A map of the Milky Way galaxy in the style of a 16th century cartographer I was looking for maps of our galaxy, and realised I couldn’t really find any. There are plenty of diagrams and artists impressions, but all focus in showing what our galaxy would actually look like from above. All very literal, […]
History
British and Irish words for British and Irish nations
Infographics mapping out the various origins and etymologies of the names of seven British and Irish nations in the seven main languages of those nations. Before we get into the etymology, you may want to make sure you’re familiar with what all these words actually refer to. Here’s my post about how to use these […]
The Ba Green: the land that Scotland won in a football game
Everybody loves weird borders right?Here’s my favourite: This is the Ba Green, a 3 acre meadow on the English side of the River Tweed that, for no clear reason, belongs to Scotland.Well, it turns out the reason is pretty unusual:Scotland won it in a football game!But this wasn’t football like you think of it today: […]
Dyēus Phter: The Original Sky-Father
The Greek, Roman, Irish, Slavic, Baltic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and Hindu sky-father gods are (probably) all connected, and descended from an ancient sky-father god worshipped 6000 years ago. Okay, maybe “The Original Sky-Father” is a bit of an overstatement. Patriarchal gods of the sky are found in religions all over the world, and humans have probably […]
The difference between Britain, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and the British Isles
…and how to talk about them without offending people The history of Britain and Ireland is long, complicated and horribly messy, and as a result, lots of people get the words that describe the region mixed up. As well as being inaccurate, misusing these words can cause a lot of offence, so it’s important to […]
England Could Have Been Sexland
Here, have some history! England was formed by 2 major groups from what is now northern Germany: the Angles, from the Anglia Peninsula; and the Saxons, from Saxony. There were also the Jutes, from what’s now Denmark. The Saxons settled southern England, founding the Kingdoms of Wessex (West-Saxons), Essex (East-Saxons) and Sussex (South-Saxons). The Angles […]
Hausos: The Original Dawn Goddess
This is number 2 in a series I’m writing about Proto-Indo-European deities. For part one, click here: Perkwunos: the Original Thunder God The Anglo-Saxon, Lithuanian, Roman, Greek and Hindu dawn goddesses are (probably) all related, and descended from an ancient goddess worshipped 6000 years ago. Hausos: The Proto-Indo-European Dawn Goddess We have no writing or records […]
Perkwunos: The Original Thunder God
The Celtic, Irish, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Baltic, Slavic, and Hindu thunder gods are (probably) all connected, and descended from an ancient thunder god worshipped 6000 years ago. The Proto-Indo-Europeans About six thousands years ago, somewhere on the border between Europe and Asia, there lived a people called the Proto-Indo-Europeans . They spoke the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language, […]
Every Native British and Irish Language
There are hundreds languages spoken in Britain and Ireland. However, only a handful are native languages, which have evolved in the region over hundreds of years. For my full post mapping the history of languages in the region, click on the link below: A Brief History of British and Irish Languages I made this post […]
A Brief History of British and Irish Languages
Two charts and seventeen maps, showing how the languages of Britain and Ireland have changed since the Roman rule of Britannia ended 1600 years ago! First, check out this GIF I made! When most people think of the languages of Britain and Ireland, they probably think of English. It’s the language pretty much everybody speaks, […]