Spring Equinox it is today. The start of spring which brings along a new start and a good feeling of renewal.
We arrived in Spofforth at the same time that T Rex came on the radio with metal guru....
Who remembers Marc Bolan? me for a start.
Ride a white swan Marc.
Any way. I digress. this day I had with me a bag containing some Lord of the Rings figures and a Monster high girl (dolls basically! a bag full of dolls).
At the ruins There was just us and one man walking his dog. The dog preferred Lee and kept on bringing his stick back to him to throw again.
I busied myself taking pictures. First Boromir. (Sean Bean from Lord of the Rings film) I had a bit of trouble with his sword. He had to borrow Gandalf's for these pictures.
Boromir is a fave because he was played by Sean Bean . Simple as that. !! And the scene where he dies is no less than spectacular fight scene.
Boromir was a valiant worrier and his father Denethor's favourite son. He was five years older than his brother Faramir. There was a great love between the two brothers and Boromir took good care of Faramir. He was only ten years old when their mother Findulias died and this is when their father the steward oF Gondor became grim and "lost it"
Some see Boromir as a selfish and aggressive theif of the ring and another opinion is that he was a victim of the rings of power. Any way...here is photographed at the ruins of Spofforth castle .
This castle was once the strong hold of the De Percy family who owned and had great influence over the most of Yorkshire.
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to., " said Gandalf in Lord of the rings.
We arrived too and we were not late or early and I think we arrived when we meant too as well. Though having said that I could have got up a bit earlier on my day off.
My favourite figures from Lord of the rings. The black riders. I have a box of these figures that I collected when I lived in Cornwall and this was when the films all came out. Of course I have most of them. These are the few I have out and about in the house....Gandalf and his white horse (shadowfax), Sean Bean as Boromir .......I used to have two of these but I could not find the box this morning so I just brought what I could find. As I say we could have been earlier and we just needed to leave the house and get on with it!
We stopped off at Spoffoth on the way to Weatherby. The website for this castle said that it was closed for the season and open again in Easter. So we went first to see for ourselves. It was open all right so we went inside.
This castle is partly built into the bedrock of the area and was built in the 14th century and left as a ruin in the civil wars.
Owned by the de Percy family who moved to Alnwick Castle and were first associated with Spofforth. A powerful family back in the day. This was a fortified manor house and very likely proved to be too small for them and was badly damaged during the wars of the roses.Then finally left to ruin after the civil war.
An Anglo -Saxon manor called Spawford...after the river Spaw. the De Percy family were one of the baronial greats in this area and they were opposed to king John and it is said that that the Magna Carta was drawn up at Spofforth and hosted a huge meeting of the rebels prior to the signing of this at Runnymead in 1215 .
relations were a bit better with the successor henry 111 and in 1224 they were granted royal permission to hold a market every friday.
the castle was redesigned in the late thirteenth century. a big extension was added to the north and so was a watch tower. Possibly contemporary to edward 11 granting Henry Percy a licence to fortify the manor house.
He wanted this as a show of his status. Spofforth proved to be too small for such a great powerful man and he moved to Alnwick which was a huge status symbol of the time.
He purchased Alnwick in 1309 and had a lot of building work done making it into a lavish residence.
He then in 1314 rode out with Edward 11 to Stirling Castle and the battle of Bannockburn. Henry was captured and then ransomed by the Scots. ( this was a traditional "carry on" in those days) the ransom was paid and he returned to his estates and died shortly after and never had time to enjoy his castles.
This day we enjoyed the old ruins. And here is my Gandalf figure from Lord of the rings looking really at home in the old ruins once belonging to the very powerful Henry De Percy.
Gandalf as you know was a wizard. from J.R.R . Tolkien's The Lord of the rings and The hobbit.
Gandalf was known as Gandalf the grey and then returned from death to become Gandalf the white.
He is the last of the wizards to appear in middle earth. He wears the eleven ring of power Narya,
There are three eleven rings forged by the Elves of Eregion . After the "one" ring they are the most powerful of the twenty rings. so.. three worn by the elves. seven by the dwarves. nine by men, and one ring to rule them all.....and all that!
The three elven rings were made by Celebrimbor. they were made after Sauron had left Eregion and so are free of the influence of Sauron but still ruled by the one ring. Once the elves recognised Sauron's intent they hid the three rings from him.
Narya was adorned with a red gemstone. and is called Narya the great, ring of fire, red king. the kindler. this ring was given to Gandalf as an aid in his task of saving middle earth.
Gandalf is not a human.He is not a mortal. He is an angelic being in human form.He is a spirit and entered the world as one of five wizards. He took the form of an old man as a sign of his humility.
His role was to advise and counsel but never to attempt to match Sauron's strength. He took this guise as the kings and humans he was sent to advise would hopefully be more receptive of a humble greying old man!
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. "
well yes. this photo is a bit random. I still had the Monster high girl in my bag from earlier on the dog walk at the Yeadon cemetry.....So here they all are in one photo. Gandalf, Monster high and a black rider.
