Oops. Thanks, I'll check it out and maybe fix, depending on what I think of Eodwine's state of mind. :p

EDIT: I've fixed it and left the mistake in such that Falco corrects him with appropriate "face saving" banter between the two.

I'll get a post off tonight with Lin calming down after her stressful day...

Eventually Eodwine and Lin are going to have to sit down, maybe with Marenil tomorrow morning, and get straight what's going on with the two of them, since the original plans have necessarily changed.

Now you've done it, Fea
 

I'm going to have some real fun with my next post, as soon as I can figure out what I want to do with this..... :D

Might as well store my information here as well as anywhere. Maybe you guys can benefit from it this way too. Not near enough here to go on, but it's a start.

Google search phrase: 'Medieval Dance'

Varieties of Medieval Dance

---taken from
here

Branles - circle or line dance formation

* Washerwoman’s Branle - a very easy dance that reflects the aspects of women in medieval life.
* Maltese Branle - a simple remake of a dance inspired by the Knights of Malta’s visit to the Middle East.
* Official Branle (also known as toss the duchess) - A fun circle dance that involves trading partners!
* Branle Charlotte - a more difficult circle dance that involves stepping and kicking to various changing beats.

Rounds

* Sellingers Round - a very catchy and lively circle dance done in the verse and chorus style of dancing.

***************************************

Dance Styles - - taken from here

* Basse Dance
* Bassa Danza
* Ballo
* Pavanne
* Galliard/Tourdion
* Measure
* Allemande
* Branle
* Country Dance

Courtly Dances

* Black Alman - a sedate processional dance that would have been done in entrance to many courts. 17th century.
* Black Nag - a livelier dance for three couples that employs the verse and chorus style of country-dance. Playford 1670.
* Rufty Tufty - a two couple dance with many turns in it. Would have been done in ballrooms where the sets of people would interconnect. Playford 1651.

Other dances

* Salterello - a hopping and aerobic dance reconstructed as best as we can from lithographs and sketches. Music 1400, Dance early 15th century or earlier?
* Prince William - a very complicated country style dance that involves a double mirror hay (figure 8 in mirror formation changing lines) English Country 1731.

****************************

Easy Steps(not true medieval but you take what you can get):

A single takes 2 beats, and is one step forward and a second step to bring the feet together.

A double is three steps forward and a fourth step to bring the feet together.

A slipping circle is done in a circle with the dancers all facing inwards and holding hands: the dancers step sideways to the left or the right without turning their hips.

A sashay involves a couple facing each other holding both hands, and moving sideways with a step identical to that used in a slipping circle.

When arming, the dancing couple grips each other's elbows with one hand, and uses two doubles to walk in a circle. Arming always appears in pairs; we adopt the convention of calling for arming left and then right.

When siding, the dancing couple advances with a double until they are next to each other with their shoulders parallel, and then use a double to return to place.

The set and turn single step involves a single to one side, a single to return to place, and then a turn in place using a double.

On Bailliffs, Stewards, and Almbudsmen
 

Folwren and I have been talking about the Steward role at the Mead hall. So I'm posting this here to keep everybody abreast of what I'm thinking.....

'Steward' and 'bailliff' are Anglo to Norman cognates (means the words are directly related from one language to the other) BUT ----> they don't mean the same thing.

A steward is second in command to a king or lord, and has a much higher position than the bailliff has, which is a more limited and legal role.

I've been meaning to split the job of Steward of the Eorling Mead Hall in two. The two jobs would be "steward" and "almbudsman". The almbudsman is a gatherer of fees and fines, and an enforcer of the law - actually much closer to what a bailliff does.

And now we have Marinel, Jenny Hallu's second character, who can slide right into the position (after a while). So what Folwren and I have agreed to is that Thornden will, at the end of one month's trial period, say that the job of steward is not the best fit for him, for whatever reasons Folwren decides to give Thornden. Eodwine will agree to Thornden's request to be almbudsman. Sound good?

Nice post, Anguirel. :) (#90)

I'm wondering if it's in the right spot? I'd like to find some place for it between, say, post 65 and - oh..... - say 75. But I can't figure out the best spot for it.

