Trade Secrets

[Boreades]

His name may derive from the Old Breton mac'h (warrant) and luh (light)

Warrant Light by itself sounds strange or obscure. But let's remember what his roles were. (1) head of the Navigation School, (2) in charge of the traditional hermit role of maintaining the beaconage. If (as we are told) Druids and Breton Saints often change their name when they get promoted, Michael (Mach-luh) might be the official job title. For someone in charge of the beaconage, being paid a tithe or tribute by local fisherman, Warrant Light sounds quite appropriate. It probably had both a literal and metaphoric meaning as he would have been an official holder of the Navigation School knowledge, to be taught to students and illuminate their mental darkness.

[spiral]

His name may derive from the Old Breton mac'h (warrant) and luh (light)

Warrant Light by itself sounds strange or obscure. But let's remember what his roles were. (1) head of the Navigation School, (2) in charge of the traditional hermit role of maintaining the beaconage. If (as we are told) Druids and Breton Saints often change their name when they get promoted, Michael (Mach-luh) might be the official job title. For someone in charge of the beaconage, being paid a tithe or tribute by local fisherman, Warrant Light sounds quite appropriate. It probably had both a literal and metaphoric meaning as he would have been an official holder of the Navigation School knowledge, to be taught to students and illuminate their mental darkness.

Miracle.

[spiral]

The Hermes=Mercury stuff is orthodoxy, but nonsense.

[hvered]

Having embarked on the Discovery of France and discovered the dearth of French roads, I'm rather in agreement with Spiro. According to Caesar's reports, 'Mercury' as the Romans called him was found everywhere in Gaul. But even in the nineteenth century it seems the only usable roads in France were Roman ones, built on pre-existing tracks 'tis true, but Mercury = Hermes appears to be a later equation. The legend of St Mercurius, a Scythian Christian soldier in the Roman army, is almost identical to that of St George except for the appearance of the Archangel Michael in the story.

[Some marginal places in France e.g. Finisterre seem to have been covered with paths but while Europe's industrial age was getting up steam, the majority of France, in Graham Robb's words, "was still recovering from the fall of the Roman Empire". So why did France and England develop so differently? It's tempting to point to the Normans bunking off over the Channel but that might be simplistic.]

[hvered]

More good stuff on French roads. An edict of 1607 ensured that royal roads were seventy-two feet wide, as wide as a six-lane motorway; in an era without maps the edict also insisted that crossroads and junctions were to be marked with a post, cross or pyramid. Robb says towns usually erected posts, villages went in for crosses. The latter came to be seen as religious monuments but their original purpose was navigational and they are still quite useful navigational aids today.

It wasn't till the eighteenth century that road building and maintenance took off and the improvement was down to a network of hermits, or cantonniers. Like their Megalithic counterparts they remained in situ yet were adept at relaying messages and gossip as well as directing people. Plus ça change.

[macausland]

hvered

' Like their Megalithic counterparts they remained in situ yet were adept at relaying messages and gossip as well as directing people. Plus ça change.'

That sounds rather like the MacLeods when they took over from the MacNicols in the Hebrides.

The MacNicols had been the most powerful clan not only on the islands but also the mainland of north west Scotland. One of their duties was to light the beacon fires, ostensibly for the Norse to steer their way safely south. Some believe the MacNicols were in the area long before the Viking age so were possibly carrying on an ancient tradition.

They were deposed from this position and their lands when a MacLeod chief killed the male MacNicols who were in line to inherit, and married the surviving daughter gaining possession of lands and titles in the process. It's thought that an early coat of arms was also taken over by the MacLeods. This showed a mountain side with bonfires.

'The Highland Clan MacNeacail (MacNicol): A History of the Nicolsons of Scorrybreac by W. David H. Sellar and Alasdair Maclean.'

'The coat of arms of the MacLeods of Lewis, which contains a black burning mountain on a gold field, probably passed into the possession of the MacLeods through the marriage to the MacNicol heiress.

'Sellar considered the possibility that the arms may represent the MacNicols' subordinate duty as coast watchers for the early Norse kings in the Isles. The early MacLeod of Lewis arms was recorded in the mid 15th century and is blazoned Or, a rock azure in flames gules.

After seeing what happened with MacNicol fortune, the MacLeods changed the rule book on inheritance. No longer would it be permitted to leave such wealth to an heiress; instead it must be passed to the closest male heir.'

An image of this coat of arms is to be found here.

https://clanmacnicol.org/history

Communications are essential for the survival of any society so it makes sense to have permanent way markers and protectors as a matter of course.

[hvered]

The MacNicols' role is fascinating. Interestingly, the book site you posted up says 'David Sellar is the current Lord Lyon.' The Lord Lyon is in charge of heraldry, a very Hermes or hermit-like office. The Lyons clan itself seems to have lasted pretty well over time, perhaps helped by various marriages into royalty (the latest being Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon).

[macausland]

Life with the Lyons eh?

Lots of the successful clans were actually French or Norman French. The Lyons being one of them. Probably brought across to dig the roads for the Conqueror and point the way for his troops.

Robert the Bruce's family were Normans living in the Guisborough and Hartlepool areas before heading north by invitation. The Stewarts were also part of the Norman invasion force who managed to get in with the Bruces and get to the top.

[hvered]

Robert the Bruce's family were Normans living in the Guisborough and Hartlepool areas before heading north by invitation. The Stewarts were also part of the Norman invasion force who managed to get in with the Bruces and get to the top.

Would they have headed north via Ermine Street? The Normans are associated with castle-building; presumably the castles were built on sites already of strategic significance, or even just staging posts, just as the road-building Romans built on pre-existing tracks.

Coincidentally, Hartlepool's top folklorist, Paul Screeton, spent Boxing Day holed up in The Causeway pub on a stretch of the main road, the A689, called Stranton (Strand?). Opposite is All Saints church on a knoll. According to Paul the Stranton pubs are the oldest pubs in Hartlepool but more interesting is The Headland which from the map looks very much like a former island, presumably causewayed.

[hvered]

According to wiki there is a petrified forest to the south of Hartlepool's docks, just where Stranton is located. Stranton's name may well refer to an intertidal strand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartlepool ... ged_Forest