That is a haunting tale, and one that is sure to make the fall of the sviker all the faster and bigger. I wonder if Offa will become king or the power behind the throne?
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Thank you for the magnificent wordplay and the unexpected tale of the maiden. I think "frippery" is my favorite of all the wonderfulness you blended into the hearty stew of terms used in this chapter.
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I definitely felt a fairy tale vibe from Cynethryth adrift on the river. Hopefully, Cuthberht will answer the call against injustice.
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Cynethryth sounds like she might be half sick of shadows; do you happen to know if she happened to influence the story of Elaine of Astolat? (I'm also curious which Pre-Raphaelite that painting of the Lady of Shalott is from. They loved painting both the Lady of Shalott and Ophelia, but I'm not familiar with that particular depiction. It doesn't quite look like Waterhouse's style; definitely not Rosetti.)
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@Nikolai: Thanks, friend. I hoped it would be emotionally evocative. We will have to wait and see what happens next. Cynethryth is certainly an unexpected component in this succession war.
@Chac1: That's high praise. I'm very glad you enjoyed both the story and my own unworthy prose. I'm also very gratified that you're enjoying my occasionally eclectic choice of words. Frippery, indeed!
@jak7139: Thanks, I hoped it would feel mysterious and mystical without becoming too campy or cliché. Whether Cuthberht will be up to the challenge remains to be seen.
@Emissary of the Prophets: Bonus points for calling out both the Pre-Raphaelite style and the Lady of Shalott. I have no idea if the legends surrounding Cynethryth affected the Arthurian mythos, but with such tropes floating around in the collective consciousness of the British Isles for so many centuries, it seems highly likely. I couldn't help but think of Elaine of Astolat/Shalott after reading her story, and of course I had my pick of all the Pre-Raphaelite depictions of her. I very nearly used Waterhouse's iconic painting, but I figured that would be a little too on-the-nose. Ultimately, I chose this somewhat lesser-known painting by John Atkinson Grimshaw since it evokes the same feeling without being instantly recognizable. Grimshaw loved the subject matter so much, he painted the Lady of Shalott on at least three different occasions, if not more.
@Chac1: That's high praise. I'm very glad you enjoyed both the story and my own unworthy prose. I'm also very gratified that you're enjoying my occasionally eclectic choice of words. Frippery, indeed!
@jak7139: Thanks, I hoped it would feel mysterious and mystical without becoming too campy or cliché. Whether Cuthberht will be up to the challenge remains to be seen.
@Emissary of the Prophets: Bonus points for calling out both the Pre-Raphaelite style and the Lady of Shalott. I have no idea if the legends surrounding Cynethryth affected the Arthurian mythos, but with such tropes floating around in the collective consciousness of the British Isles for so many centuries, it seems highly likely. I couldn't help but think of Elaine of Astolat/Shalott after reading her story, and of course I had my pick of all the Pre-Raphaelite depictions of her. I very nearly used Waterhouse's iconic painting, but I figured that would be a little too on-the-nose. Ultimately, I chose this somewhat lesser-known painting by John Atkinson Grimshaw since it evokes the same feeling without being instantly recognizable. Grimshaw loved the subject matter so much, he painted the Lady of Shalott on at least three different occasions, if not more.
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Good choice! Waterhouse also painted the Lady of Shalott repeatedly, but his paintings would be much more instantly recognizable as the Lady of Shalott and not Cynethryth.
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@Emissary of the Prophets: Precisely. I needed something that evoked the mystique of that story, but also something a bit more ambiguous than Waterhouse's work.
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Yeah, she's been through a lot, it seems.
Actually... if she is the last of her house, does she have lands now? How politically advantageous would a marriage between Offa and Cynethryth be?
Actually... if she is the last of her house, does she have lands now? How politically advantageous would a marriage between Offa and Cynethryth be?
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If there is anyone who can figure out a key piece of the plot three chapters ahead it's @HistoryDude .
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@Chac1: I'd love to hear some predictions. Bonus points for anyone who gets something right when we come to that point in the plot.
