and can interact fully with other members of the entourage of the rex, as well as holding audiences or writing correspondences for their own goods, and their own ambitions. Brunehilde Regina for example, maintained correspondences with Pope Gregorius and Byzantine emperors and empresses, letters we have kept through ages, in which she defended her politics and manages diplomatic matters.

Women and factions

As members of the inner-court and principal entourage of the rex, royal women were also researched in order to take sides in political factions, such in the previous example of Beretrudis Regina and Bishop Leudemund, but we can also speak of:

Radegund Regina, consort of Chlothacar I Rex and above all, Thuringian royal daughter, lived at court with some of her fellows, including one of her brother, unnamed in our sources, and probably acted in order to protect them. When her brother was finally killed on Chlothacar’s orders, she decided to end their marital life and quitted the royal court for the monastery (DLH, III, 7).

Audovera Regina, consort of Chilperich I Rex, supported her sons even after she was dismissed from the royal court and far from them, and perhaps supported Merovech (I) Rex when he married Brunehilde Regina against his father’s will (DLH, V, 2).

Brunehilde Regina, as grandmother of Theodorich II Rex, sided with high-ranking officials in order to control political affairs, took revenge in their name when they were wronged, and also took an important part in inner-court by establishing herself at the head of the feminine hierarchy.

Sichildis Regina, consort of Chlothacar II Rex, grew in importance after the death of Beretrudis Regina and sided with both her brother Brodulf, a military leader and her sister Gomatrudis, a fellow regina, probably in order to secure the position of her son, the young Charibert II Rex. Together they managed to establish him as a rex after the death of Chlothacar II, alongside his stepbrother Dagobert I Rex (Chron, IV, 53-55).

However, if they can take part in political factions, they can also be controlled. Indeed, if Sichildis managed to create around her an efficient faction, her circle was quickly dismantled after the murder of her brother and the repudiation of her sister, leaving her alone and probably in retirement.

Royal women and queenship

In lack of more sources on the exact running of the inner-court, it is difficult to say how powerful consorts and royal daughters could have been and how exactly they used their queenship, however some extracts tend to show they were ruling their households and managed their estates on their own, even for the unmarried royal daughters.

Some examples:

Fredegund Regina, consort of Chilperich I Rex, was let alone by him for deciding about the forgiveness of Leudastes (DLH, VI, 32).

Wisigardis Regina, consort of Theodebert I Rex, had intervened for the protection of Asteriolus against Secundinus (DLH, III, 33).

Theodechildis I Regina, daughter of Theodorich I Rex, was still receiving tributes from her civitates despite being a probably childless and repudiated woman (Lib. Confe., 40).

Chlodechildis IV Regina, daughter of Guntchramn Rex, and Chlodosuinda III Regina, daughter of Sigebert I Rex, were both assured to keep their whole estates even after the death of their father and brother by the Treaty of Andelao (DLH, IX, 20).

Chlodechildis III Regina, daughter of Charibert I Rex, and Basina II Regina, daughter of Chilperich I Rex, started the revolt of the nuns for they were of royal birth and did no want to be led by a person from a lower rank than themselves (DLH, IX, 39 and X, 15).

[Intro] [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]

[dailycognates]

A peculiar fee

The adjective peculiar, which today usually means “odd”, or “strange”, originally meant simply “particular”, “belonging exclusively to a person or group”, a meaning still found in some religious contexts, often referencing verses in the King James translation such as “a peculiar people”.  This use is also where the phrase “our peculiar institution”, used by pre-Civil War Southerners as a euphemism for slavery, comes from.

Peculiar comes from the Latin pecūliāris meaning “private”, “personal”, etc., in turn from the noun pecūlium “private property” plus the adjective suffix -āris.  Pecūlium in turn derives from the noun pecū “cattle”, “livestock”.  The meaning “private property” came from the fact that cattle was a major part of one’s wealth in early Rome.  This noun pecū in turn derives from the Proto-Indo-European *péḱu “cattle”.

In Proto-Germanic, this same root become *fehu, a good example of Grimm’s Law.  This became Old English feoh meaning “money”, “livestock”, “cattle”, “property”, showing the same semantic shift of “cattle” → “property” that occurred in Latin.  “Fee” came to acquire various meanings relating to property.  This gradually came to mean more generically “money”, and thence “money paid out”, as a reward or in payment, and then finally came to acquire the more specific meaning of “money charged for services”.

Also closely related are the words “fief” and “feudal”.   “Fief” comes from Old French fief from Medieval Latin fevum, a borrowing from Old Frankish *fehu from the same Proto-Germanic root.  An alternate form of fevum was feudum which became “feudal”, the -d- apparently being influenced by allodium, as in the Modern legal English allodial.

The word “feud” is unrelated to “feudal”, being derived instead from Old English  fǣhþ “enmity”, “hostility” from Proto-Germanic *faihiþō, from the adjective *faihaz “hostile”, which is the source of the Modern English “foe”.

[arinfmdxcs2]

READING REPORT - LYNN WHITE JR

In 1967 ‘Science’ article ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis’ [1] Lynn White shares the perspective that the widespread western distance of humanity from nature can be traced back to the shift of religious thought through Judeo-Christian values, in this way – these Christian values laid the foundations of modern anthropocentrism. White argues that the current environmental crisis is not at fault of the development of technology and ability to degrade our planet alone, but the western perspectives. It provides a context in which the problem of the modern world is philosophical or ideological rather than technological, and the way in which we interact with and perceive the world is fundamentally flawed.

