#lord of the isles

[grrlmusic]

Lord Of The Isles & Ellen Renton - My Noise is Nothing

[iamlisteningto]

Lord Of The Isles & Ellen Renton’s My Noise Is Nothing

[scotianostra]

On January 6th 1156 Somerled met  the Norse at the Battle of Epiphany. 

This little known battle is all the more extraordinary as it was a naval affair, thought to have been fought off the coast of Islay.

The western Isles and Isle of Man were part of the Kingdom of Norway, but with the King being so far away and often seen as weak the region was an area where the warlords reigned and often battled for supremacy.  

At the head of this battle was a man we know mostly by the name of Somerled who was no ordinary warlord. He may have been a gall-gàidheil, or Norse-Gael, but his loyalty was biased to his Scottish ancestry, although he had his own agenda of conquest and political authority.

Against him was the  Norse Godred Olafsson (Godred the Black), King of the Isles, Godred, sometimes called Godfrey by the English was Somerleds brother in law, his sister was  Raghnailt, their father, Olaf, the previous King of the Isles,  had been murdered by their cousins three years previously, no loyalty with these families!  Godreds seat of power was Isle of Man 

Godred was a harsh leader and made many enemies, some of whom approached Somerled who agreed to their plan to overthrow Godred and replace him with Somerled’s son Dubgall mac Somairle. 

He began preparations and began construction of 80 ships modelled on the Norse longship. Word got back to Godfred that Somerled was drumming up support and set sail to sort things out. 

The fleets of Godred and Somerled met off Islay, to the north at Rubh’ a’ Mhaoil, on the night of the Epiphany on 5–6th January. Can you imagine the sight of two “viking” fleets lit by torch light going up against each other in the dead of the night!!! 

The Battle itself was inconclusive; so the two leaders sat down and reached a compromise agreement. Somerled would have the islands of Argyll including Mull and Islay, while Godred would keep the rest including the Western Isles and the Isle of Skye. But it was an uneasy peace, and two years later they were back at it again with a second sea battle. This time the result was in no doubt: Somerled had smashed the Manx fleet, and Godred fled the scene.

Somerled’s empire now stretched from Lewis to Man, and he styled himself as the ‘King of the Isles’. Nominally he held the islands from the Norwegian Crown, but in reality he ruled as a free prince, and gave his loyalty to the Scottish king. 

Somerled was later deposed and possibly assassinated by a Scottish Clan who were flexing their muscles and gaining powerful friends in the Royal court, they were The Stewarts, but that’s another long story…….

[trevlad-sounds]

Saturday 18 November Mixtape 397 “Departing Thermal EXCLUSIVE” Ambient Drone Electronic Experimental Space Tuesdays & Saturdays. Support the artists and labels. Don't forget to tip so future shows can bloom.

Trevlad Sounds-Welcome in you wonderful listener 00:00

Tim Linghaus-Chichi No E No Kanashimi 00:31

Ligovskoï-Fairbanks 03:02

Lee Hannah-Thermal Pool 06:42

zakè, marine eyes-Unfailing Love 10:33

Lord Of The Isles, Ellen Renton-A Portrait 14:41

anthéne, Antarctic Wastelands-Midnight in January 21:09

Nadia Struiwigh-NTV89 23:43

Ola Sandberg-31/3 29:57

Kinbrae, Clare Archibald-Half Seen Truths Of The M90 39:05

Good Weather For An Airstrike-An Ode To Fring 45:04

Jonny Nash-Theories 53:14

Milieu-Natural Green (Part 2) 54:54

Greenshank-Following Lines Into The Blue 58:49

Eulipion Corps-In Waves 1:07:15

Klimek-Sun(Rise) 1:12:02

Polypores-Retrocausal 1:19:31

Erik Wøllo-Rainshine 1:22:18

Steve Roach-Departing Raven 1:25:06

daily rituals-another time 1:36:12

Disasterpeace-Fellow Traveler 1:38:42

Steven Halpern, Iasos-Third Chakra Keynote E (Yellow) - (Bonus Version) (Remastered) 1:40:08

J Foerster, N KRAMER-Curved Hallway 1:42:10

synkrotron-Clytie 1:46:21

[apieters]

From my interviews with High Shepherd Yan:

Peter the Marshal? Of course I knew him! And oh, how I miss him to this day.

Many years have gone by, and I am no longer the little boy of 12 or 13 that I was when I met him—as you can plainly see. I see nothing plainly anymore, not in front of these dim old eyes. But I still see him, plain as day. “He is more real to me than you are,” I still remember an old master saying once, or something to that effect. I understand him now—would that Peter had gotten the chance…

The Kingdom of Heimar remembers well the great warrior-prince, charging dismounted with his men, his greatsword Dragonsbane in hand. The Lord of the Isles, they called him by right of birth; the Marshal of Heimar he became at Torin’s proclamation; the Lion’s Cub, they call him in some of the ballads—he was never fond of bards and troubadours, but never seemed to mind that particular moniker. Everyone remembers the stern, strong warrior, the man who exercised the authority of a king, with his auburn beard and red-gold hair, girded in dented armor and a tattered surcoat, ready to lead the charge at the decisive moment of a battle, with Dragonsbane whistling through the air, ready to cleave its way to victory.

