| Vortigern Studies has the
internet's most comprehensive treatment of
Britain's history from the end of the Roman era
to Arthurian times. Edited by Robert M. Vermaat,
this unique website focuses primarily on the
person of Vortigern and the enigmatic earthwork
called Wansdyke. It features narrative histories,
original source documents and important texts,
extensive bibliographies, reading lists,
informative articles by guest writers, maps,
polls and more. |
Vortigern Studies Index
|
|
What was  ? in 2000
IN
VORTIGERN STUDIES AND THE ARTHURIAN COLLECTION
December
27, 2000
I
have started updating the site, which means links
will be out of order at times. Be warned, and
best wishes to all of you for the next year! We'll
meet again in the new Millennium...December 14,
2000
A
new update, and it ain't the first of the month!
I have been working on a new
layout,
which is displayed on this page only as yet.
However, the rest of the site will change
gradually over the next weeks. It means a new banner, an in-site
search engine on every page.
But MORE IMPORTANT:All main directory pages will
be altered, for new sub-directories for the
main subjects wiil be created in the next weeks
as well. The main reason for this change is that
the site has grown so much over the last 18
months that I need to change it to maintain the
site better.
WARNING! THIS MEANS THAT ALL
ADDRESSES FOR MOST PAGES WILL BE ALTERED!
I
have added a temporary referral to all original
pages, but these will disappear in time, so I
suggest you'd best alter your bookmarks. The main
structural pages (the info-pages if you will)
stay the same, so entrance will remain guaranteed.
They can be found below the banner.
The
Arthurian
Collection has received a new background, which I
think does the site some good. This is the third
time this year, I know. Also, the collection is
now a proud member of four new
webrings,
the Modern Fantasy
Topsites, the Alternative
Reality Writer's Zone, the RPG fantasy Top
25 and the Fantasy News
Network Top 100. Please Vote for us!
December
1, 2000
Four
new articles, with which I
think I've finished the 'Cities of Vortigern'-section:
Foel Fenlli, Old Carlisle, Old Sarum and Rhaeadr Gwy.
A new guest-article: Why Vortigern? by David White. The
article by August Hunt is
updated as well. Also, many new items in several
linkspages.
Very new and welcome is the In-Site
Search Engine SiteMiner from MyComputer.com!
Search any word, name or title, if it's on
Vortigern Studies, you'll find it. Below is a
search box that will appear gradually throughout
the whole website.
There are 6
new items in my (overhauled)
Arthurian
Collection:
- Geoffrey of
Monmouth: The History of the
Kings of Britain, (ca. 1136, trans.
M. Nieuwenhuis, Athaenum-Polak & Van
Gennep 2000), a new translation in Dutch,
maybe the first since the Middle Ages!
- Mattthews,
John and Caitlin: The Arthurian Book
of Days-the greatest legend in the world
retold throughout the year, (1990,
repr. Brockhampton Press 1997). This very
interesting and at first sight confusing
book takes the reader through the year,
step by step following the legend.
- Cothias,
Rouge
(ill.): Les Heros Cavaliers 2 - La
grande Ourse, (Glénat 1988). French
original of a historic comic series about
Arthur.
- Cothias,
Rouge
(ill.): Les Heros Cavaliers 4 - L'Esprit
de Vermine (Glénat 1994)
- Cothias,
Rouge
(ill.): Les Heros Cavaliers 5
- Blanche Fleur (Glénat 1996)
- Cothias,
Rouge
(ill.): Les Heros Cavaliers 6 - La
Faim des Illusions (Glénat 1997)
November
1, 2000
Vortigern
Studies has been awarded the British History 'Silver'
2000 Award! Needless to say, we're very
proud of that.
I have
completely reorganized the Bibliography into four databases; a
Vortigern-, a Wansdyke-, a Roman- and an
Arthurian database. Also, Vortigern Studies has
joined the following webrings:
Fortunately, the Ring of the Red
Dragon has been re-launched, and of
course I have stayed on. Next, we are proud new
members of the Modern Fantasy Link
Exchange, the British History webring
and Merlin's Magical
Grove. Unfortunately, the sheer number
of them has forced me to create a separate
webrings-page.
|
Also, the Arthurian
Collection has joined the Fantasy & SF
Webring. There are 12 new
items
in my (overhauled) Arthurian
Collection:
- Paxson,
Diana L.: The Hallowed Isle,
book 3; The Book of the Cauldron,
and book 4; The Book of the Stone,
(Avon 1999-2000). The two sequels that
conclude this very successful historical
interpretation of the Arthurian legend.
