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What do you guys think about "The Crusades Through Arab Eyes" by Amin Maalouf? Is it worth reading?
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Dec 28, 2013 23:30
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Libluini posted:The "Dat wählige Rott" society. Every year in costume for the yearly Scheibenschießen. Which I somehow don't think properly translates to "target practice" in this context, regardless of what my translation-website thinks. It's more of a festival, really. Edit: There's kind of a reason civil militias are often dismissed in the secondary sources. No offense meant to "Dat wählige Rott." Edit 2: If you want a book which does not dismiss them, this is pretty great. It's got gender studies in it.  Edit 3: Since I can't look like any more of a dork, I may as well show you guys my newest tattoo. HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Dec 28, 2013 |
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Dec 28, 2013 23:31
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a travelling HEGEL posted:Edit 3: Since I can't look like any more of a dork, I may as well show you guys my newest tattoo. Funny coincidence, I was listening to Van Canto when I clicked that link, and the verse "Building a fortress around my heart" played just as I realized what I was looking at. edit: It took me a while to reply because I was laughing my rear end off. (At the coincidence, not the tattoo. The tattoo rocks.) my dad fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Dec 28, 2013 |
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Dec 28, 2013 23:52
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Rodrigo Diaz posted:Knowledgeable words Thank you for this answer, it's more or less what I meant. Obviously it depends on the time and the place, but I'm interested to see how many/few managed to live it up and avoid combat altogether. I'm also interested in any medieval writings on their horses, horselore, any popular horse characters or anything like that.
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Dec 29, 2013 00:01
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a travelling HEGEL posted:It's a festival even though it literally means target practice because that's what the civic exercise of arms was back then, a semi-regular party which involved shooting competitions, etc. Americans should be quite familiar with this concept - colonial militias basically participated on their mandatory firing exercises only if the organisers promised enough free beer / punch / poison of choice.
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Dec 29, 2013 00:49
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a travelling HEGEL posted:It's a festival even though it literally means target practice because that's what the civic exercise of arms was back then, a semi-regular party which involved shooting competitions, etc. Thanks, that book goes on my reading list. No offense taken, by the way. Historically it's not even sure "Dat wählige Rott" ever did its famous attack, there were a lot of attacks on Tilly's army camp but if Tilly's tent really was raided at some point, it was more of a coincedence then a daring attack. That said, Nienburg itself was of strategical importance at the time: Most of the surrounding land was dense forest or impassable swamp, and the river Weser could be forded at Nienburg or up at Bremen in the north. Also Nienburg kind of controlled the trade coming down the river from Bremen, so having an enemy sitting in Nienburg would have been bad for everyone trying to fight in the region. So no wonder southern catholics, northern German protestants, Swedes and the Danish were all trying to hold on to the city. The actual ruler, the Duke of Celle, was completely useless at the time. There was some kind of war council going on trying to coordinate the defense of the region, but the Duke was simply too poor and his personal guard was too small to do more then protect his own castle. The Danish king send down his mercenary army to save us, but they did a lot of damage by themselves. Also the catholics beat them and were then beaten by the Swedes in turn, who sat on Nienburg until the end of the 30YW. It was a mess. Only the east (north east of Germany) had it worse, with the Swedes depopulating entire areas and the armies of what would later become Prussia fighting a dirty guerilla war against everyone. (Because everyone ignored the neutrality of the Mark Brandenburg.) Most of the (military) history of Nienburg was collected by a local historian in a German-only book, it's here if you want to try it: And hopefully less expensive then Amazon, even with shipping costs. Because holy gently caress is there a price difference between buying from the publisher and buying from Amazon. (I've no idea why you can't buy the book new on Amazon but new from the publisher.) Edit: Almost forgot the dialect-thing. It's mostly West Low German, It think. (I've already forgotten most of what I learned in my last linguistic seminar.) Translated into high German you should get "Das erwählte Rott" or if you want to be really modern "Die erwählte Rotte/Schar". Both of which translate to "The chosen squad/The chosen band". "Nienburg" is just "Nyen Burg" or "Neue Burg", which is New Castle in English. To the north of Nienburg you can find Drakenburg, which is most likely West Low German for "Drachenburg" or Dragon Castle in English. I'm by no means an linguist, so take this with a grain of salt, though! Edit2: Oh man, the festival thing. I'm aware of how important Scheibenschießen was in the past, but I grew up with it in a time were it was just a rigged shooting competition with a festival attached, so there is this weird disconnect in my head, especially since "Scheibenschießen" is also an official sport. Target practice in my head is what I had to do in the army, not the fun-kind of shooting with historical weapons nor a harmless sport. It's cognitive dissonance at its finest. (It was rigged because everyone knew ahead of time who would be winning the competition. It was mystifying if you weren't "in" on local politics/gossip.) Libluini fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Dec 29, 2013 |
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Dec 29, 2013 01:07
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Libluini posted:Almost forgot the dialect-thing. It's mostly West Low German, It think. Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G1OTreju7k HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Dec 29, 2013 |
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Dec 29, 2013 01:12
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my dad posted:What do you guys think about "The Crusades Through Arab Eyes" by Amin Maalouf? Is it worth reading? I read it several years ago, and I enjoyed it. If I remember correctly, it's made up mostly of Arab primary sources, so it's a pretty interesting counterpoint.