Then there's the difficulty of needing to go back and edit our posts in order to create the appropriate responses to the song..... *LMP scratches head* Any suggestions?

Ah, LMP, I've reached an island of sanity, serenity, and running so smooth it makes you drift into a pleasant half-slumber accentuated by a faint aroma of mango and a feeling of lychee juice being trickled, drop by drop, into the mouth.

Ahem. Anyway. I think it's perhaps alright where it is. I do have the hours getting darker as Manawyth strums and ponders.

I hope no-one minds the rip-off. I just love that ballad, it's beautiful and if I hadn't cried over it at night countless times as a child, I'd undoubtedly be doing so now. Sir Patrick Spens, unfortunate sea-captain, you made me who I am...

Manawyth seems to be Scottish as well as Welsh. That's life I suppose...

If Ang's post is to be left where it is, could I have a post inserted above it? I had started a post earlier (it should be done this evening sometime), and was hoping to enter Leof during the time of merriment...

Actually, scratch that. I can make it fit in afterwards.

I can see where both LMP and Ang are coming from. In the midst of the impromptu "party" the dark song does not seem to fit, but given Manawyth's character, it could work.

Anyhow, I've written my post assuming that it will stay as it is. I can just as easily change it if it is moved back up earlier in the day. I do think that it would be extremely difficult to change Leof's and Garwine's conversation about Manawyth in the middle of said posts (64-75), though.

We can leave it where it is. Anguirel, you actually refer to darkness perhaps a bit early, for supper time (in my thinking) is right around six hours past noon, and darkness does not arrive in early spring (in the relatively Gallic climes of Rohan) until more than seven hours past noon.

Anyway, we can dovetail the solemnity of Manawyth's ballad with Saeryn's sudden pain and her halfhearted offer to dance with Falco.

I still have to read Firefoot's latest post, so this post doesn't account for what she's written.

Just want to add: great writing all around. This is my favorite haunt on the Barrowdowns. :)

Sorry, lmp, I was confused about suppertime too...In the American South, where I'm living, suppertime occurs around 8-9...they eat late down here. In the American Midwest, where I grew up, we don't have supper at all...the last meal of the day is always referred to as dinner. ;)

Maybe my East Coast origin is raising its head with "supper". :p

8 to 9? Eegads, that's late!

But more accurate if we're dealing with an agrarian culture; the last meal wouldn't be served up until after the work day was done, which would be at sundown. Consider it so in Edoras, instead of my *ahem* American middle class instincts. :p

Funny, LMP; I always thought you were Dutch?

Anyway, um, 8 to 9 sounds fine, and things seem to be going extremely well. To be honest I was a bit in despair about catching up with Manawyth, but when I started writing-as so often-it came easily...

:rolleyes: My fault. My grandparents would be so happy. Part of the American thing, that. All four of my grandparents came over from the Netherlands close to the turn of the 20th century. I'm Dutch-American, born in Brooklyn, NY, USA. (1 216th Huguenot (sp?) too)

ROTFL! Good one, Jenny! :D

A lusty faux pax, or however you spell it. I'll be interested in Saeryn's reaction to that!

Then go see it! An imitation of Saucie's infamous reactions if ever there was one.

"Me? Married? WHAT!?!?"

Yeah, yeah, like I'll buy that...

Ah, a perceptive one. Saeryn? Having a sweetheart before she took off? What? ;)

Oh my, a secret lover...my dear Fea, Lin may be perceptive, but she is of course not so rude as to say anything. Besides, she's got her own thoughts to figure out.

They simply must be friends! They have too much in common not to.

Well of course. Aww, poor Saeryn won't even know what to do. Most likely confide in Eodwine about how different it is to confide in Lin. :)

I thought Saucy was married.

-- Folwren

Hmmmmm...... ..... are you sure you want to go there with Saeryn, Fea?

