Are you considering a degree in medieval history but question its applicability in the real world? Have you ever wanted to study one of the Celtic languages, or find out more about the history of the British Isles, or try your hand at Norse runes? Heard good things about the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and…
Haiti needs our help!
In light of this week’s devastating earthquake, I want to take a minute to state the obvious: Haiti needs our help. Not everyone can get on a plane and lend a hand in person (though I’d dearly like to), but we can all help with our wallets and our prayers. Even a $5.00 donation will…
Have they found El Dorado?
This might be slightly off-topic, but isn’t this cool? (And hey, anything medieval deserves a forum on the web.) Satelitte surveys of recently cleared land in the upper Amazon basin in Brazil have found evidence of a sophisticated pre-Columbian city that may date from the ninth century. Researchers believe this may be the fabled lost city of…
Is the Loch Ness Monster dead?
Researchers and fans of the extraordinary are despairing. The number of sightings of the Loch Ness Monster has tailed off dramatically in recent years, so much so that many think the famed creature may actually be dead. But did you know that the first recorded story about the Loch Ness monster is in the Vita…
“In course of time Britain received a third race …” or The Peoples of the North
Loch Crinan, gateway to Dunadd, the caput regionis of the Scots of Dál Riata There were four different peoples in Scotland in the early Middle Ages, speaking their own languages, with their distinctive material cultures, myths of origins, religions and ideologies. All have left significant legacies in the history and landscape of Scotland. The…
Iona
Paula de Fougerolles 2009 The island of Iona with the modern Abbey left foreground, Dun I center Iona, a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland, was a center of Christianity in Europe for much of the Middle Ages. Columba, or Colum Cille as he was known, exiled from…
Where in the world is Dál Riata?
Paula de Fougerolles 2009 Looking across Loch Crinan at Duntrune Castle from the Loch Crinan Hotel The early medieval kingdom of Dál Riata (or Dalriada, as it is now commonly known) comprises much of the modern Scottish region of Argyll and Bute. The original heartland of the kingdom of Scotland, this is the part…
Why this blog?
What’s a girl to do when she discovers that her heart lies in the Dark Ages? She hunts it down in whatever form it persists. Or, she re-creates her own version of it. Fact. And Fiction. Together. That’s what I’ve done in my forthcoming series of fictionalized history, set in sixth-century Scotland, called “The Chronicles…
Paula de Fougerolles' The Chronicles of Iona 