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Dec 29, 2013 01:18
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a travelling HEGEL posted:Cool. The people I've been living with all speak Saechsisch, which nobody likes. Ugh. For some reason I can't stand people speaking Saxon. It just rubs me the wrong way. At least I can tolerate a woman speaking it, a man speaking Sächsisch sounds unbelievable whiny to me. The irony here is without Charlemagne I would probably speak the same dialect. Luckily he deported enough Saxons from here to the south to make place for normal people. But that's just northern arrogance for you, for most of my live I even believed (like most people here) northern German is the dialect-free standard of the German language and is called "Hochdeutsch". Studying at university then taught me how Hochdeutsch "high German" actually refers to the montainous regions down in the middle and the south of Germany (and includes Austria and Switzerland). Also it's the absolute opposite of dialect-free. Low German (which refers to the flatlands up north) can be sound somewhat dialect-free, as someone can experience in Hanover listening to Hanoverans. But it can also mean strange stuff like West Low German which is related to Dutch, or even related to English. Here is a map. West Low German dialects are listed under A left and related to B left, on the right are the high German dialects. And the stuff in the middle, which kind of is just there.
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Dec 29, 2013 01:33
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Libluini posted:Ugh. For some reason I can't stand people speaking Saxon. It just rubs me the wrong way. Speaking of accents, read this. Since spelling was phonetic, that's what Wallenstein sounded like in real life.  Edit: quote:Studying at university then taught me how Hochdeutsch "high German" actually refers to the montainous regions down in the middle and the south of Germany (and includes Austria and Switzerland). Also it's the absolute opposite of dialect-free. Yeah, Oberdeutsch != High German, that's more like...high altitude German HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Dec 29, 2013 |
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Dec 29, 2013 01:36
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a travelling HEGEL posted:They know, and it makes them sad. Well, at least I can understand them. I have an uncle hailing from the great city of Cologne and for the live of me I can only understand about half of what he says. And as a child I was on a week-long school excursion down in Bavaria. I understood nothing and no-one! I think I'm still a little traumatized by that experience. Edit: Oh, those letters remind me of Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen's famous book. Someday I have to re-read it! Second Edit: Hey, he mentions Tilly! Ha, good old Tilly. The letter is from about five years after we kicked his rear end, too. And one year after one of his subordinates kicked ours, but without that timely black death thing happening it would have gone the other way, so it doesn't count. 
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Dec 29, 2013 01:49
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Libluini posted:Oh, those letters remind me of Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen's famous book. Someday I have to re-read it! quote:Second Edit: Hey, he mentions Tilly! Ha, good old Tilly. The letter is from about five years after we kicked his rear end, too. And one year after one of his subordinates kicked ours, but without that timely black death thing happening it would have gone the other way, so it doesn't count. Libluini posted:And as a child I was on a week-long school excursion down in Bavaria. I understood nothing and no-one! I think I'm still a little traumatized by that experience. 
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Dec 29, 2013 01:52
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gradenko_2000 posted:Holy poo poo what It's not really fair to call Jackie Fisher a warmonger. If anything he understood deterrence theory before the term was coined. Not that I'd want him or anyone from that era in charge of nuclear weapons 
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Dec 29, 2013 01:54
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a travelling HEGEL posted:They know, and it makes them sad. I tell you a secret: There is no standardized German and Oberdeutsch is High German. There is something called "Standarddeutsch", which is German for overregional communication. Calling it "Hochdeutsch" is just a misconception common in Germany and completely ignored by our linguists. Which they can and which we can do, since there is no standardized German.The German wikipedia page talks about this confusion a bit, while the English page ignores it. So too bad for the people who would most likely need this information. In short, Standard German is our written language and what people call "Hochdeutsch" is actually phonetically spoken Standard German, while linguistically correct "Hochdeutsch" refers to the dialects down south. (One time I've heard some poor soul talking about "Niederhochdeutsch" at some point, which doesn't even exist. I think he was just confused by the terminology.)
