Cumbric Language

Druidry is obviously Celtic-based, the tradition exists within the Celtic cultures of Gaul and Britain. Previously to the arrival of the Celts and their languages existed another, or many other ethnic communities who built sites such as Skara Brae, Stonehenge, Callanis stone circle, and the Ring of Brodgar. Druidism was known to re-use the ancient sites of this Pre-Celtic or North-Atlantic culture.

The Cumbric language, or Cwmbraíc, as I have rendered it, is an attempt by sereval enthusiasts to recreate the Celtic Brythonic language once spoken in Cumbria and Strathclyde. It comes from a Proto-Brythonic language, which evolved into the language spoken in Arthrian times. After the North-Brythonic - South Brythonic split, it is likely that the language in Cumbria and Strathclyde developed on its own for a time before its demise, most put this date to around 1100 AD whilst many speculate it to be much later.
Evidence comes from sources of Early Welsh and British, and Gaulish, which can be used to recreate the mother language of Welsh, and then Old Welsh. Taliesin's and Aneurin's ancient Welsh texts are the bases for the grammar. One can come to the conclusion that Cumbric was more similar to Welsh than it was to the fully inflicted Proto-Brythonic language which came to be spoken in Britain; we have this evidence from place-names. Some place-names suggest a genitive case may have survived.

The Cumbric revival idea has many purposes. To me, the purpose is to create a vehicle, something that can enable us to get a feel of a past druidic culture through language. The language might be used be pagans, christians, reenactors or archaeologists, although I am against this idea of everyone learning the language because I see no point in peeling back 1,000 years of history. Cumbric is therefore, more of a available source for Cumbrians and Scots interested in Britain's celtic history.

Here i the Cumbric alphabet, pronunciation is largely based on Welsh, the differences are that:

aw - is like English 'aw in 'paw' not like Welsh 'aw
y - in words like 'cyntaf' is pronounced as a short 'o' or like the 'u' as a Cumbrian would pronounce 'under'
f - this may be pronounced v or w, you choice
final th and dd - some may prefer to pronounce then as an aspirated 't' and 'd'
ff is pronounced 'p' before 'r'

Basic phrases:

Dith da - good day
nos dda - good night
Peth yw ty(n) eno? - what is your name? (pith eeoo tuh enoh)
Pwi wyt/och? - who are you (pwi ooit/oc)?
Linden yw my eno - my name is Linden
pascaddar wym - I am a fisherman
darwith yw e - he is a druid
main yw - it's a rock
is lawar dithaw a canaf/canam yng Gwmbraíc - it's many days that I sing in Cumbric

Pronouns:
mi -I
ti - you
e - he
i - she
ni - we
chwi - you
int -they

Mi yn fynth - I'm going
Mi yn fynth din traith - I'm going to the beach
Ymain den yn fynth d'Alba - the man is going to Scotland
Is e coraw - he wants beer

Thanks to Fróðurúlfur Þórsson for this information (originally posted on the discussion pages of the cumbrian druid order facebook group)

Guardians (part three)

Getting stabbed hurts.

Don’t let anyone tell you anything else. It hurts especially when you’re stabbed with a jagged piece of rock. Zack grinned as he shoved his improvised shiv into my belly, and all the while my headache kept getting worse, and so did the pain in my back. Looking around the room it was chaos, people tearing each other apart with apparent glee, the music had stopped, because someone was busy tearing out the dj’s innards. Focusing back on Zack I saw that dark cloud surrounding him, just above the skin, the pain in my back and head kept building, Zack pulled the rock out of my belly. Then there was a flare of light and the pain in my back exploded, and i wasn’t in control of my body anymore. As Zack went to finish me my left arm shot out, seemingly of its own accord, and grabbed his wrist, stopping the blow. My other arm reached out and tore out his throat, I tried to scream, to stop myself from killing my friend, but i couldn’t, my body kept going. Zack seemed hardly affected by the lack of a windpipe and carotid artery, and continued to try and kill me, laughing all the while. My body continued to act on its own, still holding Zack with my left hand, my right hand reached out, the pressure in my head building, and grabbed hold of his face. Then there was what felt like and electric shock running down my arm and a white fire issued from my hand, engulfing the manic Zack in flames which burned away the darkness clinging to Zack’s skin. His body fell to the floor.

