We visited Kits Coty on the recommendation of a friend I had made on the old CoA website, called Oriondruid. He tends this site and many others, when he can. We visited on a beautiful warm clear Sunday. We didn't know much about the site, or what to expect. Needless to say the path leading up to the site really set the scene for the encounter.
Some call it simply Kit's Coty, because 'coty' means the same as 'house'. The story explaining the name tells us that Kit is Catigern, who, together with his brother Vortimer fought Hengist and his brother Horsa here around 455. Both Horsa and he were killed. We don't know who won, but Catigern was supposedly buried here. Indeed, this site is just a few miles north of Aylesford, which is usually identified with the Episford of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. That a battle once raged here may be supported by another reference to this place as the battle of 'Cit Coit'. This battle is also a legendary Celtic battle ('Battle of the Woods'), but not connected with any specific site. A possibility therefore remains that both are the same thing, as 'Cit' (or 'Kit') is in fact the same as 'Cat', the Celtic word for 'battle', which is of course the first part of Catigern's name. We could imagine a stand-off between two bloodied armies on either side of the river, the ford having been the contested object.
I have found an interesting link about the site here
No comments:
Post a Comment