B

Baal  A Sun god, 'Baal of the Phoenicians' is equated, by most authorities, with the Greek God Herakles / Hercules... read more

Mount Badon   'The twelfth battle was on Mount Badon in which there fell in one day 960 men from one charge by Arthur; and no one struck them down except Arthur himself' ...read more

Barnstaple The 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 893 tells us that the Danes 'besieged a fortress on the North Coast of Devon'  W.G.Hoskins says this was Burridge Camp  " Burridge Camp is an iron age   hillfort which became the burh of Pilton." ....read more

Beacons  The island of Lundy was the centre of a network of signal beacons covering the southwest of Britain; Devon and Cornwall and the south of Wales as from the Brecon Beacons and the Preseli mountains. The author of 'Lundy, the Tempestuous Isle' recorded seeing fourteen lighthouses from Tibbet's Hill on Lundy........  read more

The Questing Beast  In mythology the appearance of a white animal to the hero frequently signifies the commencement of an Otherworldly journey.....read more

Bedivere   Therefore," said Arthur unto Sir Bedivere, "take thou Excalibur, my good sword, and go with it to yonder waterside; and when thou comest there I charge thee throw my sword in that water, and come again and tell me what thou there seest." "My lord," said Sir Bedivere, "your commandment shall be done." So Sir Bedivere departed, and by the way he beheld that noble sword, that the pommel and the haft were all of precious stones; and then he said to himself, "If I throw this rich sword into the water no good shall come thereof, but only harm and loss." ....read more

Belinos / Beli  There are more surviving inscriptions to Belinos than to any other Celtic God, his name means 'shining' or 'brightly shining. Belinos was worshipped in worshipped in N. Italy, Gaul and Britain. 'Belinos was equated with Apollo. We have seen reason to believe that he is none other than the Welsh Beli or Belin, father of Avallach. Belin appears in Chretien's 'Erec' as lord of the Otherworld isles of the Antipodes. In the 'Estoire' Belin turns up as Pellean, lord of the plenty- giving Grail'  .....read more

St Bernard of Clairvaux   In 1128, Bernard of Clairvaux "was just twenty-eight years old when the Council of Troyes asked him to help create a Rule for the Templars. He did more than that. He became their most vocal champion, urging that they be supported with gifts of land and money and exhorting men of good family to cast off their sinful lives and take up the sword and the cross as Templar Knights." ....read more

William Blake - Jerusalem    And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon England's mountains green?

And was the holy Lamb of God

On England's pleasant pastures seen?....read the full poem here

The Bluestones, Stonehenge   The  'bluestones' consist of over 80 stones weighing up to five tons each and form part of Stonehenge.  The much maligned early historian Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his  'History of the kings of Britain', recounts how, at the request of Ambrosius Aurelanius, Merlin used his magic arts to transport enormous stones, the 'Choir of the Giants', from Ireland to form Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. ...read more

Tarot Tarot Books and Cards....read more

Bors  Bors is a Grail Knight. After undertaking the Grail quest, Bors achieves the Grail and returns to Arthur at Camelot with the story..... read more

Robert de Boron – ‘Joseph of Arimathea’    One of the earliest Grail Romances, the poem called ‘Joseph of Arimathea’, was composed by Robert de Boron  between 1180 and 1199. The village of Boron is beside MontbÚliard near the modern Franco -Swiss border. This may have been his property, his birthplace, both, or neither!... read more

Robert de Boron - Roman de l'Estoire du Graal    In the Prose Romances, the 'La Queste del Saint Graal' and the 'Estoire del Saint Graal' , written in the thirteenth century Joseph of Arimathea is presented as the ancestor of Lancelot and Galahad.  The Estoire adds to the story of Joseph, bringing him to Britain as an evangelist, and carries the history of the Grail and its successive keepers almost down to Arthur's time.....read more

The Boudiccan Revolt against the Romans - In AD59-60 the Roman military governor of Britain, Suetonius Paulinus, led two legions across North Wales and massacred the druidic sanctuary on Anglesey. At around the same time the Romans decided to annex the kingdom of the Iceni on the death of it's ruler, Prasutagus. Brutality against his widow, queen Boudicca, incited the whole region to rise in revolt, soon to be joined by the neighbouring tribes, the Trinovantes and others. .......Read More

Bran 'Bran the Blessed' - 'Bran Vendigeit,' we are told in the introduction to the story of 'Branwen verch Llyr,' - 'Branwen the daughter of Llyr' - in the welsh 'Mabinogion.' was the grandson of Beli Mawr. He was the brother of Manannan Mac(ap) Lir(Llyr). No ordinary house can hold him because of his size. ...... read more

Navigation of St. Brendan    A historical early Irish Christian, St. Brendan, was born in Tralee c. 484 or 486 AD. He had a reputation as a traveller or wanderer and he is reputed to have visited St. Columba at Hinda (Argyle) on which visit he may have founded a Scottish monastery. ....read more

Geoffrey of Monmouth - The History of the kings of Britain "The much-maligned Geoffrey of Monmouth, Archdeacon of Monmouth and later Bishop of St.Asaph's, first popularized King Arthur's story, around 1139, in his "History of the Kings of Britain"....read more here .....download in pdf eBook format

The Roman Conquest of Britain - In 43 AD the Emperor Claudius despatched Aulus Plautius with four legions, the IInd Augusta, the XIVth Gemina, the XXth Valeria and the IXth Hispana, and an equal number of auxiliaries to invade and conquer Britain.  Little realising that on this island Roman traditions and values would be preserved long after the rest of the empire, indeed even the eternal city, Rome, had succumbed to the barbarians...... Read More

Nennius    The Historia Brittonum has been the centre of many controversies as to its date and origin. As set forth in Theodor Mommsen’s edition, it consists of the following tracts, which together form what has been called Volumen Britanniae, or the Book of Britain: .... read more

St. Brychan   St. Brychan, or Brychain, was a legendary welsh king. Brychan was the ancestor of a proliferate saintly family. He is said to have fathered between twelve and sixty -three children, most of whom are linked to churches / chapels / wells in North Devon. ......read more