Everything in the room stopped, everyone left alive turned to face me. Oh, crap. They all looked like Zack, bleeding faces and manic grins. One of then charged me, I feel my shoulders flex and something from behind me came around and sliced the persons head off, engulfing them in the flames at the same time. It was a wing, a freaking wing! The flames still covering my right hand started twisting and extending, they formed a sword. That’s when things got interesting. The bleeding...things...charged and as my body continued to direct itself, cutting a swath through the press of bodies, I started to hear another noise, on top of the high pitched squealing that I had been hearing since the chaos started, this one was low and melodious. The things started screaming, some of them covering their ears, they could hear it too. The cave exploded into bright white light, and was suddenly full of what looked like angels, tall beings with wings and swords. The newcomers started hacking into the crowd, which started to run away, some of the people started dropping to the floor of their own accord and the darkness that was clinging to their skin dissipating into the surrounding shadows.

Eventually the only things left standing were the guys with wings and swords. One of them turned to me and said something in a language I didn’t understand, I went to reply but that was about the time I passed out.

Guardians (part two)

Funnily enough it all started in a class room

“Kit! Earth to Kit! Give me a hand, you’re supposed to be the computer whizz, how’d ya do this?”

ICT was an essential module on my course at college and it was taught by the most boring person on the planet, Professor John Sparrow. “Yo Goody! I asked you a question!” shouted the voice in my ear.

That voice belonged to Zack Orion, my best friend at college, and a bit of an idiot. He’s the kind of guy that gets really drunk at parties, does something really cringe worthy and somehow manages to come out smelling of roses at the end. He was average height, dark hair in a side fringe cut with an annoying sing-song voice, but you couldn’t help but like him. The rest of the class were just as strange, full of quirks. There was Kristen, the half-chinese wannabe doctor, hugely into death metal, a borderline alcoholic, smoked so much weed i used to wonder how he had any short-term memory left, and was the most sarcastic prick i have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Ashleigh was an exceedingly hot, but high maintenance girl with blonde hair and a rack to die for, who seemed to be almost schizophrenic in her moods, sometimes nice and sweet, others a complete bitch. Lauren who had a similar personality to Ashleigh but without the looks to get away with it. Hannah was a skinny little bi-sexual brunette that seemed to have enough energy to power a freaking city and a really annoying nasal voice.

Then there was me, I was above average height and quite broad, but what made me stand out was my waist length white hair and ice blue eyes. The doctors said it was a form of albinoism and that I had to avoid prolonged exposure to sunlight, but i tended to ignore them, and my parents, and do what i wanted, a most people do when they are that age.

“Ach, fuck this man, I wanna go home so i can get my stuff ready for tomorrow!” said Zack, losing patience “Are you sure they said it was free?”

“Yes” I said, exasperated “how many times do I have to tell you? The guy said that the entire event was free” This event that had Zack all worked up was the annual “Rave in a Cave” which was held every year in one of the caves in the national park where our college was based. We were all going and had been looking forward to it for weeks, hence we’d got no work done and were being made to do this ICT assignment in class “come on dude, lets just get this done so we can go.”

“Well show me how to do it then for fucks sake!” Zack huffed “you’d think they’d be able to find a better teacher than old bird-brain over there!”

“Yeah well, maybe he’d help you more if you weren’t such a dick!” I laughed “Come on, let me help.”

The next night we all decided to meet up at the college and we’d squeeze in Zacks car in order to head to the rave “Has everyone got everything they need?” Zack asked “ ‘cos we need to go, now”

“yes!” I snapped “now can we go?”

“what’s eating you grumpy?” he said mockingly “did Goody get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?”

