[lit-ideas] Re: Advice from a Historian

In Powell's bookstore, which is always dangerous, but I was keeping a firm grasp on my wallet. Alas and as usual, just when I reached the checkout counter with four books, my credit card slipped out of my grasp. In reply to the question, "Would you like a bag," I answered with the assurance of a local--"No, we Portlanders don't believe in putting paper bags around paper books"--but otherwise I failed Frugality 101. My ancestors would not be proud.
However, if they happen to get in touch, one way or another, I have new advice for them, to wit, "Don't sign up to do battle under a wuss." This brilliant insight comes from a quick dip into, "Cassell's Battlefields of Britain and Ireland," which in my defense I should say was "on sale." On page 148 we learn that in 1055 the English took on the Welsh at Hereford. The Welsh commander was Gruffudd ap Llywelyn which, provided you can spell it on the recruiting forms, probably gives you heart, stiffens the sinews etc. The English, on the other hand, fought under a fellow named "Ralph the Timid." Guess who lost! In fairness I should add that there is a possibility that the Earl of Hereford acquired this nickname as a result of, and not before, the fight.
My advice, like all advice, is subject to exception. In October of 1136 the English again fought the Welsh, this time at Crug Mawr or Cardigan or Crugmore. The Welsh were commanded by Gwenllian, who sounds kind of wussy until you realize that you have your categories wrong; Gwenllian was the wife of Gruffudd ap Rhys and, though subsequently called, "the flower and ornament of all Wales," a sufficient threat to warrant beheading, possibly by the rather wussy- sounding "Maurice of London," who won.
Cardigan, by Maurice of London. Sounds like something you'd buy on Jermyn Street.
"English," is an anachronism, used liberally in the book. "Saxon" and "Norman" are probably meant. Ralph was apparently Norman; Mercians were involved earlier.
There's a reason I do modern history; at least with "The Edge of Empire; Lives, Culture and Conquest in the East 1750-1850," or "A People's History of American Empire" or even "John Prebble's Scotland," you know where you are. 

Carry on.

David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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