Gallowglass Mercenary concept
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Gallowglass Mercenary concept
13th February 862 Kenneth MacAlpin who united the Picts and Scots in one kingdom, died at Forteviot. His reign is given in the Pictish Chronicle as twenty eight years.
Kenneth, the son of Alpin went by a few names, Cináed mac Ailpín, Kenneth Mac Alpin, and Kenneth the Hardy, many regard him as the first King of Scotland.
Battling against Norse (Viking) raids, he brought some unification between the Gaels and the Picts to found a united kingdom of Alba or Scotia. The Picts had been weakened by incursions from the Vikings and Irish tribes who under Fergus Mor had settled in the area of Argyll. The term Scots came from the Latin Scotti which was Latin for Irish.
Kenneth was Dalriada son of King Alpin II of Dalriada and succeeded his father to the crown of Dalriada in 839 but he also had a claim to be King of the Picts through his mother, he was however not the only claimant to the Pictish throne.
The Picts agreed to a meeting with Mac Alpin at Scone, attended by all claimants to the Pictish Crown, Now this story is a bit far fetched but it is a story none the less of what is said to have happened at that meeting, it has since been referred to as Mac Alpin’s treason.
The leading Pict Claimant, Drust X and his nobles were all killed by the Scots: allegedly (and improbably) by having their booby-trapped benches collapsed so Kenneth’s rivals plunged into pits in the floor and impaled themselves on spikes set there for the purpose.
Suddenly there was only one claimant for the Pictish Crown, and Kenneth was crowned King of the Picts and the Scots in 843. He was the first King of the House of Alpin, the dynasty named after his father. Kenneth made his capital at Forteviot, a small village 5 miles south west of today’s Perth. He also moved the religious focus of his kingdom from Iona, where he was said to have been born, to Dunkeld, and had St Columba’s remains moved there in 849, perhaps for safe keeping from the continuing Vikings raids.
Kenneth MacAlpin was succeeded by Donald MacAlpin/ Domnall mac Ailpín his brother.
Don’t pay much attention to the pic,s they are mainly from the 17th century, truthfully we have know way of knowing what he looked like.
Should this Celt be blue?
An irish-dress-history game.
I've been researching the actual historical evidence behind the idea that ancient Insular Celts painted or tattooed themselves blue, and I thought it would be fun to make a game out of it. Below are various depictions of this idea along with the culture and date they are supposed to be depicting. The game is to guess whether each use of body paint or tattoos is supported by actual historical evidence. Answers are in the image descriptions.
(Note: This game is not intended to mock or criticize the artists and costume designers of any of these works. Good information on this topic is hard to find, and movie creators and artists frequently have goals other than historical accuracy. I am mocking Mel Gibson though, because f*** that guy.)
1 A 'Woad' (ie Pict) from 5th c. Britain. 2. Tattooed Irish warrior in 1170
3. A Medieval Scottish lord 4. Iceni Queen Boudica c. 60 CE
5. Ancient? Ireland 6. Britons during the time of Julius Cesar
7. Picts in 149 CE 8. Scots in 1297
How many did you get right?
7-8
4-6
1-3
I was just guessing for all of them.
Bibliography:
Hoecherl, M. (2016). Controlling Colours: Function and Meaning of Colour in the British Iron Age. Archaeopress Publishing LTD, Oxford. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Controlling_Colours/WRteEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
MacQuarrie, Charles. (1997). Insular Celtic tattooing: History, myth and metaphor. Etudes Celtiques, 33, 159-189. https://doi.org/10.3406/ecelt.1997.2117
Sooooo... I've had a thought for a while. How awesome would it have been if they had let Colin Morgan keep actual his Irish accent to remind ppl that he wasn't originally from Camelot? Like, maybe it becomes subtler as the seasons go on but it's always there and when he gets tired or angry the lilt would come out FULL FORCE and ppl that didn't know or forget would be like, yo wtf???
(Headcanon Masterlist) (Full Masterlist)
Ok so I rarely answer asks as soon as I see them but
Anon
I DEDICATE AT LEAST HALF AN HOUR OF EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY THINKING ABOUT MERLIN WITH AN ACCENT!!!!
Like.... I'm turning this into a headcanon set because I need to think about this right now (if someone else wants to expand it that's fine, or if it's popular enough, I'll add it to the next List update).
ANYWAY!!!
The Celts of Ancient Ireland
The first historical record of the Celts was by the Greeks about 700 BC, the Celts were a loose grouping of tribes that lived in an area north of the Alps around the Danube river in central Europe. Over the next few hundred years they spread east and west across Europe. The Celts first arrived in Ireland about 500 BC, there is no reliable information on how or when the Celts became the dominant…
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"The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.” - G.K. Chesterton
I think his last name may have been Gilmore when he was recruited.