By: The Scribe on Sunday, July 15, 2007
During the Viking Age in Scandinavia, there was a group of poets who performed their poetry in the courts of Viking leaders and kings – this so-called courtly poetry, more commonly known as Old Norse poetry, would be performed in solo by a poet called a skald.
Each skald tended to emphasize the deeds of his king in his poetry, and the constructed poems tended to be subject to rather intense technical demands. These complicated forms of verse were comparable to those of Welsh bards, and in the same manner, the topics of poetry were rather limited to testimonials and memorials of a king’s or well-known aristocrat’s battles and deeds. In fact, it wasn’t unusual for a Viking king himself to take an interest in poetry, and many kings actually became their own skalds! For this reason, the majority of skaldic poetry that survives today can be attributed to specific authors and kings.
As time moved on, the 10th century began to see an increase in syncretizing of pagan and Christian themes, and by the 11th century, skaldic poetry had become extinct in a Christianized Scandinavia. Icelandic skalds continued to practice well into the 13th century however, which gave many of the poets time to write down their own compositions as well as traditional poems that might have otherwise been lost. One skaldic poet even compiled a manual called the Prose Edda, hoping to preserve an understanding of this poetic art for the future.
To make matters a little more interesting, skalds also tended to compose other pieces of poetry that weren’t necessarily meant for recitation in the court. They were known to have composed satire, and on rare occasions, they constructed erotic verses called ‘mansongr’. Unfortunately for the skalds, the writing of mansongr was forbidden in many Norse jurisdictions under penalty of death.
Why? Not because of any moral objections, but because leaders were afraid of the poems’ potential for magical ensnarement! Erotic and love poetry often contained magical charms in several verses, and on other occasions, love poetry was seen as a smear on a woman’s reputation – thus potentially harming her family’s reputation as well.
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Tomorrow: To kill a Mayan scribe…
By: The Scribe on Saturday, July 14, 2007
The Saluki is possibly the oldest known breed of domesticated dog, and its origins are traceable back to the time of the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt… and even further back than that. They seem to have originated in the Fertile Crescent area of Mesopotamia, and carvings from the Sumerian period around 7000-6000 BC have produced what appear to be images of Saluki dogs working alongside humans.
Saluki are ‘sighthound’ dogs, meaning that they hunt by sight instead of scent. With a powerful build and the modern nickname ‘Persian Greyhound’, the Saluki may actually be ancestors to today’s greyhound breeds. Another very early instance of sighthounds in ancient art comes from around 3000 BC, where the image of a dog resembling a Saluki was found on a stamp seal near Nineveh.
Egyptian tombs as early as 2100 BC have revealed paintings of Saluki dogs, including the tomb of an Egyptian governor named Rekh-ma-re, whose tomb images show a procession of people bringing him offerings. Among the offerings are three Saluki dogs of different colors: red, white, and golden. On the wall of a tomb for an Egyptian named Nebamun, dating around 1490 BC, there is an image of a multi-colored Saluki wearing a broad collar. Many other tomb carvings – such as the images of the young Tutankhamun riding in his chariot on a hunt – include depictions of dogs accompanying the Pharaohs as they hunted for sport or went into battle, and it is widely believed that these dogs were the domesticated Saluki.
Due to the great respect and reverence for this breed, the breeding line continued for thousands of years, stringently kept pure by royal dog breeders and even the nomadic Bedouin! Bedouin tribes often owned Salukis and kept them apart from their other dogs, not only to preserve their genetic purity, but also to ensure their behavior and effectiveness in hunting was not tainted. Later during the Roman period, it is suspected that the Romans brought back Saluki from their conquests in Egypt – and then proceeded to crossbreed the dogs into today’s modern greyhounds.
Evidence for the continual respect held for Salukis since ancient times also survives in the form of a poem, written by an Umayyad poet sometime between 661-750 AD: “They have with them their hounds of Saluq, like horses wheeling in battle, dragging on their halters.” Pretty intense for a dog now kept as a typical household pet…
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Tomorrow: More viking goodness!