Polytheistic values of religion had previously emphasised the human-nature connectedness, through earth spirits and other deities. Though as dominant religious forces rose in western society, by which their god was placed outside of nature, philosophical ideas that humans had dominion over the earth came to be extensive. In Judaeo-Christian traditions, man and nature are distinguished through man’s duty to dominate it. Other religions during this time period, often regarded humanity as one with nature through themes of animism and pantheism. White argues that western “Christianity is the most anthropocentric religion the world has seen.” In Christianity, a linear timeline of creation is apparent, whereby God gave life to the natural world and established dominance above it and provided it to man so that he could be served. In these religious contexts, human is seen as separate from nature and shares transcendence over it. Contrasted to ancient earth religions and paganism, where spirits inhabit the natural world – this new concept of the dualism of man and nature allowed humanity to exploit nature which was once protected; “Man's effective monopoly on spirit in this world was confirmed, and the old inhibitions to the exploitation of nature crumbled.” P1205 In this way, concepts of a sacred nature became increasingly unknown to a western ethos. This is the fundamentals of the argument that Christianity was the initial shift towards anthropocentric thinking in the natural world. Despite this however, it can be considered unfair to associate these two things together – especially as scientific expansion provoked huge religious tensions in the west. They are inherently different, though similarly anthropogenic in nature. White references Saint Francis of Assisi in the discussion of reshaping western perspective, he is described as a rebel, a spiritual revolutionary against the view that man had no limits in the domination of nature; he instead believed that equality between all creatures was necessary and attempted to spread these morals. Linking to this, Theophrastus is considered as the first early ecologist, (Ph. Bourdeau, 2004) [2] who recognised the flaw in religious value that nature exists for man’s exploitation.

The article begins with a narrative recited by Aldous Huxley, where the manifestations of modern technological advancements and loss of connection have impacted him within his lifetime: rabbits dying of disease induced by farmers to increase crop yield - it highlights the rapid pace at which we are manipulating the earth. White explains that humans have always been a dynamic element in their environment, but the rapid degradation and shift in ecology of modern society causes deep concern for the timeline of humanity. He uses examples such as the extinction of European aurochs in 1627 due to overhunting, migration patterns and land altered through 14th century humans searching for materials for canons, though highlights that there is a gap in knowledge for why this is happening on a much broader scale. For White, the acceptance of these patterns which arguably led to a rapid acceleration is a decision that shaped human and natural history forever.

Lynn White criticises the collaboration of science and technology on an industrial scale, admiring the previous natural sciences that allowed humans to understand and harness nature on a more undemanding level. He criticises various industrial processes and degradation of earth by conflict; for example, hydrogen bombs, combustion of fossil fuels – on a global level. It no longer concerns the cities that host these processes that are impacted, but increasingly the rest of the world; “surely no creature other than man has ever managed to foul its nest in such short order.”[3]

In terms of solutions to the problem, White describes as being too negative, “ban the bomb, tear down the billboards, give the Hindus contraceptives and tell them to eat their sacred cows. The simplest solution to any suspect change is, of course, to stop it, or, better yet, to revert to a romanticized past.” They may provoke more retaliation than benefit. He argues that there needs to be a fundamental change in the way people perceive the world, and that this can be done by analysing historical scientific and religious perspectives that have shifted or set modern day values.

White repeatedly highlights that modern technology and science, are ‘occidental’ in style and method, despite combining influences from around the world, it is western science that is considered significantly successful. He argues that scientific and industrial revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries are not the origin of western manipulation of land and disconnection from nature – it is the harnessing waterpower and wind power for industrial processes in medieval settings – “From simple beginnings, but with remarkable consistency of style, the West rapidly expanded its skills in the development of power machinery, labour-saving devices, and automation.” It’s this development that had allowed technological superiority in the 15th century and therefore colonialization and domination of the rest of the world. In the medieval period, humanities relationship with nature shifted towards asymmetry – exploitation of land meant that we could use it to our own egocentric development.  White provides an example of exploitative attitudes in A.D. 830 in western calendars, illustrating men manipulating the world through harvest and agricultural process. These Frankish calendars demonstrate that human saw themselves as a superior force in nature.

Modern perspectives of human-nature relationship are shaped by a variety of factors; religious, philosophical, and scientific in nature. White believes that we need to reshape collective thinking which disbands historical perceptions of nature and the apathetic, unsymmetrical one western society holds currently; “More science and more technology are not going to get us out of the present ecologic crisis until we find a new religion or rethink our old one.” P1206. He argues that since there has been no major moral replacement, Christian values still intersect modern ways of living and therefore ecological crisis cannot have major reform; “we shall continue to have a worsening ecologic crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man.” And “Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not.”

[1] L. White Jr. 1967, The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis, Science, (V.155 N.3767) pp 1203-1207. Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science accessible by: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1720120

 [2] Ph. Bourdeau, 2004, The man-nature relationship and environmental ethics, Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 72 (2004) 9–15

[3]  L. White Jr. 1967, The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis, Science, (V.155 N.3767) pp 1203-1207. Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science accessible by: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1720120

[hailsnow3]

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Just enter your information listed below and also we'll ring you to supply a quote or answer your inquiries. We will use your individual information to refine your query and contact you with pertinent information. For additional details, please see our website privacy policy. They are composed of loosened collagen fibers and blood vessels, bordered by skin, and also they expand in a projectile pattern.

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While it is true apparently that the criminal offenses of wrong-doers were suggested on indications where they were held in the stocks or pillory, there is no proof that 'unlawful carnal knowledge' was penalized or defined this way. Clenched fist associates right here to the striking context, not the sexual interpretation, which is an entire different tale. Remarkably the funny and also story-telling use of bacronyms is an usual device for creating hoax word derivations. chav - repulsive anti-social individual, male or lady, typically young - this just recently preferred slang word has actually generated a mischievous and also totally retrospective' bacronym' - Council Housed As Well As Violent. This old use was not then necessarily insulting, unlike the contemporary meaning of chav, which most certainly is.

