Just talking

We're waiting for the prosecution anyway. I hope they did not run out of arguments...

Iskar wrote:

We're waiting for the prosecution anyway. I hope they did not run out of arguments...

It's more of an author's block kind of thing.



The good news is, Mordred didn't have to scold us again!

That's because we're building up for the next weekend.

Besides, digging tunnels under Sarleon takes time. As does smuggling incendiary oil into a Griffon-ridden city.

Pravenstern wrote:

The good news is, Mordred didn't have to scold us again!

I finished reading The Hunger Games, and there's no way that it's considered "teenage romance". Slavery, children torture, forced prostitution, insanity, and rape (of children too) make it darker than A Song of Ice and Fire.

Also, what the author lacks in writing style she makes up in creativity in designing ways to kill people. I'm really surprised - and I'm not uncreative in this respect (years of history books, good literature, and RPG are to blame). Let's just hope that future dictators never read that book (aha, so maybe that's the secret reason for it falling under the "teenage romance" category).

What, so dictators cant be secret romantics?

Flashback to 'the producers'

I know one dictator... He always had a song in his heart..

I'm so ronrey, so ronrey on my riddle frone.

Have you seen this new TV-series "World without end"? Should be interesting for the UK and French fans around here, since wikipedia says it portrays the beginning of the hundred years war. I gave it a quick, harmless glance, and it seems nice (way too "modern", but nice enough).

Metal Evolution documentary series is the best.

Saeros wrote:

Have you seen this new TV-series "World without end"? Should be interesting for the UK and French fans around here, since wikipedia says it portrays the beginning of the hundred years war. I gave it a quick, harmless glance, and it seems nice (way too "modern", but nice enough).

Just finished reading a biography of Edward III, not sure I can handle a "nice modern" documentary.

EDIT: Oh god, just watched the trailer. Why didn't you warn me that it's a docudrama about an imaginary town!

Running comentary: The queen who was known for repeatedly begging Edward to spare peoples' lives has given him a list of people to hang. The king who was known for repeatedly pardoning traitors and using them later, including the guy who forced his father to abdicate and all but stole the throne, has just killed like 20 people.
Edward rides a stallion when in real life he rode a palfrey.
The King's army is attacking a town. Only happened in Scotland or France. People f***ing LOVED Edward III.
The townspeople wouldn't care about reform at this point, only after the plague came.

Reading the Wiki page, the only correct thing I see is that Edward II survived his 'death.'

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH

Thanks, that'll be enough for me to decide not to waste my time watching it. And you forgot the worst: everyone speaking perfect English. Even the Saxons.

Now you know how I feel with all those Hollywood movies about Greeks and Romans.


EDIT: a good point, though: everyone is as ugly as I imagine they were in the Middle Ages. You know, malnutrition and beauty standards.

That is generally the only break from reality I accept in TV/films, although I do prefer it if when 2+ nations are involved, they use their languages. EG: the BBC's Hollow crown had people speaking french without subtitles, which is awesome.
Strictly speaking, at the time most people did speak English. While England wouldn't have a king with English as his first language until Henry V, by Edward III's time, it was spoken by both commoners and the nobility, and Edward even passed the laws making it the official language of the court and documents.

I feel exactly the same with the Romans, as I am fairly good with their history as well (except Byzantium), and am learning about the Greeks at the moment.
Not that much malnutrition in England at this point, it was pretty prosperous. Of course, that is not comparing it to the aftermath of the social reforms coming with the plague, which were comparatively awesome living standards. Never make the mistake of saying "they had less than us, therefore they were all poor." We live better than many lords and kings today.

EDIT: Speaking of the greeks, is there anything for that time period seen in the same light as decline and fall? Finding it difficult to find any definitive works.

We must decide what exactly speaking the same language means. Even now, in 2012, I have a hard time understanding Texas- or Queensland-English, and I don't understand at all Portugal's Portuguese (I'm half Brazilian). The same happens with me when in rural Germany. So, without mass media and globalization, I think that, while written language could be rather standard, spoken language should be much more tricky.

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Never making the mistake of saying "they had less than us, therefore they were all poor." We live better than many lords and kings today.

Yes. I repeatedly emphasize in my lectures that ancient people were not as stupid as we think. Romans, at least, had a really high quality of life. Of course, without antibiotics and human rights things were a bit more problematic.

EDIT: Although it's hard to imagine Italy without tomatos, isn't it? Or England without potatoes.

I disagree on the speech side, above all people should be understood in order to properly appreciate their position in society and what their ambitions are.

That said, there should be some kind of differentiation in how they speak in order to give immediate linguistic identification. Different characters from different cultures in Vinland have different accents that I try to write in;

Edvin the Russ; will often drop a "Da" or "Nyet" in, plus his grammar is copied from some Russian friends I have.
“Nyet, I am here for Whale Oil and seal hides” Edvin replied.

Jorvik the English Viking; The Scandinavian Vikings throught their English Viking cousins (from the Kingdom of York or Northumberland) were backwards, as such I have them saying "be" instead of "are" or "is".
“The land be cursed! One of Odin’s own ravens died before me very eyes! It be a warning, who are we to against the will of the gods” Jorvik continued

Anneliese the Dutch Slave; Friesland at the time was a Viking stronghold, but they still raided they neighbours for plunder and slaves. I've tried to make her sound a little more Dutch, in that any word beginning with an "s" becomes a "sh". Initially I had each "s" become an "sh" but it become too much, almost a comical rendition of how the Dutch speak and I wanted to avoid that. Note; this is a bad example, but she doesn't have much dialogue yet; slaves are not meant to talk.
"We then need to manually short each to make shure they are properly aligned and this will be the most intensive part” Anneliese replied.

Admittedly in this instance, all characters do speak a common Norse language, though with different levels of success. When they meet the Native Americans, they will struggle more and there will be a period when they have to learn to communicate, and the opportunity for misunderstandings is high.

It's an idea that I got from the writing of Brian Jacques' Redwall series, where he makes each different type of creature have their own speech patterns to great effect.

Yeah, if everyone uses received pronunciation, it gets silly, I agree. The only problem is that BBC gets broadcast around the world, and most of the accents we have are literally unknown to most of the world, same as any other country. We have entire counties with subtle variations on the "farmer" accent. You stick someone from Bath on a show, immediately people abroad go "he's not English, what the hell?"

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I disagree on the speech side, above all people should be understood in order to properly appreciate their position in society and what their ambitions are.

They could use pidgin language, or Latin. True, in the episodes I've seen there are 1 or 2 people who speak in non-standard English (Scottish), but it's used more as a way of defining their low social status than of telling they come from somewhere else.

On the rest: I'm writing an article on something similar, Mordred, but it's more directed to game immersion, not so much for books. I'd be glad to send it to you when it's finished. In short: I think it's possible to improve game immersion by using linguistic tricks (which would be grounded on actual theories of historical linguistics).

Sure, sounds interesting!

Dutch happens to be my best language, so if you want me to translate some sentences.. if that'd help you out.

I think you can find a lot online, especially pronunciation etc

I know, I am Dutch

Mordred wrote:

I know, I am Dutch

Oh right! I thought you grew up in England though, so I wasn't sure.

I did, so it is rather rusty but I am pretty good at spotting when google translate is wrong, hehe.

Please note: now (check the time) Felix Baumgartner is about to skydive from space. There's a live stream (http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/). He is at ~25Km, and still has 12 Km to go.

He's going to hit the sound barrier and explode or something. Jet fighters visibly shake when they go through it.

At the very least, he's going to pass out.