Grrr. Penmaenmawr. Grr.

Welsh words are improbably long and look difficult to pronounce. Thankfully, they are easy to type.

Penmaenmawr is a little town in the parish of Dwygyfylchi, in Northern Wales. There are a whole bunch of prehistoric sites located in and around this small town of less than 4000 people. This is because the hills around the area provided an ample supply of rock for a prehistoric axe making factory to be built in Cwm Graiglwyd. (The Welsh word Cwm means valley or combe, which is a special valley that's enclosed on all sides but one). The stone axes produced in this cwm were some of the best in prehistoric Britain.  These axe heads, like the one pictured to the right were very similar to the axeheads created in the Langdale axe industry.

The Langdale Axe Industry sprang up around what is now Great Langdale, England. This industry was roughly contemporaneous with the axes being produced in Penmaenmawr. In another similarity between these two areas, both seemed to like to produce megalithic structures, especially passage graves. Some of the axes made in Great Langdale and in Penmaenmawr have been found as far south as Cornwall. While this is merely speculation it would make sense that since all three of these areas are on the Western coast of the United Kingdom, that the interchange between these neolithic stone craftsman would have occurred by boats that dotted up and down the coast to facilitate trade. As is the usual case with trade, ideas and culture travel right along with the goods being transported. This could explain the similar architectural fascinations by people so far apart.

The landscape near Penmaenmawr is dotted with megalithic structures. About a half mile south of the quarry the neolithic Welsh used to make their famous axes they built a Meini Hirion, also known as a Druid's Circle. Right next to this Meini Hirion runs a contemporary road from the area of Conwy to Bwlch-y-ddeufaen, roughly nine miles of track that is only passable by foot nowadays. Back then that would have been silly to say because that was the only way to get around, unless of course all these Stone Circles actually happen to be teleportation devices. This road was likely used to carry goods from one village to another and facilitate some type of communal worship at the various meini hirion structures that are all over Wales. While Penmaenmawr has been relegated to a tiny little town in modern times, it was important enough throughout the ancient world to warrant the construction of one of the largest Iron-Age Hill Forts of Europe. The quarries around Penmaenmawr would once again bring a bit of life back into the area in the 19th century but as the quarrying business declined, the population and significance of the town did as well. Of course, its historical significance can never be diminished and it is for this reason it has received an illustrious blog post by a well renowned historian... me.

The Wonderful World of Megaliths

The Megalithic cultures of Europe (and elsewhere) decided that they, in their spare time would move massive rocks into a wonderful array of shapes and orders. Here is a quick overview of the various structures that these prehistoric peoples put up.

Dolmen

One of the most popular was a dolmen. A dolmen is a tomb that consists of a number of large rocks supporting a top table rock. They are found all over Europe. There are a number of great examples of Dolmens on the West Coast of Ireland, like the one pictured to the left.

Taula

A Taula is another table top structure similar to the dolmen. In fact the word Taula is table in Catalan. The Taulas are peculiar to the Talaiotic Culture that existed on the Balearic Islands off the coast of Spain.

Newgrange in Ireland

Another popular megalithic structure was a passage grave. These burial chambers were often positioned so that the entrance would receive direct sunlight on important dates, like the sunrise of the winter solstice or the sunset of the equinox.

Cairn

Cairns are stacks of rocks that are found all over Europe. Sometimes they were used as decorations around other megalithic structures. Other times though they had a functional purpose as well. In England and Ireland they were strategically placed near forts to make conquering it that much more difficult. In Scandinavia they were put along the coast so that people could see them from the sea as guide posts. In Iceland, like the one pictured, they were basically prehistoric road markers.

Grand Menhir Brisé

A menhir is a single standing stone. In the Northwest of France alone there are over 1200 menhirs, with  Brittany having some of the most fascinating menhirs on earth. At the village of Locmariaquer in Brittany once stood the Grand Menhir Brisé or Great Broken Menhir. It was put up sometime around 4700 BC to decorate the Table des Marchand (Merchant's Table) passage grave. When it was erected it stood over 67 feet high and weighed over 280 tonnes. If that wasn't impressive enough, the stone was quarried and carried to the spot from a few kilometers away. Somehow though the menhir came crashing to earth around 4000 BC and broke into four pieces. Some archeologists think that it was deliberately pulled down, while others think that its tumble was caused by an earthquake.

