Who was Mordred?

I apologize for the long absence. I’ve been rather occupied with a yeast cleanse diet that has had my brain addled for the past few weeks.

So here we go again. Who was Mordred? Good question. Most accounts agree that he is the son of king Arthur’s sister. Some call her Morgan le Fey, but Morgan is a man’s name, and it means, mor – or “meer” – meaning water. Gan – or guy – or man: water man! Others call Mordred’s mother Morgause and place her as the eldest daughter of queen Ygrain, Arthur’s mother. I like to call her Morguase, the faithful. Recall my earlier blogs about the word Fairy, the Spanish Fe, the Latin Fidelus? Fey is faith.

All we really know about Mordred is that he was a member of the royal family and appeared to be crown prince. He died at the Battle of Camlann, as did Arthur, though it is not specified in the earliest accounts if they were on the same side, or on opposing sides. Also, he had a wife named Guenivere. Some of the later accounts of Mordred claim he abducted Arthur’s queen Guenivere and tried to rule in his stead – usurpation by abduction. But I think it’s this whole thing about titles instead of names that seems to create the greatest amount of confusion.

It’s all possible, of course. But I can’t help thinking of an exhibition I attended during a trip to California some years ago that was about king Arthur. They made the claim that Arthur actually had three wives and they were all named Guenivere. As close as I can tell in my studies, the name means “White Priestess.” And all queens seemed to bear this title. So Arthur had a queen Guenivere and Mordred had a queen Guenivere. So should that make Mordred a bad guy? I don’t think so.

I think he was a legitimate son of Arthur’s sister, Morguase, the throne princess after her mother Ygraine. He had every right to the royal title of prince, and every right to marry a woman of importance, land and property, a Guenivere.

Here I end my speculations about the Celtic culture and the Legends of King Arthur, though I have much much more, and who knows, maybe one day I’ll get around to speculating some more.

Now I’m ready to move on to the real meat, what the search for Arthur finally led me to: The Celtic Christian Church and its great churchmen, Pelagius, Patrick & Gildas. These three are worthy of greater study by our LDS Scholars than they have been. These three kept a light burning through the dark ages of Europe and laid a foundation for the emergence of and thirst for truth that began with our Pilgrim Fathers and continues around the globe today.

Next: The Celtic Christian Church.

The Birth of Arthur

I have given much thought to the birth of Arthur and there are a couple of things that puzzle me.

1. Who was Ygain? What made her so desirable as to go to war over her?
2. Why was it necessary to take the baby Arthur and hide him until king Uther’s death?

All right – we left off with Merlin and his prophecies. One of his prophecies is that the sons of Constantine would come and destroy Vortigern. According to the annals, this is precisely what happened. The two boys who had been whisked away to the mainland, Aurelianus and Uther, returned with an army and chased Vortigern into south Wales, where they were able to trap him. Vortigern’s keep burned to the ground with him in it. Aurelianus, being the older of the two boys, became king.

Aurelianus was considered among the finest kings the Bretons had had. He was brave and good. He made it a point to rebuild all the churches in the land and keep the Saxons at bay. Sadly, he only reined for 10 years before he was assassinated. Upon his death, his brother Uther takes the throne.

Apparently, it’s at Uther’s coronation that he is introduced to the king of Cornwall and his wife Ygerna, or Ygrain. She is considered quite beautiful and desirable, insomuch that Uther is willing to go to war over her.

This, to me, this is déjà vu the Trojan War! As the story goes, Paris abducts Helen (later known as the face that launched a thousand ships) from Macedonia and takes her off to Troy. There is some indication that the Trojans and the Greeks have their cultural basis in the middle-east. So, was it really the face that launched a thousand ships, or was Helen a woman of land, wealth and royal connections? Paris hauling her off was marriage by abduction. By “marrying” her, he controlled her lands and trade routes and who knows what else! Now that makes sense to go to war over. In the end, the king of Macedonia gets Helen back, but then he’s murdered, if I remember right. The whole thing is just tragic.

Back to Breton. Uther goes to war against the king of Cornwall. However, for a long time he is unsuccessful in managing to get his hands of Ygrain. According to later stories, Uther has Merlin enchant him to look like the king of Cornwall. With this subterfuge, he is able to enter the castle and rape and abduct Ygrain. Meanwhile, the king of Cornwall is killed in battle. Uther gets his prize. He marries Ygrain.

