Aug 5: Feast of Oswald (†642), king of the Northumbrians. Came to power after a childhood spent in exile in Dál Riata. Slew British king Catguollaun in battle at Denisesburn (possibly Rowley Burn, Northumberland). Slain himself by Penda, pagan king of the Mercians. 📸Mike Quinn

Hálfdan II and Eowils, joint kings of York, died in battle against Edward the Elder's West Saxon-Mercian levies near Teotanheale (Tettenhall, Wolverhampton) #OTD in 910. The deaths seem to have signalled the end of the Anglo-Danish Scalding dynasty.

Æthelwald Moll succeeded Oswulf as king of the Northumbrians #OTD in 759. He was probably the ‘patrician’ Moll to whom King Eadberht and Archbishop Ecgberht had given the monasteries of Stonegrave, Coxwold and Donemutha. Stonegrave Minster 📸John Armagh

Aug 4: Vigil of St Oswald (†642). It was commonly said that whoever fasted on this day would have foreknowledge of his or her death. Reliquary of St Oswald 📸Dommuseum Hildesheim

The West Coast Cumbria Hoard was discovered by detectorists Justin Bell and Daniel Boakes on farmland at Beckermet #OTD in 2014. It comprises 20 silver Viking objects dating from 850-950. 📸Portable Antiquities Scheme

Aug 3: Feast of the translation of Óláfr (†1030), king of Norway and its patron saint. Forty church dedications also known across the British Isles. Bishop Grimkell, a prelate Olaf had brought from England, translated his body to St Clement’s Church, Niðarós, #OTD in 1031.

St. Cuthbert’s Cave - Reputed to be one of the resting places for the body of St. Cuthbert on its journey from Lindisfarne to Durham during the 11th century. The cave is situated in the Kyloe Hills near Holburn in Northumberland. 📸 My own. #SaxonSunday #Northumberland #Cuthbert

Landowners from all over England gathered at Old Sarum, Wiltshire, #OTD in 1086. They swore fealty to King William I, and in return he shared with them the draft results of the Domesday Survey. This provided the visitors security of tenure after years of tumult. 📸Visit Wiltshire

Pictish king Onuist and Eadberht, king of the Northumbrians, led their respective armies to Dumbarton Rock #OTD in 756, where the Clyde Britons agreed to a treaty, perhaps involving the payment of tribute as a grudged but necessary alternative to violence. 📸Eddie Mackinnon

A well associated with St Fillan used to be visited by people in ill health, particularly #OTD and on 1 May. It lay south of St Fillan’s Hill/Dundurn, Perthshire. Visitors walked or were carried around the well three times, drank and bathed in the water, and left tokens.

Æthelheard, an ealdorman who became a cleric, died in York #OTD in 794. 📸Paul Lakin

It’s fair captured my imagination reading about the people who built the Iron-Age wheelhouse at Bornais, South Uist, roofing it with spruce/larch driftwood from a continent they wouldn’t have known existed.

Owen Wilson's Iconic 'Wow' Reaction

Alt: Owen Wilson's iconic 'Wow' reaction.

static.klipy.com

Scabbard guard from the St. Ninian’s Isle Treasure - an C8th hoard of Pictish silver which was discovered in 1958 on St. Ninian’s Isle, Shetland, by a 15 year old volunteer during excavations. Now on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh 📸 My own #FindsFriday

July 31: Feast of Germanus of Auxerre (c.378-448), bishop. He crossed the Channel twice to preach effectively against Pelagianism. Also directed British forces in battle when they won the ‘Alleluia victory’ against a combination of Picts and Saxons, apparently without bloodshed.

Sculptured Pictish symbol stone of granite, 6-9thC, from Strome Shunnamal, Benbecula, Outer Hebrides. 📸National Museums Scotland

Reading 📖

*Moves to Hay-on-Wye

ContempraInn 🌹@contemprainn.bsky.social · last wk.

The town of Hay-on-Wye in Wales is completely dedicated to books and has 26 bookshops but only 2000 residents. That’s one bookshop per 77 people. [📹 happyenchantedhome]

July 29: Feast of Óláfr (995-1030), king of Norway 1016-29, and its patron saint. Also venerated in Britain. St Olave's Church, York, probably occupies the site of Earl Siward (†1055) of Northumbria's minster church, also dedicated to Olaf, where Siward was buried. 📸Tim Green

William de St Calais, bishop of Durham, and Turgot, its prior, began to dig the foundations of a new Norman cathedral befitting the relics of Cuthbert and Bede #OTD in 1093. 📸Matt Buck

I held off watching it, for I feared it would be rubbish - but Masters of the Universe is immense fun.

Bro has the kind of tonsure that suggests he would have opposed Paschal reform at the Synod of Whitby.

@thecouriersport.bsky.social · last wk.

Dougie Imrie opens up on Raith Rovers trialist recommended by ex-Stark’s Park favourite

Siward, earl of Northumbria’s invasion of Alba climaxed with the defeat of King Macbethad mac Findlaích (Macbeth) in battle #OTD in 1054. Macbethad survived the clash, in which the Annals of Ulster says 3,000 Scots and 1,500 English died. Siward lost his son Ásbjǫrn and nephew.

The Bodleian Library bought a supposedly 14thC gospel-book for £6 at auction at Sotheby’s #OTD in 1887. Scholar Lucy Hill, 22, found the added poem on leaf 2 echoed a tale in Turgot’s Life of St Margaret, and identified the book as that of the Scottish queen’s. 📸Bodleian Library

The excavation of Loch Glashan Crannog, Argyll, led by Jack Scott of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum began #OTD in 1960. A c.8thC bronze and amber brooch was among the items found. The site may have been a workshop serving the elite of Dál Riata. 📸Glasgow Museums

Oswulf son of Eadberht died #OTD in 759, months after succeeding his father as king of the Northumbrians. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that he was killed 'by members of his household'. Later sources give his place of death as Wicstun (Market Weighton, East Yorkshire).

July 24: Feast of Blathmac mac Flainn (†825), prior or acting abbot of Iona. He was guardian of the relics of Columba during the absence of Abbot Diarmait, and was murdered by Vikings. 📸August Schwerdfeger

The Wharton Hoard was discovered by a detectorist at Wharton, near Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, #OTD in 2017. It comprises 37 copper pennies, known as stycas, from 9thC Northumbria. 📸British Museum

OUT NOW! Royalty and Ritual. The landscape of power in early medieval Scotland and Europe. Get a printed copy or peruse online at www.sidestone.com/books/royalt... @pictishartssociety.bsky.social @insuhi.bsky.social

Royalty and Ritual @ Sidestone Press

Medieval kings and kingship, and the rituals that define them, continue to captivate both scholars and the wider public. This interdisciplinary volume offers a Europe-wide perspective on early medieva...

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An excavation at High Tarns Farm, Silloth, Cumbria, led by Grampus Heritage and Training began #OTD in 2024. Archaeologists and volunteers discovered a large hall, charcoal production pit and corn dryer, pictured, from the late Viking Age. 📸Grampus Heritage

I think The Odyssey is a grower. I wasn’t necessarily blown away by it yesterday but I can’t stop thinking about it today and I’m on to the book!