我正在奥斯沃特里城堡废墟对面、外郭内的一家酒馆里讲述这个故事。1165年，英格兰安茹（盎格鲁-诺曼）国王亨利二世便在此集结边疆领主的军队，进攻威尔士诸侯联盟，以争夺边疆地带的控制权。
I’m telling the story from a pub in the bailey opposite the ruins of Oswestry Castle. There in 1165, Henry II, the Angevin (Anglo-Norman) king of England, gathered troops from the Marcher Lords to advance on an alliance of Welsh princes for control of the Marches.
861年后的上个周日，我们沿着亨利大军当年的路线前往柴克城堡，威尔士语称“Castell Y Waun a’r Ardd”，观看克罗根战役的历史重演。当时现在的城堡尚未建成，克罗根战役发生在下方的凯里奥格山谷。亨利曾派伐木工砍伐山谷林地以消除威尔士军队的优势，却留下了一棵橡树，学名Quercus petraea，欧文·格温内德便在此集结军队。
The previous Sunday, 861 years later, we went the same way as Henry’s army to Chirk Castle, Castell Y Waun a’r Ardd, to see a re-enactment of the Battle of Crogen. The present castle wasn’t built back then and the battle at Crogen was in the Ceiriog Valley below. Henry had sent woodsmen to raze woodland in the valley to remove the Welsh advantage, but he left one oak, Quercus petraea, at which Owain Gwynedd gathered his army.
这棵树后来被称为庞特瓦多克橡树——一棵巨树，英国最古老的橡树，作为威尔士国树存活下来，深受喜爱、传说众多，直到2013年在一场风暴中倒下，估计树龄1600岁。我有一小块它的碎片，是长期担任《卫报》环境编辑的约翰·维达尔送给我的。
That tree became the Pontfadog oak – a giant, the oldest British oak, and survived as the National Tree of Wales, much loved and storied until it blew down in a storm in 2013 at an estimated 1,600 years old. I have a small fragment of it given to me by the longtime Guardian environment editor John Vidal.
战役重演场面热闹好看，边疆领主与威尔士诸侯的旗帜色彩在剑盾碰撞中交织，骏马奔腾、箭矢嗡嗡飞射，配上实时解说，让人对发生了什么、谁在做什么有了直观感受。
The battle re-enactment, with crashing swords and shields in the colours of Marcher lords and Welsh princes, fine horses and boinging arrows, was fun to watch with a running commentary giving a sense of what was happening and who was doing what.
史料对于是否发生过大规模战斗、仅是零星骚扰还是根本未交战众说纷纭，但结局相同：威尔士获胜。边疆地带的历史，如同这片饱受创伤、鬼魅萦绕的土地本身，几个世纪以来一直是争夺的空间。
Histories vary about whether this was a great battle, isolated harassments or no fighting at all, but the outcome was the same: the Welsh won. The history of the Marches, like the traumatised, ghost-ridden ground itself, has been a contested space for centuries.
与那些致力于让历史在现代观众面前复活的人交谈，令人着迷。城堡花园墙外，过去与当下在瞬间的微型戏剧中交织。两只云黄蝶，学名Colias croceus，从北非或南欧迁徙而来，在草本花境和草坪上翩跹飞舞。考虑到昆虫数量的大幅下降，这田园景象带着一种抵抗的精神。
It was fascinating to talk to people dedicated to making the past come to life for modern audiences. Over the castle garden wall, the past and present were weaving together in micro-dramas of moment. Two clouded yellow butterflies, Colias croceus, which had migrated here from north Africa or southern Europe, were flickering over herbaceous borders and lawns. Given the massive decline in insect populations, that pastoral scene had a spirit of resistance.
仿佛为了展示一种神秘的纹章和远古领地勇士的英勇，一只红灰蝶（Lycaena phlaeas）扇动着它的翅膀。
And as if to demonstrate a mystical kind of heraldry and valour of a far more ancient territorial warrior, a small copper, Lycaena phlaeas, flourished his wings.