In the North-East of England the modern-day versions are charva and also charver, which adds no reliability to the Chatham misconception. Please send me any type of other concepts and regional analyses of the word chav.

If you do not authorization for us to refine your individual data for advertising tasks, we will certainly still be able to call you concerning your enquiry. Your specialist will certainly speak to you about the possible dangers and also issues of having this procedure and also how they relate to you.

Why select Fat Freezing?

When it does I would expect much confusion regarding its beginnings, but as I claim it has definitely nothing to do with food preparation. shouting mimi/mimi's/ meemies/meamies - An aliterative expression with comparable definitions to sibling terms such as heebie-jeebies and also yelling abdabs, which roll off the tongue equally well. The typical use of the expression seems to be American, with numerous referrals recommending initial usage of the 'meemies/mimis' part from as much back as the 1920s. An abyss significance has established ever since to explain a poor reaction to medicines, instead like the expression 'cold turkey'. A 'Screaming Meemie' was additionally United States military vernacular for the German 'nebel-werfer', a multi-barelled mortar.

They must additionally be increased over the skin on a stalk or stem like piece of skin. Aggravated or contaminated skin with indications of redness, itching or swelling. such as moles, birthmarks, dark-coloured, hairy or any type of unusual-looking skin problem.

Skin tags a little developments, usually located in the eyelids, neck, underarms, groin, under the busts as well as in the folds of the butts-- anywhere, in fact where the skin scrubs versus itself. Apex would love to provide you with marketing information about product or services used by Spire and by selected third-party companions.

Mole clinic At Mallucci London.

Please upload clear photo of the area for our clinical personnel to review. you can find more information on Lipo360.co.uk's double chin tightening Corby here. in for therapy by having your problem evaluated by our medical nurses absolutely free. I consent to Sentinel Healthcare gathering my details via this type. Skin tags are small flesh-coloured or brown developments that hang off the skin and also look a bit like warts. You might intend to take into consideration Surgical procedure to get them removed if they are undesirable and influence your self-worth, or if they grab on clothing or jewelry and hemorrhage.

Our clinic.

There is frequently no need to eliminate them unless they obtain bigger, infected or frequently traumatised or they transform. In some cases you bother with an altering mole, that resembles a tag.

how Much Time Does The therapy Take?

We likewise offer FREE testimonial appointments, if you would like to be examined in person. Skin tags are tiny, soft, skin-coloured growths that hang off the skin and also look a bit like blemishes. Complete your information to see one of our experts at a practical time for you. A dark scab will certainly develop, the size of a dot, do not select as well as permit to fall off on its own. No covering or clothing is needed complying with surgery, however we may offer you a place plaster just to cover the location for the first few hours adhering to surgical treatment. If you desire to check on a problem or mistake you have actually currently reported, get in touch with DfI Roads.

Elimination is a reasonably straightforward procedure that is normally done under neighborhood anaesthesia-- so you will not really feel any discomfort and also you'll be able to go residence the exact same day. You should be able to relocate them backward and forward with your finger.

How many inches can you lose with CoolSculpting?

Results vary for each patient. However, there is an average of 20-30% reduction in the treated area, which can significantly slim and contour your waist and abdominal region. Many patients lose several inches from their waistline after the completion of their recommended treatment plan.

Just how huge and visible this will be depends on the precise procedure. We will certainly additionally give you suggestions on how to minimize the look of your mark, such as gently massaging the site after your stitches have been eliminated. You won't require to take time off job and you ought to be able to go back to your normal tasks quickly. This is a routine day instance or outpatient treatment, so clients can leave as soon as they are ready to be discharged. Our patients are at the heart of what we do and we want you to be in control of your treatment. To us, that means you can select the specialist you want to see, and also when you want.

It is a fascinating sensation, which illustrates an important part of how languages evolve - especially the impact of international words - and the close inter-dependence between language and culture. The term lingua franca is itself an instance of the lingua franca result, since the expression lingua franca, currently taken in right into English is initially Italian, from Latin, indicating essentially 'language Frankish '. Frankish describes the Frankish realm which controlled much of landmass South-West Europe from the 3rd to the fifth centuries. Huge busy cities including diverse areas, specifically traveling as well as trade hubs, offer an abundant setting for the usage as well as development of lingua franca language. Appropriately, an indicator would be placed outside the bed-chamber, or perhaps hung like a 'do not disturb' notification from the door take care of, showing words 'Fornication Under Permission of the King'. Sadly however that this rather improbable beginning has no support whatsoever in any kind of trustworthy referral sources.

It's Called persistent Fat For a Reason!

I would certainly suggest the HIFU treatment for anyone who wants the very same outcomes as surgical procedure, without going under the knife.

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At the end of your assessment, you'll be presented with your recommended treatment programme along with transparent pricing for you to take house to think about.

The enhancement in my skin was a gradual process over 2-3 months, monthly I can notice my skin getting firmer, tighter as well as smoother.

Some HIFU makers come component of a multi-platform tool, these have a tendency to be much less effective as they supply various modern technologies in one device (like a jack of all trades!).

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The pot refers to the pot which holds the stake cash in betting. The associated term 'skin video game' refers to any type of form of gambling which is likely to cheat the unwary as well as unaware. Evaluating by the little variety of examples (just three in the context of business/negotiating) located on Google at March 2008 of the expression 'skin in the pot', the expression has just very recently theatened to go mainstream.

Hifu Vaginal firm.

They are smooth and soft as well as, unlike protuberances, they are not contagious. They may bleed if they remain in a revealed location however they are painless, benign and also harmless in themselves.

