Matrilineal Rights of Inheritance in Britain

Well, that’s a title for you. It took a bit of practice before I could even pronounce Matrilineal without tripping over my tongue.

Reading between the lines and trying to strip away Roman influence from the writings about the ancient Bretons, I began to develop a theory about what kind of culture these people lived. I started by combing the internet, searching under “Matriarch” and “Matrilineal.” I knew there were islands in the pacific where the women had great influence. They were the wise ones and often, if not battle commanders, they were at least held in great respect. So I wondered where else I might find woman centered cultures. To my surprise, one of the first sites to pop up pointed me to…

EGYPT!

According to an article by Nancy Luomala, “Matrilineal Reinterpretation of Some Egyptian Sacred Cows,” (http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/imageswomen/luomala.html ), rights of inheritance to the throne of Egypt came through the female line. The eldest daughter of the queen would be the Throne Princess. Her brother or husband would serve as king – or Pharoah.

Remember the movie, “The Ten Commandments,” with Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner? They were both vying for the hand of Nefertiri, the throne princess. Whoever married her would be the next Pharoah! What do you know! Hollywood actually got something right for a change.

The more I studied, the more convinced I became that my theory was correct. I found matrilineal cultures everywhere: the Pacific Islands, the Middle East, among the Indian tribes of the Americas. Everywhere! So why not Scotland and Wales?

Why would the mother be so important? Well, think about it. In a culture based on rights of inheritance, where you had to be sure about bloodlines and knowing your tribe and rights, the lineage of a child to a mother is absolute. No DNA tests are required. If your mother belongs to the Wolf Tribe, so do you. If your mother is of royal birth, from a royal mother, so are you. Did you know that even today, if your mother is Jewish, you are Jewish? If your father is Jewish, but your mother a Gentile, guess what, you are Gentile too.

In the Americas, many native aboriginal tribes are also matriarchal such as the Huron, Hopi, Navajo, Iroquois Confederacy, Cherokee and others. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrilineality)Though it was a man who sat in councils as a chief, it was the wise woman of the tribe who sat behind him and made sure he was following the agreed upon counsel. When you are born, you are of your father’s tribe, but you belong to your mother’s tribe. It is considered incestuous to marry within your mother’s tribe, even to the 6th, 7th, 8th cousin removed. But if you marry your first cousin on your father’s side, it’s OK!

Let’s get back to ancient Egypt. It is true that many Pharoahs married their throne princess sisters, but according to Nancy Luomala, these relationships were not incestuous.
“There is no evidence that the queen would have sexual relations with her brother-king. The sister and brother of the ruling pair could each have a consort or consorts for sexual relations, but these spouses were not included in the possession and transmission of property. The queen did have intercourse with her consort-king and the resulting female progeny constituted the royal line, earning the title of ‘Royal Mother’ by right of birth.” (http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/imageswomen/luomala.html)
In other words, the only thing that was important was having a baby daughter to be the next throne princess. That sounds like the Pictish people! Or do the Picts sound like Egyptians!

The most interesting find was an actual, living matrilineal culture that was flourishing in Indonesia. They are the Minangkabau peoples, an extensive and influential ethnic group. Here’s how they function.

All property is owned by the women and is passed on from mother to daughter, with the expectation that the oldest daughter who inherits the house, will take care of her parents in their old age. When a couple marry, the young man leaves his parents house and moves in with his bride’s family.

Though the property is owned by the women, they appoint a male relative, usually a maternal nephew, to run the business. If they do not like how he is managing their affairs, they will fire him and hire another male relative to run the business or oversee the property. The young men are expected to get an education so they can run these businesses effectively. Other young men are educated to become their priests and teachers. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minangkabau) This is how they have meshed well with Islam. Most Minangs are Muslim, a very patriarchal religion. The women own the property, but the men run it.

As I’ve pointed out before, our western civilization was and still is heavily influenced by the strongly patriarchal Greeks and Romans. Therefore, you and I may have difficulty in understanding this very different culture. But if we can – if we can open our minds to these ideas of Matriarchy and Matrilineal Rights of Inheritance, the world of King Arthur may become more understandable, more reachable. We may be able to move the stories of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table from the realm of mere myth and legend into the world of probably reality.

