About me

Vortigern Studies is run by a single Sitemaster, and though I am not used to talk about myself, well..that's me. Care to meet me?

I was born in 1964 (the year of the Dragon) in the old city of Amersfoort, The Netherlands, which is famous for its collection of single megalithic stones. I guess that’s where it all started, at that ancient ford in the small river the Amer, for being born there means you’re a "Keien-trekker" (Boulder-hauler) for the rest of your life!
I spent most of my life in the small village of Voorthuizen though (yes, another ancient ford) in the agrarian area west of the Veluwe, known as the Gelderse Vallei (Valley of Geldern). This insignificant spot only managed to enter history in the 12^th century when the inhabitants supposedly managed to kill a bishop by indigestion...

Several holidays abroad in Germany kindled my interest in history in general and everything Roman in particular.

After my military service I went on to study history in the city of Utrecht, the ancient Trajectum on the Rhine which was founded by the Romans. There I got my degree in modern Middle Eastern Studies, after which I worked for a few years for Amnesty International (the Iraq portfolio). After a few years' working for an insurance company I now work as a civil servant on the local council.

My father’s family has come recently from Maasland, a village west of Rotterdam, and my mother’s ancestors came from the northern banks of the Rhine. Both their names, Vermaat and Van den Born derive from certain low-lying pieces of farmland close to a river, known as a ‘Maat’ and a ‘Born’. Agrarian roots, but with wet feet, so to speak. What else would you expect from Dutch ancestors…

Maybe not surprisingly (in a family where these roots were common) I grew up with a sense of history already present when I was very young. Books aplenty (my father owned many books on local history), true historical ones but children’s books as well. I guess something just had to rub off..

One of the books that made an impression was The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff. After that, I found out my parents had a copy of Sword at Sunset by the same author, and I guess I have never left the realm of Arthurian and Roman Britain.
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Today my wife Philippine and I live [‰æ‘œ:Us and our kids! Christmas 2002]with our daughter Marrit (1997), our son Jeroen (2000) and our cat in the town of Houten, only a short distance from the Roman limes
fortress once named Fectio/Vechten and the remains of several Roman villas scattered south of the city of Trajectum ad Rhenum/Utrecht. I have been collecting books for about twenty years, but I guess I'm not an antiquarian. The old books I do collect are for my growing Arthurian collection, which I started in my childhood with the first books I read by Rosemary Sutcliff, as I mentioned earlier. Her Eagle of the Ninth has truly set me on a course towards the enjoyment of Roman history in general and her Lantern Bearers and Sword at Sunset led me to the fascination of Sub-Roman Britain in particular.

Apart from my activities on the Internet I am a member of a small re-enactment group that bears the name of this fort I mentioned above, Fectio. Our basis is the aforementioned complicated period of those post-Roman times.

[‰æ‘œ:Philippine and Jeroen, March 2005]
My Wife,Philippine

[‰æ‘œ:Jeroen and Marrit, June 2005]
The Kids, Marrit & Jeroen

Marrit goes to MARS !
Jeroen goes to MARS !
[‰æ‘œ:NASA logo]