If we accept that the Bretons held to Matrilinial rights of inheritance, Uther was simply trying to consolidate his right to rule by marrying a throne princess, a woman of land, wealth and royal connections. Uther had been raised on the mainland by his Roman relatives and had Roman ideas. He would know that to keep his crown he needed to marry a throne princess, but he would want an heir of his body to succeed after him.

Up to this point, Ygrain has anywhere from two to four daughters already. Each were eventually married off to kings. Or did the men become kings because they married these daughters. It’s a right puzzle, just because we don’t really know and I’m only reading between the lines.

This we know, Ygrain then gives birth to a baby boy, and almost immediately that boy is taken by Merlin and hidden so that no one knows where he is.

That brings us to point two. Why? According to some, this was done to preserve the boy against Saxons who would kill the baby. But surely Uther would have some resources to protect his children! And why is it that the boy is not brought forward until AFTER Uther’s death some 15 years later?

Here is my theory! Ygrain was indeed a throne princess, next in line after the sister of Aurelius and Uther. (The brothers would not be so readily accepted as kings without that matrilineal right to be king, either as the brothers of the Throne Princess, or as the husband of the Throne Princess.) But what if Ygrain was already with child by the king of Cornwall? Ah, now, that would put the child in danger. Uther would want a man child of his own to be king, but if Ygrain has already given birth to a boy, then yes, that would mean Uther would have no male heir to take the throne. So, Merlin hides the child, not from the Saxons, but from Uther. Ygrain, being royal and diplomatic, marries Uther, who is now, without question, king. However, he and Ygrain only succeed in having a daughter, Anne.

If you bring in the middle-eastern matrilineal rights of inheritance into the picture, then, for me, the birth and hiding of Arthur begins to make sense. At the death of Uther, the boy, aged 15, is brought forward. Both Merlin and Ygrain vouch for his rights. The boy is hailed battle commander and given the sword Excaliber. Thus begins the rein of Arthur.

It’s just a theory, but I like it.

Next: And so, who was Mordred?

The Prophecies of Merlin

In the book, “The Once and Future King,” Merlin the magician has a wonderful knowledge of the future because, it is said, he has lived life backwards. This is an interesting concept when you consider, by LDS doctrine, all great prophets have received the vision of all things past, present and future.

According to Norma Lorre Goodrich’s research, she states in her book, “Merlin,” published by Harper Perennial, 1988, “Not only was Merlin descended from royalty, but his mother was a nun,… As Son-of-the-Nun he was not only priestly, but high born, and would have been highly educated.’

As Ms. Goodrich grapples with Merlin’s identity, a few things become clear. His importance is based more on the identity of his mother than of his father. He has an enormous roll to play in establishing the royal house of his time and in directing its future course. He is Christian, as Arthur is Christian, and he has many prophecies attributed to him.

The Prophecy of Merlin as contained in The History of the Kings of Britain, by Geoffrey of Monmouth is long and complicated. It’s also available in print if you want to look it up. To me, it doesn’t make much sense, but little is known of the history of the time and what we have was written down hundreds of years before it was finally preserved by Geoffrey of Monmouth. So no one knows what it could have originally said. However, the consensus seems to be that the Prophecy of Merlin is based on older, more Hebraic, or Old Testament forms of writing. That’s quite a claim, I know, but I find the following prophecy attributed to Merlin to be quite interesting.

“The noble cleric Merlin says: ‘For [it is] certain That Britons at the last shall have this land again.’”
(Chronicle, Peter de Langtoft and Robert of of Brunne, edited by Thomas Hearne, 1725, Vol 1, Chap XXII, p. 7.)

According to all historical chronicles of the British Isles, the Saxons eventually forced the Bretons to leave their lands and scatter to Brittany and Normandy in the north of France. But I like this hopeful prophecy, it is reminiscent of some other prophecies you may be aware of.

Judah, from the Holy Bible, has been promised she shall have Jerusalem again. The children of Lehi, from the Book of Mormon, have been promised they shall have their lands of inheritance in the New World again.

I just find that interesting.