The Puzzle of Prince Modred

If there is little contemporary source material relating to Arthur, there is none about Mordred, the crown prince who was to come after Arthur. It’s Geoffrey of Monmouth in his History of the Kings of Great Britain, written in the twelfth century A.D., who brings king Modred to light, and it’s not a very nice light. All we can truly say is that Modred died at the battle of Camblan, the same battle where Arthur is mortally wounded. According to Norma Lorre Goodrich in her book, King Arthur, she says, “Regarding Modred, the voices of the Scots, raised in protest over the centuries, were drowned in contumely. ‘Modred was no traitor, nor a murderer,’ they argued during the Renaissance. ‘He was our beloved king.’” He becomes a puzzle.

So here’s how the Hollywood version of the story goes. Ygrain, Arthur’s mother, had two to four daughters before she gave birth to Arthur. Once she married Uther, she had one more daughter called, by some accounts, Anne. Legend tells us that one of Ygrain’s older daughters is the notorious Morgause or Morgan la Fey, a woman learned in the arts of enchantment. It is said she ensorcelled Arthur and forced her to lay with him. From this ‘incestuous’ union came the child Mordred who was raised to hate his father. He is pictured as power hungry and a scoundrel. Through treachery, he helped bring about the downfall of Arthur’s kingdom.

Other legends tell us that Arthur and Guinevere had at least one son named Lohot. So why was Modred, the supposed illegitimate child of an incestuous relationship, designated the crown prince and not Lohot? It was a puzzle.

In the meantime, as I read from various books and sources, other questions began to arise. For the important person Merlin was, we only know his mother’s name – Nun. The same is true for Saint David, that patron saint of Wales. His mother’s name is, interestingly enough, St. Non. But we do not know the father’s names for either of these very important men. In fact, as you go through the list of saints in Scotland and Wales, the mother’s names are most often noted, but not the father’s.

In fact, within the legends women play extremely powerful roles, so powerful, the authors of the old histories make them quite villainous in some cases.

1. Guithelinus, a father of the church in Briton, seeing the desperate cause of the Bretons after the collapse of Rome and the removal of its troops from the islands, goes to Brittany on the mainland seeking a battle commander. He offers him the marriage of a landed and wealthy princess. This sets the whole Arthurian legend in motion.
2. The lovely Ygrain. Men fought and died because of her. She is the mother of at least two very prominent children, Arthur and Morgause, and seems to be the matriarch of a vast royal lineage and household.
3. Guinevere, Arthur’s queen, is more than just an ornament to the crown and someone to provide an heir to the throne. She was a battle queen in her own right and had lands and wealth that were her own.
4. And then there’s Morgause, or Morgan la Fey. I believe they are one and the same person. Whoever she really was, she was very powerful, insomuch that later ages feared her.
5. Nimue is the woman who is said to have tricked Merlin into trapping himself into a cave at a critical point of the story of Camalot.

Now, let me add to this puzzle another intriguing piece. Centuries before Arthur, a band of displaced Scandinavians sail to the shores of Ireland. First off, they abduct the women, looking for wives. The local men chase after them and find them before they can take off with their bootie. The locals agree that the Scandinavians may choose wives from among their daughters, however, they must agree that all wealth and property belongs to the women and is to be inherited by their firstborn daughters. This is agreed to and the Scandinavians depart with the women who agree to go with them. They sail to northern Scotland. This is the origin of the Picts, a people fearless in battle and so wild, the Romans could only build a wall in some vain effort to control them – the wall of Hadrian, which parts of can still be seen today in Scotland.


Now, the Picts eventually got around this injunction that all property was inherited through the women. They would marry, then wait until a daughter was born, then murder their wives and become regents to the property, controlling it until their daughters were of age. Hmmm.

Well, my curiosity was piqued. Remember, histories are written by the conquerors. The British Isles may not have been fully conquered by the state of Rome, but it was fully conquered by the Roman Catholic Church, which was immersed in Roman ideology, values and virtues. Rome was highly patriarchal, monogamous, steeped in Greek philosophy and very anti-Semetic. These are the people who wrote the histories of Great Britain.

I wondered what I would find if I could strip away the Roman view. What kind of culture would emerge among the Bretons? What I found not only startled me – it made the Bible split wide open.

Happy 80th Birthday to my Dad, July 13, 2010.

