They Care…... From **** To Multiple Wonders…..Orcadian Normans?....
by Bernie Bell - 09:41 on 23 March 2024
They Care ….….but not enough to pay postage!
Yesterday morning two election ‘flyers’ came through our door – both including questionnaires in which the public can give their views on local and national Government. The Lib-Dem one can be filled in, folded and posted for free. The Tory one says - in red type - that ‘You must attach a stamp’.
Absolutely no comment is needed from me!
I filled in the Lib-Dem one and posted it – the Tory one went straight to re-cycling.
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From **** To Multiple Wonders….
This blog by Jackie Morris has so much good stuff in it – it’s a wonder it doesn’t just BURST!
A smallbear…. a curvy rock-face….a feckin’ awesome sea-cave….doves & mazes….oak gall ink - imagine - ink made from oak-galls!
Phew – take a look…
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Orcadian Normans?....
My old friend Julian de la Motte-Harrison has written two novels about the Norman Conquest of Britain. I’ve previously mentioned this in m’blog, as follows….
“‘Senlac’……
I’m not usually keen on historical novels. In my youth I read a lot of Georgette Hayer - but that wasn’t so much for the history as the romance…. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgette_Heyer . However, I thought I’d have a go at reading an historical novel by an old friend from Uni – ‘Senlac’ by Julian de la Motte…
https://bookviralreviews.com/book-reviews/best-historical-fiction-books-uk-senlac-book-1/
Julian has an interesting history of his own. His ancestress the Countess De La Motte fled the French Revolution, taking with her a family treasure - a thorn from the crown of thorns which was placed on the head of Christ. Julian now has that thorn – a direct link, if not proven to be with Jesus, then with the French Revolution and an ancestress who became an emigrant.
Emigrants – people - make history – whether the ‘little’ people or the ‘big nobs’.
The main characters in ‘Senlac’ aren’t just big nobs, they’re aggressive, argumentative big knobs and they didn’t migrate to find a better life for themselves and their families or to avoid danger - they crossed the English channel to conquer and take over – and, as history tells us, they did so very successfully.
For me, they’re equal in bad attitude and sheer nastiness with the Vikings – not surprising, as they are Norse-men – Normans. I’ll quote from the ’Wikipedia’ entry for Normans…
‘The English name "Normans" comes from the French words Normans/Normanz, plural of Normant,[17] modern French normand, which is itself borrowed from Old Low Franconian Nortmann "Northman"[18] or directly from Old Norse Norðmaðr, Latinized variously as Nortmannus, Normannus, or Nordmannus (recorded in Medieval Latin, 9th century) to mean "Norseman, Viking".[19]’
Not my kind of people at all, but I thought I’d give is a try as Julian has a quick wit and an individual view of life which might come through even when writing of a right bunch of bastards – which, to my mind, is what the conquering Normans were.
I’m of Irish blood, and that Norman attitude – big, blocky towers dominating the landscape - doesn’t chime with me, at all. I like roundness – curves, soft lines. Starting the book with a prejudiced view? Moi?
Maybe it’s for Julian to talk me round and get me to take an interest in these psychos.”
And so, I was interested to read in ’The Orcadian’ of the 21st of March, that a Medieval triptych has been donated to The Orkney Museum and that the story told thereon describes how the Normans of France might have had a strong connection with Orkney!
It will take some time to organize the transfer of the triptych from Italy to Orkney, and meanwhile I’ll send the relevant page from the ‘Orcadian’ to Julian, who might include the Orkney Normans in his next novel!
For more info. about the triptych – maybe best to contact The Orkney Museum, Tankerness House…
https://www.orkneymuseums.co.uk/our-museums/the-orkney-museum/
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