Next: The birth of Arthur

The Rise of Merlin

What an enigma this man is. Druid? Priest? Noble? Base? Bastard? Magician? Wise? When the records are obscure, there is really very little that can be known for sure. We have two early records, “Nennius History of the Bretons” and “The History of Great Briton” by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Geoffrey obviously takes much of his account of Merlin from Nennius, for they tell similar stories, but in the earlier “Nennius” the lad is called Ambrose. Geoffrey of Monmouth is the first to call him Merlin.

Merlin - the most famous magician of our western civilization.

Last time we left off with the usurpation of Vortigern to the kingship of the Bretons. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, he had made himself quite unpopular. According to Nennius, the man was just plain disgusting. However, the most dastardly thing this king did was to invite a Germanic tribe to the island as mercenaries: the notorious Saxons. If you are of English parentage, then you are of the Anglo Saxon race. The Saxon’s were German and they were pagan and they were devastatingly greedy. Once they started coming to the island, they came and they came and they came.

This was the number-one reason Vortigern was so unpopular with the locals. Vortigern consults his twelve wise men, or magicians as to what to do about the situation. They direct him to find a certain mountain and build a citadel there to protect himself. Vortigern thinks this is a great idea, finds a suitable situation and calls the builders to start. They don’t get very far. They build a wall and the next day, it’s gone – vanished! Or it’s tumbled down. Whatever, they can’t get the walls to stay up. Vortigern consults his magicians again. Now they sound like true pagan magicians. They tell him they have to find a boy without a father, kill him and mix his blood in the mortar. Only this way will the walls stand. The king sends messengers throughout the land seeking a boy born with no father. A couple of the searchers comes to a town and hears two boys arguing. One of the boys says to the other, “O boy without a father, no good will ever happen to you!” The messengers find the mother and she confesses she doesn’t know who the father of the boy is, so he’s taken to the citadel with the plan to slay him and sprinkle his blood on the foundations.

A few interesting points here:

1. Vortigern has twelve wise men he consults with. This is interesting because Arthur’s Round Table knights number twelve and sometimes twenty-four depending on who you are reading.
2. The twelve wise men do not appear to be fighting men, but priests of some kind, counselors. In Vortigern’s case, they are obviously pagan.
3. In the book of Mormon, the wicked king Noah has twenty-four priests as his counselors. We also know that good king Mosiah had priests as his counselors.

This is an interesting pattern found on two separate continents. Why would you have priests as counselors? Because in those days governments were sacred and you ruled by the will of God. Therefore, you had to know God’s law. Priests were schooled in the law.

Our young Ambrose/Merlin is not cowed in the least by the shenanigans going on. He’s very direct in asking what’s going on and why. He then demands the wise men be brought to him. In very forceful language he tells them all that killing him will not solve the problem. In fact, there is a pool under the citadel and this is what is causing the problem. He goes on and gives very specific information about what is in the pool – two sleeping serpents, one white and one red – and what it all means. “I will now unfold to you the meaning of this mystery! The pool is the emblem of this world, and the tent that of your kingdom: the two serpents are two dragons; the red serpent is your dragon, but the white serpent is the dragon of the people who occupy several provinces and districts of Britain…however, our people shall rise and drive away the Saxon race.…”

According to Nennius, the young boy knows exactly who he is, his name is Ambrose and his father was a Roman Consul. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, his mother was the daughter of a king.

The origins of Merlin are most compelling to me. I think it is interesting that the wise men say the citadel can only be completed if:

1. They find a boy without a father.
2. Shed his blood.

Many of the great prophets of antiquity have had miracle births. Noah’s father had been injured and so, supposedly could father no child. But he fathered Noah. Isaac, the son of Abraham, was born to his parents in their extreme old age. It was twenty years before Rebekah finally gave birth to Esau and Jacob. Samuel’s mother was barren until she prayed before the door of the tabernacle. Zachariah and Elizabeth were old when John, known as the Baptist, was born. They all reflect the miracle birth of the Messiah.

This deepens the mystery of this greatest magician of all time. Was he really just a magician? Or was he something more? Mage is another word for Wise, which is another word for Sage. It was wise men from the east that bore gifts to the Christ child, and they are known as the Magi. O how twisted everything gets through the centuries of dust and decay.

Geoffrey of Monmouth picks up the narrative. He says, “I had not yet reached this point in my story when Merlin began to be talked about very much, and from all sorts of places people of my own generation kept urging me to publish his Prophecies.”