[rosheendubh]

http://www.romtext.org.uk/articles/rt21_n03/ —what follows is something of a meta-process of y narrative...to date... — You have to spend some looooong hours venturing into places on Arthurian esoterica, and looooong hours on the haziest era of history covering a 200 year period (400-600AD), filtering a lot of NewAge woo, to find gems that appeal to me. Late 18thc/early 19th c Gothic Romanticism, female writers, and Imperator Eutherios (that’s my Arthur—I don’t actually have an Arthur in what I’m writing...well, later, but he’s a son of either Uthyr Pen, or Theodoric the Great/Ostrogothic King of Italy. I’m taking GoMonmouth, and raising him to a whole new level). I can’t even begin to expound (well, I could, but it would make no sense on a FB list...), but Merlin, like Arthur, doesn’t exist in my land. Myrddin Emrys, mentioned in Nennius (and later conflated by Geoffrey of Monmouth with Merlin the Prophet, Merlinius Ambrosius, and a bit of borrowing from a Scottish Wild Man tradition of Llailoken), is actually a combo character sharing an intriguing tale of ‘The boy without a father motif’/‘the boy fathered by the Tyrant/High King, Vortigern, upon his daughter/daughter-in-law’—which also arises in the curious tale of St Eutigern and the bishop Faustus as well, where Eutigern is revealed as the son of a woman who won’t identify the father, until it’s revealed by Eutigern himself, at the prompting of St Germanus, before a Court of Bishops, who is his biologic father—Vortigern, of course, who sires Eutigern in an act of incest (the English text says ‘daughter’, but my understanding of the Latin in Nennius is a more general word applied to daughter/daughter in law...). Per certain geneologies, Vortigern had 3 older sons—Vortimer ( Benjen Stark), Catigern (Ned Stark), and Pascentius. There’s a 4th child as well, conflated between Eutigern/Briocatus (Jon Snow) who’s sent abroad to Gaul for a monestary education. Vortimer and Catigern actually rebel against their father, Vortigern, and take up war agsinst Vortigern’s Jutes, Hengist And Horsa. Catigern falls whilst slaying Horsa, and Vortimer is declared King, by favor of the bishops, in opposition to his tryrant father, Vortigern (Tywin Lannister). Anyway, there’s really no basis for analogizing Vortimer with the only ‘historical’ personage with any basis for actual existence—Ambrosius Aurelianus—But in the context of Gildas’s polemic on Britain’s ruin, Nennius’s legendary compendium of British history, and Hagiographic ‘Lives of the British Saints’, it makes the most sense to me. It’s Vortimer who’s married to Ygerna/Ingren, daughter of Irish King, Crimthann mac Ennais of a branch of Leinstermen. This allows for the peaceful colonization of the Deisi—the Irish inhabitants of SW Wales-and an alliance with Gloucester/Glevum, whence Vortigern’s tribunal seat is located. At some point, amid the war with Vortimer, Vortigern manages to occupy the fortress where Vortimer’s wife, Ygerna, is sheltered in hiding—Caermarthon/Moridunum (the local area retaining many Merlin associated legends in its topography). And fueled not by love or passion, but vengeance and a wish to humiliate his rebel son, Vortigern forces Ygerna...and Eutigern/Uthyr/Myrddin is born 9 months later. And exposed to the wilds by Ygerna’s command, to be found and raised by Ygerna’s much older daughter, Madrun, the twin sister of Anna (per legend, the mother of Gwalchamai/Gawain and Medrod/Modred) the children of Vortimer, until such a time as Myrddin’s true identity as Uthyr/Eutigern, Vortigern’s illegitimate son fathered upon his daughter-in-law, gets revealed. Thus, the twists and turns of secrets and betrayals tearing apart the house of Glevum/Vortigern’s progeny. To warp this a bit more, Vortigern, by my devising, is actually the youngest brother of Hengist and Horsa, by Wihtgils (of the Kingdom of Kent). Wihtgils, in my poor etymologizing, shares a similarity with the Latin name, Vitalis. Which in turn, is a cognate borrowed in Nordic languages, of Fitelis—the Latin rendering of Sinfjotl, of Waelsung fame in the Wagnerian tradition. So, Hengist and Horsa are actually Waelsungs, and uncles of Vortimer and Eutigern, making Vortigern’s line 1/2 Teutonic, descended of Wotan/Odin on down to Vortimer/Ambrosius Aurelianus (referred to as Emreis Wledig in the Welsh legends—Emrys the Chief Lord—which is pretty much what Vortimer means too, incidentally. He’s known as Gwrthefyr Fendigaid/Vortimer the Blessed, in the Saints’ Lives...), and Eutigern/Uthyr. His brother fathered upon his own wife by his father—a child of Jute warlords, Irish nobility, and some bit of Roman-British aristocracy. Lumping Merlin’s persona into Uthyr lends an evolution of the two traditional Arthurian roles—brutal, sometimes ruthless war-lord, combined with natural philosopher-architect-mathematician-alchemist-learned man educated in Faustus’s monastery in Gaul, during his adolescence. Eventually, he rendezvous with an exiled Vortimer (borrowing carelessly from the tale of Riotamus, the British king who brings over 10,000 troops to Gaul at the behest of the Emperor