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Dec 29, 2013 01:59
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Libluini posted:I tell you a secret: There is no standardized German and Oberdeutsch is High German. There is something called "Standarddeutsch", which is German for overregional communication. Calling it "Hochdeutsch" is just a misconception common in Germany and completely ignored by our linguists. Which they can and which we can do, since there is no standardized German.The German wikipedia page talks about this confusion a bit, while the English page ignores it. So too bad for the people who would most likely need this information.  So this thing that I've been speaking to people in...it's fake? Edit: What dialect should I learn to speak, then? HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Dec 29, 2013 |
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Dec 29, 2013 02:03
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a travelling HEGEL posted:You know, I am not a fan? The incidents are nicely drawn, but why are there so many early modern novels out there where the young man of unknown parentage turns out to be related to his kindly benefactor? YEAH I DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING AT ALL. You know, the English description seems sanitized somehow. I don't remember it like that at all. Somehow it describes a somewhat similar book without the charm and humor of the original. Whoever wrote that wikipedia-entry really doesn't seem to get the joke hidden in the name, too. Which is just sad. And if I read that entry about Picaresque novels correctly, then the author of the English entry about "Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus" is also hilariously wrong in, like everything else. Better try to read the detailed German entry, it comes closer to what is actually in the book. a travelling HEGEL posted:
Just learn phonetically correct Standard German, which is dialect-neutral. Then ask everyone if they're a linguist first. If they are, you're speaking Standard German. If they're not, you just claim you speak Hochdeutsch. If you speak to a Bavarian or other weirdos, all bets are off. I can't help you there, sorry. Libluini fucked around with this message at 02:13 on Dec 29, 2013 |
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Dec 29, 2013 02:09
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God, you're making my German classes seem harder than they are.
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Dec 29, 2013 03:27
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Well that's what you get when a bunch of separate nations with their own rules and cultural differences joining together after the dictionaries have already been written. The old Holy Roman Empire had many uniting factors, but language standardization isn't one of them. France and Spain still have their regional dialects/languages, and they've been united way longer than Germany.
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Dec 29, 2013 04:34
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SlothfulCobra posted:Well that's what you get when a bunch of separate nations with their own rules and cultural differences joining together after the dictionaries have already been written. The old Holy Roman Empire had many uniting factors, but language standardization isn't one of them. As a German, whenever I hear that the EU can't possibly ever work because of linguistic and cultural differences, I just sort of giggle.
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Dec 29, 2013 11:15
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Mycroft Holmes posted:God, you're making my German classes seem harder than they are.  It's also what all of them use to speak to people they don't know. A few weeks ago in a hostel some women came in speaking...something. It sounded almost Slavic, but it was German I think? Then one of them turned to me and, in accentless Standard German, said "Do you mind if I open a window?" I said fine, and they went back to...whatever it was they were doing. ArchangeI posted:As a German, whenever I hear that the EU can't possibly ever work because of linguistic and cultural differences, I just sort of giggle.
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Dec 29, 2013 13:09
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About ten years back I travelled across Germany and my German is fairly atrocious. Turns out that throwing a bunch of deutschmarks at a taxi driver and saying "Superfast Ferry Terminal, schnell schnell, zwanzig minuten, schnell schell" works pretty well. re: Gustavus Adolphus, everyone should know that Torstensson was a better commander than he ever was.
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Dec 29, 2013 13:23
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a travelling HEGEL posted:It's also what all of them use to speak to people they don't know. A few weeks ago in a hostel some women came in speaking...something. It sounded almost Slavic, but it was German I think? Then one of them turned to me and, in accentless Standard German, said "Do you mind if I open a window?" I said fine, and they went back to...whatever it was they were doing. It might have been Sorbian which is a Slavic language, or the women might have been from around Lower Lusatsia - the dialect there was heavily influenced by Sorbs.
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Dec 29, 2013 14:19
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Donaubayrisch, the only group of german dialects that you'll ever want to learn. Btw, these letters are interesting. Although this baroque upper class language is a pain.
