Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Friday, 3 September 2021

Pagan carving from an Irish bog


Live Science has a report about the discovery in a peat bog in Roscommon of a very late pagan idol or statue that appears to only just pre-date St Patrick’s conversion of Ireland. I suppose, given its date they could even overlap as such processes take time.

The eight foot high oak figure had been deliberately cut in two and committed, presumably in a ritual way, to the bog, which was clearly a place of devotion for the people of the area. It appears likely that it was associated with a local centre of traditional lordship.



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