policy, these were plowed up some time ago to make a rocky landscape that is no use for arable or pasture, and its archeology has been destroyed too.
The brochs of Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles of Scotland represent a similar design approach—rooms ranged around a courtyard—but carried up into the air to make imposing towers. The finest is the Broch of Mousa, which has survived almost intact because of its inaccessibility on an uninhabited island off the east coast of Shetland. Built in the first century BC and inhabited until about AD 150, it soars 40 feet (10m) above the shore in a graceful drum shape. Timber ranges once lined the interior walls, with galleries at various levels, reached by stone staircases built within the thickness of the outer wall. There was a single door and no windows; it must have been very dark and dank inside.
The hearth was the centerpiece of every dwelling and it had the status of an altar in domestic cult. This custom may have had its roots in the Neolithic; the layout of the stone houses at Skara Brae in Orkney, with large central square hearths, treats the domestic fire almost theatrically.
The Laws of Hywel Dda supply inventories of the objects to be seen in a typical household in early medieval Celtic Britain. They include boilers, blankets, bolsters, coulters, fuel axes (axes for chopping firewood), broad axes, augers, gimlets, firedogs, sickles, baking griddles, trivets, pans, and sieves.
DYFNWAL
Dyfnwal Hen was a king of Alcluith (Clyde), whose fortress was the formidable Dumbarton Rock below Glasgow. His father or grandfather was Ceretic Guletic.
Dyfnwal lived at the end of the fifth century. His grandson was Tutagual Tutclit, and his great-grandson was Riderch, mentioned by St. Adomnán as ruler of the Rock of Clyde. From another son of Dyfnwal descends a long line of recorded kings of Strathclyde, right down to the end of the kingdom in the tenth century.
DYFRIG
See Dubricius.
ECONOMY
The Celtic economy was strongly rural in character, with some arable farming and a great many livestock. The Iron Age landscape was a patchwork of small irregular fields and meadows, with scattered round huts separated by substantial areas of dense forest.
By the end of the Bronze Age a particularly hardy form of wheat called spelt and a new hardy type of barley (hulled instead of naked barley) were introduced into Britain. These innovations meant that in the Iron Age a crop could be sown in the autumn and harvested in the spring—before the spring-sowing. The Greek writer Hecateus observed that as early as the sixth century BC the people of Britain reaped two harvests a year.
The fields were irregular in shape, but on average roughly 1 acre (0.4 hectares) in area. It was the size of field that could be plowed in a day by two oxen ambling along at 2 miles (3km) per hour.
The farming year was marked by four major quarter-day festivals, Imbolg, Beltane, Lugnasad, and Samhain.
ELIDYR
A king of South Rheged (Lancashire and Cheshire) who was the son-in-law of King Maelgwn of Gwynedd.
Elidyr landed near Caernarvon in an attempt to take Gwynedd from Rhun, son of Maelgwn, but was killed on the beach. He was apparently not supported by the York or Pennine kings. Instead it was Rhydderch and other northern allies who sailed south to Gwynedd to avenge his death.
Rhun’s half-brother Bridei had become King of the Picts in 555; he was not only Maelgwn’s son but a cousin of Egferth, King of the Bernicians. A kinship alliance of this kind between Gwynedd and Pictland was something of a threat to the security of the Celtic kingdoms in between, Clyde and Rheged.
But Rhydderch’s raid on Gwynedd was unsuccessful and he had to withdraw. Rhun, King of Gwynedd, responded by gathering an army and marching it north, probably by way of York. It was a march of legendary length and duration and the warriors returned to Gwynedd in triumph.
ELISEG
A king of Powys, commemorated on the Pillar of Eliseg. The inscription, as read by Edward Lhuyd in 1696, is as follows:
Concenn, son of Cattell, Cattell son of Brohcmail, Brohcmail son of Eliseg, Eliseg son of Guoilliac. Concenn, who is therefore great-grandson of Eliseg, erected this stone to his great-grandfather Eliseg. Eliseg annexed the inheritance of Powys throughout nine years from the power of the English.
The inscription also mentioned that “Britu moreover was the son of Vortigern whom Germanus blessed,” which seems to tell us the name of King Vortigern’s successor.
The inscription has deteriorated as a result of weathering and is no longer legible (see Symbols: Phallus).
ELOQUENCE
The Celts have always admired eloquence, believing it to be more powerful than brute strength.
ETAIN
Etain of the Tuatha dé Danann was the heroine of the Irish love story Midhir and Etain. This tale has been the inspiration of poems and plays, and is probably best known through Fiona McLeod’s play The Immortal Hour and Rutland Boughton’s opera, which in turn is based on the McLeod play (see Part 6: Celtic Twilight and Revival).
EWEIN WHITETOOTH
King of Powys in the early sixth century. He was murdered by Maelgwn, the notorious King of Gwynedd, and succeeded by his (Ewein’s) son Cynlas. Cynlas was nicknamed, possibly privately by Gildas, Cuneglasus, which meant “Pale Dog” in Brittonic.
FANNELL
See Religion: Headhunting.
FARANNAN
An Irish monk from Sligo who went with Columba when he left for Iona.
FEIC
See Fiacc of Sletty.
FERGNA BRIT
An abbot of Iona, 608–624.
FIACC OF SLETTY
A magus or wizard of Loegaire, High King of Ireland. Fiacc or Feic was a student under Dubthach Maccu Lugir. He was the only one of Loegaire’s magi to accept Patrick (See Magicians).