The Celts occupied Britain from circa seven hundred and fifty BC. Their descendants are to be found in the Cornish, Welsh, Irish, Scottish and Isle of Man peoples. They were a persecuted race that were driven from their homelands by a combination of overseas invaders.  The final straw came with the invasion by the Angles and Saxons.  Our narrative concerns one of the remaining clans of Celts being driven westwards.  Our heroine, Aerona, daughter of a clan chief, has the dream of creating a country of their own in South West England. 

This is how it happened.

Enjoy, Simon.

The cover image is by courtesy of Pixabay.

This book is dedicated to my son Simon.

Much of the background information around which this novel is based was obtained from various sources on the Internet, too many to name individually. I have taken the information at face value after attempting to check it and where there have been contradictions I have taken what I thought to be the most probable. Various articles covering the following subjects:

Celtic, Saxon, Cornish and Gaelic names.

English topography in the fifth century.

The Druids position in Celtic culture, their purpose and customs.

Saxon way of life, the lords and thanes, clothing, feasting, farming and fighting techniques and weaponry.

Roundhouses in the Iron Age.

Celtic way of life, where they lived, how they lived what they ate, customs, clothing and weapons.

The habits and habitation of wolves in England in the fifth century.

Finally, I wish to acknowledge the never-ending support and encouragement of my wife, Robyn and my daughter Sarah; and to Amazon and Kindle Self Publishing who made this book a physical possibility.

Enjoy, Simon

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England. It was built and rebuilt in several stages. Although the Celts and druids knew of Stonehenge’s existence, they didn’t use it. They believed it to be an ancient burial ground and consequently it was thought the arches were the gateway to the Other Life. Any Celts passing by, gave it a wide berth in case they were inadvertently drawn in. The druids, the Celtic holy men, preached a religion that was closely tied to nature and natural law. They worshipped gods in sacred places found in natural locations such as rivers, trees and mountains rather than man made structures. The sun, moon and the stars played an especially important role, as the Celts thought they were supernatural. 

The Celts occupied Britain from circa 750BC. Their descendants are to be found in the Cornish, Welsh, Irish, Scottish and Isle of Man peoples. Although they were a persecuted race, much of their demise was their own fault because they never united when it mattered. They were warmongers and if there were no war going on at the time, they started one. They couldn’t stop fighting amongst themselves.

It was the Romans’ discipline that started the Celts’ downfall. Even though they were ferocious fighters, they were gradually driven out of central Britain and towards the hills of Wales and Cornwall. When the Romans left Britain, in about 400AD, the Celtic people who had survived, were threatened by the Angles in the east and the Saxons who were coming in through the area now known as Southampton. The pagan Germanic tribes, the Angels and Saxons, were similar and came from overlapping regions. Their language and culture were almost identical and they later became known jointly as the Anglo-Saxons. The invaders who were driving the Celts westward in this account were the Saxons.

In the Celtic clans, women had equal status to men and could choose with whom they mated. They could also be war leaders. Tacitus, a senator and historian of the Roman Empire, said that Celtic women were as large and frightening as the men. The Celtic men were strongly influenced by their women. Although Celtic women were said to be beautiful, many men still preferred to sleep together. This greatly diluted the sexual dominance of the male Celt. As the women were of similar size and build to men, male physical dominance was not significant either.

The Celts in this narrative lived in round houses. The walls were made of straw and mud and the roof was a primitive thatch made of straw and twigs. Although there is no written record of their method of measurement it can be assumed it was closely aligned to their natural environment.  They understood the phases of the moon and the twelve full moons a year wikd have divided their time into twelve months. They followed the movement and position of the sun and would know that the sun was highest when the cays were longer and the weather warmer. Similarly when the sun was low, the days were shorter and the weather colder.  Bu assessing the position of the sun in the sky they would be able to predict what season was approaching. They would know that the time between sunrise and high noon was the same as the time between high noon and sunset.  This would give them an indication of the length of the day and parts of a day.

Distance would be measured by a step, stride or pace.  There were three foot lengths in a pace. Smaller measurements would relate to parts of the body.  The distance between the joint of the thumb and the end of the thumb would be regarded as one twelfth the length of a foot. Longer distances would be measured in leagues.  This was how far a person could walk in an hour, about three miles. Height was measured by the breadth of the palm of the hand, about four inches. The average man and woman was between sixteen and seventeen hands or five foot six inches.

They knew where the sun set and rose and by vigilance and observation they knew where the sun would rise and set each day.  This gave them an east west axis.  They usually carried their swords in their right hands and their shields in the left.  When facing west the sword hand pointed north and the shield hand south. This gave them an indicator for direction.

Celtic men would wear a tunic with a belt, a cloak and trousers. Women wore dresses fastened with brooches. Archaeologists have found gold, silver, bronze and iron jewellery. The heads of the tribe would wear a neck piece of gold, silver, bronze or iron to show how important they were. These neck pieces were called torcs.

The Celts had great respect for the human head as they saw it as the emotional centre of the body. Roman historians say the Celts cut off the heads of their ancestors, and even their enemies, and worshipped the skulls.

Children were often looked after by foster parents and once weaned, the birth mother would not treat them in any special way.

This novel shows, through a small window in time, the Celtic violent and brutal way of life and is set in the year 476AD. The Romans have left and the Celts now face the threat from the Angles, Saxons and from themselves. The terms Celt, Angles, Saxons and Anglo-Saxons are used throughout this narrative, even though they weren’t introduced until centuries later by historians.

Geographically, the Saxon invasion, relative to this account, came in through what is now Southampton. The narrative starts in Hampshire where our protagonist’s village was attacked by a Saxon army and her parents and siblings were killed. From there, the clan was driven west through Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, Devon and into Cornwall.