Swedish Stone Ship

There was also the construction of a stone ship. Basically a stone ship was a group of menhirs arranged in a way that it looks like the outline of a ship. These types of structures were mainly found in Scandinavian countries, Germany and the Baltic States. The ships varied from only a few meters to massive like the Jelling Stone ship in Denmark which is over 1100 feet long. The Jelling Stone Ship is interesting because it combines a number of eras of construction. The mound and ship were originally a bronze age burial, but King Harald Bluetooth extended it and built two giant burial mounds in it for his mom and dad. The pictures of this from an ariel shot are fairly interesting and you can check them out here. Pictured to the right is a stone ship that gives a much clearer representation of what we're talking about. This stone ship is the largest in Sweden and dates to around 200 AD.

There a whole host of other megalithic structures like the tumuli or kurgans (large burial mounds), cromlechs (a burial site that looks a lot like dolmens combined with a stone circle that is Welsh in origin), stone rows (rows of single stones in straight order) and of course, the stone circle. The most famous of stone circles is Stonehenge and we'll save that for its own post.

Today in History, the death of Olaf the Black

On today, May 21, we profile Olaf the Black, or Óláfr Guðrøðarson for three reasons. First, Olaf the Black died today 775 years ago. Second, we couldn't pass up profiling someone named ... "the Black". Third, we couldn't pass up profiling someone with so many odd characters in his name, Óláfr Guðrøðarson, out of 16 "letters" in his name, five are a pain in the but to type in English. Thus, we simply had to let everyone know about old Olaf.

Olaf was King of the Island of Mann (Isle of Man today), as well as territories on the Hebrides and the island of Lewis (present day Scotland) and other areas of modern Scotland and the U.K. Olaf had ties to Icelandic sources and Norway and are chronicled in both these countries vast histories, called sagas. Basically, Olaf was a viking, who spanned both the pagan and Christianization of the Vikings. His legacy at the time was as a lord of the Kingdom of the Isles, a kingdom made up of small islands in between Ireland and the modern day United Kingdom. His historical legacy though is as the father of a number of Scottish tribes, which is likely poppycock. Just like his famous sword, the Manx Sword of State, this tie to Olaf is probably mythological rather than factual.

The sword, though claiming to have belonged to Olaf, picked up sometime on a Christian pilgrimage to Spain, is likely to have been made in the 15th century, a few hundred years after the black had gone dark (died, for our readers not familiar with our heritage). Olaf though represents much of what the late viking age was. He was a raider that terrorized people all over the Atlantic. His journey to Spain, if it happened at all was probably an event that the contemporary Spanish didn't appreciate. It was probably accompanied by copious amounts of death, rape and plunder. But, in subsequent years it was turned into a pilgrimage where he visited the miracles of St. James (Santiago in Spanish). For me the Christian whitewashing of vikings is fascinating. It represents both a modern and historical ideal, that of a Christian warrior, a pious man that could still kick some booty. In many ways these Viking missionaries probably garnered the kind of fascination that early 20th century mob bosses get today in American pop culture. We idolize them for their lifestyles while simultaneously thanking God that we didn't have to survive their exploits. But, let's face it, the only reason I'm profiling him, aside from his terror inducing name, is because his exploits are worth noting nearly 800 years into the future and thus, 800 years into safety. Had I been writing this blog 800 years ago I likely would have profiled Hrolf, the farmer that lived on one of Olaf's isles because Hrolf posed to me no danger. Since though I'm nearly 810 years younger than Olaf, I can think he's cool. Had he been my contemporary I'd like to have thought him a bully, or worse a dictator to be feared. But this is the beauty of history. We can relive terrifying events in Hollywood cinemas and enjoy the historicity and dramatic elements of the story. And since we don't actually have to face the sword that inspired the impostor that is the Sword of Manx, we can enjoy the debate of what is historical and what is dramatic. Methinks that if I had told Olaf that I doth beleiveth his sword to be of dubious origin, my head might have been wrest from me shoulders.

A Supplement to the Paleolithic Podcast, the Creswellians

The Paleolithic Podcast, episode 2, was a 30 minute or so endeavor that covered nearly 2.6 million years of history. As such, it shouldn't be surprising that we missed a number of things to keep pace. As such, we're going back and plugging in the holes from time to time. This is one such plug.

