Summer, twilight, 1890: A man paces through an English seaside town. His long legs move briskly, alive with the thrill of the new discovery that propels him homeward to his writing desk. Bram’s mind ran through the scene he had just left at the library. The book he had been reading had fascinated him, ‘An… Continue reading Whitby through the ages
Year The early anglo Saxons based their year on the lunar calendar, when a month was marked by the phases of the moon (hence the name monath from the word mona meaning moon). As a result a year was made of 354 days. This obviously resulted in an accumulation of days at the end of… Continue reading Seasons and festivals: Time in Anglo Saxon and Viking England
A lot of what we know about the history of the Dark Ages comes from written documents of the time such as land grants, wills, sagas, chronicles and annals either written during the period under study or soon after. For the information i need when writing historical fiction and blog posts i try and use… Continue reading Historical sources rundown
Over the last couple of months on the blog, I have been writing about several Kings and Archbishops (and eventually invaders) of Northumbria. I have even shared with you my journey of writing my first novel, The Northumbrian Saga. I thought then, that it was about time that I acquainted some of you who were… Continue reading Where was the Kingdom of Northumbria anyway?
Related articles Happy St Bede’s Day (ahgray.wordpress.com)
That’s right everyone, 1,278 years ago today the man known as ‘The father of English history’ died in the monastery of Jarrow, Durham (although at the time it was in Northumberland as the shire of Durham did not yet exist). The Venerable Bede is most famous today as being the author of the 'Ecclesiastical History… Continue reading Happy St Bede’s Day