But that is not the face I see now. No, before my mind’s eye I see a round-faced youth, with smooth cheeks and shaggy red-gold hair, his shoulders broad from hammering at a smith’s anvil, armored only in a heavy leather apron. I remember his tattered old plaid that he wore in defiance of the bans whenever he could, the pride and the gravity that came over him when he placed his lordly circlet of red gold upon his brow.

He didn’t smile much then, for then he had little to smile about. When I first met him, it was perhaps the darkest point in his life—seven years he and Torin had hidden themselves as itinerant laborers, wandering all over Heimar to remain unrecognized and undetected by Tiberian and his spies after the cowardly assassination of Peter’s father, Claas Perseyn, the Red Lion. We mustn’t be too harsh when we judge him in that era—the sole survivor of an ancient and noble lineage, living in fear for his life everyday, unable to mourn the death of the one who meant the world to him. What is truly the miracle—and he and I later thanked Torin every day for this—is that when I met him, he had any human compassion left at all.

And yet, after I had been kidnapped from my home in Pushta and taken north to Alpan, there to be sold as a slave in the mines, it was Peter who noticed me crying on the auction block. It was Peter who bartered away a precious dragonsteel blade—worth twice its weight in gold, if one was a miser and a cheat—that he had forged in secret in order to buy back our lives. I only latter learned the great danger he exposed himself to, for only the Lords of the Isles could forge such blades, and in trading such a blade would have alerted anyone with any sense that the Red Lion’s cub was still alive. Fortunately, the slaver’s avarice outweighed his common sense, and he sold us all to Peter on the spot—and Peter freed us right then and there, in front of the slaver’s face.

Like all slaves, I was stripped to the waist (so that the slave drivers could flog us at a moment’s notice), even in the winter. After freeing me, Peter singled me out and wrapped his plaid around me and lead me to his smithy to warm up. He did not show me any other particular affection, and certainly did not smile. Yet we have a saying here in Heimar—perhaps you have a similar saying in your distant land—which says, “The heart lies in the hands.” Some foolish minstrels say that the eyes are the window to the heart, or other such nonsense. They are wrong. A man’s heart is revealed by what he does with his hands, not with his eyes or his tongue. Peter’s face betrayed nothing to me that cold late winter’s day of the noble character that made him almost a king later in life. His tongue, dare I say, was gruff and harsh. But his hands—his hands were gentle and tender, the hands of a father or a skillful craftsman.

And so he proved to be.

[ukdamo]

Orkneyinga Saga (excerpt)

a Viking text telling of King Hakon’s death

The fleets which now consisted of more than a hundred vessels, for the most part large and all well equipped, was divided into two squadrons, one of which, consisting of fifty ships, plundered the coasts of Kintyre and Mull, rejoining King Hakon at Gigha. A detatched squadron now plundered Bute, and the fleet cast anchor in Arran Sound, from which King Hakon sent Gilbert, Bishop of Hamar, and Heniy, Bishop of Orkney, with three other envoys, to treat for peace with the Scottish King. The negotiations failed, and soon after the fleet was disabled by a storm, and the power of the Norwegian King utterly broken in the battle of Largs. King Hakon, gather- ing together the shattered remnants of his fleet and army, retired slowly northwards, meeting with no impediment until they arrived off Durness, in Sutherlandshire, when the wind fell calm, and the fleet steered into the sound, where seven men of a boat’s crew, who had been sent ashore for water, were killed by the Scots. In passing through the Pentland Firth one vessel went down with all on board in the  Swelkie, a dangerous whirlpool in certain states of the tide, and another was carried by the current helplessly through the Firth, and made straight for Norway. King Hakon laid up his fleet in Midland Harbour and Scapa Bay. He then rode to Kirkwall, and lay down to die. He was lodged in the bishop’s palace, and after having been confined to his bed for some days, he recovered so much that he attended mass in the bishop’s chapel, and walked to the cathedral to visit the shrine of St Magnus. But there came a relapse, and he was again laid prostrate. He caused the Bible and Latin books to be read to him to beguile the tedium of the sick bed, until he was no longer able to bear the fatigue of reflecting on what he heard ; and then he desired that Norwegian books should be read to him night and day — first the Sagas of the Saints, and then the Chronicles of the Kings, from Halfdan the Black through all the succession of the Bangs of Norway.

Then he set his affairs in order, caused his silver plate to be weighed out to pay his troops, and received the sacrament. He died at midnight on Saturday, 15th December 1263. On Sunday the corpse, clothed in the richest garments, with a garland on the head, was laid in state in the upper hall of the palace. The king’s chamberlains stood round it with tapers, and all day long the people came to view the remains of their king. The nobles kept watch over the bier through the night ; and on Monday the royal remains were borne to St. Magnus’ Cathedral, where they lay in state all that night. On Tuesday they were temporarily interred in the choir of the church, near the steps leading to the shrine of St. Magnus. Before his death the king had given directions

that his body should be carried east to Norway, and buried beside the remains of his father and his relatives in Bergen. In the month of March the corpse was exhumed and conveyed to Scapa, where it was placed on board the great ship in which he had sailed on the unfortunate expedition to Largs, and taken to Bergen, where it was interred in the choir of Christ’s Church.