in 468AD, and is defeated by the Visigoths on account of betrayal by a Roman prelate. Sidonius Apollonarius also mentions a Riocathus, a studious young man, borrowing some books to send back to Britain, who stands in as Uthyr...). The two spend the following years living as mercenaries, and later sea-wolves/raiders, amongst the frozen waters of the Northmen, their war-band of native British-born Romans allying with exiled Danes/Geats/Swedes fighting put their own dynastic wars between Heathobard, Scylding, Yngling (not the beer), and Yfling (which is how we tie the figures of Beowulf and Hrolf Kraki’s Saga into this...), until their fleet and forces grow to a might able to invade Britain again, and defeat their father, and his Jute brethren/varied allies of Saxon/Frank/and Frisian. Geoffrey is still mostly the road-map of elements followed in this tale, but just kind of condensed and reformatted. As for Guinevere, she’s a whole other level of warping. Daughter of Ravens and the people of the Horse Goddess (left-over Sarmatians and newly arrived Alani), the Queen who unites Valentia Beyond the Walls/Caledonia, and pacifies the Anglian/Dane/Swede settlers of Brynach/Bernaccia and Dewyr/Deira, she’s not Arthur’s Queen, but marries Uthyr reluctantly, uniting north and south—their mutual goal to see the new Germanic colonists assimilate into the culture of a stable and independent Britannia. The challenge: keeping Britannia stable, united, and independent. She’s based, mostly, on St Gwenabwy/Gwenafwy (and a little on St Genevieve, for the later exchanges with Clovis, grandson of Merovich of the Salian Franks), who’s mentioned a a daughter of the northern chieftain, generically given the name Cawnur (Giant), who is also the father of Gildas-Euryn (my Cunedda Wledig), Huail, and a sister, Cywyllog. Cywyllog becomes the wife of Medrod, Uthyr’s nephew, which lends an interesting appliqué of the Welsh triad involving the Battle of Camlann, where Gwenhwyfar is struck by her little sister, Gwenhwfach, which starts the battle between Modred and Arthur/Uthyr. The classic love triangle of Guinevere, Arthur, and Lancelot takes the form of Guinevra, Uthyr, and Theodoric the Amaling/Ostrogoth at the close of Clovis’s conquest of the Roman affiliated Kingdom of Soisson, and the Frankish clash with British kingdoms of Amorica/Brittany in northern Gaul (490-93ish...). The timing coinciding with Theodoric’s stalemate outside of Ravenna, as he conquers Italy from the tyrant, Odovacer (the AngloSaxon Eadwacer/Adavacrius), and is desperate for a fleet to blockade the harbor of Ravenna, in order to wins final battle. Theodoric refuses to garner support from Constantinople, seeking to break ties with Byzantian hegemony, that wishes to extend its influence over the West once more. And so, he ventures to Clovis, at the head of a contingent to ask for Clovis’s sister to marry (Audafleda—historically, Theoderic’s wife and mother of Amalsuintha), crossing paths with Guinevra, in Gaul, intent on bringing her husband and his legions back to Britain, in order to quell the uprising of Onela/Aella and his sons, Northmen settled in Sussex, whilst Medrod holds the British homeland forces firm. Lovers long before, Gwen was receiving an education in a decaying Rome, and Theodoric resided there, as a hostage of Odovacer’s during the failed campaign of his uncle to invade Italy. This draws from traditions involving a St Tewdrig (Theodoric), and his son and grandson, Meurig/Mauricius, and Athrwys/Atreus, respectively. I also draw on some Procopius here, and some Jordanes. Along with Tewdrig in Britain, there’s also mention in some history of Theodoric off the LacusCurtius site, that it’s never clear where he eventually acquires a naval force strong enough to lock Odovacer from both a land, and now water, way and brings Ravenna, consequently, to her knees by starvation. Anyway, ramblings aside, my favorite folktale comes from the body of Scottish/Northern Arthur topographical. Around Sewingshields, the translation being ‘Castle of the Seven Shields’, a bunch of heath covered crags lies just north of Hadrian’s Wall, around Housesteads/Vindolanda. It’s said Arthur lies in a barrow there, waiting to awaken. There’s also another folkstory that belies the domestic relations between Arthur/Uthyr and Guinevere. He apparently decided to toss a 20ton boulder at his wife, who was combing out her hair at the time. She managed to catch the boulder with her comb and gently land the boulder down. The area apparently has two hills overlooking a valley, known as The King’s Hill and the Queen’s Hill, associated with Arthur and Guinevere. The tale is likely no older than maybe the late Middle Ages, but it’s sort of cute. And makes me think, assuming existence (improbable), if Uthyr really was a southern lord trying to assert dominance over Britainnia, including the lands of the Caledonians, perhaps the tale was in some way, an much corrupted fragment of a long lost marital arrangement entered into with ambivalence on the part of the Queen, who wished to maintain her own autonomy and that of her own territories...