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Well, it wasn't my idea, although I did think Chapter I played to potentially set up Offa and Cynethryth as more than military allies down the road. And technically, @HistoryDude just asked a very pertinent question (but we can surmise what was behind his question.) I have a side bet that @HistoryDude will predict many plot points ahead. Now, we can all await some romance to bloom so there is further tragedy ahead.
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@Chac1: Considering we’ve only met four named characters, and of those one is dead and another is his murderer, I know it doesn't seem particularly farfetched for a connection to form between the ealdorman and the maiden.
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Offa is a substantial historical name to conjure with. Must be big things in the works if he’s about to stick his oar in. We’ve not heard from Beornraed in a little while – I wonder how comfortably he’s sitting on his new throne…
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I was thinking the same thing, but surely a well connected young man like Offa is married already? Or so was my thinking.
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@DensleyBlair: Yes, indeed. Things are about to get real now that Offa is involved. As for Beornræd, he hasn’t exactly been sitting back on his laurels. There are obviously concerns if he’s already been reduced to ravaging his own kingdom to try to maintain control.
@Nikolai: Under normal circumstances, he probably would be. However, his parents are dead and the head of his dynasty (Æthelbald) wasn’t exactly a big supporter of matrimony. If you were to ask Offa, he’d probably say he just hasn’t gotten around to it yet.
@Nikolai: Under normal circumstances, he probably would be. However, his parents are dead and the head of his dynasty (Æthelbald) wasn’t exactly a big supporter of matrimony. If you were to ask Offa, he’d probably say he just hasn’t gotten around to it yet.
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I realized I neglected to mention one important settlement in my lore post on the Mercian tribes, so I’ve added the following to that post:
*Medeshamstede (Peterborough): One of the greatest monasteries of the Myrcna, in the territory of the Gyrwas (“fen-people”), near the borders of the Ēast Ængle. Originally founded in the mid-seventh century through a joint endowment from the kings of the Myrcna and Northanhymbra as a token of their piety.
I’m planning another lore post before we move on to chapter 2. This one will be on the noble families of the Myrcna, three of which we’ve technically already encountered in the story.
*Medeshamstede (Peterborough): One of the greatest monasteries of the Myrcna, in the territory of the Gyrwas (“fen-people”), near the borders of the Ēast Ængle. Originally founded in the mid-seventh century through a joint endowment from the kings of the Myrcna and Northanhymbra as a token of their piety.
***
I’m planning another lore post before we move on to chapter 2. This one will be on the noble families of the Myrcna, three of which we’ve technically already encountered in the story.
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Thank you - a great read, though not an uplifting one for sure, thanks to the beauty of the 8th century. Offa seems, fittingly, to be a most decisive man of action, and I am quite sure that our maiden will also get to take some very direct action.
I ended up in a rabbit hole regarding fǽhþu since even with the meaning feud / blood feud / enmity, it's not a word I could have figured out in retrospect. A very interesting one.
Sceal ic fǽhþu dreógan - I must endure enmity. Here the sceal ic is decipherable via Scandinavian, and dreógan is not initially clear but turns out to be a relative of Scandinavian dryg. And Scottish English apparently has dree in the same meaning. But our friend fǽhþu? I see it's supposed to be an ancestor of modern English feud but that etymology seems less than obvious. Very interesting that fǽhþu, assuming a pronunciation like [fæːx.θ], with or without another vowel at the end, sounds more similar to the Baltic root pikt (pikts, piktas, etc), meaning angry. Fascinating!
I ended up in a rabbit hole regarding fǽhþu since even with the meaning feud / blood feud / enmity, it's not a word I could have figured out in retrospect. A very interesting one.
Sceal ic fǽhþu dreógan - I must endure enmity. Here the sceal ic is decipherable via Scandinavian, and dreógan is not initially clear but turns out to be a relative of Scandinavian dryg. And Scottish English apparently has dree in the same meaning. But our friend fǽhþu? I see it's supposed to be an ancestor of modern English feud but that etymology seems less than obvious. Very interesting that fǽhþu, assuming a pronunciation like [fæːx.θ], with or without another vowel at the end, sounds more similar to the Baltic root pikt (pikts, piktas, etc), meaning angry. Fascinating!
