Ancient History of the white cattle of Britain (polled British White Cattle & horned White Park Cattle breeds). British White Cattle history Explored and Enjoyed and Traced from the past to the future through literary and historical documents that reflect the reverence and esteem through the ages of polled British White cattle (polled white park cattle).

"The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names. - Old Chinese Proverb

Breed History - British White Cattle

"The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge" by Unknown, Translation by Joseph Dunn, 2005 Release"    A link to the full translation by Joseph Dunn. The events of this epic tale occurred in approximately 30 B.C. and later, and clearly establish the presence of polled, white red-eared cattle in Ireland, as well as horned white cattle in Ireland. The Tain is the oldest recorded history of the Western European world.
     "The deeds it recounts belong to the heroic age of Ireland three hundred years before the introduction of Christianity into the island, and its spirit never ceased to remain markedly pagan. The mythology that permeates it is one of the most primitive manifestations of the personification of the natural forces which the Celts worshipped. Its historical background, social organization, chivalry, mood and thought and its heroic ideal are to a large extent, and with perhaps some pre-Aryan survivals, not only those of xviii the insular Celts of two thousand years ago, but also of the important and wide-spread Celtic race with whom Caesar fought and who in an earlier period had sacked Rome and made themselves feared even in Greece and Asia Minor." J. Dunn

Ancient Literary References to polled British White Cattle

Miscellaneous New References of Interest & Importance

Ancient History of British White Cattle Explored
(Ongoing Project: A rather lengthy exploration of the ancient reach of the British White breeds importance in legend and culture.)

Modern History of British White Cattle
(As far back as documented British estate and herd records.)

Gallery of Similarly Marked Breeds

Bos primigenius in Britain: or, why do fairy cows have red ears? - Research Article - Critical Essay Folklore, April, 2002 by Jessica Hemming Current Article Location (link subject to change!)
EXCERPT: " . . In addition to the imaginative Irish examples, there are a couple of other mentions of these special cattle, which make them seem rather more real. The first is an often-cited passage in the thirteenth-century Iorwerth Redaction of the Welsh laws in which the sarhaed (or payment due for insult) of the king of Aberffraw is set at "a hundred cows for every cantred he has, with a red-eared [white] bull for every hundred cows," plus some very precisely-measured pieces of gold (Jenkins 1990, 5). [4]

The Cyfnerth and Blegywryd redactions add the following: "The status of the lord of Dinefwr is also adorned with white cows, each with its head to the tail of the next, with a bull between every twenty of them, so as to fill the space from Argoel to the court of Dinefwr" (Jenkins 1990, 6).

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