“It’s nothing, it’s just a headache that I’ve had since this morning, I’ve taken some painkillers, it should have worn off by the time we get there, but in the meantime, can we just get on with it?”

“You won’t be wanting any of these then?” asked Kristen, dangling a bad of pills in front of my face.

“What are they?”

“What the fuck do you think they are?” He said sarcastically, as per usual “we’re going to a rave man, these are an essential”

It was only when I had a closer look at him that i noticed that his pupils were huge “No thanks, don’t think they mix well with pain-killers”

“Suit yourself” he said, taking one of the little blue tablets out and swigging it down with a drink from one of the big bottles of cider that we had with us.

“Can I have one of those?” Hannah piped up “I’ve never tried them”

“Don’t” laughed Zack “I think it’ll make her explode”

“Should be good for a laugh” said Kristen, taking one out and offering it to her “take it with a drink, should hit you in no-time!”

It took us three hours to find the rave, by which time I wanted to kill Hannah because she wouldn’t shut up, or stop fidgeting in the small confines of the over-crowded car, none of which had made my headache any better, which seemed to be getting worse the closer we got to the rave “You okay man?” asked Zack.

“Yeah, head just hasn’t gotten any better” I said, grimacing “I’ll be fine though”

“You want to stay in the car?”

“ Nah, fuck that man, I wouldn’t miss this for anything!” I said “Come on lets get in there before it gets over-crowded”

It was really crowded and hot in the cave, it could have done with being three times the size for the amount of people that were there, and my headache seemed to be getting worse, I had started to hear this really high pitched, constant whine which was really painful to my ears. Dark spots had started to swim across my vision, and my back had started to sear with pain, I decided to leave before I was sick. I turned to find Zack, to tell him that I was leaving, and one of the dark spots seemed to focus on him and he collapsed. I ran over to see if he was okay, he seemed to be convulsing on his hands and knees. I grabbed his shoulder and turned him around to see if he was okay, his face was a mess, he was bleeding from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears “Jesus man!” I shouted “are you okay?”

That’s when he stabbed me.

Guardians (part one)

Guardians (part one) by Kit Myers

Angels are a myth, but, like most myths, they have a basis in fact. What most people think of as angels are actually a type of elf that died out a long time ago. Elves are beings who live in secret, away from human eyes, they live in the dark places of the world, where people are still scared to go. Wood Elves live in the dense natural forests and jungles and used their skill and magic to avoid explorers, Dark Elves live in caves, deep in the mountains. The Plain Elves, also known as Nymphs, interbred with humans and no-longer exist and the High Elves were a very powerful race of winged Elves that lived up in the mountains. It was these elves that humans mistook for angels, they were the elite, the most powerful, and their Queen, Gradia Sarna, was the most beautiful and powerful of all the Elven races. For every good in the world, however, there is an evil, this evil is known to humans as the Demons, their sole aim is to wipe out all life, for it is abhorrent to them, the chords of our life drives them insane. They almost succeeded once, but after a vicious war with the Elves, were banished to another dimension. In order to perform this massively powerful spell Gradia Sarna, Queen of the High Elves, gave her life. Before she died she gave a sacred duty to the decimated High Elves, to carry on the blood-line of the High Elves, to protect the life of the world, and to guard against the return of the Demons, for she knew that the spell would not hold the Demons forever.

To honour this duty the remnants of the High Elves, inter-mingled with the other elf races, and some took human partners. To honour the other duties, they set up “The Guardians”, this group was a group of elite individuals who showed High Elven characteristics and had distinguished themselves in some manner.

I was recruited to be a Guardian when I was nineteen, the first Guardian of human ancestry for centuries, and, true to my luck, I was born just as the Queen’s spell started to degrade, releasing the Demons in a steady stream. I thought I was finished with lessons when I finished school, but, apparently knowing the history of the elves is part of the Duty, theres even a whole new language to learn, I was crap at French in school. My Guardian name is Darkwolf, a name given to me when i was recruited, I was born Christopher Goodman, Kit to my friends, Goody if they wanted to annoy me, and Chris to my family. This is my story.