Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Naval sweethearts say goodbye. Love the bags…

A few weeks ago Beach offered a description of fairy traditions from Marrie Walsh’s An Irish country Childhood (1996). While reading he was also struck by this tradition about weasels. What is fascinating here is that the weasel is given (in a country where snakes are in short supply) the role normally given in European […]

Sorry… Nathaniel, an old friend of this blog, 30 Mar 2017, sends this in. We clearly have a genre. I (Beach) prefer the Christ one.

James Stejskal, Special Forces Berlin One of the two books I’m most looking forward to this month (if as advertised!)

Cathal J. Nolan, The Allure of Battle, A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost. The rules of war (not strategy) fascinate me…

What is the earliest ordeal in history? Well, there were probably games involving Paleolithic ne’er-do-wells and mammoths, but the earliest recorded ordeal in history? There are some hypotheses about drinking ancient poisons (drugs?), in the near east: though to Beach this sounds more like an execution and it is, in any case, a hypothesis. However, […]

***dedicated to a misguided friend in Estonia*** All academic disciplines have terminological issues. Medievalists get excited about ‘feudalism’; archaeologists head-butt each other over ‘Celtic’; there are even some linguists who get upset about ‘Indo-European’. These words have been energized and arguments over them are about more than just semantics: disputes are bitter, useful and productive. However, […]

Another picture of rabbit murderers from the Middle Ages…

It is the most extraordinary inscription. This mill-stone rock, which once stood on the top of Tory Hill in County Kilkenny in Ireland, has been taken as proof of Carthaginian contact and settlement or at least trade with Ireland in antiquity. The words clearly read (give or take some distorted letters) Beli Dinose, a reference to […]

Sorry…

Dear Reader, New university continues to be testing. Much more important has been a bust up with the Nanny’s bipolar boyfriend: Nanny has now moved into the Beach mansion to escape his anger, though she accidentally left her keys to our house with said boyfriend. She may (or may not) bring her 60 kilo dog […]