The Sword, the Stone and the Mirror

I’ve been trying to find a certain resource but have been unable to locate where I read this little tid-bit, so please forgive my tardiness with this blog. Between trying to get the yard cleaned and planted between rain storms and trying to find this reference, I’ve put off writing. Well, today is a good day to speculate.

Arthur is said to have had three wives, all named Guinevere. According to several scholars, as much as we can tell, the name means “priestess.” In fact, as we have seen, most all the names we come across in these legends are titles.

But THE Guinevere, the mistress of Stirling, Scotland, queen to Arthur was, according to Norma Lorre Goodrich in her book, “Guinevere,” was a powerful woman who had land and authority, and carried symbols of her own. She was likely Pictish and one of the symbols of her rule and wealth was a mirror. As far as I can tell, that mirror, combined with the sword and the stone were the over-riding symbols of the kingdom.

Interestingly enough, one day while reading some obscure reference, the one I can’t find, I learned that the ancient treasures of Japan were a sword, a curved gem and a mirror. It is said that these were actual objects, symbols of the imperial house of Japan, but they were lost.

Huh!

So, clear over in Scotland, we have a kingdom symbolized with a sword, a stone and a mirror. And clear over in Japan, we have a kingdom symbolized with a sword, a stone and a mirror.

Now, let’s come to America and “legends” of the Mormons. Joseph Smith took out of the ground, not only the gold plates, but a sword, the sword of Laban, stones, the seer stones he used to translate with, and what he called a Liahona, a ball of curious workmanship, a compass. These items were symbols of a long lost American civilization.

The sword of Laban and the seer stones relate to our topic, but what about the Liahona? As far as I can tell, one had to look into the ball to receive its instructions. Those instructions reflected the faith of the people of Lehi as they traveled to the promised land, much like a mirror is intended to reflect truth, whether we like what it tells us or not.

In the Book of Mormon, the book of Jacob, there is given the parable of the Olive Tree. It tells of a great tree that is dying. The Lord of the vineyard, in an effort to save it and preserve fruit to himself, cuts out all the dead branches and burns them, cuts out at least three living twigs and plants them elsewhere in the vineyard. The parable is likened to the house of Israel at the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah. The House of Israel, steeped in idolatry, was spiritually dying, but three living branches were exported to other lands. We know from the Book of Mormon, that one was here on the American Continent. Where were the other two?

Huh!

I just think it’s interesting, that’s all.

By the way, much thanks to my mom and dad, who keep asking, “Have you posted that blog yet?”

The Sword AND the Stone, Part Two

Excaliber – ah! the romance of the name - the mighty sword of the great king Arthur.

I got curious one day and decided to find out if there was a meaning to the name. And there is. It’s Latin.

EX: meaning “out of,” like, “expel,” or “ex-wife.” So you are “out of” the school or club, or “out of” your marriage or relationship.”

CALIBER: meaning “a mold,” like you cast ceramic or porcelain figures from a mold.

Hmm, Ex-caliber, “out of a mold….” Well that didn’t sound romantic at all. But if it was out of a mold – a mold of what? Could the sword have been a copy of some other famous sword?

Here I get into pure, but fun and interesting speculation. As my mind spun about the idea of the famous sword Excaliber I remembered my trip to Switzerland in 1991. My friend and I had just finished a tour and were waiting for a train to take us to Basil, where we would board a passenger liner for a three day tour down the Rhine River.

We had a few hours to kill and discovered the National Historical Museum of Switzerland just across the street from the train station in Zurich. It was a fabulous museum. They had just finished renovating three of their 6 major exhibits, one of which was a history of warfare. As we entered the hall, we passed a long line of mannequins dressed in all the different Swiss military uniforms through the centuries. In the hall was an incredible display of middle ages war weapons. What fascinated me most were the huge two-handed broadswords. They were massive, many as tall as I was or taller. I’m 5 foot 2 inches. Then you look at the armor and the uniforms and men of the middle ages weren’t much taller than me, about 5 foot, 5 inches on average. And I asked myself, where did this concept for a weapon come from? It couldn’t have been the Romans. They carried short, light weight, easy to carry swords. And of course, only the wealthy could afford such a large sword. Steel was expensive – and that much steel was very expensive. Besides, anyone who had the strength and expertise to wield such a sword would be a terror on the battle field. They could cut a man in two with a huge sword like that.

