Coffee Klatch

Looking for a cool Latin phrase? Maybe you’re designing a new coat of arms for your family or for a fictional persona. Maybe you’re playing Knighthood on Facebook. Well here’s one of the many excellent websites for looking up Latin phrases. I like this one in particular because the font’s not very big and they have loads on one page. It’s http://www.yuni.com/library/latin.html.

Enjoy! Utor vestri!

Okay, I got introduced to a game yesterday and I got hooked! The game’s called Tribal Wars and the short version is that you develop a village, acquiring resources, building buildings, and recruiting troops, all the while interacting with neighbors and people you meet in the game. Most people join (or create) a tribe, both for discussion and mutual protection & support. Sometimes villages get attacked and war can sometimes even be seen on tribal levels.

It’s a great deal of fun. And the best part, besides being FREE, is that things happen in real time. So if you’re building an upgrade to your Market or Warehouse, it may take a couple of hours and it really does. But at the same time, your workers are harvesting timber, clay, and iron at a rate of so much per hour (based on the levels of your facilities). The result of this setup is that you don’t spend hours sitting online playing the game. Instead, you just check in once in a while (daily, every other day, hourly if you’re obsessed ) and queue up building projects and maybe check your mail. Yes, it eventually will get more complicated than that, but for a while when you’re starting out, you’re just trying to get your village established.

Here’s a bit of their own description of the game:

Tribal Wars ist a free browser based MMOG. You can play the game from nearly any computer with internet access because there are no downloads necessary.

Your goal is to lead a medieval village to fame and power. With your help the small village will grow bigger and bigger. The population grows, production rises and trade prospers.

But not only your village grows. Neighbours are also looking to expand their influence. Troops are being recruited, villages are fortified and wild axemen plunder and kill.

You will meet other players, with whom you can fight together in a tribe.

Your village grows bigger and soon the formerly small village will conquer other villages….

I’ve already gotten a few friends hooked, um, I mean ENJOYING the game and we’ve formed our own tribe, called MSTies. If you recognize the reference to MST3K, you belong in our tribe.

If you want to check out the game and maybe give it a try, visit Tribal Wars and log onto World 3–that’s where we are. Also let me know what your username is and I’ll send you an invitation to join our tribe.

Since you occasionally interact with other players, especially those near to you geographically, I’ve already found another tribe that is from Milan and all speak Italian. Now I get to practice what little Italian I know, since some of them speak hardly any English. Che ficata! I mean, how cool!

[tags]games, online, tribal wars, medieval, MMOG, MST3K[/tags]

I‘ve been mulling over my medieval persona that I’ll be using for the SCA and I’m liking the idea more and more. I’m even seeing ways for me to use that persona in the SCA. If I’m a professor of some kind at the university, then I could obviously teach. They’re always looking for people to teach classes in the SCA and I could actually research and then demonstrate medieval pedagogy. So the content would be of at least partial interest, but I think more people would attend for the reenactment benefit, since it’s another way to learn about ways of thinking and communicating in the Middle Ages. Plus, I’d get to use my theatre background along with my teaching background, both in a whole new way.

Right now, the hardest part for me is getting a good idea of garb. Yes, the scholar/academic garb of the day was similar to today’s academic regalia used for graduation ceremonies, but try to find patterns or even full costumes that are even semi-authentic. I’ve found one “scholar costume” (on several different websites) that actually looks pretty good, but it’s one size fits “most” and only goes up to a chest size of 46″ or something, which is way too small for me. I’m basically looking at something between either the “cappa clausa,” which was a black robe that was closed in front, and a houpelande, which was also very long, but also very full throughout. I do know that I’ll probably want it to be an open front, because it will get really hot in the summer otherwise. Who’d have thought it would be so hard to figure out how to buy or make something like this? I may have to just resort to finding or making a basic black robe to get started. We’ll see.

Tonight I’ll brainstorm with some people about costume details and what subjects I might research and teach. Should be fun!

I have mentioned before that I’m back in the SCA (do a search for SCA or use the Medieval category) and I’m finally narrowing down the persona that I want.