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@WPCSolver: Thank you for reading, friend! Wow, there's a lot to unpack here. First of all, you are correct that both Offa and Cynethryth are people of action, but so is Beornræd, so we'll soon see where things end up.
Next, that is quite the etymological rabbit hole! You might be giving @Emissary of the Prophets a run for his money! You are definitely correct that fǽhþu has a few variant suffixes: fǽhþo and fǽhþ seem to be the most common, although I'm only an amateur linguist at best.
The accented letter æsc ("ǽ") is apparently voiced for a second longer than a regular æsc, kind of like an overexcited Pokémon trainer calling a notorious colleague by his given name. As far as I understand, the "h" is a voiceless velar fricative, as in German "ich" or Scottish "loch." The "þ" is even more fun to figure out, since medieval scribes tended to use it interchangeably with "ð" for the two "th" sounds, the voiceless dental fricative [θ as in "thistle"] or the voiced dental fricative [ð as in "that"]. My modern sensibilities would much rather one be clearly assigned to each sound. The line of descent from fǽhþu to "feud" would seem a lot clearer to me if the "þ" was a "ð."
But this explication of Ænglisc vowels and consonants might be so excessively nerdy on my part as to make my more casual readers' heads explode.
Next, that is quite the etymological rabbit hole! You might be giving @Emissary of the Prophets a run for his money! You are definitely correct that fǽhþu has a few variant suffixes: fǽhþo and fǽhþ seem to be the most common, although I'm only an amateur linguist at best.
The accented letter æsc ("ǽ") is apparently voiced for a second longer than a regular æsc, kind of like an overexcited Pokémon trainer calling a notorious colleague by his given name. As far as I understand, the "h" is a voiceless velar fricative, as in German "ich" or Scottish "loch." The "þ" is even more fun to figure out, since medieval scribes tended to use it interchangeably with "ð" for the two "th" sounds, the voiceless dental fricative [θ as in "thistle"] or the voiced dental fricative [ð as in "that"]. My modern sensibilities would much rather one be clearly assigned to each sound. The line of descent from fǽhþu to "feud" would seem a lot clearer to me if the "þ" was a "ð."
But this explication of Ænglisc vowels and consonants might be so excessively nerdy on my part as to make my more casual readers' heads explode.
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Mostly right, except that the sound in German ich is a voiceless palatal non-sibilant fricative /ç/. /x/ is the sound in German Bach, however. (And Scottish loch.)@WPCSolver: Thank you for reading, friend! Wow, there's a lot to unpack here. First of all, you are correct that both Offa and Cynethryth are people of action, but so is Beornræd, so we'll soon see where things end up.
Next, that is quite the etymological rabbit hole! You might be giving @Emissary of the Prophets a run for his money! You are definitely correct that fǽhþu has a few variant suffixes: fǽhþo and fǽhþ seem to be the most common, although I'm only an amateur linguist at best.
The accented letter æsc ("ǽ") is apparently voiced for a second longer than a regular æsc, kind of like an overexcited Pokémon trainer calling a notorious colleague by his given name. As far as I understand, the "h" is a voiceless velar fricative, as in German "ich" or Scottish "loch." The "þ" is even more fun to figure out, since medieval scribes tended to use it interchangeably with "ð" for the two "th" sounds, the voiceless dental fricative [θ as in "thistle"] or the voiced dental fricative [ð as in "that"]. My modern sensibilities would much rather one be clearly assigned to each sound. The line of descent from fǽhþu to "feud" would seem a lot clearer to me if the "þ" was a "ð."
But this explication of Ænglisc vowels and consonants might be so excessively nerdy on my part as to make my more casual readers' heads explode.
Wiktionary agrees with you that feud/fǽhþu are cognate with Baltic piktas--which is sending me for a loop because I was under the impression Baltic was a satem language like Slavic, Armenian, and Indo-Iranian, but the original PIE root is *peyḱ-, which should yield /s/ in a satem language. (Though I do know that satemization is only 100% consistent in Indo-Iranian.)
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