This from http://militaryhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_long_sword_or_two_handed_sword#ixzz0naSAH4OO
“The two most famous users of these long sword types were the Scottish highlanders with their two handed claymores and the Germanic Landsknecht mercenaries. The most feared of the Landsknecht would be called a Doppelsöldner, (Double soldier) and would receive twice the pay of a regular fighter. These men would carry the zweihänder, a two-handed sword as long as a man was tall. Its main purpose was to down charging horsemen and cut off oncoming pike heads.”

Note, the most famous users were Scottish and Germanic.

I was puzzled for some time about those two handed swords – but just kept the info in the back of my head. Then, some years ago, when I was in the middle of reading all this Arthurian material, I happened to have the television on during some PBS program while I was puttering around the house. Some topic of politics was being discussed. I wasn’t paying much attention until the man being interviewed made some comment about the situation being like when the Goliath sword would be removed from the Temple and paraded around Jerusalem.

My mind churned! When the boy David had killed the Philistine giant Goliath, he had taken the man’s sword and cut off his head. How big, do you suppose, the sword of a 9 ½ foot giant would be? 5 foot? 6 foot? In ancient days, when you won a battle, you took booty from the enemy. It would only make sense for David to take Goliath’s weapons and armor. According to this man at least the sword was kept as a national treasure to Israel – and surely it would become a symbol of the kingship. But like so many treasures of Israel, it disappeared when the Babylonians despoiled Jerusalem and took the people captive to Babylonia.

Now we are back to the tradition of Jeremiah taking one of the daughters of king Zedekiah to the British Isles. What else might he have taken? What tokens of Kingship? If they did take the Goliath sword, by the time we reach the age of Arthur, that sword would be 1500 years old. It would be too brittle to take into battle.

It is said that Merlin forged Arthur’s sword. What if he made a mold from the original Goliath sword, then cast and forged a new sword? Then, he handed that massive beast to a 15 year old boy who could not only pick it up, but could wield it in battle. You’d make the lad your battle commander too!

The sword Excaliber was an important sword. It was noted by one scholar that when Gawain went about the country as a judge, he took the sword with him – a token of the king – meaning that what he did, he did in the name of the king.

That king became so powerful in the minds and hearts of men of that age that others, wanting power and glory for themselves, tried to be like him, making their own two-handed six foot long swords to take into battle. I can think of no other inspiration for such massive swords.

So, was the legend “Whoso Pulleth Out the Sword of the Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of All England?"

Or was it, Whoso has this Sword and this Stone, is Rightwise King!



Next: The Sword the Stone and the Mirror.

Photos from: http://www.thearma.org/essays/2HGS.html

The Sword AND the Stone, Part One

I changed my mind. I don’t want to talk about the guise or geas, yet. I misspelled it last week. Sorry about that.

I want to talk about what made Arthur right wise born king of all England. T.H. White penned it beautifully in his masterful story, "The Once and Future King."

“Whoso Pulleth Out the Sword of the Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of All England."

Now we are getting into the stuff of pure legend. The sword in the stone is not mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth and it certainly is not in the contemporary records of Gildas or Nennius. The legend appears much later. But what is this sword and what is this stone? Is it pure legend or is there some basis in fact.

Ever heard of the Blarney Stone?

Blarney Stone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Blarney Stone (Irish: Cloch na Blarnan) is a block of bluestone built into the battlements of Blarney Castle, Blarney about 5 miles (8 km) from Cork, Ireland. According to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of gab (great eloquence or skill at flattery). The stone was set into a tower of the castle in 1446. The castle is a popular tourist site in Ireland, attracting visitors from all over the world to kiss the Stone and tour the castle and its gardens.


Origins The stone is said to have been presented to Cormac McCarthy by Robert the Bruce in 1314 in recognition of his support in the Battle of Bannockburn; popular legend holds that this was a piece of the Stone of Scone. This stone was then installed at McCarthy's castle of Blarney. When the castle was rebuilt in 1446, Dermot McCarthy had the stone preserved in the new castle. Although colourful, this folk legend cannot be true as the stone was removed from Scotland 18 years before Bannockburn.

And this takes us to the Stone of Scone.