- Snyder,
Christopher A.: Exploring the World of
King Arthur, (Thames & Hudson 2000),
a very good book, full of drawings and
illustrations, that takes the reader
through Arthurian history and legend.
- Rodolphe,
Rouge: De Hemelsluizen 1 - 4,
(Talent 1998). Four Breton-Arthurian
comics (in Dutch).
- Vandersteen,
W.:
De Rode Ridder 178 - Het Klooster van de
Dood, (Standaard 2000), another
album of the 'Red Knight' series.
- (VHS) Doctor Who (9/156):
Battlefield (BBC, 1989), a VHS of the
famous Timelord and his battle against
Morgaine. This 'Arthurian' story is
centred on Lake Vortigern.
- (VHS)
Arthur, Myth and Reality, (Cromwell
1994). A Historical documentary by
Susanna Shadrake and Nikolai Tolstoy
about Arthurian fact and legend. Very
good!
- (VHS) A
Kid at King Arthur's Court (1995). A
'tweenager' comedy about a modern kid who
goes back in time to find his self-esteem...well,
you know the drill.
- Quest
for the Grail, a trading card game
of knights, adventure and chivalry in the
days of King Arthur.
|
October 1, 2000
Not much new
stuff, as I return from my holiday. However, three new articles: quotations about
Vortigern from the work of Edward Gibbon, an article about the 'Caves
of Vortigern' in Margate, Kent, and one about 'Lake
of Vortigern', where some sinister things went on...
Sadly, This site is no longer a member of the Ring of the
Red Dragon. This webring, I'm sorry to say, has not
survived the fusion of Webring.com with Yahoo.
There are 10 new novels in my (overhauled) Arthurian Collection:
- Barron,
Thomas A.: The Lost years of
Merlin, book 1, (1996, repr. Ace
1999), book 2: The Seven Songs of
Merlin, (1997, repr. Ace 2000) and
book 3: The Fires of Merlin, (1998,
repr. Ace 2000), an interesting trilogy
about the youth of Merlin, kinda like 'before
he was famous'.
- Bradley, Marion:
Lady of Avalon, (1997, Penguin
1998), which is the prequel to Mists
of Avalon.
- Greenberg, Martin H. (ed.):
Merlin, (Daw 1999), a delightful
collection of short stories about the
famous Arthurian magician.
- Mallory, James:
Merlin, part 3; The End of Magic,
(Voyager 2000), the concluding part to
the trilogy of the NBC miniseries.
- Paxson,
Diana L.: The Hallowed Isle,
books 1 & 2; The Book of the Sword
and the Book of the Spear, (Avon
1999), an absolutulely top-notch attempt
at writing a historic novel about Arthur.
- Roberts,
Barrie: Sherlock Holmes and
the Devil's Grail, (1995, A&B
2000), an adventure of the famous
detective, taking him into wales and
Arthurian connections.
- Whyte, Jack: Camulod
Chronicles, book 5; The Fort at River's
Bend, (Tor 1999) and book 6; The
Sorceror: Metamorphosis, (Tor 1999),
the latest continuations of the already
epic Camulod saga.
|
September 1, 2000
With the
holidays slowly gliding by, no new articles this month.
However, that does not mean this site is not updated - to
the contrary!
First, due to the quality of the new mouse-over style
link for those with Explorer, I have changed all in-text
links to bold script. This has to ensure
that none of them are missed, as I feared might happen (you
can see what I mean below, where the older links remain
unaltered).
Second, I have made changes to all articles that included
maps. These maps may have been a lot of work, but they
also caused slow loading of the page, and they
were potentially infringing copyright. So, when I
stumbled over the site of UK Streetmap, I changed the lot
to links. Actually, this has improved the quality! The
links show better maps, you can zoom and check out other
features - better or what! To make up for this 'loss', I
have added parts of 1891 maps of most of these sites. See
what they looked like in the 19th century!
Last, I have (finally) created a new poll! Come and share
what you thought the 'Dragons of Dinas Emrys' were about..
