Bøger af Robin Melrose

Most of the remaining speakers of Celtic languages live in the British Isles, in Wales, northwest Scotland and Ireland. Until the Anglo-Saxons began settling in England in the 5th century, Celts were spread throughout Britain, but today almost all that remains of these Celts is place-names derived from early Celtic. Almost all, because we know from classical writers of the 1st century BC that the Celts of Gaul venerated watery places like lakes and rivers and deposited precious objects there. This book traces the Celtic use of watery places from the Late Bronze Age, around 1000 BC, to the Roman period (43 AD - 410 AD). Christian Celts did not deposit precious objects in rivers and lakes, but they did build monasteries on islands, especially in Wales and southern Scotland. Meanwhile the Scots, following a tradition established in the Iron Age, buit crannogs, dwellings on artificial islands, in some of the many lochs of Scotland. From the 7th century the Anglo-Saxons also established monasteries on islands or near watery places. In 1066 the Anglo-Saxons were replaced by the Normans and holy wells proliferated, perhaps inspired by models in France.

The Druids and the Arthurian legends are all most of us know about early Britain, from the Neolithic to the Iron Age (4500 BC-AD 43). Drawing on archaeological discoveries and medieval Welsh texts like the Mabinogion, this book explores the religious beliefs of the ancient Britons before the coming of Christianity, beginning with the megaliths--structures like Stonehenge--and the role they played in prehistoric astronomy. Topics include the mysterious Beaker people of the Early Bronze Age, Iron Age evidence of the Druids, the Roman period and the Dark Ages. The author discusses the myths of King Arthur and what they tell us about paganism, as well as what early churches and monasteries reveal about the enigmatic Druids.

Magic, which is probably as old as humanity, is a way of achieving goals through supernatural means, either benevolent (white magic) or harmful (black magic). It has been used in Britain since at least the Iron Age (800 BC- AD 43). The volume offers an examination of its history.

Explores how the story of Arthur evolved in England in the later Middle Ages, and depicts Arthur as a wilderness figure, the descendant of the northern Romano-British hunter/warrior god. The story of Arthur was popularized by Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his Latin History of the Kings of Britain, and this was translated into Middle English.

An exploration into the beliefs and origins of the Druids, this book examines the role the Druids may have played in the story of King Arthur and the founding of Britain. It explains how the Druids originated in eastern Europe around 850 B.C., bringing to early Britain a cult of an underworld deity, a belief in reincarnation, and a keen interest in astronomy. The work concludes that Arthur was originally a Druid cult figure and that the descendants of the Druids may have founded the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. The research draws upon a number of sources, including medieval Welsh tales, the archaeology of Stonehenge's Salisbury Plain, the legends surrounding the founding of Britain, the cult of the Thracian Horseman, the oracle of Dodona, popular Arthurian mythology, and the basic principles of prehistoric astronomy.