Na Cuallachtai

I’m Máistir Aodh Ó Siadhail, OP, from the Shire of Dun in Mara, in Insulae Draconis, in Drachenwald.

I cook, do research, and write wording for scrolls and charters, in English and Irish, and of late I write poetry as well. My cooking usually falls within pre-Norman Irish (for which there are no written recipes) or 10th-13th century Arabic (specifically al-Warraq and the Kanz, both in the Nasrallah translations). Occasionally I do Tudor English cookery as well. While I do standard modern-kitchen feast cookery in plenty, my absolute preference is for outdoor cookery or period-style cookery, with open fire and iron pots. My poetry has mostly been Shakespearean sonnets, but I'm now branching out with a project to write some poetry in every form in Medieval Europe.

In persona terms, Aodh was born in the year 1000 in Dublin, of mixed Irish/Norse ancestry, and it’s now 1049 for him. He fought in the Battle of Clontarf, and when that didn’t go so well for his side, left with Norse friends. He travelled through Scandinavia and Rus’ territory to Baghdad, where he learned to cook, and then back up through Rus’ again and eventually home. He’s now a briugiu, a sort of royally mandated innkeeper, in the kingdom of the Southern Ui Neill.