[christinaepilzauthor-blog]

Did the Saints Part over Medieval Politics?

By Kim Rendfeld

The official reason Saints Gall and Columbanus parted in the early seventh century is that Gall was too ill to accompany his longtime friend to Italy. But was that the real cause? Did they instead have a falling out over politics? The pair went back decades. Gall and Columbanus got their education at Bangor, Ireland. Columbanus was born around 543. Gall was younger, born in Ireland in the latter half of the sixth century. His wealthy parents dedicated him to the Church as an infant, which probably means he was not their first child. At Bangor, Gall learned grammar, poetry, and Scripture, and was ordained a priest. You might remember Columbanus as the young man who stepped over his weeping mother to leave home and pursue a life in the Church. He had forsaken all women, including her. That should be enough of a clue that he wasn't the easiest guy to be around. Still, he had followers. When Columbanus felt called to be a missionary to the Continent, Gall was one of his 12 companions. In early medieval times, travel was expensive, hazardous, and miserable, and the missionaries had no idea how the folk at their destination would receive them.

They landed in Gaul in 585, where they would have stood out. They spoke a different language, and even their tonsures varied from the Roman ones. Urged by the king of Austrasia to stay in his realm where he could protect them, Columbanus founded a monastery in castle ruins at Anegray. The brothers lived an austere lifestyle. They mortified their flesh and practiced what a 7th-century monk called "extreme fasting," eating only bark and herbs and the occasional food brought to them as charity. If we are to believe Columbanus's hagiography, they received visitors seeking miraculous healing. After a while, more monks joined the order, and Columbanus sought better place for his monastery. He chose Luxeuil, a site formerly sacred to pagans, a common practice. The abbey flourished for many years, but Columbanus got in trouble with Theoderic, the king of Burgundy, and Brunhilda, the monarch's grandmother who ruled with him. Theoderic had sons born out of wedlock, and Columbanus refused Brunhilda's request to bless them as heirs to the throne. He thought the king should get married and have children with a wife, but a queen meant less power for Brunhilda. Theoderic was smart enough not to make Columbus a martyr, so he settled for the next best thing: exiling the troublesome missionary. Gall accompanied his leader on the heartbreaking journey in 610. They traveled along the Rhine to Lake Constance and settled in a wilderness near Bregenz. And they began preaching again. They weren't always popular. Apparently, people don't take kindly to strangers breaking their sacred statues and throwing them in the lake. They also attracted the enmity of the governor, Gunzo. Still, Gall adjusted to life in the area. He enjoyed fishing on the lake and knew the local language. Legend has Gall, like Columbanus, able to command bears. The stories for Gall vary. One has him rebuking the beast in the forest. Awestruck, the bear brought firewood for Gall and his companions, and everyone warmed themselves by the fire.

