SAXON QUEST -The Dark Age Story set in Britain of 567 AD

Read the epic Dark Age novel Saxon Quest. Set in West Britain during the year 567 AD. Saxon Migration pushes further west across the British Isles. The Christian Romano-Celts decide to make a stand against the pagan English tribes.

Read Saxon Quest by C.A. Powell

    

Historical Thriller of Two Tribes Going to War.

Dark Age Britain pf 567 AD - Saxon Migrants battle Romano Britons.

Saxons of Dark Age Britain confront Romano Celts in 567 AD. A historical thriller of two tribes at war. The aims of the aggressor and the resolve of the defender come together in a bitter clash of steel and shield.

Read: Saxon Quest.

Did Saxons Destroy King Arthur's Kingdom When he Died?

I believe the legend of King Arthur comes from fact - he once existed, but I'm not sure if it was during the Dark Ages because Roman culture Britons would have been literate after four hundred years of speaking Latin. It does not seem feasible that Angle, Saxon, and Jutish kings were known of from the supposedly pagan English times, yet the learned Celtic Britons have no substantial record of the real King Arthur, the Arthur knights, the Arthur sword, Merlin the wizard, and of course the round table. I   am no long sure of King Arthur of Cornwall and his queen, Guinevere living during the Dark Ages. After all, these were the ones who could put pen to paper at this time.

I have recently become sceptical of this mass migration of Anglo-Saxon tribes suddenly arriving in Britain when the Romans abandoned the Isle. I have seen documentaries where Saxon sites have been dug up and DNA samples of bones suggest Britons predominantly living in Saxon sites. This throws so many things into confusion and even the evolving of English language, from Frisian or what Dutch people speak.

Some historians of language think it was adopted with heavy British (ancient Welsh) influence. How this was explained was a little beyond me, but there seems to be a general agreement that pagan English tribes were already in the south east of Britain or speaking such a dialect when Rome still ruled. Were these people Christian because by this time Romans and Britons were? Names of Teutonic Gods would suggest that there was a pagan belief, but not the old British Druid system of religion. Therefore this Teutonic religion must have been imported. There are so many unanswered questions especially skeletons of Saxon settlements being mainly Briton in DNA testing.

However, as said previously, much of the DNA is still Celtic British. I wonder if Arthur and his legend were old even during these times - a folk tale back then and perhaps Saxons, Angles and Jutes replaced Romans as the enemy of Arthur's kingdom. I honestly think this mythical king of Celtic Britons was around before, English language or pagan English tribes were in Britain.

Perhaps Angles, Saxons, and Jutes speaking a strange tongue and believing in an un-Christian religion would have found themselves ostracised by Romanised Britons who were literate in Latin. Why write off these people yet not Arthur? I think he would be much more chronicled if he lived in the Dark Ages.

This is the reason I did not mention such a British Celtic King by name in the novel Saxon Quest. I think two cultures clashed in Dark Age Britain, but I can't commit to there being a King Arthur of this time. I believe he goes much further back.

Marianne Faithfull

I fell in love with Marianne when I was an adolescent. I saw her in a film called Girl on a Motorcycle and I suddenly started realising that women were rather attractive. I felt a strong Wow! factor for her and could not quite work out why I should feel like a caveman who wanted to go out and hunt dragons.

I remember going to school the next Monday and we were all full of it; "Did you see Girl on a Motorcycle." It was an awakening of young male testosterone and suddenly came the teenage years - you know what I mean. Mood swings, pimples and used tissues. I was male, shallow and loving it - well... just a bit.

Freddie and the Dreamers - I'm Telling You Now

I remember this one as a kid. It was in my Mum and Dad's record collection. I used to have a girlfriend who always used that title sentence as well. She often started by saying: "I'm telling you now..." and then it was followed by nagging or scolding about something. 

It used to make me laugh, because I would think of Freddie and the Dreamers and start singing this song in response. She used to get more wound up. 