The Creswellian Culture was a late Paleolithic, early Neolithic Culture in Central England. The main sites of this culture were found in the Creswell Crags, in Derbyshire. The Creswellian Culture seems to have been a local variant of the much larger Maglemosian Culture we talked about in the third episode of the podcast that covered the Mesolithic. We noted that the Maglemosians were one of the earliest Scandinavian cultures and were a big proponent of microlith technology. They were the first to invent the trident fishing spear. So, the Creswellian Culture wasn't all that unique at the time. So what gave the Creswellians their uniqueness has a much more modern flair to it.

The Creswellians were discovered by Dorothy Garrod and she first published about them in 1926. Since egalitarian societies tend to still be a struggle for the 21st century, an early 20th century academic publishing would have been intriguing enough for us here at the history of europe podcast blog. But, the Creswellian Culture publishing happened to be the very first of the young Garrod. She would later become the first woman to be elected as a professor at Oxbridge (a combination school of two of the most famous universities in the world, Oxford and Cambridge). This prestigious anecdote is fascinating enough, but Garrod's life reads much like a female version of Indiana Jones, save for the Nazi or Alien involvement. She worked in far flung regions of the world such as her native England, extensive work in Israel and east into Kurdistan.

So there you have a dose of necessary supplements to both the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods. In short summary, the Creswellian Culture was a Derbyshire branch of the larger Late Paleolithic/Early Mesolithic Maglemosian Culture that lived in the caves of the Creswell Crags some time between 13,000 and 11,500 years ago. They hunted, gathered and made microliths to achieve their goals. They died and were eventually found by a woman trendsetter in the early 20th century, only to sit idle until we (and a few other like minded history nerds post little blurbs about them to be read by tens of people).

On this day in history...the birthday of Charles Peace

Peace, after sipping on a bitter beer.

Ain't too often that this American gets to share a thing or to with a man confident enough to claim, and strong enough to prove, "I am not an American, I am the American." Unfortunately for me, another of Mark Twain's quotes suits me a bit more than this bravado. When Twain wrote, "Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid" might have been anticipating a post or two of mine. But, today, we celebrate the 180th birthday of Charles Peace on This Day in History here at the The History of Europe Podcast.

Charles Peace was born in Sheffield, England. His life of crime has been romantacized and retold in works that range from Sherlock Holmes to Mark Twain's final work, Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven. Peace was a strange fellow, but a pretty darn good burglar. He had a robbing and killing spree that would span England. For his crimes he'd spend time in penalty servitude and at prisons in London, Southeast England and even in Gibraltar. He spent some time stateside where he undoubtedly continued his crime spree, but we don't have any strong records of this. Its just that his character seemed to have demanded him steal something in his few years in America. Eventually, his burglary and murders to keep from getting caught would end up with him caught and executed.

Peace was a bit of a wild man. He staged dramatic robberies and shot wide at people to get them to leave him alone when his plans didn't quite go off as he imagined they would. When this warning shot didn't have the desired effect of creating cowardice in the police that pursued him, he'd shoot to kill. In this, he ended up getting an innocent man sentenced to death for one of his crimes. He was in the courtroom to see the guilty verdict. He did have a couple of endearing and redemptive qualities though. He taught himself to play the violin and in spite of only playing on one string, was a bit of a virtuoso at it. In a slightly redeeming quality, he did exonerate the lucky man who had been found guilty of his crime and luckily, the innocent dude's sentence had been changed to life in penal servitude. The innocent man was released after serving three hard years.

As he was going to his death he happened to pass a preacher that was "ministering" to the condemned. When the preacher nonchalantly read a passage about eternal damnation in his casual and disinterested way, Charles Peace looked at the man and said, "Sir, if I believed what you and the church of God say that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worth while living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that". It would seem that this pointed words did nothing to sap the apathy of the Church of England. For some reason I have this notion of lukewarm water and spewing come to mind...

On this day in History, The Thomas Blood Heist

In 1671 Thomas Blood, an Irish fighter named Thomas Blood decided that it was in his best interest to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Thomas Blood was born in County Clare, towards the Southwest of Ireland in 1618. He would play a part in the English Civil War, starting as a Royalist and eventually, conveniently switching to become a supporter of the Roundheads when it looked like the Parliament would win. At some point he decided to steal the crown jewels from the Tower of London. He undertook this venture on May 9, 1671.