A year later, Columbanus left for Italy. Gall stayed behind, apparently too ill for a journey. But even when he got better, he did not follow Columbanus. As arduous as travel was, it seems like Gall could have found a way to join his friend. They had faced danger and hardship before. Perhaps, they did have a falling out, and it had something to do with Gall's assistance to Gunzo's ailing daughter Fridiburga. Betrothed to Sigibert, one of Theoderic's illegitimate sons, the young woman was believed to be sickened by a demon. Sigibert sent two bishops to Überlingen to heal her, to no avail. Gall succeeded where they had failed and cured her. As a reward, Sigibert gave the Irishman royal land near Arbon for him to pursue a religious life. Was Columbanus angry Gall had helped the enemy? Was Gall tempted by the offer of land? Or was he moved by compassion, believing a young woman's soul was at stake? After all, why had he ventured to the Continent if not to save souls? Regardless of Gall's motivation, the gift of land made him a leader. The monastery had humble beginnings. He built a small, windowless stone hut—a cell for prayer—and an oratory. Soon 12 monks joined him, and they, too, wanted cells. Gall preached, continuing his missionary work, and kept to his simple life. Apparently, he didn't want power. When the see of Constance became vacant, the clergy—impressed with his learning and piety—unanimously chose him. Gall refused, saying that electing a stranger to lead the bishopric went against Church law. His decision was a sacrifice, considering that an early medieval bishop or abbot could live an aristocratic lifestyle, form alliances with the nobility, and wield influence. Perhaps, Gall wanted nothing to do with politics. Or maybe he feared that luxury would corrupt him and endanger his soul. In 625, Columbanus's successor at the abbey at Luxeuil died, and Gall was asked to be its abbot. He again had a chance to hold power and again rejected it. At that point he might have been in his 70s. Did old age deter him? Or did he prize his humble life above everything? Gall would live on for a while. He died Oct. 16, 646, and left behind a legacy. The abbey that bears his name went on to become a center for scholarship in Europe. Images are public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Sources "St. Gall" by Albert Poncelot, The Catholic Encyclopedia The Lives of the Saints, Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume X: October "Who Was St Gall" St. Gall's Church, Carnalea, in Bangor County Down in Northern Ireland Columbanus: Poet, Preacher, Statesman, Saint by Carol Richards Medieval Sourcebook: The Life of St. Columban, by the Monk Jonas Columba Edmonds, "St. Columbanus," The Catholic Encyclopedia "Silverware in Early Medieval Gift Exchange: Imitatio Imperii and Object of Memory," by Matthias Hardt, Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian Period: An Ethnographic Perspective edited by Ian Wood

~~~~~~~~~~ Kim Rendfeld has written two novels set in early medieval times and is working on a third. You can order The Ashes of Heaven's Pillar, about a Saxon peasant who will fight for her children after losing everything else, at Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes. Kim's first novel, The Cross and the Dragon, in which a Frankish noblewoman must contend with a jilted suitor and the fear of losing her husband, is available at Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, CreateSpace, and other vendors.

Connect with Kim at on her website kimrendfeld.com, her blog, Outtakes of a Historical Novelist at kimrendfeld.wordpress.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/authorkimrendfeld, or follow her on Twitter at @kimrendfeld.

Hat Tip To: English Historical Fiction Authors

[troybeecham]

St. Augustine of Canterbury

The Church remembers St. Augustine of Canterbury, Monk, Archbishop, and Missionary to the Anglo-Saxons.

Ora pro nobis.

Augustine of Canterbury (born first third of the 6th century AD – died probably 26 May 604) was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597 AD. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church.

After the withdrawal of the Roman legions from their province of Britannia in 410 AD, the inhabitants were left to defend themselves against the attacks of the Saxons. Before the Roman withdrawal, Britannia had been converted to Christianity and produced the ascetic Pelagius. Britain sent three bishops to the Council of Arles in 314 AD, and a Gaulish bishop went to the island in 396 to help settle disciplinary matters. Material remains testify to a growing presence of Christians, at least until around 360. After the Roman legions departed, pagan tribes settled the southern parts of the island while western Britain, beyond the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, remained Christian. This native British Church developed in isolation from Rome under the influence of missionaries from Ireland and was centred on monasteries instead of bishoprics. Other distinguishing characteristics were its calculation of the date of Easter and the style of the tonsure haircut that clerics wore. Evidence for the survival of Christianity in the eastern part of Britain during this time includes the survival of the cult of Saint Alban and the occurrence in place names of eccles, derived from the Latin ecclesia, meaning "church". There is no evidence that these native Christians tried to convert the Anglo-Saxons. The invasions destroyed most remnants of Roman civilisation in the areas held by the Saxons and related tribes, including the economic and religious structures.

It was against this background that Pope Gregory I decided to send a mission, often called the Gregorian mission, to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity in 595 AD. The Kingdom of Kent was ruled by Æthelberht, who married a Christian princess named Bertha before 588, and perhaps earlier than 560. Bertha was the daughter of Charibert I, one of the Merovingian kings of the Franks. As one of the conditions of her marriage, she brought a bishop named Liudhard with her to Kent. Together in Canterbury, they restored a church that dated to Roman times—possibly the current St Martin's Church. Æthelberht was a pagan at this point but allowed his wife freedom of worship. One biographer of Bertha states that under his wife's influence, Æthelberht asked Pope Gregory to send missionaries. The historian Ian N. Wood feels that the initiative came from the Kentish court as well as the queen. Other historians, however, believe that Gregory initiated the mission, although the exact reasons remain unclear. Bede, an 8th-century AD monk who wrote a history of the English church, recorded a famous story in which Gregory saw fair-haired Saxon slaves from Britain in the Roman slave market and was inspired to try to convert their people. More practical matters, such as the acquisition of new provinces acknowledging the primacy of the papacy, and a desire to influence the emerging power of the Kentish kingdom under Æthelberht, were probably involved. The mission may have been an outgrowth of the missionary efforts against the Lombards who, as pagans and Arian Christians, were not on good relations with the Catholic church in Rome.

Aside from Æthelberht's granting of freedom of worship to his wife, the choice of Kent was probably dictated by a number of other factors. Kent was the dominant power in southeastern Britain. Since the eclipse of King Ceawlin of Wessex in 592, Æthelberht was the leading Anglo-Saxon ruler; Bede refers to Æthelberht as having imperium (overlordship) south of the River Humber. Trade between the Franks and Æthelberht's kingdom was well established, and the language barrier between the two regions was apparently only a minor obstacle, as the interpreters for the mission came from the Franks. Lastly, Kent's proximity to the Franks allowed support from a Christian area. There is some evidence, including Gregory's letters to Frankish kings in support of the mission, that some of the Franks felt that they had a claim to overlordship over some of the southern British kingdoms at this time. The presence of a Frankish bishop could also have lent credence to claims of overlordship, if Bertha's Bishop Liudhard was felt to be acting as a representative of the Frankish church and not merely as a spiritual advisor to the queen. Frankish influence was not merely political; archaeological remains attest to a cultural influence as well.

In 595 AD, Gregory chose Augustine, who was the prior of the Abbey of St Andrew's in Rome, to head the mission to Kent. The pope selected monks to accompany Augustine and sought support from the Frankish royalty and clergy in a series of letters, of which some copies survive in Rome. He wrote to King Theuderic II of Burgundy and to King Theudebert II of Austrasia, as well as their grandmother Brunhild, seeking aid for the mission. Gregory thanked King Chlothar II of Neustria for aiding Augustine. Besides hospitality, the Frankish bishops and kings provided interpreters and Frankish priests to accompany the mission. By soliciting help from the Frankish kings and bishops, Gregory helped to assure a friendly reception for Augustine in Kent, as Æthelbert was unlikely to mistreat a mission which visibly had the support of his wife's relatives and people. Moreover, the Franks appreciated the chance to participate in mission that would extend their influence in Kent. Chlothar, in particular, needed a friendly realm across the Channel to help guard his kingdom's flanks against his fellow Frankish kings.

