New Celtic book and new website

juleswatson · Post by **juleswatson** » Mon February 23rd, 2009, 8:12 pm

Hi everyone,

My new book The Swan Maiden is published in the US and Canada tomorrow by Bantam Dell. It's a loose retelling of the famous Irish myth of Deirdre of the Sorrows, sometimes known as the Irish Helen of Troy, in that her beauty supposedly brought down a kingdom. This is straying more into myth territory than my previous novels about Roman-era Scotland, so is classed as historical fantasy, though I do ground the lifestyles in Iron Age Celtic archaeology / history. It's available on Amazon UK as well.

I have also launched a new website, sharing lots about the inspiration behind my novels - new cover is on the front page.

I want to include links to as many of your sites and HF blogs as I can, but without trawling through the forum for days - is there a centralized list? - if you'd like me to put in a link to your site please send me a message or email me. The links list needs more work, but I just had to get the site live so will tinker with it more shortly.

Thanks!!!

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Mon February 23rd, 2009, 9:44 pm

I have to say I am looking forward to the book. I didn't realize it was coming out so soon.

Thanks for the reminder.

Christina · Post by **Christina** » Mon February 23rd, 2009, 10:35 pm

Hi Jules, your site is very interesting and may I say that in the frequently asked questions section, was one that was at the forefront of my mind! How does someone growing up in Australia love the Celts - from these wet and windy regions! Then, reading your love of watching the rain to cello music....sounds very un-Australian!

.

May I ask, as I am fascinated by the Celts but not sufficiently knowledgeable about them, do you consider 'Celt' to be Irish/Scottish or equally English. The term is often applied to the Scots and Irish, but I believe - being English and of a Celtic heart

- that, when the Romans came to England, they were met by 'English' Celts. Wasn't Boudicca a Celt (of sorts)? Was Glastonbury a Celtic/Druid place and is there a difference between Celts and Druids? Northumberland - one of my favourite places in the country - 'feels' Celtic...

Anyway, congratulations on your new book! May it be a best seller!

Carla · Post by **Carla** » Mon February 23rd, 2009, 10:35 pm

Congratulations! I first came across the Deirdre legend in Glen Etive - a place that ought to have a romantic legend attached if ever there was one

There's a thread with members' websites and blogs in it here: http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/ ... d.php?t=28
If I haven't pasted that in properly, it's under Information and then Links, and is called "Websites, blogs, etc". I don't know if everybody has posted their links there, but certainly a lot of people have and it will give you a start.

juleswatson · Post by **juleswatson** » Mon February 23rd, 2009, 10:42 pm

[quote=""Carla""]Congratulations! I first came across the Deirdre legend in Glen Etive - a place that ought to have a romantic legend attached if ever there was one

[/quote]

Oh my goodness, I live just a stone's throw from Glen Etive, and that is indeed where the book is set. I love it, it's a lonely, majestic, stunning place just off the more famous Glencoe.

Thanks for the info on blogs!

annis · Post by **annis** » Mon February 23rd, 2009, 11:00 pm

Congratulations, Jules

I think the last take of the Deidre legend i read was in George Green's "Hound". I'll be looking forward to your version.

annis · Post by **annis** » Mon February 23rd, 2009, 11:05 pm

Christina, I'm not an expert, but yes, the Celtic tribes were present throughout Britain at the time of the Roman invasion. When the Romans withdrew from Britain around four centuries later, the Germanic Anglo-Saxon tribes moved in, and over time pushed the Celts back to the edges- Scotland, Wales and Cornwell.
There's a bit of basic history here:
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/C ... ritain.htm
and here
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/Pla ... raphID=dkz

Carla · Post by **Carla** » Mon February 23rd, 2009, 11:06 pm

[quote=""juleswatson""]Oh my goodness, I live just a stone's throw from Glen Etive, and that is indeed where the book is set. I love it, it's a lonely, majestic, stunning place just off the more famous Glencoe.