By: The Scribe on Friday, July 13, 2007
In the 1970s, excavators working at Hadrian’s wall came across a large number of ancient documents – Roman letters, contracts, and other writings – in and around the area. The documents are actually pieces of wood that had originally been composed using wax drawn onto wooden tablets with a stylus, but after sitting in the ground for 2000 years, the wax had long since decomposed – leaving only faint scratches in the wood where the writing had once been.
Hadrian’s wall is one of the most important Roman monuments in Britain, as it was the marker for the British northern border of the Roman Empire. In fact, Hadrian’s wall was the most heavily fortified border in the entirety of the Empire, and was a strong military defense against raids by Scotland’s Pictish tribes.
With a heavy military presence at the wall, perhaps it is not surprising that the first document to be deciphered from the cache was a Roman soldier’s shopping list! It seems that this soldier was heading to an auction with several key purchases in mind: a general outfit of clothing, which would have cost him around 8 percent of his annual income, and another 10 percent of his annual income would go toward the purchase of a new cloak. With Britain’s often harsh climate, a new cloak would have been absolutely necessary for a soldier’s well being – which is probably why it cost him a small fortune.
The list was deciphered by exaggerating the stylus markings on the tablet through digital imaging and virtual reconstruction technology. Noting the shadows that the etchings cast when low, focused light was shone on the wood, researchers were able to analyze the scratch marks and make out distinct letters.
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Tomorrow: Talk about an old dog…
By: The Scribe on Thursday, July 12, 2007
The so-called ‘Four Ancient Books of Wales’ were translated and compiled together by William Forbes Skene in 1868, and although by modern standards the compilation is flawed and translation likely rife with errors, Skene’s work is a comprehensive volume of four of the most important surviving texts of medieval literature. The four books were written in Middle Welsh during the 13th to 15th centuries, and contain both poetry and prose.
Some of the writings within the texts appear to be contemporary, however many portions of the documents seem to be centered around traditions that date as far back as the 6th and 7th centuries. Perhaps most important of all, the books also contain the earliest native Bardic Welsh references to the legendary King Arthur. Although the documents were likely written down into document form from traditional Bardic oral poems and stories, probably at the expense of wealthy and noble patrons, the subject matter seems to take on an esoteric quality – ranging from drunken brawls and battles, to words of wisdom, to almost mystic insights into human nature.
- The Black Book of Carmarthen: This manuscript is one of the earliest surviving works written completely in Welsh, and was composed around 1250 AD. The poetry in this book has some religious themes, though the most intriguing portions are the poems that can be associated with the legends of Arthur and Merlin – one poem discusses the Battle of Llongborth and Arthur’s involvement in it, though the actual location of this historical battle has long been lost.
- The Book of Taliesin: The most famous of the four Welsh manuscripts, this book is officially dated from the early 14th century – however, most of the contents are thought to be much older. With some of the oldest Welsh poems in this volume, many of the writings have actually been attributed to the poet Taliesin who lived at the end of the 6th century. This book contains some of the most famous Arthurian tales, such as the poem wherein Arthur and his knights sail the sea to win treasures, including a magical cauldron.
- The Book of Aneirin: This manuscript dates from the 13th century, though most of its Old and Middle Welsh poetry is attributed to Aneirin, a late 6th century Brythonic poet. The most famous piece from this book is a poem called Y Gododdin, commemorating the warriors who fell at the Battle of Catraeth in 600 AD.
- The Red Book of Hergest: This Welsh manuscript was probably composed somewhere between 1385-1410 AD, and was so named due to its red leather binding and association with the Hergest Court in the Welsh Marshes until the early 17th century. The book contains prose, including the extremely important collection of Welsh tales known as the Mabinogion.
Notably, J.R.R. Tolkien borrowed the title of the Red Book of Hergest for the imagined legendary source of his tales, entitled the Red Book of Westmarch.
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Tomorrow: A Roman shopping list!
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