by Candy Rae
Druids – A druid was a member of the priest class in Celtic Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic Europe during the Iron Age and most likely earlier.
Dunadd – Dunadd is an Iron Age hillfort near Kilmartin, Scotland and is thought to have been the capital of the ancient kingdom of Dal Riata. It has a number of stone carvings near the upper enclosure, including a footprint and stone basin, which are thought to have been part of the rituals of coronations.
Duncan MacGregor of Rannoch – The MacGregors were the fiercest and the most feared of all the clans of Rannoch. They harried the countryside for miles around, driving herds of stolen cattle into Rannoch and were led by Duncan MacGregor. After forty-seven years of rieving (stealing and cattle rustling), he was caught in 1552 and executed.
Dunfermline – Dunfermline is a town and former Royal Burgh in Fife, Scotland, near the Firth of Forth. Part of the town's name comes from the Gaelic word, "dun" which translates as a fortified hill. The area around Dunfermline became home to settlers in the Neolithic period. The town was first recorded in the eleventh century, when King Malcolm Canmore married Saint Margaret in the original church.
Dunfermling – This is an older version of the name Dunfermline.
Dux Caput – Dux is Latin for Military Leader and Caput is Latin for Chief.
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Eileach an Naoimh – Eileach an Naoimh, which translates from Gaelic as ‘Rocky Place of the Saint’ and also known as Holy Isle, is an uninhabited island in the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland. In c.542, Saint Brendan the Navigator founded a monastery there. The ruins on the island are perhaps the oldest church buildings in Britain although the earliest written records mentioning it date from the ninth century. Saint Columba is supposed to have visited the island. In the ninth century the Vikings destroyed the monastery.
Elf Wars – An ancient war that was fought between the sons of King Dinendal of Alfhmeir, it lasted many years and almost destroyed the elf race. The reason it started has been forgotten. Most Elfish histories inform students that dynastical greed was the cause. This was not entirely the case.
Elves and Vikings – The earliest descriptions of elves comes from Norse mythology. In Old Norse they were known as álfar. The Vikings believed that men could be raised to the rank of elves after death and that interbreeding was possible between elves and humans. There are accounts of a line of local kings who ruled over a country called Alfheim.
Ergott – Elf swear word.
Etha – Capital/castle fortress of King Menel in Meneledhel (Sky Elves).
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Flannan Isles – The Flannan Isles or Seven Hunters are a small island group in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, west of the Isle of Lewis. They may take their name from St Flannan, the seventh century Irish preacher and abbot. They are famous for the December 1900 mystery when all three lighthouse-keepers disappeared without trace.
Forteviot – Forteviot is a town that is known to have been inhabited in the ninth century. It was a residence of the Pictish kings. Kenneth mac Alpin or Kenneth I of Scotland is said to have died in the palace there. The palace stood on Haly Hill, on the west side of the modern village.
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Gaelic – Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland.
Gate – (Elfish – Ando) It is not known how many ‘gates’ there are in existence. They are the means whereby a traveller in possession of one of the T’Quel jewels can travel from Alfheimr and our world and from there to past eras in our world (Earth) and back again.
Gheas – A magical term for making a person or an elf forget what they have seen or heard.
Ghrandhir – A forest-living animal with a close resemblance to deer.
Glasgow – Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland. It is situated on the River Clyde in the Central Lowlands.
Glenluce – Glenluce is a village in Wigtownshire, Scotland, located on the road between Stranraer and Newton Stewart.
Glyph – a carved or an inscribed symbol. It may be a pictogram or ideogram, or part of a writing system.
Great Desert – A huge expanse of sand and scrub to the east of Alfheimr.
Great Forest – Gigantic forest in the north of Alfheimr.
Grt’dan – Shield of concealment.
Gryphon – This is the original spelling of griffin, a legendary creature with the head, talons, and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion.