Stone of Scone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Stone of Scone (pronounced /ˈskuːn/), also commonly known as the Stone of Destiny or the Coronation Stone is an oblong block of red sandstone, used for centuries in the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland, the monarchs of England, and, more recently, British monarchs. Historically, the artifact was kept at the now-ruined Scone Abbey in Scone, near Perth, Scotland. Other names by which it has sometimes been known include Jacob's Pillow Stone and the Tanist Stone, and in Scottish Gaelic, clach-na-cinneamhain, clach Sgàin, and Lia(th) Fàil[1]. Its size is about 26 inches (660 mm) by 16.75 inches (425 mm) by 10.5 inches (270 mm) in size and weighs approximately 336 pounds (152 kg). The top bears chisel-marks. At each end of the stone is an iron ring, apparently intended to make transport easier

What? It’s sometimes known as Jacob’s Pillow Stone? Yes. Remember in the book of Genesis? Jacob had to leave home so his brother Esau wouldn’t harm or kill him since he got the birthright blessing. On his way to relatives in Haran, he lay down to sleep, using a stone for a pillow, and had the dream of the ladder to heaven with Angels ascending and descending. Upon awakening, Jacob set the stone upright and poured oil on it to sanctify it. Ever after, the stone was known as a seer, or revelation stone. And tradition somehow gets it to Ireland and Scotland. Hmmm, these Israelites seem to get around!

Now, do I believe either of these stones could be Jacob’s stone? No, I don’t. I don’t think Jacob slept on a stone that big. I think it would be more the size of a rolled pillow on which to rest his head. Be that as it may, the Stone of Scone has been around since 600 A.D. when, after the downfall and scattering of the Bretons, a minor tribal chief in Scotland suddenly produces this stone, claims that because he has it and it is sacred, that HE is right wise king of Scotland. When the English defeated the Scottish some centuries later, to demoralize them, the Stone was removed from Scotland and taken to Westminster Abbey and stuffed under the throne there. Upon this throne all English and British monarchs have been crowned ever since. The Stone of Scone was returned to Edinburgh some years ago as a good faith gesture to the Scottish, but must be sent back to Westminster Abbey when a new king or queen is crowned.

So, there’s the stone – the first part of this stuff of legend. And whosoever has it can be crowned king!

Next, what about that sword?

I will be in Hawaii next week, so please be patient. You’ll get to learn my speculative thoughts about that sword in a couple of weeks. I think it’s exciting.

The Pen-dragon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Wales_2.svg

I like that title. I’ve been intrigued by it. Pen-dragon. Uther Pen-dragon. Arthur Pen-dragon. But does it have any meaning? We are all familiar with the traditional image of the dragon: A large serpent, with leathery wings like a bats, horned snout, breathing fire and wreaking havoc. A dragon is a terror in any neighborhood.

Several years ago I picked up a book while shopping at “Media Play.” I liked that store and I still miss it. The book is called, “Myths of China and Japan,” by Donald A. Mackenzie. I thought it would be a collection of stories and myths. How wrong I was. It was a scholarly work, first published in the early 1900’s. This author was making a case for tracing and connecting the myths and technologies of China back to Egypt! And he started making connections on dragon lore from China to the Polynesian Islands to Central America, even to Scotland! of all places. That really got my attention, for I was in the thick of studying the Arthurian stories and legends.

One of the most important Arthurian legends dealing with dragons is the story of Merlin as a boy. Vortigern is king, but no one likes him. He brought the Saxons to England as mercenaries, then lost control of them. Vortigern then went into Wales to build a fortress, but the ground on which he built was not stable. The walls kept falling down every night. His soothsayers said that in order for the walls to stand, he had to find a boy born with no father, slay him and mix his blood in with the mortar. So the search went far and wide. The boy Merlin was found and brought to the fortress to be slaughtered, but the boy told them it would do no good. The wall was falling down because there was a pool of water under the place where they were building, and if they dug deep, they would find the pool in which they would find two serpents sleeping. But finding the pool would disturb the serpents and they would fight each other. One was a red dragon and the other a white dragon. The red dragon would defeat the white dragon for a time, but then the white dragon would destroy the red dragon. Merlin explained that the red dragon represented Britain and the white dragon the Saxons. The red dragon would eventually be driven from the pool. According to the legends, this happened, which astonished Vortigern and everyone else.

To this day, the symbol of Wales is the red dragon and most of the oldest stories place Uther and Arthur in this location.

