Rowling Makes a Stand

[JadeLeader]

Ok, so I know the educated classes hate us and our Dear Leader, but she's really not doing herself any favours here...

I wonder if there is a connection between the Irish goddess and Brigantia, the territory/ goddess in the North of England?

Well spotted - quite possibly! the Celtic names are similar.
There were Celts called Brigantes elsewhere too - Briançon in France was Brigantium in Roman times.

Plenty of Bridgets in my family. My great great aunt emigrated to California. Yep. A servant.

The King of Leinster should have expected some shenaniganery with the cloak. I've heard similar tales, although usually the cloak (or oxhide) was cut into thin stripes and used to encompass the promised land. A quick Google has AI telling me Queen Dido did this to claim the land used to found Carthage! A magical stretchy cloak was probably not expected though. He'd probably confiscated all the knives and scissors as a precaution.

As for 'babbling' , it has a 'history' all the way back to Babel. It's the first way that babies try to use language to speak to their mum. And who wouldn't like to while away a sunny day along the side of a babbling stream.

My friend is Brigid rather than Brigit, but she celebrates her saint's day in style each year.

Celery is essential in so many dishes, as part of soffrito/mirepoix. It is also a nice snack when the central groove is filled with cream cheese - or Boursin.

Bara birth and Yorkshire Tea Loaf are pretty much the same thing, judging my my grandmother's recipe for the former and Betty's recipe for the latter. It's quite nice with cheese but I prefer it with just butter.

Have I missed any other digressions?

I was thinking that babbling tied in nicely with Brigid/Bride's connection to wells and springs.

A very small one into fen drainage 🙂

Thanks for he reminder. I made some bara brith a couple of weeks ago (very nice) but I found a recipe for it with yeast. I thinking of trying it out and I'd totally forgotten about it.

I went on holiday in the fens a few years ago. Iirc it's only relatively recently that the Broads were recognised as being man made. Considering the size of the holes that were dug, the whole infrastructure that must have existed round it, it's astonishing it was forgotten. Although I expect the locals knew and there were probably fringe scientists who had their suspicions.

for anyone with an interest, this is a fantastic interactive map of holy wells throughout the UK. Largely the work of Andy Norfolk, sadly not covering Ireland, where there are other projects to map wells dedicated to St Bride/Brigit.

https://oldwells.co.uk/

Well, MN is censoring the map of Ireland's holy wells! Help, help, I'm being oppressed!

Meanwhile, here's an article.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56216763

There is a link in that article to the map, just under the photo of the stone.

Yes it is. It comes from the Proto-Celtic *Brigantī which means "the high one" or "the exalted one".

'brig' still means 'top, highest point' in modern Welsh. E.g. a football team that's top of its league would be "ar y brig".

I like to think the old goddesses are very clever at manifesting themselves. They lie buried in names and words, and even insults, ready to spring forth when summoned. And sometimes people don't even know they are summoning them. 😊

Love this. They walk among us and within us. Patiently waiting to be summoned.

Brigid with her cloak and her Biddies.

Believe it or believe it not, the white and stripes square is green white and violet.

Norfolk Broads history examined and proved by a woman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Lambert

Thanks for that. 👍🏻

While we're on the subject of women leading research on wetlands history, there's an excellent book on Romney Marsh (Kent) by Jill Eddison, Romney Marsh: Survival on a Frontier.

Fascinating!

I thought the whole point was that WPATH was full of people with bias and non evidence-based scientific reasons for their 'guidelines'. I.e. not qualified.

Didn't they ask for a scientific review which didn't say what they wanted it to so they suppressed it?

And anyone is 'qualified' to speak up on safeguarding - it's one of the central tenets of safeguarding. If you see what you have reasonable grounds to think is child abuse (e.g. drugs that will lead to sterilization of children based on no scientific evidence dressed up as 'healthcare'), you must speak up.

May I introduce Ethel Rudkin?
She was a historian and archivist who collected everything from stories, folklore, wart cures, witch balls, cheesemaking equipment to gigantic farm wagons. I've seen some wagons, they are ginormous and some can convert to a two wheeled trap, the front bit disconnects somehow. She filled up several farmers barns and when sought out by students who rediscovered her in the 1970s could be found excavating salt pans. Plus she has a cracking good name.

I don't have any of her books, last time I tried to find some I failed, must have another look.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Rudkin

Leor Sapir had an article in Unherd about the case against WPATH

https://archive.ph/1vXeN

https://unherd.com/newsroom/federal-lawsuit-could-spell-end-of-wpath/?edition=us

I think he's qualified, spills plenty of T.

Thanks anyway. I understand fen drainage in principle, it's the practice that defeats me. My friend lives on the edge of March and has a dike flowing past her house. The dike is draining the fen and carries the water on to March where it discharges into the river Nene.

So far, so good. The only thing is: Match is 8 metres above sea level, my friend's house is 4 metres above sea level and the fen is 2 metres below sea level! How does the water flow uphill?

@MoistVonL waffles were also mentioned!

JK's big on cloaks!
(So is Claudia Winkleman. I am far too excited about The Traitors next season!! )

Celery is better if you run a potato peeler down the corrugated side...