France in difficult situation in West Africa over French Hostages

France is in the grip of a very delicate and difficult situation in West Africa. Many of her nationals have been taken hostage. So too have Britons.

Does any American US Air Force Person Know Vietnam Vet Ronald Black

Ronald Black 1947 - 2001 Veitnam Vet US Air Force

Sometimes, I was work in a cemetery in Essex, England, UK. It is a strange place at times and one comes across all sorts of things. You learn about the robins who are extremely territorial and quite vicious little things. The graves are lined headstones with privet hedge borders running around the entire perimeter and each robin has its own section of shrub and area of ground beyond which it defends against intruders. When we dig graves; the robins like to come close and search the dirt mound for worms. It is all part of nature and we become quite accustomed to the robins, as they do us grave diggers.

The graves tell all sorts of stories and some are rather tragic, while others talk of long life, asking questions of what the deceased might have seen during their lives. Sometimes, I come across a grave that causes one to wonder. The headstone above is of an American person called Ronald Black. I could not help but take a photo because I wondered, how he came to be buried in this quite little graveyard in Hockley, Essex, England. Perhaps he was a Brit who was in the US Air Force?

Ronald Black was born on 1st of April 1947 and died on his 54th birthday - 1st April 2001. He was in the US Air Force and fought in the Vietnam War. This would not be unusual for an American born in the late 1940s of course, but where he lived after, and died at such a young age afterwards, in England does seem strange to me. He might have old Vietnam Vet friends in the USA who remember him from the late sixties while serving in his nation's air force during the Vietnam War. So, in a way, this blog is here for any Vietnam veteran American who might have known Ronald Black while in the US Air Force. He rests in peace in Hockley, Essex, England, UK 

The Last Days Of Thunder Child by C A Powell - Book Reviews

For reviews on Amazon.com USA please click here and scroll down.

By Brian on February 5, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

2:48 0:02 JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303120152014201320122011201020092008200720062005200420032002200120001999199819971996199519941993199219911990198919881987198619851984198319821981198019791978197719761975197419731972197119701969196819671966196519641963196219611960195919581957195619551954195319521951195019491948194719461945194419431942194119401939193819371936193519341933193219311930192919281927192619251924192319221921192019191918191719161915191419131912191119101909190819071906190519041903190219011900 Length: 2:48 Mins

Novels like this are like a painting inside of a painting, or a painting inside someone else's painting. C A Powell does a great job in both stepping into Wells world and handling the sea battle, which is probably the most challenging kind of battle to write. For more detail watch the video I made. For a buck this book is definitely worth it. I got at least seven out of it.

What would it have been like for the crew of HMS Thunder Child? The fictitious ship from the War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. 

I had a fascination with Victorian ironclads and the first revolving turret ships. These steel beasts of the British Empire never really saw action of note because during this day and age, the Royal Navy was very advanced with many ships to call upon to serve its vast empire. It was never put to the test until the time of the dreadnoughts in WWI. There was a 100 year period when Great Britain's navy cruised, at will, around the entire planet. Nothing of substance could face it upon our Earth. Nothing of note did. These wonderful ships came and went during that period of peace at sea, for Great Britain.

Then, to my delight, I read H.G.Wells' fabulous SciFi novel set in the Victorian era. This author created the ultimate for me. Nothing on Earth could face this proud navy. So he brought us 'off world aliens' from Mars in gigantic machines that roamed, at will, on three legs. The story contained a small exert of an old ironclad called HMS Thunder Child. It lasted but half a page within the novel, but gave me cause to wonder.

I wanted the ship (Thunder Child) to be like HMS Devastation or HMS Thunderer the sister ship. They were among the first revolving turrets ships without sails. I wanted the old fictitious ironclad (HMS Thunder Child) to be like one of these. It would have been built in 1971 and therefore would be old by 1898. For poetic licence I wanted it to have retained its muzzle loading guns with short stumpy barrels that barely protruded from the revolving turret's ports. I needed to invent a reason for the old (and by this time) obsolete guns to still be in use. Muzzle loaders were changed for long barrel breech loaders across the Royal Navy in the 1880s decade, after a terrible accident with HMS Thunderer.

