Cauldron of the Gods: Archaeology and Myth in Enchanted Wales With Miranda Aldhouse-Green

Please email us on info@lwvbpt.org if tickets are sold out and you would like to go on a waiting list for returns.Enchanted Wales is an invitation to voyage through the key stories of Welsh mythic literature, exploring not just their medieval texts but also their ancient roots, which can be glimpsed in sculptures, carvings and other artefacts from at least a thousand years earlier. These stories are more than epic entertainments: they allow us to explore our deepest questions about life and death, war and peace, and good and evil, secure in the knowledge that a skilful storyteller will guide us safely to the end of the tale.Together we will explore a cast of heroes and tricksters, animals that can talk and change shape, and magicians and witches who can bring disaster or triumph to the people in their paths. There will be severed heads that speak, birds that can tell the future, cauldrons with magical properties, complex quests and ghostly underworlds where strange and frightening things happen to the humans who visit them.Miranda Aldhouse-Green is Professor Emeritus at Cardiff University. A former President of the Prehistoric Society, Professor Aldhouse-Green was the first recipient of the John Legonna Celtic Research Prize, awarded by the National Library of Wales in 1986. She has written 26 books on druids, Iron Age and Roman Britain. She has lectured at academic institutions in including the Smithsonian Institution and the Universities of Toronto, Melbourne, Utrecht and Umea
Miranda's next publication is Druidland published 1 April 2027.This is an in-person event at Tintern Village Hall. Drinks and crisps will be served. There is disabled access, loos and limited free parking within the grounds, but parking along the main road (A466) is unrestricted after 6pm.
The closest designated car-parks with e-car charging points are by Tintern Abbey (after which you can cut through the playing fields or walk along the river footpath to quickly reach the Village Hall) or at the Lower Wireworks along the Forge Rd.Nearby establishments serving food before the talk and drinks after include The Wye Valley Hotel and The Anchor.This talk is run by the Lower Wye Valley Building Preservation Trust, a volunteer charity which is purchasing St Mary's Church a seriously at risk listed building and scheduled monument on the hillside above Tintern Abbey. Consolidating this ruin is our current priority (for safety reasons this site is currently closed and unauthorised entry is prohibited), but LWVBPT are also lobbying Welsh Water and the Wye Valley Community Council to restore the Fryer's Wharf Slipway, an ancient crossing and landing point connecting England and Wales, to public use.Annual membership costs 10 a year per person, and other than the satisfaction of directly helping to conserve our heritage, gives a discount to our events as well as other offers. See www.lwvbpt.org for more details.