Gryphwen – A distant cousin of the gryphons, they look similar from a distance but they don’t fly, see or hear as well as the gryphons.
H
Heloise – Heloise (1101-1164) was the niece of a Canon Fulbert. Canon Fulbert had a high position at the Cathedral in Paris. She was educated by her uncle. Her love affair with Abelard is well documented in his ‘Historica Calamitatum’.
Hereward the Wake – Hereward the Wake (c. 1035 – 1072), known in his own times as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile, was an 11th-century leader of local resistance to the Norman conquest of England. Hereward's base was on the Isle of Ely.
Hesiod – He was an eighth century BC Greek oral poet. He lived about the same time or shortly after the well known Greek poet Homer. He refers to himself as a farmer in Boeotia, a region of central Greece. Little else is known about him.
Hexham - A market town situated in Northumberland, England, south of the River Tyne. It grew up around a monastery founded by Saint Wilfred in 674. The original monastery crypt survives.
High King of Alfheimr – Traditionally, this position is held by the King of the Land Elves, the Ndoredhel, the most numerous of the elven types.
Hodierna of Scotland – Princess, and daughter of King David the First of the Scots. There is debate about exactly when she was born. Some say 1107 and others 1120. However, given that her father married her mother, Maud (Matilda) of Huntingdon in 1113 and not earlier, it must be assumed that c.1120 is the most likely candidate. She is reputed to have died c.1140 but this cannot be confirmed, and nor can the reports that she got married be substantiated.
Hollywais tree – A tree rather like the holly bush of Earth.
Holy Isles – Scotland has over 790 offshore islands, most of which are to be found in Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides. There are also many inshore islands in the Firth of Clyde, Solway Firth, and Firth of Forth, and numerous small islands within the many bodies of fresh water in Scotland including Loch Lomond and Loch Leven.
Homer – Homer is probably thought of as the greatest of the Ancient Greek poets. He probably lived around BC 850.
I
Ice Wastes – Icy expanse north of Alfheimr.
Inverness - (Gaelic - Inbhir Nis - ‘Mouth of the River Ness’) A city in the Highlands of Scotland.
Iona – The island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland, is the symbolic centre of Scottish Christianity. Because of the fame of its monastic founder, Saint Columba, the island has always been revered as a holy place, and, over the centuries, Iona has continually been a centre for pilgrimage. Iona’s fame began in 563 AD when Columba, with thirteen followers, landed at the south end of the island, at St Columba’s Bay, to establish a monastery.
J
Javlin – Elfish spear.
Jocelin (Jocelyn) of Furness - (1175-1214) He was an English monk who wrote about the lives of Saint Waltheof, Saint Patrick, Saint Mungo (Saint Kentigern) and Saint Helena.
K
Karl – A minor lord of the elf race. They are subservient to the Lords but are descended either from one of the royal houses or noble houses. They could be described as minor landowners.
Kenneth Mac Alpin – Kenneth Mac Alpin is generally regarded as the founder of mediaeval Scotland. He defended his lands against Viking raids and brought a certain amount of unification between the Gaels and the Picts. Kenneth MacAlpin is considered by some as the real founder of the country now known as Scotland. Kenneth is believed to have died from a tumour at Forteviot. In accordance with the laws of tanistry preval
ent in Scotland at the time, he was succeeded by his brother Donald. He had two sons and three daughters. There is little known about two of the daughters but the third, thought to have been the eldest, was married to two successive kings in Ireland.
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Lailoken - A legendary prophet and/or madman who reputably lived in the Caledonian Forest during the latter years of the sixth century. He was mentioned in the ‘Life of Saint Mungo’ written by Jocelin of Furness. Lailoken has been linked to one Myrddin, a forerunner of Arthur’s Merlin and some scholars have postulated that they were one and the same.
Lanfranc of Canterbury – He was born in Pavia in about 1010. In 1042 he became a monk at the Abbey of Bec. He played an important role in persuading Pope Alexander II to support the Norman invasion of England. In 1070 Lanfranc became Archbishop of Canterbury.
