Caerdroia - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For the Doctor Who audio drama see Caerdroia (Doctor Who audio)
Caerdroia (Doctor Who audio)
Caerdroia is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is part of the "Divergent Universe" saga which continued until The Next Life.-Plot:...

.

Caerdroia: the Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

name for ancient Troy

Troy

Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...

(variations include Caer Droia and Caer Droea); because of the similarity between Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

troeau (a plural form of tro "turn") and the second element Troea (Troy), the name was later popularly interpreted as meaning "Fortress of Turns" (caer = "fort"). In medieval times a Caerdroia was a turf labyrinth

Labyrinth

In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos...

usually in the sevenfold Cretan

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

Labyrinth design. They were created by shepherd

Shepherd

A shepherd is a person who tends, feeds or guards flocks of sheep.- Origins :Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool...

s on hilltops and were apparently the setting for ritual dances the nature of which have been lost. However, at the centre of each Caerdroia was a small hillock - in Welsh, "twmpath." A gathering for folk dancing

Folk dance

The term folk dance describes dances that share some or all of the following attributes:*They are dances performed at social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music or music based on traditional music....

in Wales is still called a "twmpath dawns."

Mythical link

There is another tenuous connection between Wales and Troy that has been disproven by historians

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

but remains a resilient myth

Mythology

The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...

. Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...

, following the early Welsh historian Nennius

Nennius

Nennius was a Welsh monk of the 9th century.He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the Historia Brittonum, based on the prologue affixed to that work, This attribution is widely considered a secondary tradition....

, created a Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

/classical genealogy

Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...

which placed Brutus of Troy

Brutus of Troy

Brutus or Brute of Troy is a legendary descendant of the Trojan hero Æneas, known in mediæval British legend as the eponymous founder and first king of Britain...

, grandson of Aeneas

Aeneas

Aeneas , in Greco-Roman mythology, was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam's second cousin, once removed. The journey of Aeneas from Troy , which led to the founding a hamlet south of...

and liberator of enslaved Trojans, as founder of Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

. This Brutus is generally considered a medieval fiction.

Glastonbury Tor

Glastonbury Tor is a hill at Glastonbury, Somerset, England, which features the roofless St. Michael's Tower. The site is managed by the National Trust. It has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument ....

is thought by many to be a very large "Caerdroia", and modern imaging techniques seem to confirm this theory. It is also known as a "Cretan maze".

External links

W.H. Matthews, Mazes and Labyrinths (1922) online version of W.H. Matthew's classic book
Labyrinthos Jeff Saward's website
Labyrinth Society
The Megalithic Portal
Labyrinth Locator (Veriditas & Labyrinth Society)
Well-illustrated labyrinth site (in German)

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Mythical link

Glastonbury Tor

Further reading

External links