Legend and fact intertwine tantalizingly throughout the
history of what we now know as the British Isles. The story of the Kingdom of Alt Clut, what
fragments survive, is populated by the likes of King Arthur, Saint Patrick, Macbeth
and Old King Cole, and it occupies a setting not far removed from Tolkien’s
Middle Earth. Tim Dalgleish guides the
reader through the hazy genealogy of the kings of Alt Clut who waged their wars
across the highlands of what will become modern Scotland and he tells us how
they interacted with the more familiar players of the day. One finds it remarkable that a kingdom
enduring for six or seven centuries, in part contemporaneously with the
obsessively preservationist Romans, could so completely sink beneath the shroud
of time. Ancient Britain—more correctly,
what would become Britain—was rife with famous chroniclers such as the
Venerable Bede, Chaucer and Saint Patrick, but the sum of what can be known of
Alt Clut is well summarized in this thought provoking sixty-two-hundred word
essay.
history of what we now know as the British Isles. The story of the Kingdom of Alt Clut, what
fragments survive, is populated by the likes of King Arthur, Saint Patrick, Macbeth
and Old King Cole, and it occupies a setting not far removed from Tolkien’s
Middle Earth. Tim Dalgleish guides the
reader through the hazy genealogy of the kings of Alt Clut who waged their wars
across the highlands of what will become modern Scotland and he tells us how
they interacted with the more familiar players of the day. One finds it remarkable that a kingdom
enduring for six or seven centuries, in part contemporaneously with the
obsessively preservationist Romans, could so completely sink beneath the shroud
of time. Ancient Britain—more correctly,
what would become Britain—was rife with famous chroniclers such as the
Venerable Bede, Chaucer and Saint Patrick, but the sum of what can be known of
Alt Clut is well summarized in this thought provoking sixty-two-hundred word
essay.
Being a junkie for history, I could not resist
revisiting Alt Clut. I first became
aware that this shadowy kingdom had existed from Norman Davies’ monumental
Vanished Kingdoms which Tim Dalgleish references among other unimpeachable
sources. Mr. Dalgleish remixes the
sparse facts and presents them concisely and entertainingly. He teases the reader with comparisons of the
facts of Alt Clut and their similarity to well known and cherished legends
giving the reader to wonder if the enigmatic Alt Clut was the birthplace of
those immortal tales. I have only one
complaint, and I tell you with tongue in cheek, that no document comprised of
only sixty-two-hundred words should ever contain the word ‘subsumed’ twice.
I got this short essay from http://readersfavorite.com/ . I don't know where else it is available or how much it cost. I got it for free.
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