All this was created to give fictitious HMS Thunder Child an excuse to still have the muzzle loaders, years after them becoming obsolete in the Royal Navy. It lent the ship a vulnerability, to my mind, as I decided to write a pastiche novel set in H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds Universe. I wanted to go aboard Thunder Child in the days prior to her encounter with three Martian tripods in the River Blackwater, off the Coast of Maldon in Essex, England, UK. The River Blackwater is a small tributary that leads out into the North Sea. What happened in the days leading up to the dramatic event?

Writing - The Last Days of Thunder Child - a pastiche story 

It took me upon a fantasy of my own and an enjoyable adventure. It was a wonderfully engrossing project. If anyone reads H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds or even listens to Jeff Wayne's musical adaptation of the book, they will delight in the tale of Thunder Child's grand moment as the brave ironclad attacks the Martians to save a paddle steamer crammed with refugees.  I decided to go back a few days hence the confrontation, and join the crew upon its journey that would lead to the ultimate meeting. 

Images below of Thunder Child and HMS Devastation - the way I imagined the ficticious ship from War of the Worlds.

Artist impression of Thunder Child

Model of HMS Devastation

Another view of HMS Devastation

Artist's impression of HMS Devastation in Malta

Impression of Thunder Child battling Martian tripods

Jeff Wayne's artist does a great image of Thunder Child.

To enjoy The Last Days of Thunder Child - a pastiche from War of the Worlds please check out.

Skull and Cross Bone Old English Grave

I was strimming the grass of the graveyard in Rayliegh church in Essex today - 16th May 2012. We came upon this grave with a skull and crossbone on. The grave stone is unusually close to the church wall. At first we thought it might be an old plague victim, but there are several of these gavestones in Paglesham in Essex - another parish within Rochford where I work. They (Skull and Crossbone graves) are used inside Paglesham church as floor pavements and are in better condition. They are obviously taken from their graveyard for I doubt people are buried inside the village church beneath the walkway. I have since learnt that skull and crossbone graves were very common in the 1600 to the 1760. The one in Rayliegh Church graveyard is dated 1730, but is so worn it is hard to decipher. I think it is symbolic of the dead person communicating with the reader - a message saying 'the way I am' - as in deceased at this moment. I think some of the words of this grave read: Here Lyeth the Body of Me. REBE KAH MERRYFIELD. WIFE OF THO MERRYFIELD. Departed life March -- 1730.

I presume REBE KAH means Rebecca or a strange spelling of. I am sure she is not a plague victim now and it can't be anything criminal because in 1730 I think criminals were not allowed to be buried on church ground. Therefore, I am of the opinion that it means something personal from the deceased saying the way they are now as you 'the reader' deciphers the gravestone.

I wonder if the same stone masons who made this gravestone, made the ones in Paglesham church too. They look very alike and to see the Paglesham grave stones; click the next link and you may agree. http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/194279633/

Prehistoric Monster Snake Once Terrorised This Planet.

The sheer size of Titanoboa meant it had no trouble devouring prey as large as alligators

 A recently discovered prehistoric monster snake provides answers about the past - and raises questions for the future.

Around 58 million years ago, a monstrous snake slithered out of the swampy jungles of South America and began a reign of terror.

Weighing more than a tonne and measuring 14m (approximately 50ft) the giant reptile could swallow a whole crocodile without showing a bulge. But a few years ago, scientists never even knew it existed.

"Never in your wildest dreams do you expect to find a 14m boa constrictor. The biggest snake today is half that size," says Dr Carlos Jaramillo, a scientist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and part of the team that made the discovery.

'World of lost reptiles'

 

Thought to be a distant relative of the anaconda and boa constrictor, the snake - named Titanoboa - was not venomous. Instead, it crushed its prey with the constricting force of 400lbs per sq inch - the equivalent of lying under the weight of one and a half times the Brooklyn Bridge.

