Legends and Mythology

His arch-enemies sat around him enjoying a sumptuous banquet. After a suitable period of toying with his prey, the host cackled evilly, pulled a lever and sent his guests plunging to the deaths in a concealed pit below.It may sound like something out of an Austin Powers film, but this is actually a medieval explanation for the mysterious "disappearance" of the Picts, with the Dr Evil character played by no less than Kenneth MacAlpin, reputedly the first King of Scots. With their nobility wiped out, the story went, it was easy for MacAlpin to take over and enforce Scottish ways on the rest of the Picts.Stories telling how the Scots came to live in Scotland contain someof the more inventive tales among its myths and legends. Apparently, the Scots are the descendents of an Egyptian princess, Scota, and their language, Gaelic, was humanity's original form of speech as spoken by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

These beliefs were taken seriously in times gone by. The idea that the Scots are the sons and daughters of Scota and her husband, Gaythelos, whose name supposedly gave us Gaels and Gaelic, gave them a connection to one of the world's great cultures and a touch of its status. And creating a lineage with a special connection to the Bible was another good idea, emphasising the shared membership of the international club of Christianity. The people who seemed to have been displaced by the Scots were something of a puzzle to early historians. Henry of Huntingdon, who lived from 1080 to 1160, commented inhis book, Historia Anglorum that the Picts, mentioned by the Venerable Bede in his earlier history, had inexplicably vanished. Alex Woolf, a historian who specialises in early medieval history at St Andrews University, says: "His [Henry's] idea is to continue Bede's history up to the present, which was about 1140. So he starts copying out Bede's introductory chapter, and, when he gets to the bit about the four languages of Britain, he says:, 'Hang on a minute, that's not right, the Picts don't exist anymore,' and that 'they have so completely disappeared even their language has gone.'" The story about the fiendish use of trapdoors beneath the seats of his dinner guests was an attempt at an explanation that dates back at least as far as the 12th century. "It's the Dr Evil version of Kenneth MacAlpin," says Woolf. "He hadse......

This is a story about an unusual-looking 40-foot boat with two outriggers and a legend attached. As legends go, this one is way out there. Or, if you like, way up there.The boat's owner, Tom Kardos of Aliso Viejo, isn't all that keen about talking about it, although he believes it's true. "My wife says if I talk about it, make a one-sentence comment and then don't come back to it," Kardos says. So, in deference to Kardos, whose company I enjoyed immensely aboard the Seven Sisters earlier this week, I'll get to that part of the story a bit later.Besides, some background always helps. Kardos is 49 and the father of three children.He's an engineer with an aptitude for electronics that has put him in touch, he says, with cutting-edge scientific and medical products. He and his wife of 21 years drive hybrid cars and consider themselves "save-the-Earth kind of people," Kardos says. And Kardos loves the sea. He spent his boyhood in landlocked Hungary and had never seen an ocean until his family moved to Southern California when he was 12.

He has sailed from California to Hawaii and made another trip to the Galapagos Islands. A few years ago, he was in Hawaii and saw a boat unlike anything he'd ever seen. When he laid eyes on the Seven Sisters, it was love at first sight. The boat had a standard-looking hull but came with two outrigger hulls attached in a way that gave it a futuristic look. The locals around the yachtclub referred to it, Kardos says, "as the 'Back to the Future' boat or the James Bond boat or the Enterprise from 'Star Trek.' " Kardos wanted it but didn't like the price. However, by 2005, after it had been sold by its designer to a fisherman, Kardos made the deal. To confirm his belief in the craft, he took it out in 35-knot winds off the back side of Kauai and was amazed at how the two outer "wave-piercing" hulls helped the boat knife through the waves at a sustained 10 to 12 knots into the headwinds. But it's not just the boat's look that impressed Kardos. He says it was designed to be environmentally friendly and efficient — with multiple energy sources and water-catching methods. The boat, he says, weighs 7,000 pounds — a weight not unusual for a sailboat half its length. Earlierthis......

Why is Cleopatra thought by some to be one of the most seductive women in all human history? The Cleopatra of history, legend, plays, and film was actually Cleopatra VII who was born in Alexandria, the then capital of Egypt, in 69 BC. Her father, Ptolemy XII, was of Greek origin and a cruel and unpopular ruler. He was probably married to his own sister, Cleopatra V, as marriage to siblings was common during the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Cleopatra VII had two older sisters, Cleopatra VI and Berenice. She also had a younger sister, Arsinoe, and two younger brothers, both sharing the name Ptolemy. By the year 51 B.C. Cleopatra's father, Ptolemy XII and her older sister, Cleopatra VI, had both died and her other sister, Berenice, had been beheaded, leaving Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII, heirs to the throne. Cleopatra was a young woman, now 17 or 18 and her younger brother just 12 or 13. A marriage of convenience was arranged, and Cleopatra and her younger brother were wed.

 For the next few years Cleopatra controlled the reins of power until Ptolemy's supporters, led by named Pothinus, a eunuch, conspired to overthrow her. In 48 B.C., they were successful and Cleopatra, now powerless, fled to Syria, with her one surviving sister, Arsinoe. Already having distinguished herself as being very intelligent, speaking nine languages, including Egyptian, (the first Ptolemaic ruler to be able to do so) Cleopatra was about to distinguish herself again, plotting to regain power and to prove herself a shrewd and cunning political leader. There are different accounts about whether or not she was beautiful; some say she was, and others that she had and unglamorously long, bent nose and coarse, more masculine features. But there is a general accord amongst historians that she gave a lot of attention to the care of her body and the way she deported herself. It is also agreed that men found her very attractive and her ways, seductive...

Robin Hood was really a Welsh freedom fighter who never even set foot in Nottingham let alone Sherwood Forest, a historian has claimed. The medieval outlaw - said to have robbed from the rich to give to the poor - never once met Maid Marian nor the Sheriff of Nottingham, according to Stephen Lawhead.The American blows apart the widely accepted version of the legend in his new book, Hood, arguing that Robin Hood was really a hardened Guerrilla based in the Valleys. But tourism chiefs in Nottingham have rubbished the theory, warning: "Hands off our Robin!"Lawhead, 56, believes the folk hero and his band ofmerry men would have carried out their thieving in the Marsh, a primeval forest in Wales in the 11th century, more than a hundred years before the English Robin Hood. He claims Robin would not have been able to hide out in Sherwood Forest because it would have been too small and well chartered. Robin would, he said, be able to remain undetected in the vast and unknown forests of the March. The sheltered woodlands would have provided him with the perfect base to launch lightening attacks on invading Norman armies.

In his book, Lawhead, still tells of a wronged nobleman turned heroic outlaw but names him as Bran ap Brychan instead of the more recognised Robin of Loxley. Bran is a spoiled and selfish prince who becomes the rightful heir to the kingdom of Elfael after his father iskilled by the Normans. He quickly becomes a marked man and makes plans to escape his kingdom and his people, until he is almost killed by the forces of Count Falkes de Braose, who took possession of the kingdom. Just like the classic version of Robin Hood, Lawhead's re-telling involves a strong and beautiful maiden, a wine-loving priest and plenty of heartless kings and aristocrats. But the American historian and author has Bran fleeing to the woods of the March rather than Sherwood, where he meets Angharad, a mysterious healer and singing storyteller. Angharad's faith in Bran's potential as a heroic king eventually inspires his notion to steal from the rich in order to raise the money needed to buy back his kingdom and free his people, forced into slavery by their new ruler. Lawhead......