Latin – Latin was the language spoken in Ancient Rome.
Leuchars – Leuchars is a town in Fife, Scotland, not far from St. Andrews.
Loch – The Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic word for a lake or sea inlet.
Loch Rannoch – Loch Rannoch is a freshwater loch in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Rannoch Moor extends to the west of the loch and used to be part of the Caledonian Forest that stretched across much of Northern Scotland. The village of Kinloch Rannoch lies at the eastern end of the loch.
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Maid of Norway – When King Alexander the Third of the Scots (1241-86) died unexpectedly from an accident (his two sons had predeceased him), his granddaughter Margaret, Maid of Norway was declared his successor. She was the daughter of King Erik the Second of Norway and Alexander’s daughter Margaret who had died in childbirth. In Norway, her forename would have been Margrete. She was born in 1283 in Tonsberg, Norway and died in 1290 en route for Scotland, either at sea or at St. Margaret’s Hope, South Ronaldsay, Orkney, in the arms of Bishop Narve of Bergen who was her escort. At the time the Orkney Islands were part of Norway, not being annexed by Scotland until the fifteenth century. Her body was returned to Norway where it was buried beside that of her mother in Christ’s Kirk in Bergen. Her death led to the Scottish Wars of Independence.
Merlin – The existence of the man known as Merlin is the subject of much historical debate. During the Middle Ages the story of Merlin was popularised in the ‘Arthurian Romances’, written in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They were set in a time many years earlier, in the fifth century, when Britain was in turmoil after the end of Roman rule. According to the Arthurian Romances, Merlin saved the Britons from this chaos. There is evidence to show that the story of Merlin was based on the life of an historical figure. Merlin is connected with a British ruler named Vortigern who is recorded as the ruler of much of Britain in the mid-fifth century. Although he is not a wizard, Merlin is recorded as uniting Britain in the post-Roman period. A sixth-century monk refers to Ambrosius/Merlin as a Roman aristocrat who led the British armies after Vortigern. Bede says that Ambrosius’ family name was Aurelius. The Aurelius family was a powerful Roman dynasty and archaeology has shown that, when the Roman legions departed, members of this family remained in Britain. The name Merlin could actually have been a title. The name Merlin appears to derive from the old British meaning “the Eagle”. Ambrosius Aurelius does have many things in common with the Merlin of later romance. Like Merlin, he united Britain in the period after Vortigern's reign in the last few decades of the fifth century.
Morityaro – Secret society of elves, dark-clothed mercenaries who, for a price, will kill, kidnap and spy for their employer. It is not known where their base is. They are renowned for their absolute loyalty to the person who is currently paying them.
Myrddin – Myrddin was a person in mediaeval Welsh legend and was both a prophet and a madman. He was the archetype for the modern Merlin who became the wizard aide to the King Arthur immortalised by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his King Arthur stories.
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Ndorenisgiathatch – Land of the Dragons.
Ndoreniwyarnpm – Land of the Gryphons.
Nevaduin – A town in north-east Ndoredhel.
Ninian, Saint – Saint Ninian (Fourth/Fifth century) was a Christian saint first mentioned in the eighth century as being an early missionary among the Pictish people. In Scotland, Ninian is known as Ringan. Ninian's shrine was at Whithorn in Galloway, where he is associated with the White House. Nothing is known about his teachings, and there are no extant documents from his time about his life. A link between the Ninian of tradition and a person who actually appears in the historical record has not yet been found.
Ninth Roman Legion – Legio Nona Hispana (Ninth Spanish Legion) was a Roman legion that operated from the first century BC until mid-second century AD. Its eventual fate is uncertain. The Ninth was no longer in existence by the mid-second century as a list of legions compiled during the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (161–180 AD) does not mention it. It was located at York and helped to rebuild the legionary fortress there in 107–108 AD. In 43 AD they probably took part in the Roman invasion of Britain. The Ninth suffered a defeat during the rebellion of Boudica and was later reinforced with men from the Germania provinces.