Next time: The Prophecies of Merlin

King Arthur – According to Geoffrey of Monmouth

It’s time to start putting all this together.

I take the following information from the next written record of Arthur, “The History of the Kings of Britain” by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who lived and wrote in the 1100’s A.D., centuries after Arthur was supposed to have lived. He claims to have gotten his material from ‘a certain very ancient book written in the British language.’ (Introduction, pg. 11) They think the book was in Welsh. Here is a shortened, paraphrased version of the story.

In the year 410 A.D., the Visigoths, a barbarian tribe from Germany, coveting the lifestyle of the Romans, made their way to Rome and sacked it. That means they burned and pillaged and hauled away booty. This was the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire. In order to protect itself, what was left of Rome called its border troops home. The Roman soldiers who had kept the peace in Britain withdrew to the mainland. The Pictish peoples of the north, always warlike and fearsome, spilled south and began to wreak havoc.

In this time of chaos and danger, the clergy took council and selected Guithilinus, an Archbishop, to travel to Brittany to get an army. He approaches King Aldroennus and offers him the kingship of Britain. King Aldroennus is not tempted. He likes being ruler in his own land which he rules in liberty. But he offers his brother, Constantine and two thousand troops. Constantine accepts, raises his army and goes to Britain with Guithelinus. The council there accepts him, places the crown on his head, and gives him a noble woman to marry. They have three sons, Constans, Aurelius Ambrosius and Uther Pendragon. Constans, as the firstborn, is given to the church. Aurelius and Uther are given to Guithilinus to be raised, or educated.

After serving as king for ten years, a Pict manages to assassinate Constantine. A disagreement arises about who to put on the throne. Constans is in a monastery. One faction is for putting Aurelius on the throne, another for putting Uther on the throne. But they are all very young. Still others are for putting some other member of the royal family on the throne.

Let’s stop here and take a look at what we have so far.

1. It is the clergy, the spiritual leader of the day, who goes in search of someone to be king and protect the people of the land from enemies which abound on all sides. Am I stretching things to suggest that this sounds like Samuel, the prophet and spiritual leader of his day, seeking out and anointing first Saul, and then David to be kings of Israel? We will see the same pattern with Merlin and Arthur.

2. The firstborn son, Constans, is sent to a monastery. This is just not Roman at all. In fact, it sounds very much like the ways of the tribes of Israel. All firstborn, especially sons, belonged to the Lord. However, once they left Egypt, the tribe of Levites and the sons of Aaron were chosen to serve as the priests and teachers for everyone. Of the rest of the tribes of Israel, they were to pay a ransom of 5 shekels to the priests and Levites, for their firstborns. But what do you do if you are a tribe of Israel without Levites among you to officiate? You go back to the original law. Your firstborn belong to the Lord, they belong to the church. Remember, at this time, no matter what Geoffrey of Monmouth says, the Church in Breton was not Roman. It is referred to as the Celtic Christian church by scholars.

3. What royal family? “Still others are for putting some other member of the royal family on the throne.” That’s what Goeffrey said. Perhaps the better question is, whose royal family? It would have to be the family of Constantine’s unnamed wife. Apparently, she wasn’t just noble, she was royal and that made her sons royal. So why the disagreement? Why not take one of the boys and plunk them on the throne and designate a regent? Perhaps it was because there was no sister, no throne princess, to give the boys a legitimate claim to the throne. Perhaps Roman ways – inheritances passing from father to son – was in conflict with Breton ways – the king was either the brother of the throne princess or married to her.

Out of this conflict rises Vortigern, leader of the Gewissei. He takes the direct Roman approach. He goes to the monastery where the first-born son Constans is living, removes him, dresses him up in royal robes and sits him on the throne. Poor boy, he’s only eight or nine years old. He’s been trained to be a churchman, not a ruler of government. He turns all the affairs of the kingdom over to Vortigern. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Vortigern delights in this and, plotting to get the kingship for himself, eventually has Constans assassinated by Picts and takes the throne for himself.

In the ensuing chaos, those who had the care of the two younger brothers, Aurelius and Uther, flee overseas to Brittany for their safety.

Uneasy lies the crown on the head of an usurper who has no inherited right to the throne, by birth or by marriage.

Next time: The Rise of Merlin

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.