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and puddle-wonderful "

e.e.cummings

The Passing of a Scholar

September 18th, 2012

I was saddened to hear from Douglas Chowns this morning that the respected and influential Celtic Scholar Anne Ross died in Wales on 29th August. Douglas wrote of her,

Many will have read her books “Druids”, “Life & Death of a Druid Prince” etc. but for two, or seen her, auburn haired and vibrant, explaining Celtic ways and beliefs on BBC television series the Celts and other documentaries…Anne’s life’s work did much to rebirth Celtic belief and history internationally and she appeared in many television series and programs as their authority to the Celts or Celtic Myth.

The strands of my personal rope of life, my friends, my advisers and colleagues are today becoming few. Those who shaped my ideas are today like her in passing mere shadows of my existence – thank you all in the present that take forward that what became meaningful for us, that annually blooms at the opening and closure ceremony of our Feis. That alone is in itself my tribute to Dr Anne…

Anne spoke Gaelic and Welsh as well as being a scholar of Anglo Saxon, Old norse and Medieval English. Since her Phd. in Edinburgh she became a research fellow to Southampton University and a writer for the British Museum among many other notable positions, Lecturer and Academic. Her interests and knowledge of Iron Age Archaeology and Myth led to many books, publications and articles. She was a “Fey” woman and a Celt in every way living with the land, the elements, mountains, winds and rain in her age old stone home with Archaeologist Richard Faichem . Some may know him from his “Guide to Prehistoric Scotland” that lists Brochs and Pictish excavations. Years ago when researching my “Enduring of Suffering” series that featured the Lindow Bog Man and the eponymous Pergamon Dying Gaul, I found them both instantly welcoming and interested in our lives and efforts when I lunched with them in the mill room of their home at Bow Street near Aberystwyth. A video of that lunch exists which sparks a thousand flames – who but she fills the cool head with smoke? Certainly mine…

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