Words, terms & phrases

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The Henge Sagas contain words and phrases that may be unfamiliar, or be used in a different context. An explanation for most can be found from within the text of the novel (s). Below is a little more information about those words/phrases. If (saga) appears in the definition then it is likely to be a new term specifically created for the Saga:-

Arrowflight: (saga) a measure of distance. Coincidentally the diameter of Stonehenge matches the maximum controlled-flight distance of a neolithic bow and arrow: about 110 mtrs. 

Aeon Tree: (saga)Term used for a revered tree, always at least several hundred years old; possibly 1000 or more years old.

Askorn: (saga) term used in for a late Autumn festival. Named after the Brythonic for ‘bones’.

Astrolog: (saga) construction of wood or stone that keeps track of the heavens above at night, including Selasmene, the moon goddess. 

Beaj-oad-gour; Author’s word with Brythonic roots for “Manprove venture”

Brythonic: Although it’s impossible to know for certain what language was spoken in late Neolithic times, an assumption has been made that it was similar to the later Brythonic language. Similarities in culture suggest that one language may have been in use by all of the Nations mentioned in the Henge Saga.

Burrow: modern word might be ‘barrow’. The use of a similar but different word is a device to separate todays word ‘barrow’ from the construction a few millennia BC.

Canna: a measurement equivalent to the height of a man or two megalithic strides or 1.7m. A known, if obscure, historical measurement, though of variable length. 

Chronolog: (saga) a construction that watches the sun god, Arr, throughout the day and the year.

Clan: definition for Henge Saga :- local subdivision of a tribe; several tribes may make a Nation

Clochog: (saga) From the Welsh for bell or noise. Author’s word for a stone, probably ‘blue-stone’ that rings like a bell (perhaps a cracked one) when hit. There is the tiniest of hamlets, it may now be a single house, that is called Clochog (there is also a place called Maenclochog) south of the Preseli Hills where most ‘bluestones’ originate.

Cychwyniad: Authors word for the unisex version of manprove venture, from the Welsh for ‘initiation’.

Drumrocks/ bluestones: made up of thudders and clangers (clochogs)

Drw:(pron. ‘droo’): (saga) member of the main religious order. Males dominate by number but not necessarily rank.

DrwAmeer: (saga) most senior Drw in a tribe

Geoneoline: (saga) an invisible line connecting several locations

Gersuth: modern word might be cursus (see Burrow re use of words that may be almost homonyms)

Gleeman: travelling minstrel and town crier
god-mark: (saga) a natural mark of unnatural appearance
Knapandwrap: (saga) No know timespan shorter than a part day existed in prehistoric Britain, but it’s possible that some timespans were well known or understood. A knap and wrap is the authors attempt at defining a period of considerably less than an hour during which a flint could be knapped into a functional arrowhead and attached to a shaft to make an arrow.

Manprove: (saga) rite of passage into adulthood: see cychwyniad

MasterDrw: (saga) usually in charge of a clan’s Drws

Mawon: (pl, mawen) (saga) term for third sex; initially  mawon referred to the auspicious 1/1000 persons born intersex. This term was first used by the author about 10 years ago and has therefore been left in the Saga (the novel has been over 15 years in the writing); This was obviously before the use of terms like ‘gender neutral’, ‘gender identity’ and ‘they’ became quite common. 

Megaline: (saga) used to denote exceptionally long alignments of menhirs (standing stones)

NainTaid: (saga) ancestral stones. Derivation of the affectionate Welsh slang for grandmother (Nain) and grandfather (Taid) 

Nord, Sud, Yst and Wyst: North, South, East and West (at least in part from Breton words)

Pwntarc: (saga) five central arches at Sanctus

Pwntathon: Meeting of representees from Pwntpact nations

Pwntpact: (saga) treaty between five key nations 

Sagecourt; (saga) usually 10-15 Elders Can be village, clan or tribe

Sagetale: (saga) verbal history

Scop: holder of verbal history of tribes. Rarely used nowadays though in the dictionary

Seer: believes she/he/zhe can see the future through dreams or natural events

Winterbeck: seasonal river, usually in chalkland

Yellowhead: (saga) charged with the security of Monarch and Nation. Distinctive haircut