“Start Quote

Changing climates and changing continents are the fuel of evolution. But things that happen very quickly can result in the types of change we might not view very positively”

End Quote Jonathan Bloch University of Florida

The fossils were exposed by excavation at the massive Cerrejon open-face coal mine in northern Colombia. In 2002, scientists had discovered at that site the remains of a tropical rainforest from the Palaeocene Epoch - perhaps the planet's first.

As well as fossilised leaves and plants, they unearthed reptiles so big they defied imagination.

"What we found was a giant world of lost reptiles - turtles the size of a kitchen table and the biggest crocodiles in the history of fossil records," says Jonathan Bloch, an expert in vertebrate evolution at the University of Florida.

They also found the vertebrae of a colossal snake.

"After the extinction of the dinosaurs, this animal, the Titanoboa, was the largest predator on the surface of the planet for at least 10 million years," says Dr Bloch. "This was a major animal in any sense of the imagination."

Search for skulls

 

But scientists needed the snake's skull to get a full picture of how it looked, what food it ate and how it might be related to modern species. Last year, a team set out to find it, with little expectation of success. Because the bones of a snake's skull are so fragile, few survive.

"Unlike our skulls, snake skulls aren't fused together. Instead they're connected with tissue," says Dr Jason Head, a snake specialist from the University of Nebraska.

"When the animal dies, the connective tissue decomposes and all the individual bones are generally dispersed. They're very thin and fragile too and often get destroyed. Because Titanoboa is so big and the skull bones are so large, it's one of the few snakes that do make it into the fossil record."

To their amazement, the team recovered the remains of three skulls from which the reptile could be accurately reconstructed for the first time.

Giant animals in history

• Blue whale: still swimming today, blue whales measure 30m (100ft) long
• Brachiosaur: this dinosaur measured 23m (75ft) long and 12m (40 ft) high
• Chan's Metastick: this stick insect, native to Borneo, measures 56.7cm, (22.3 in)
• Pterosaurs - this flying reptile had a wingspan of 5.1 meters (16ft)

Source: US Geological Survey, National Geographic, New Zealand Museum of Natural History

From that, they were able to get a better sense of how Titanoboa lived and looked. A life-sized replica is now on display at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, and will begin a nationwide tour in 2013.

Aside from the excitement of discovering a new and enormous species of snake, the reptile can tell scientists a lot about the history of the Earth's climate - and offer a glimpse of the possible effects of global warming today.

Snakes are unable to regulate their own temperature and depend on external heat to survive.

"We think the Titanoboa became this large because it was much warmer on the equator after the dinosaurs died 60 million years ago," says Dr Bloch. "We think that's why reptiles in general were larger.

That ability to thrive in a warm climate could be relevant in the event that global temperatures rise according to the projections of climate scientists, Dr Bloch adds.

"It's evidence that ecosystems can thrive at temperatures of the levels that are being projected over the next one or two hundred years."

Return of Titanoboa?

But the climate changes that produced Titanoboa took millions of years. Scientists are less certain about the effects of sudden temperature change.

"Biology is amazingly adaptable. Changing climates and changing continents are the fuel of evolution. But things that happen very quickly can result in the types of change we might not view very positively," says Dr Bloch.

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The Cerrejon open-face coal mine where the fossils were discovered

As well as being warmer, CO2 levels were also 50% higher during the period of the Cerrejon rainforest.

"One big lesson we are learning from the fossils in Cerrejon is that tropical plants and the ecosystem in general have the ability to cope with high temperatures and high levels of CO2, another major concern with the current trend of global warming," says Dr Jaramillo.

"Perhaps the plants and animals of the tropics today already have the genetic ability to cope with global warming."

Does that mean the Titanoboa could one day return?

"As the temperature increases, you have the probability they will come back," says Dr Jaramillo. "But it takes geological time to develop a new species. It could take a million years - but perhaps they will!"