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Dec 29, 2013 15:01
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Man, that Saxon German was very hard for me to understand. I've never really had any problems understanding people whenever I've been in Germany but that has mainly been Hamburg and the Ruhr District. Then again, I don't really use my German for anything other than attempting to understand Dutch, since its basically just a mash of German, English and Danish so I can kinda sorta read it.
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Dec 29, 2013 16:09
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InspectorBloor posted:Although this baroque upper class language is a pain.
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Dec 29, 2013 17:35
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SlothfulCobra posted:Well that's what you get when a bunch of separate nations with their own rules and cultural differences joining together after the dictionaries have already been written. Oh be quiet it works perfectly 
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Dec 29, 2013 18:54
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I understand why there's still greek there, but why are there all these albanian enclaves to the south? Is that due to recent migration?
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Dec 29, 2013 20:18
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Yeah, Albania is/was one of the worst dictatorships in Europe. You'd get people sailing across the Adriatic to escape and landing in Italy.
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Dec 29, 2013 20:27
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a travelling HEGEL posted:It's also what all of them use to speak to people they don't know. A few weeks ago in a hostel some women came in speaking...something. It sounded almost Slavic, but it was German I think? Then one of them turned to me and, in accentless Standard German, said "Do you mind if I open a window?" I said fine, and they went back to...whatever it was they were doing. English is a bit like this, but only when touring foreign countries, since regional dialects cover large areas. If I ever meet another Albertan while abroad the speech becomes a lot faster and slangier, and I'm sure the effect is more pronounced for less Americanized dialects of English.
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Dec 29, 2013 20:30
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InspectorBloor posted:I understand why there's still greek there, but why are there all these albanian enclaves to the south? Is that due to recent migration? Refugees from the time when Ottomans conquered the Balkans. So yeah, quite recent, given the history of Italy! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arb%C3%ABresh%C3%AB
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Dec 29, 2013 20:44
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a travelling HEGEL posted:That's fine, you (like me) are speaking the fake thing, which works I guess, I'm just bummed a little. A fellow goon from northern Germany always makes fun of me for being a slav, or at least sounding like one. The dialect of Vienna is ripe with czech words and pronuciation. Hardly an accident if you consider that over 50% of the city's population were of czech ancestry by the beginning of the 20th century. Here, it's almost impossible to find somebody who doesn't have a czech or polish grandmother. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K89YalcS9M Power Khan fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Dec 29, 2013 |
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Dec 29, 2013 20:54
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What's up with the Catalan enclave on Sardinia?
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Dec 29, 2013 20:54
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Raskolnikov38 posted:What's up with the Catalan enclave on Sardinia? Sardinia used to be owned by the Aragonese, who probably settled soldiers or something there. They had a bunch of fortifications on the island.
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Dec 29, 2013 21:10
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Raskolnikov38 posted:What's up with the Catalan enclave on Sardinia? Crown of Aragon in 15th century: 
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Dec 29, 2013 21:13
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That's Algherese from the city of Alghero (cool note, compare the flag of the city with the flag of Catalunya). It's from when the kingdom of Aragon looked like this  and Catalan colonists settled there.E: Haha, gently caress. Same image too.
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Dec 29, 2013 21:20
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Apparently Yale University Press now holds the rights to the RGASPI Stalin archives outside of Russia and Belarus. Except that their site is not searchable in Russian and inaccessible for those that are not members of an academic institution that pays them, whereas the Russian site used to be free for everyone. drat you, Yale!
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Dec 29, 2013 23:20
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Ensign Expendable posted:Apparently Yale University Press now holds the rights to the RGASPI Stalin archives outside of Russia and Belarus. Except that their site is not searchable in Russian and inaccessible for those that are not members of an academic institution that pays them, whereas the Russian site used to be free for everyone.
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Dec 30, 2013 00:15
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a travelling HEGEL posted:That's the same university that drove a dude to suicide over copyright. Who, when, why? The only similar story I know involves the person who got bullied by JSTOR / MIT, and Google doesn't return anything.
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Dec 30, 2013 00:33
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steinrokkan posted:Who, when, why? The only similar story I know involves the person who got bullied by JSTOR / MIT, and Google doesn't return anything.
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Dec 30, 2013 00:54
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They didn't drive poo poo. This is the McDonalds boiling coffee lawsuit all over again.
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Dec 30, 2013 03:13
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