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#AlfredtheGreat

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I had the honour of contributing a guest blog for the OG(H)AM Project of the University of Glasgow! In my post, I explore the fascinating intersection of history and mythology by looking at Ogham, the ancient Celtic script, and its surprising role in Alfred the Great fanfiction. 📜✨👑

ogham.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/

His biographer wrote that Alfred the Great didn't learn to read until he was at least twelve. However, if that's true, he soon made up for it. His mother offered a book of poems to whichever of her children was first to memorise it, and Alfred won.

More to him than burning cakes. 10 things you might not know about Alfred the Great:

topicaltens.blogspot.com/2018/

Topical Tens26 October: Alfred the GreatOn this date in 899, Alfred the Great died. He is the only English monarch to be officially described as ‘great’. He was born in Want...
Continued thread

And finally, I stopped in Shaftesbury, the old market town that my family members would presumably have known well as it's just a few miles from their villages.

According to tradition, Shaftesbury was once known as Caer Palladwr in Celtic Britain; actual recorded history dates to the 8th century CE, by which time where was an important minster in the town. Alfred the Great built the abbey here in the 9th century and placed his daughter, Aethelgifu, there as the first abbess. The body of King Edward the Martyr ended up buried here after this murder in the late 10th century, and Cnut died here.

It was featured in the Domesday Book and the abbey continued as an important site until the dissolution of the monasteries. After this, Shaftesbury continued as a market town, but faced decline as industrialisation took hold in the country. Thomas Hardy wrote of it:

"Vague imaginings of its castle, its three mints, its magnificent apsidal abbey, the chief glory of south Wessex, its twelve churches, its shrines, chantries, hospitals, its gabled freestone mansions—all now ruthlessly swept away—throw the visitor, even against his will, into a pensive melancholy, which the stimulating atmosphere and limitless landscape around him can scarcely dispel."

I didn't feel any melancholy, I have to say - even though I arrived at the end of a grey day at the tail end of September, after the abbey had closed for the day. I'd have liked to spend more time there.

22nd April, Today we commemorate the last British #Pagan King, and last king of the #IsleOfWight Arwald.

On this day in 686, Cædwalla, King of Wessex invaded the #Jutish kingdom of Wihtwara, the land of Whit [ ᚹᛁᚻᛏ ] (Spirits / Supernatural Beings).

Arwald had sent his two son to his kinsfolk, the Meonwara to keep them safe.

Due to their superior size, the army of Cædwalla were victorious. However, not without many casualties. #Folklore says that Arwald dealt Cædwalla a near fatal wound that never healed and would ultimately take his life many years later. The story says, that the last curse, uttered using the last of the old magic was from Arwald's lips as he struck Cædwalla.

After the battle, Cædwalla sent his men the commit genocide on the island. A memory that still runs deep on the Island, even to this day.

The two princes were also betrayed after they had been forced to convert to #christianity -- Cædwalla had them killed.

This is not the of the story, the sister of Arwald was the wife of the King of #Kent and was the great great great Grandmother of #AlfredTheGreat. One could argue, the line of Wiht is behind the whole of the British royal family.

#OldEnglish #histodons #medievodons #AngloSaxons #AngloSaxonSaturday #paganism

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arwald

@histodons
@medievodons
@anglosaxon
@oldenglish
@pagan

Vikings (2013-present) is a historical fiction TV series created and written by English screenwriter Michael Hirst for the History Channel. Filmed in Ireland, the show draws on Scandinavian and European history and lore as it follows the life of legendary Viking chief Ragnar Lothbrok, his descendants, and the kings and cultures the Vikings influenced in the 8th and 9th centuries CE.
worldhistory.org/article/1285/

World History EncyclopediaVikings TV Series - Truths and FictionsVikings (2013-present) is a historical fiction TV series created and written by English screenwriter Michael Hirst for the History Channel. Filmed in Ireland, the show draws on Scandinavian and European...