So what is so important about dragons? And why the title, Pen-dragon? Well, as I’ve been trying to point out, there seems to be some connection between the British Isles and the culture of the middle east. We know in Hebrew that the word “ben” means “son of.” It’s not that big a leap from “ben” to “pen.” So could the title, Pen-dragon, mean “Son of the dragon?”

And why take that title? Because they were men of war. Were Uther and Arthur father and son? I’ll address that some other time. Frankly, I don’t think so. That they were related, probably, but they were both battle commanders for their people and so could both carry the same title, “Son of the dragon.”

Now, let’s get to what a dragon is. According to Donald A. McKenzie, “The Chinese dragon is a strange mixture of several animals…. The scales number 117, of which 81 are imbued with good invluences (yang) and 36 with bad influence (yin), for the dragon is partly a Preserver and partly a Destroyer.”

When we go to the scriptures we find the same tale.

Rev. 12: 3-4,
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the a third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

This sounds very much like an intent to destroy. Then there is this from Jeremiah.

Jer. 51: 34, 37
34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.
• • •
37 And Babylon shall become heaps, dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.

History proves that the conquering Babylonians were in turn conquered by the Persians. It was all death and destruction.

Then we have this from the Book of Mormon.

Mosiah 20: 11
11 And it came to pass that the people of Limhi began to drive the Lamanites before them; yet they were not half so numerous as the Lamanites. But they fought for their lives, and for their wives, and for their children; therefore they exerted themselves and like dragons did they fight.

Alma 43: 44
44 And they were inspired by the Zoramites and the Amalekites, who were their chief captains and leaders, and by Zerahemnah, who was their chief captain, or their chief leader and commander; yea, they did fight like dragons, and many of the Nephites were slain by their hands, yea, for they did smite in two many of their head-plates, and they did pierce many of their breastplates, and they did smite off many of their arms; and thus the Lamanites did smite in their fierce anger.

In the Book of Mormon, the term dragon is used only in context of war.

The other night I turned on the TV and caught a portion of the Nature program on our local PBS station. It was interesting as they showed us how lethal and impressive crocodiles are. They patiently lay in wait, hardly to be seen, just below the surface of the water. When a prey gets close enough, they attack at lightening speeds up to 25 miles per hour. Once they grasp their prey, they do not let go. The prey is dragged into the waters and rolled and rolled until it drowns.

It’s a pretty strong metaphor, “…like dragons did they fight.” There have been crocodiles in the waters of the Nile in Egypt from the beginning.

How fascinating this dragon lore: from the Americas, to the Polynesian Islands to the lands of China and Japan. And according to Donald McKenzie, the dragon myth has its roots buried in the mud of the Nile river of Ancient Egypt, the cultural center of the middle-eastern world.

Once again we can tie the lore of the British Isles to the middle-east.

We should really name him Arthur, Son of War, Battle Commander to the Bretons.

Next time: The Celtic Guise and The American Indian Totem. (I’ve got some research to do on this one.)

Resources:
-“Myths of China and Japan,” by Donald A. MacKenzie, Gramercy Books, New York, Copyright, 1994.
-“The History of the Kings of Great Britain,” Geoffrey of Monmouth, translated by Lewis Thorpe, published by Penguin books. Translation copyright 1966 by Lewis Thorpe.

What a Little Plow Can Tell Us.

www.unc.edu/~nielsen/ soci011/hs7/hs7003.jpg

This blog is going to be rather short. I bring up the plow because when I read this little statement by Charles Hamilton Smith in his book “Ancient Costumes of Great Britain and Ireland,” it made me sit up and take note.

British mode of tilling the ground was the over treading plough and the mattock. This mode was practiced by the Egyptians. – page 30.

This is a handwritten note in a notebook, so I’m likely paraphrasing rather than quoting.

But I was intrigued. Britain is a long way from Egypt. Of course, the Egyptian style plow had been around for a long time, and there are many underdeveloped countries that still use this kind of plow today. But there are other ancient cultures that had no plow whatsoever, like the Mayan. To top it off, the Bretons made theirs of iron. They were great metal workers.

We know good technology travels. Look how fast printing traveled and the computer. So who brought this plow to the British Isles? Was it developed in isolation? Probably not. It was likely transported from the Middle East. But who brought it?

Ah, there’s the question! Could it be those Israelites just show up everywhere?

Next: The Pen-dragon.