For those unfamiliar with the process, when you’re a part of the Society for Creative Anachronism, you come up with a medieval persona that you “play” when you’re at SCA events. Kind of like real-life role playing. At the minimum, people generally come up with a place and general time they want to be from, for instance: 13th century France or England in the late 1400’s. THAT’s necessary to help you come up with a name. If you’re going to play the game, as it were, you at least need something that other people can call you. So picking a time and place allows you to get a list of names that you could choose from. Of course, some people probably pick a name they like and find a time/place they could use it, but the more “serious” people are interested in some specific facet of medieval Europe and they tailor their name and persona to match.

After picking a name, you’re encouraged to develop a persona, as detailed as you like. You might be Wilhelm the Merchant or a monk named Thomas or Natasha, a seamstress. Whatever you like. Some people even develop an entire history for their persona, with parentage and a life story.

You probably will then want to figure out what your person would wear, since you’ll need to get or make some kind of costume for you to wear to the various events. That will, of course, be effected by the place and time that you’ve chosen. For many people, the clothing fashions play a big part of determining that time and place.

Then, whatever you’re interested in, you simply LEARN about. There are always people to help you find the resources you need, or often even to teach classes that you’d like. There are all kinds of handcrafts (calligraphy, illumination, embroidery, leatherwork, sewing, and woodworking, to name just a few) as well as various skills (like fighting, music, dance, cooking, brewing, and heraldry). Pretty much, if it went on in the Middle Ages, there are people in the SCA who do it.

Except for the Black Plague.
So that’s persona development in a nutshell. It’s only limited by your interests and drive. And the more you learn and the more skills you develop, the better you can play the persona you’ve chosen.

I’ve pretty much settled on my persona. I’m looking at early 15th century Austria. To be more specific, I’ll be from Salzburg around 1425. I went back and forth between a clerical and an academic persona and have settled on the academic. Probably be teaching at the University of Vienna, since the University of Salzburg wasn’t founded until 1622. The University of Vienna was established in 1365 and, except for the Charles University in Prague, it’s the oldest university in Central Europe. The U of Vienna was also the first university in the German-speaking world. There’s a nice article in Wikipedia about the University of Vienna.

Some activities I’ll be able to pursue while playing this persona are learning more about the medieval universities and how they taught, developing a specialty subject area and even teaching SCA people in the way the class would have been taught back in the Middle Ages. I’ll probably delve into the more knowledge-based arts and sciences, too, like writing, cartography, heraldry, and maybe even book-binding. Boy, wouldn’t it be cool to learn how to make woodcuts the old way? I could also learn more about medieval technologies, sciences, or sociopolitical/spiritual topics, like how medieval towns were run (by magistrates, etc.) or how philosophers and religious types spread their knowledge. And of course activities like dance or brewing are fine for just about anybody.
That’s it in a nutshell. I think it will be very interesting, with all kinds of possibilities for me to learn, to make and do things, to teach, and to help others get excited about these kinds of things too.

Current music: Sacred Road, by David Lanz

[tags]medieval, middle ages, SCA, universities, persona development[/tags]

Here are a couple of emails that were sent to the list for my local SCA group, the Barony of Sternfeld.

Well, now……here’s something I never knew before, and now that I know it, I feel compelled to send it on to my more intelligent friends in the hope that they, too, will feel edified. Isn’t history more fun when you know something about it?

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating
victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English long bow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous English longbow was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as “plucking the yew” (or “pluck yew”).

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, See, we can still pluck yew!

Since ‘pluck yew’ is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodentals fricative ‘F’, and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute!

It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as “giving the bird.”

IT IS STILL AN APPROPRIATE SALUTE TO THE FRENCH TODAY!

And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing!

Response:

In England, the analog to giving someone the finger actually uses the index and middle finger. The same story is attributed to its origin.

Response:

Actually the way I heard the tale—- the index finger and middle finger were amputated-by the French to incapacitate the archers.- The “v” shaped waving of the index and middle finger-whilst holding the ring finger and pinky finger to the palm of the hand was the equal of ” I have my balls (masculinity–ability to fight), where are yours?” The “V-for-Victory” sign from WWII (see Churchill photos) have the thumb facing the face–the insult to Hitler; the “V-for-Victory” has the thumb facing outward — see photos after May 1945… Big difference!