Thanks for the info on blogs![/quote]

Do you? My word, that is remote. I am slowly collecting the hills in Glen Etive, but still have quite a few more to go!

juleswatson · Post by **juleswatson** » Mon February 23rd, 2009, 11:13 pm

[quote=""Christina""]May I ask, as I am fascinated by the Celts but not sufficiently knowledgeable about them, do you consider 'Celt' to be Irish/Scottish or equally English. The term is often applied to the Scots and Irish, but I believe - being English and of a Celtic heart

- that, when the Romans came to England, they were met by 'English' Celts. Wasn't Boudicca a Celt (of sorts)? Was Glastonbury a Celtic/Druid place and is there a difference between Celts and Druids? Northumberland - one of my favourite places in the country - 'feels' Celtic...[/quote]

Hi Christina, a complicated question... Most scholars don't like the word Celt (but I'm not a scholar, ha) Nor am I an expert, and I'm sure you'll get some different and knowledgeable opinions from others on this forum. But scholars mostly don't think the "Celts" were one people, just a collection of tribes spread from mid-Europe to the UK and Ireland. They do seem to have shared some styles of art, and probably language, but most academics don't consider they were related as one people ethnically / genetically. Celt comes from "Keltoi" which is only what the Greeks called a few specific tribes in mid-Europe. So Celt can't be used as a blanket term, though most people like me do use it as shorthand. From a mix of Roman and Greek sources, art styles and place names, there does seem to be some elements of common culture across those areas, such as weaponry and jewellery, house styles, gods' names. The Romans reported that the priests of these Celtic tribes were called druids, probably a native Celtic word. The Romans called the Celtic people they met in England and Wales Britons, and most people use that and say Boudicca, coming from England, was a Briton. When the Anglo-Saxon language and culture later pushed across the UK, the people still speaking Celtic languages were only left near the fringe - Wales, Cornwall, Scotland and Ireland, which is why people say these are Celtic areas. But yes, all of the UK was Celtic if you look at it that way, before the Anglo-Saxon changeover. When they did all these genetic studies they found most people's genes go back very early in the UK. The exceptions were some areas in Eastern England that showed Anglo-Saxon genes, and areas in the north-east (possibly Northumberland, can't remember) that were settled by the Norse. So there's a good chance most people in the UK are Celtic somewhere or another. Yay! See, told you it was complicated. Now I'm off to bed!

Carla · Post by **Carla** » Mon February 23rd, 2009, 11:31 pm

[quote=""annis""]Christina, I'm not an expert, but yes, the Celtic tribes were present throughout Britain at the time of the Roman invasion. When the Romans withdrew from Britain around four centuries later, the Germanic Anglo-Saxon tribes moved in, and over time pushed the Celts back to the edges- Scotland, Wales and Cornwell.
There's a bit of basic history here:
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/C ... ritain.htm
and here
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/Pla ... raphID=dkz[/quote]

A word of warning, there's considerable disagreement about how much population replacement actually happened. The academic pendulum swings, and I think at the moment the prevailing view is that the number of Germanic immigrants was fairly small and what happened was largely a change of language and culture. I lean to this view myself. Massive population replacement is pretty difficult to achieve without either superior technology or a new disease, and there's no reason to think the Germanic peoples had either. The Germanic tribes had been trading with the Roman Empire and serving in the Roman army for ages, so any diseases would presumably have been shared back and forth as well. But culture can change in a few years or a few generations, and when you dig up the archaeology material culture is what you get. We find a girl buried wearing a pair of square-headed brooches and a string of beads and say "Ah-ha, Anglo-Saxon!", but there's no reason she had to have been born in Germany, she could just as easily have been a local girl who liked the new fashion. We can't tell.

There's also a very interesting theory that there may have been some people speaking a form of English living in what's now England before the Romans arrived. In other words, although Celtic-speaking tribes were present throughout Britain, it may be that not everybody was Celtic-speaking.

Complicated and uncertain..... as usual for early medieval Britain