Sources make no mention of why Pope Gregory chose a monk to head the mission. Pope Gregory once wrote to Æthelberht complimenting Augustine's knowledge of the Bible, so Augustine was evidently well educated. Other qualifications included administrative ability, for Gregory was the abbot of St Andrews as well as being pope, which left the day-to-day running of the abbey to Augustine, the prior.

Augustine was the prior of a monastery in Rome when Pope Gregory the Great chose him in 595 AD to lead a mission, usually known as the Gregorian mission, to Britain to Christianize King Æthelberht and his Kingdom of Kent from Anglo-Saxon paganism. Kent was probably chosen because Æthelberht had married a Christian princess, Bertha, daughter of Charibert I the King of Paris, who was expected to exert some influence over her husband. Before reaching Kent, the missionaries had considered turning back, but Gregory urged them on, and in 597, Augustine landed on the Isle of Thanet and proceeded to Æthelberht's main town of Canterbury.

King Æthelberht converted to Christianity and allowed the missionaries to preach freely, giving them land to found a monastery outside the city walls. Augustine was consecrated as a bishop and converted many of the king's subjects, including thousands during a mass baptism on Christmas Day in 597. Pope Gregory sent more missionaries in 601, along with encouraging letters and gifts for the churches, although attempts to persuade the native British bishops to submit to Augustine's authority failed. Roman bishops were established at London, and Rochester in 604, and a school was founded to train Anglo-Saxon priests and missionaries. Augustine also arranged the consecration of his successor, Laurence of Canterbury. The archbishop probably died in 604 AD and was soon revered as a saint.

O Lord our God, by your Son Jesus Christ you called your apostles and sent them forth to preach the Gospel to the nations: We bless your holy Name for your servant Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, whose labors in propagating your Church among the English people we commemorate today; and we pray that all whom you call and send may do your will, and bide your time, and see your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

[christinaepilzauthor-blog]

Yes, the Anglo-Saxon Spring Goddess Eostre Did Exist

By Kim Rendfeld

The Venerable Bede probably did not realize he would create a controversy for centuries when he wrote about the months of the year. In De Ratione Temporum (The Reckoning of Time), he mentioned the English used to call April Eosturmonath. "Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated 'Paschal month', and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance." (Translated by Faith Wallis, Liverpool University Press, 1988) Eostre might have been a goddess of spring. Or of the dawn. Or both. Worshipers might have lit bonfires, drawn healing waters during her festival, and have maidens wearing white. (Tales of Eostre, also known as Ostara, transforming a wounded bird into an egg-laying rabbit are from the 19th century, apparently from Germans influenced by the Romantic Nationalist movement.) The problem is, Bede's mention of Eostre is the only one in historical records. Even scholars have debated whether she existed among the deities pagans worshiped. Some argue Bede got it wrong. Bede (672/3-735), a monk at Wearmouth-Jarrow in Northumbria, penned the famous Historia Ecclesiastica (Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation) about the English peoples' conversion to Christianity in the seventh century. Anyone who has studied the Middle Ages will tell you the writers of that time were far from objective observers and would have been less than meticulous about how they portrayed pagan beliefs, especially if the followers of those religions officially converted about 100 years before. Despite the lack of evidence, it is possible Eostre was real to early medieval pagans in today's England and Germany. There is a dearth of information about anything that early medieval pagans believed and how they worshiped, much to the frustration of a novelist trying to depict pagan characters in eighth-century Saxony. The faithful didn't write their mythology down. In fact, the Continental Saxons had no written language as we know it, and among cultures that used pens and parchment, only a select few could read. Even fewer could write—that task was often left to clerks employed by aristocrats, the only people who could afford book. So, there might be a lot of god, goddesses, and other supernatural beings that we'll never know about.

"Ostara" (1901) by Johannes Gehrts

Paganism Not Completely Dead A lot of what we do know about Saxon mythology comes to us in remnants such as poems, folk tales, rituals, and what their literate enemies had to say. On top of that, the eighth-century Church made every effort to obliterate a religion it believed to be devil worship when Charlemagne conquered territory in Saxony and Avaria and used increasingly harsh measures to get the indigenous peoples to convert. Even after a populace accepted baptism, pagan practices did not vanish. In fact, they continued for generations. The Church officially prohibited what it called sorcery, but the faithful, including the clergy, still turned to white magic—vestiges of paganism. It was common for Christians to wear amulets beside their crosses. A priest might employ someone to interpret his dreams. A manuscript copied by a monk might have a magical square with the letters of a patient's name and the number of the day on which they fell ill. The epic poem Beowulf has both Christian and pagan elements. The monsters, Grendel and his mother, are descendants of Cain, but human warriors wear helmets with boar figures, a symbol of a pagan god. Keep in mind that the practice of a religion differed from region to region. Even Christian rites varied with geography. So it would not be a surprise if Eostre was revered in one place but ignored in another. In arguing for Eostre's existence, Jacob Grimm, one of the Grimm brothers who collected German folk tales, takes a look at the language. The holy day to celebrate Jesus's resurrection is Easter in English and Ostern in German. Other languages, including French, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, and even Latin, are a variation on Pasch. Easter comes to us through Old English and is akin to Old High German. Pasch originates in pesah, the Hebrew word for Passover. Eostre is also similar to the Austri, mentioned in the Norse Edda. The gender is different, but both are spirits of light.

"Frigg as Ostara" (1882)

If You Can't Beat Them ... Like other pagan practices, the rites associated with Eostre were probably so much a part of the culture that rather than ban them, Church leaders used them to celebrate a holy day occurring about the same time. The reason would be to celebrate Jesus conquering sin and death rather than the arrival of a goddess. It wouldn't be the first time a seasonal celebration was adapted to a new religion. And it was a happier and more peaceful way to get converts to accept their new faith. In other words, I conclude that Bede got it right. As Grimm states, Eostre "seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted to the resurrection-day of the Christians' God." At this time of year, life returns. Birds are singing again, flowers bloom, green shoots emerge from the earth, and gardeners can start planting crops. And isn't that a cause for celebration, no matter what religion? Sources "Bede, on 'Eostre'" Ostara's Home Page Jacob Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Volume 1, pp. 288-291 "The Goddess Eostre: Bede's Text and Contemporary Pagan Tradition(s)" by Carole Cusack, The Pomegranate 9.1 (2007) 22-40 Pierre Riché's Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne, translated by Jo Ann McNamara "Ostara and the Hare: Not Ancient, but Not As Modern As Some Skeptics Think" Folklife Today by Stephen Winick Merriam-Webster ~~~~~~~~~~

Kim Rendfeld researched the pagan religion of eighth-century Continental Saxons as best she could while writing her second novel, The Ashes of Heaven's Pillar, about a Saxon peasant who will fight for her children after losing everything else. The book is available at Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, CreateSpace, Smashwords, and other vendors. Kim's first novel, The Cross and the Dragon, in which a Frankish noblewoman must contend with a jilted suitor and the fear of losing her husband, is available at Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, CreateSpace, and other vendors. Kim is working on her third novel, Queen of the Darkest Hour, about Charlemagne's influential fourth wife, Fastrada, and his rebellious eldest son, Pepin.

Connect with Kim at her website kimrendfeld.com, her blog, Outtakes of a Historical Novelist at kimrendfeld.wordpress.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/authorkimrendfeld, or follow her on Twitter at @kimrendfeld.

Hat Tip To: English Historical Fiction Authors