Pheasant feathers were not used–pheasants were an Asian bird that was not cultivated in Wales. The Welsh Archers used goose feathers — remember that domesticated geese are not flyers-migratory geese do fly and have long spine flight feathers.

To Goose- is to pluck — PL is a very common word in French (most French would have no trouble: Plaisir, Plackard, etc.)

Interesting ideas and they make sense. Whether or not they’re true, there sure seems to be SOME connection to English archers. Sometime I’ll have to look for some articles or something to document whether this is true.

[tags]middle finger, Churchill, insults[/tags]

I‘m working my way into getting involved with the SCA again. One of the things that’s a part of medieval reenactment for many people is heraldry. In the SCA, you can design your own heraldic device (read “coat of arms”) and you can even register it with the SCA, so nobody else can use YOUR emblem. They compare it with the various existing lists, also, so you don’t inadvertently use one that’s already a real-life coat of arms in Europe or someplace else.

The cool thing about heraldry is that it has its own language, describing the colors, stripes, symbols, animals, etc., and their positions. That allows anyone to re-create the device just from the wording, which is pretty cool. An example of the language is: “gules, an eagle displayed or” or maybe “per bend sinister sable and azure, a bend sinister argent between two crosses botonny argent,” which is the device that I’m considering submitting.

Here are a couple good links if you’d like more information:
A Heraldic Primer from the SCA

Pimbley’s Dictionary of Heraldry

You can even get Free Heraldry Clipart to use for creating your own device.

[tags]heraldry, sca, medieval, middle ages[/tags]

For those who haven’t heard, the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) is an international, non-profit educational organization which studies and recreates the Middle Ages. There are over 30,000 paying members worldwide, plus untold scads of non-paying participants. There are local groups all OVER the place! Check out the map. If you want to see a list of the kingdoms and what “mundane” lands they cover (or find a group near you), check out SCA Geography. You can find a history of the SCA, a list of activities, resources for newcomers, and tons more on the SCA website. Better still, visit http://www.scademo.com/ for a thorough, well-put-together “tutorial” about the SCA. Their demo describes the SCA as “full-contact Ren Fair with better garb and fewer pirates.”
Basically, if it went on in the Middle Ages (loosely defined as pre-1600 A.D.), there are people in the SCA who do it. Except for maybe the Bubonic Plague. But if you contacted your local group, you’d probably find people that were actively doing combat, cooking, costuming, heraldry, music, dance, brewing, calligraphy, illumination, archery, stained glass, metalwork, literature, and more. You can learn about these kinds of things by DOING them, not just by reading about them.

Events include tournaments, revels, feasts, wars, demos, and that kind of thing, ranging from small, local events to jumbo/LARGE ones. The Pennsic Wars, for instance, often have 8,000 fighters on the field at one time. The largest that I’ve ever fought in was about 100 people. Still way cool, though.

And here’s a picture that I found on Flickr:

Do you know what vocation you might have had in the Middle Ages? Okay, most of us probably would have been peasants. They WERE the majority of workers back then! But, based on your personality and work style, what vocation might you have been?

Kingdomality is a brief online personality test that asks you just 8 questions and tells you what medieval vocation you might have had. The eight questions each ask you to rank four things in the order they appeal to you. That’s it. Then they tell you your vocation and also applies your results to the modern workplace. It’s fun and interesting–a personality test with a medieval flavor. My results tend to vary a little, based on my mood, but are usually Bishop, Discoverer, or Benevolent Ruler.

For the record, here are my results today:

Your distinct personality, The Discoverer, might be found in most of the thriving kingdoms of the time.

Your overriding goal is to go where no one else has ever gone before. Regardless of the number of available natural problems to be solved, it is not unusual for you to continually challenge yourself with new situations or obstacles that you have created. You are an insatiable explorer of people, places, things and ideas. You thrive on constant change and anything new or different. On the positive side, you can be creatively rational as well as open minded and just. On the negative side, you might be an impractical and indecisive procrastinator. Interestingly, your preference is just as applicable in today’s corporate kingdoms.

If you want to learn more, you can browse their website or read the book.

Current music: English Country Dances - The Broadside Band