[mixamorphosis]

Blog post and linked up tracklist [HERE]

Tracklist

Akis - Biofields (Into The Light Records) Cass. - Your Beautiful Look Is Looping Endlessly In My Head (Emotional Response) Suso Saiz - The Hiding Place (El Escondite) (Music From Memory) Vangelis Katsoulis - Liquidity (Utopia Records) Jonny Nash - Lime (Melody As Truth) Mood Hut - Late Mantra (Snaker) Susumu Yokota - Azukiiro No Kaori (Leaf) Steve Cobby - Arvan (Out Take) (Throne Of Blood) Midori Takada - Mr Henri Rousseau's Dream (We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records) 36 - Poekhali (3six Recordings) Mark Barrott - Over At Dieter's Place (International Feel) Lord Of The Isles - Obar Liobhaite (ESP Institute) Talaboman - Midnattssol (R&S Records) Vermont - Ki-Bou (Kompakt) D - City Boy (Ambient Mix) (P&D) Jonny Nash - Retreat (Melody As Truth) Sad City - Limbo (Emotional Response)

Download available via [Hearthis]

[inthewindtunnel]

Lord Of The Isles

Solo

[zattirizat]

Lord of the Isles, Night Of The Endless Beyond albümünü ESP Institute etiketi ile yayınladı

Neil McDonald’ın projesi olan Lord of the Isles ambient, hiptonik ve tekno tınılarının bulunduğu yeni albümü Night of the Endless Beyond’u ESP Institute etiketi ile yayınladı. 2021 yılında biten ancak plak basım sürecinde bazı sorunlardan dolayı devamlı ertelenen albüm nihayet dijital ve plak formatında yayınlandı.  Aşağıdan dinleyebileceğiniz albümü bandcamp üzerinden edinebilirsiniz. Lord of The Isles - Night of the Endless Beyond 

Night Of The Endless Beyond by Lord Of The Isles

[bishicat]

I'm not attracted to tame animals

[iamlisteningto]

Lord Of The Isles’ Subtle Thoughts

[igorlevchenko-blog]

Oblivion: The Madness of Jyggalag

Digital painting. Made in Photoshop. Year 2015

P.S: Even a casual art enjoyer may recognize this to be an almost word-by-word citation of Dali's portrait of Picasso.

[miasmareninto]

say cheeeese//2017

10/16

[trevlad-sounds]

Mixtape 333 “Water Melon Rainbow”

2023-07-05

Ambient electronica experimental instrumental sleep

Wednesdays, Fridays & Sundays. Support the artists and labels. Don't forget to tip so future shows can bloom.

Gemini Horror-To Me-00:00

Gilroy Mere-Bethesda-03:37

Bryan Rohmer-Landlines-06:58

Emily A. Sprague-Water Memory 1-08:53

Matthewdavid-Zithertronica-15:26

Wave Temples-Sunken Palace-18:03

Richard Norris-Through The Window-20:53

Cate Brooks-I-21:25

Early Fern-Leeches In The Mud-28:10

Moray Newlands-There is Joy in Solitude-30:58

Warm Binary-Read the Rainbow-34:17

Lord Of The Isles-Coco Melon-35:18

Robert Farrugia-Venules-36:57

Jay Chakravorty-Alexia, Berlin-43:24

[apieters]

*

This roughly captures a few of the general looks I imagine when I think of my character Peter the Marshal—with and without helmets, since that is one of the most important pieces of armor and one of the first to be traded away by main characters of movies everywhere for what I can only assume is Plot Armor.

The farthest left is how I imagine the ancient armor of the Isles, in the era of original Peter Dragonsbane—mail shirts over a padded gambeson, but not much else. It’s supposed to be reminiscent of the early medieval period, from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Crusades, the era of figures like King Arthur, Charlemagne, the Vikings, William the Conquerer, and Somerled. This style of armor would still be worn by the relatively backwards forest clans in Peter the Marshal’s day.

The middle kit represents the more “modern” armor of Peter the Marshal’s day that would typically be worn by an average Islander, or by the Marshal when engaged in naval warfare or raiding. The main protection is a jack-of-plates and a few armored pieces on the upper body, but not much else. Even the plaid is draped across the heart and belted in place to add a bit of extra protection, but mostly it’s to keep the plaid from getting tangled.

The right represents Peter the Marshal’s full pitched-battle harness. A short surcoat bearing Peter’s coat of arms (a lion or on a field of azure) is worn over a cuirass, with full plate protection on the arms and legs.

The bascinet helmet without a visor is favored by Islanders as it allows greater field of view and breathability.

Like all Islanders, Peter always carries a large dirk. He is armed also with his ancestral great sword, Dragonsbane.