St. Edward's Crown was
hammered to be flat by
Blood and his men so it
could fit in somebody's
trousers on the way out
of the Tower of London.

Prior to actually attempting the theft he had befriended the guard of the Crown Jewels. He went so far as to provide the guard with a promise of marriage for the guard's daughter that would include a nice little inheritance. Having tricked the old guard (he was in his 70's at the time), he entered the Jewel House with a number of accomplices who were aided by the use of canes. These canes were not necessary for the aid of walking, rather, they contained hidden swords, shanks and single shot pistols to aid the would be robbers. Once inside they clubbed the old guard and stabbed him before gagging him. Thomas Blood and his fellow cohorts then got their hands on St. Edward's Crown, the Sovereign's Orb and the Sceptre with the Cross and mangled them so that they would fit in their clothing in a concealed way.

The heist failed spectacularly. Blood was caught before leaving the Tower of London and his capture meant certain death. But in a weird twist of fate, Blood would be pardoned. His pardoning came because of two reasons, which may may or may not be mutually exclusive. It's possible that King Charles II decided to pardon Blood because Blood had a large enough following that King Charles II didn't want the headache that would follow Blood's execution or, that Charles II was so amused by the bodacious bungled burglary that he decided to pardon Blood on account of amusement. Much to the chagrin of English lords, Blood was not only pardoned but given land in Ireland and a title. Whoever said that crime doesn't pay was either lying or completely ignorant of this massive, albeit unsuccessful heist.

The heist was doomed, but daring enough to be celebrated centuries later. There have been 3 movies made about the theft, the most recent one being made in the 1960's. Given the current market of Hollywood it wouldn't surprise me if some epically terrible movie remake of this was in the works right now. But, in addition to awful 30's, 50's, 60's and subsequent remakes to come in the future, the heist inspired an incredibly nerdy board game called Outrage! The game basically has the objective to steal the crown jewels. It's not super fun. It's pretty lame in fact, but it's got a weird cult following. The following was popular enough that somebody decided that the game should include real jewels that were supposed to resemble the real crown jewels. This more expensive set retails for nearly $15,000, making it the world's most expensive board game. But, you can find it on eBay for about $19, minus the expensive jewels.

The Madness of Christopher Smart

On May 6, 1757 Christopher Smart was admitted, and by admitted I mean forced into, St. Luke's Hospital for Lunatics as a "Curable Patient". Christopher Smart was an English writer that began his poetic career very early on. At the age of four he penned a poem about how to defeat a rival to win the affections of a twelve year old girl. From this early start he began to craft a number of works that would eventually lead him to the lunacy hospital, a place that was undoubtedly unpleasant.

Smart's poetry was mostly of a religious nature, but he dabbled in other forms as well. He wrote a scathing mock epic poem called The Hilliad to critique and belittle another English author, John Hill. But picking on this botanist turned literary critic was not what landed him at St. Luke's. What landed him at the asylum was Smart's quarrels with his father-in-law, John Newbery. Newbery was a publisher and forced Smart into a 99 year contract that effectively forbade him to publish with anyone else. The stress of this contract seems to have led to a couple of possibilities, each of which could be explained as the Madness of Christopher Smart, that led to a new poetic style in his celebrated works Jubliate Agno and A Song to David. These poems left the normal styles of 18th century England and are seen as introducing a new and introspective religious fervor. Whatever the madness was, it helped Smart to write some pretty good poems.

Possibility #1 - Christopher Smart was a talented poet that received good remarks from fellow writers at the time, but the poetry was not sustaining him and his family. He decided to make a translation of Horace into English, a degrading and disappointing venture for someone who could write so well. This however didn't pay the bills either so he was signed by Newbery to write for a weekly publication for the remainder of his life. This literary imprisonment led to a nervous breakdown and he entered into various asylums that furthered his depression. Out of this depression came the two aforementioned works.

Possibility #2 - After not having the financial success he was hoping for and being forced into that draconian contract by his father-in-law, Smart took up drinking. The drinking would lead to bits of "madness" that ended up landing him in the asylums where he became depressed. The depression then produced the new poetry.