August
1, 2000
The monthly
update: We have five new Guest-articles: Jason Godesky: The Vortigern Dynasty, Jason Godesky: The Dynasty of Vortigern, David Nash Ford: Vortigern
and his Family, August Hunt: Cadell
Durnluc and Vortigern and Michael Veprauskas: A
Clerical Portrait of Vortigern? Also new on the site: the 'Grave
of Vortimer' at Richborough, plus many updated earlier articles (see the sitemap).
June
28, 2000
Just when
you were used to this layout..a new one! Today it's my 36th
birthday, and to celebrate that, I've changed the layout
of the whole site! Mouse-over effects, background,
updates, drop-shadows on all images, etc. I feel the site
is getting a more professional look this way, without
being overly sophisticated - still no frames or other
stuff that makes loading more difficult. What's more, a
new article about Gloiu, the great-grandfather of
Vortigern, but also six new articles about Vortigern and his
Age in the sources. And, last but not least, four
more new articles about Gildas - about his writings, his times, when and where he wrote.
June
1, 2000
The
Arthurian Collection has now been moved to Yahoo! It can
be found at http://www.geocities.com/vortigernstudies/bibliograrth.htm. In time, the site will be able
to grow with reviews, scans of the covers and enlarged (but
still shameless) e-commerce.
May
8, 2000
I have
changed to Monthly poll to a 3-Monthly poll. This will
give voters a better chance. I'm preparing a totally new
layout and completing new articles in the Sources section
(as promised), so Vortigern Studies will be incommunicado
for a while.
April
6, 2000
This evening,
Vortigern Studies has been online for exactly one year!
To celebrate this, I have completed most of the 'Vortigern
and the Sources'
section: 19 new articles! From Eutropius in the
late fourth century, through authors such as Ammianus,
Orosius, Zosimus and Orosius, up to the first source for
Vortigern: Gildas, which will appear, together with the
remaining ten or so, in the near future.
A new poll - April 2000. Click and Vote!
Vortigern Studies has also proudly joined up with a
fourth and a fifth Webring: The History Ring and the Ring of the Legendary Excalibur!
March
5, 2000
In the drive
for competing the 'Sources'-section, I have added many new books and articles to the
Vortigern Studies Bibliography, which has been altered a little.
There are new Comics in the Arthurian Collection.
February
27, 2000
Vortigern
Studies has a new 'HOME'-page! For all of those who fail to
remember this site's exact adress (and let's be honest,
who can?), here's the remedy: WWW.VORTIGERN.ORG.This is a one-page-only 'front door', the
rest will remain where it is.
Next, a much-needed face-lift for the Arthurian Collection - a new background image (dramatic, isn't
it?), a banner and an updated in-site navigation. As part of improving
navigation on all pages in both sites, many pages have
been enriched with an Alta Vista search box as well.
Apart from this third Monthly Poll, there are new links in the Arthurian
Linkspage: David
White's Arthurian page: 'King Arthur-a man for the Ages', and 'Camelot in Four Colors', a site about the Arthurian
Legend in Comics.
February
6, 2000
A major update - a completely new style! I have changed the font
from Arial to Verdana, which I think is much
better to read, especially when very small and in italics.
I've decreased the volume of the border as well, which
gives the articles more space. All Vortigern Studies
pages now have an (animated) banner, to advertise
Vortigern Studies somewhat more. The navigation has been
improved as well, and will eventually be followed by more
search boxes and eventually an internal search engine.
Apart from this third Monthly Poll, I have completed the Links pages and updated all geographical pages with new maps and a new style, which makes them stand
out as different from the articles. I've re-scanned some
of the larger images as well.
January
7, 2000
Only a week
into the new year, and already an update! First, the second Monthly Poll
has been added, including a Monthly Poll page with the result of the first poll.
Second, Vortigern Studies now has a new Quiz with some twenty-plus questions to test the
knowledge of the visitor. These questions will change,
and for this moment deal only with Vortigern.
I've added two new items for the Arthurian Collection:
- Rosalind
Miles,
Guenevere, book 1; The Queen of the
Summer Country (1999). This is the
first part of a new romantic triology
with Guinevere as the focal point.
- Rosalind
Miles,
Guenevere, book 2; The Knight of the
Sacred Lake (2000). The brand new
second volume to this series.
|
Lastly,
just a bit of fun: Vortigern is going to MARS!
His name has been added to the CD-ROM that will accompany
the next Mars Lander in 2001- let's hope that this one
works...
Everything
that went before can be seen at the '1999' page!
|
