Merlon
[mur-luhn]
Etymology: French, from Italian merlone, augmentative of merlo battlement, from Medieval Latin merulus, from Latin, merle
1) Part of a battlement, the square “sawtooth” between crenels.
(Gies, Joseph and Francis. Life in a Medieval Castle, 226)
2) Solid part of embattled parapet between embrasures, sometimes pierced with slit.
(Wood, Margaret. The English Medieval […]
Filed under: Castles, Middle Ages History, Medieval Glossary, Medieval History on August 27th, 2010 | No Comments »
The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Touchstone (December 29, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1439112894
Product Description:
The past is a foreign country. This is your guidebook. Imagine you could get into a time machine and travel back to the fourteenth century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where […]
Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval History on August 26th, 2010 | No Comments »
I came across this list of 30 Books Everyone Should Read Before They’re Thirty. Wanted to get your thoughts. What do you think of this list? How many of these have you actually read? What books, in your opinion, should have made the list that weren’t mentioned?
Filed under: Discussion Topics on August 24th, 2010 | 4 Comments »
The latest version of my novel is complete. I finished it over the weekend. My next steps are to go back and edit chapters one and two, since I overhauled those the most in this latest revision. In fact Chapter 1 was an entirely new chapter I wrote from scratch, with a new beginning to […]
Filed under: Novel on August 23rd, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Over at Medievalists.Net, the author has put together a list of “medievalists” who often post on Twitter about the Middle Ages. The list was helpful for me as I’m always looking for the latest news on the subject. Just wanted to pass it along to everyone else who had not seen it already.
Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval History on August 19th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
A special thanks to William Short, author of Viking Weapons and Combat Techniques, for his time in graciously agreeing to answer a few questions:
1) How did you become interested in “Viking” history?
I don’t know. My educational and professional background had a heavy emphasis on technical topics and was very light on history and literature. […]
Filed under: Vikings, Author Interviews, Middle Ages History, Medieval History on August 17th, 2010 | No Comments »
My review of Viking Weapons and Combat Techniques has been published in the latest issue of The Heroic Age.
The Heroic Age is a fully peer-reviewed academic journal, focusing on Northwestern Europe during the early medieval period (from the early 4th through 13th centuries). The journal’s mission is to foster dialogue between all scholars of this […]
Filed under: Vikings, Middle Ages History, Medieval History, Book Reviews on August 16th, 2010 | 6 Comments »
Sergeant or Serjeant
Etymology: Middle English, servant, attendant, sergeant, from Anglo-French sergant, serjant, from Latin servient-, serviens, present participle of servire to serve
1) A servant who accompanies his lord to battle, or a horseman of lower status used as light cavalry. Also means a type of tenure in service of a nonknightly character is owed a […]
Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval Glossary, Medieval History on August 13th, 2010 | 15 Comments »
Alt History is a start-up magazine dedicated to short works of historical fiction and alternate history. There are not a lot of vehicles available for writers of short stories in these genres, so it’s nice to see a new magazine covering these areas. Accepted stories will be published as an e-book via Smashwords and also […]
Filed under: Publishing, Historical Fiction on August 12th, 2010 | No Comments »
South of us Xinan lies under a sickle moon.
Lanterns will soon be bright in the spring night.
Laughter and music and rich wine poured.
Far to the west where all roads end.
Cold stars shine on white bones.
Beside the stone shores of a lake.
In the valley of Kuala Nor, beside the waters of a lake, Shen Tai, the […]
Filed under: Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Book Reviews on August 9th, 2010 | No Comments »