Possibility #2, corollary B - The drinking led him to have outbursts when he was drunk. His outbursts were expressed in signs of over-religious behavior. He took up praying without ceasing and interrupted meetings and gatherings with loud, drunken expressions of prayer. This embarrassed the crap out of his father-in-law. Newbery had him confined to the asylum as a punitive measure.

Possibility #3 - Failure led Smart to become intensely religious. He expressed his newly intense religious devotion publicly, leading to the stogy English becoming uncomfortable with his sensibilities. They used these outbursts to classify him with a curable madness. Smart indeed wrote, "for I blessed God in St. James' Park till I routed all the company...for the officers of the peace are at variance with me, and the watchman smites me with his staff" (Jubliate Agno). They locked him up because free religious expression is embarrassing and dangerous.

Possibility #4 - Smart was in fact, afflicted with madness.

Either way, the madness of Christopher Smart led his poem A Song to David to be regarded as the ramblings of a madman during his life and Jubliate Agno wasn't published until the 20th century. After this publication Smart's entire body of work was reassessed in a new light and this is when the madness of Christopher Smart was reassessed and his poetic genius was heralded anew. But, it still didn't make him any money...

On this day in history, the King James Bible

The Bible has been around for a few millennia in certain forms. The Old Testament has been held sacrosanct since before Jesus was born. The present rendition was put together around 300 AD. The canonization of the Scriptures is fascinating, but we'll broach the topic at a later date. The Old Testament was mostly written in Ancient Hebrew. The New Testament was largely written in Greek. Then it was translated into Latin. For a long time the Latin translation was the only option for Bible readers. This was rather unpalatable for the English who wanted a version for themselves.

The English had a go at the translation earlier than the King James Version. The Wycliffe Bible was published in the 15th century, but was banned. King Henry VIII had yet to split with the Church so most priests decided that an English version was not only unnecessary, but heretical. William Tyndale had a go at publishing the Bible in English in 1525 that served as King Henry VIII's template for the Great Bible. It also served as a template for the Geneva Bible, an English language Bible printed in Geneva, Switzerland by English ex-pats. The English not living life abroad however, wanted something English made. They produced the Bishop's Bible. The Bishop's Bible would go on to be the base text for the King James Bible we're talking about today.

The KJV was printed by Robert Barker, the Royal Printer in 1611. It sold for ten or twelve shillings depending on the binding. Barker was meticulous in his first printing, but subsequent printing produced the Wicked Bible. The Wicked Bible misquoted Scripture saying, "Thou shalt commit adultery". The Wicked Bible was destroyed, but countless humans have followed the mantra of the Wicked Bible, fornicating where ever and whenever they saw fit.

The KJV has been revised over the years, but it's initial publishing in 1611 marked a paradigm shift in the religious life of the faithful. For centuries, Christians relied on the Latin speaking clergy to relate to them in the common tongue the sayings of Jesus and the prophets that preceded him. The KJV marked the beginning of the end to a cleric dominated understanding of the Scriptures. It is for this reason that the printing of the KJV in 1611 makes us mark, this day in history....

On this day in History

Today is May 1, 2012. May 1 has a rich European History, one which has reverberations that we feel today. On May 1, 1707 the English and Scottish Parliaments decided to join together to form the Parliament of Great Britain. The idea had been in the works since at least 1606. The two separate nations had possessed kings that had ruled both kingdoms before. But this union brought about the Union of the Parliaments, a political coup for both sides.

Why is this important? Well, the Scottish referendum for independence is coming up probably next year. This would mark a divorce in a 300+ year marriage. The convergence hasn't always been an easy thing to maintain. Scots have every now and again called for independence. The English have long held some notion of cultural superiority over their northern neighbors. Sometimes this was prominent, other times the slight was completely made up on the Scottish side. Either way this helps us know why history matters. If the United Kingdom were to split, it could create some fairly difficult times for both nations. The English nuclear submarine fleet would have to leave the deep lochs of Scotland. This would likely mean that the Loch Ness Monster would be unleashed on the public. Scotland meanwhile would instantly face a currency crisis. Would they stick to the pound? Would they get automatic bid to the Euro? These are tough legal questions. If they didn't get that stalwart Euro they would find themselves in a monetary, but not fiscal union with England. Considering how well this has served Europe recently, this might not be a great idea. Either way, it was on this day in 1707, that the two Parliaments came together, and for this reason the Act of the Unions is our this day in history focus...