My blog. my day out and my photos. so here they are make of it what you will.
Lee loves going all over the place looking at ruins, His ajenda is a bit different to mine as he spends time looking for old staircases and blocked of tunnels in the hope of finding a way through that has been missed by the experts......
" It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing… such a little thing.."
A dreaded ring servant of the dark lord......
"Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the sea comes the end of our fellowship in middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep for not all tears are an evil."
It began to rain. I had taken loads of photos. We headed back to the Fonz car and the waiting Monza dog and carried on our way to Weatherby.
.We parked up in a quiet area and then to the junk shops.....
that is a whole different set of photos .
Who remembers Marc Bolan? me for a start.
My-wow-oh-yeah!
Metal Guru is it you, Metal Guru is it you
Sitting there in your armor plated chair, oh yeah
Metal Guru is it true, Metal Guru is it true
All alone without a telephone, oh yeah
Metal Guru could it be you're gonna bring my baby to me
She'll be wild you know a rock and roll child, oh yeah
Metal Guru has it been, just like a silver-studded sabre-tooth dream
I'II be clean you know pollution machine, oh yeah
Sitting there in your armor plated chair, oh yeah
Metal Guru is it true, Metal Guru is it true
All alone without a telephone, oh yeah
Metal Guru could it be you're gonna bring my baby to me
She'll be wild you know a rock and roll child, oh yeah
Metal Guru has it been, just like a silver-studded sabre-tooth dream
I'II be clean you know pollution machine, oh yeah
Metal Guru is it you, Metal Guru is it you
Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, rock!
Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, rock!
Metal Guru could it be you're gonna bring my baby to me
She'll be wild you know a rock and roll child, oh yeah
Metal Guru is it you, Metal Guru is it true
All…
She'll be wild you know a rock and roll child, oh yeah
Metal Guru is it you, Metal Guru is it true
All…
And this played us into the village and as we parked up to walk over the grass to the ruin of Spoffoth Castle.
Lee is a little younger than me and does not remember T rex in the same way I do. Marc Bolan died in 1977 in a car wreck at the age of 29 .It is one of those pieces of news that I remember where I was when I Heard.. I was in my "room" at boarding school. The girl next to me in this dormitory worshipped Marc Bolan and was sobbing her little heart out. I would have been only seventeen myself. Lee would have been about ten. we had no idea really did we?
At the ruins There was just us and one man walking his dog. The dog preferred Lee and kept on bringing his stick back to him to throw again.
I busied myself taking pictures. First Boromir. (Sean Bean from Lord of the Rings film) I had a bit of trouble with his sword. He had to borrow Gandalf's for these pictures.
Boromir is a fave because he was played by Sean Bean . Simple as that. !! And the scene where he dies is no less than spectacular fight scene.
Boromir was a valiant worrier and his father Denethor's favourite son. He was five years older than his brother Faramir. There was a great love between the two brothers and Boromir took good care of Faramir. He was only ten years old when their mother Findulias died and this is when their father the steward oF Gondor became grim and "lost it"
Some see Boromir as a selfish and aggressive theif of the ring and another opinion is that he was a victim of the rings of power. Any way...here is photographed at the ruins of Spofforth castle .
We arrived too and we were not late or early and I think we arrived when we meant too as well. Though having said that I could have got up a bit earlier on my day off.
This castle is partly built into the bedrock of the area and was built in the 14th century and left as a ruin in the civil wars.
An Anglo -Saxon manor called Spawford...after the river Spaw. the De Percy family were one of the baronial greats in this area and they were opposed to king John and it is said that that the Magna Carta was drawn up at Spofforth and hosted a huge meeting of the rebels prior to the signing of this at Runnymead in 1215 .
He wanted this as a show of his status. Spofforth proved to be too small for such a great powerful man and he moved to Alnwick which was a huge status symbol of the time.
He then in 1314 rode out with Edward 11 to Stirling Castle and the battle of Bannockburn. Henry was captured and then ransomed by the Scots. ( this was a traditional "carry on" in those days) the ransom was paid and he returned to his estates and died shortly after and never had time to enjoy his castles.
This day we enjoyed the old ruins. And here is my Gandalf figure from Lord of the rings looking really at home in the old ruins once belonging to the very powerful Henry De Percy.
Gandalf was known as Gandalf the grey and then returned from death to become Gandalf the white.
There are three eleven rings forged by the Elves of Eregion . After the "one" ring they are the most powerful of the twenty rings. so.. three worn by the elves. seven by the dwarves. nine by men, and one ring to rule them all.....and all that!
The three elven rings were made by Celebrimbor. they were made after Sauron had left Eregion and so are free of the influence of Sauron but still ruled by the one ring. Once the elves recognised Sauron's intent they hid the three rings from him.
His role was to advise and counsel but never to attempt to match Sauron's strength. He took this guise as the kings and humans he was sent to advise would hopefully be more receptive of a humble greying old man!
Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Grey Havens, The Return of the King
that is a whole different set of photos .
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