Nondor – Capital/castle fortress of High King Calaelen – on the south-west coast of Ndoredhel (Land Elves).
Nosse – A regiment of elf warriors and their shield partners. Numbers vary but there is usually around one hundred and sixty in each regiment.
Nosse – An army of the king. A King’s Nosse is made up of a number of regiments and the word is used interchangeably for both which can lead to some confusion. Because of this the commonly used word to denote ‘all the king’s forces’ is, quite simply, army.
Nossepresidium – The fortress that is the permanent headquarters of the Nosse.
Nossequel – Permanent keep south of the T’Quel that is the forward base of the warriors of the Nosse when they are on duty guarding the mists of the T’Quel.
Nosta – Home of the Tathar, situated on a mountain peak overlooking the T’Quel.
O
Odod – Capital/castle fortress of King Oronar – on the north-west coast of Orodedhel (Mountain Elves).
Ovid – (43 BC - AD 17) He was a Roman poet.
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Petroglyph – rock engraving – pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving and abrading.
Picts – The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval Celtic people who lived in early eastern and northern Scotland. Picts are recorded from before the Roman conquest of Britain until about the tenth century, when they and the Gaels merged to form the embryonic Scotland.
Pitlochry - (Gaelic - Baile Chloichrigh) A burgh situated 86 miles south of Inverness sitting on the banks of the River Tummel.
Pliny the Elder - Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder (23-79)) was an author, naturalist, and philosopher as well as a military officer at the time of the early Roman Empire.
Poco a poco – (Spanish) for little by little.
Poniard – or Poignard – Originally a French word referring to a long, light, thrusting knife with a continuously tapering, acutely-pointed blade and crossguard.
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Ramses – Ramesses II, often called Ramesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh (reigned BC 1279 – BC 1213), and is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire.
Restna – The little village that was Enelya’s birthplace.
Robin Hood – Robin Hood was an outlaw of English folklore. He is remembered as the man who took from the rich and gave to the poor. He was, with his ‘Merry Men’, a popular folk figure in the mediaeval period.
Rounders – This is a ball and bat game played between two teams. It is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a round wooden, plastic or metal bat. The players score by running around the four bases on the field. The game is popular among Irish and British schoolchi
ldren. The game of Rounders is considered to be a forerunner of American baseball.
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Saga of Enduin – An Elfish prose/verse document that tells the story of the history of the elves in the ancient days and up until the times of the Elf Wars. There are numerous copies of this, located all around the Five Kingdoms. It tells the story/history of the elves.
Seanar Na Stainge – Seanar Na Stainge is an irregular ring of boulders about thirty feet across that was revealed in 1956 in fields opposite the farm of Innerhadden, near Loch Rannoch, Perthshire, Scotland. The largest boulder is three feet in diameter. The ring had been paved with rough stones. Most of the other stones that once formed part of the circle were cleared away by farmers throughout the ages.
Shakespeare – William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English poet and playwright, and is regarded by many to have been the greatest writer that ever lived. He is described as England’s Poet and the ‘Bard of Avon’.
Sic et Non – This was a theological and scholarly text written in Mediaeval Latin around 1121. The words in the title translate as ‘Yes and No’. It was written by Peter Abelard of the great mediaeval love story, ‘Heloise and Abelard’ fame.
Sidhe – The Sidhe are a faerie race belonging to Scottish and Irish mythology. They are said to live underground in the fairy mounds, across the western sea, or in an invisible world that coexists with the world of humans.
St. Andrews – St. Andrews is a former royal burgh on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, named after Saint Andrew the Apostle. The town is home to the University of St. Andrews, the third oldest university in the UK and the oldest in Scotland. There has been a church in St. Andrews since, at least, the eighth century and probably before.