Did they 'roll in the hay', as it were? If so, did the loverboy keep his mouth shut? Was he of lower caste, or the same? It makes a big difference. This is not, obviously, the 21st century, and Rohirric (and Gondorian) folk had drastically different sensibilities about such things. For example, if Saeryn rolled in the hay with a peasant boy, this would be reason enough for her tyrannically unreasonable brother who is lord to get her married off as quick as possible, especially in an age with a dirth of contraception. Or if he was of the Rohirric nobility, then his rolling in the hay has the clear purpose of getting Saeryn pregnant as the first step toward marriage. In the middle ages, young folk "rolled" first, waited to see if she got pregnant, then if she did, they were considered married as of the day of "rolling", and they had the formality later. If Saeryn has run away from a marriage that her brother was forcing on her on these grounds, then Eodwine is suddenly in a rather compromised position as he who will speak for Saeryn. You see, if Saeryn has "rolled" and has withheld this information while accepting Eodwine's oath (not rejecting is tantamount to accepting, by the way), she has presumed too much upon his mercy. Beside all that, if she has rolled, Saeryn, knowing all these things as one who grew up in the middle of this culture, her 'devilish grin' is very much out of character considering how you've described her so far. Or, it is in character and she is not what she has played herself to be.

On the other hand....... if she has not "rolled in the hay" but merely romanced with this young man, then things are only a little embarrassing and the brother lord is still in the wrong, and if he knew, he's overreacting.

Which is it?

Can we start a Barrow-Downs Dictionary, and add this new definition of "rolled"? It's quite delightful...

It's not delightful. At all.

I was curious, though, and am awfully too lazy to go and see in the old Inn - why is Saeryn so sore? Did she break a rib falling out of a loft? I doubt that's the case. . .

And I am going to try to write a post before I leave today. This week is a little different and I'll be here Thursday and Friday, instead of Tuesday and Wednesday. . .but after this week, my schedule will be back to normal.

-- Folwren

And frankly, a more likely term, being rooted in Anglo-Saxon times, would be "genokt" (as in ..... well, guess), but that's the last I'm going there.

She fell off a horse back in the days of the Inn. It had been raining and the horse slipped. Saeryn's a good rider. Just one of those things.

I don't mean delightful as in the connotations and implications are necessarily delightful, I just enjoy the twisting and stretching of words to new meanings, and how they got there. Besides, I have to be flippant...Lin takes herself so seriously I desperately need to be flippant after writing from her perspective.

No rolling at all. Saeryn's too much a good girl. Just a few stolen kisses in the stables. Her jerk of a brother found out, over-reacted, sent the offending lower-caste member away and he managed to die... or just disappear from her life. It really doesn't matter which; he's gone. Devilish grin pertaining to the remembrance of those stolen kisses, feelings of guilt due to the fact that the guy was sent away because of it.

And Folwren, Saucie is married and with kids, no less. In the "How Do You Imagine Other BDers" thread, someone described him inaccurately and, according to him, he spewed coffee, he was laughing that hard. :)

Edit: I edited the post a bit to salvage my lass's reputation. I went back and reread it, wondering just what it was that had come across in my writing. It wasn't supposed to sound nearly that risquè. Saeryn may be a runaway and she's sometimes spontaneous to a fault, but she's still a lady. It's what I get, of course, for posting when I'm exhausted.

Thanks for clearing that up, Fea. :)

No problemo. Had to clear it up before anyone who knows she's based directly on me (with a few extra touches) started thinking. :eek:

Really now? Hmmm.... Eodwine's based directly on me ('with a few extra touches'). But isn't that the way a lot of rpg-ing goes (not all but a lot)?

Mhm. Unless I'm wrong. But I'm never wrong. :p

The rest of it is usually based on how you wish you were...

Ah, that would be the part about Eodwine being tall and handsome and never at a loss for words. :p

hehehe...Lin is tall and slender, rich, and capable of subtlety.

I think Manawyth is more similar to my Werewolf persona than to me...

Saeryn's about two inches taller than me. I'm pretty sure that's the biggest difference. :D

Roleplaying is, I have long held, the ultimate escapism. You can be anyone you want to be, appear any way you want to, and you deal with people who accept that without question.

Only problem with this view is that it sounds awful articulated. I'm going to have to come up with a better way to phrase it.

Among other things...
 

Leof isn't a girl. :D

I'm considering ending the current Day soon (say, after everybody gets to do {at least} one more post), and then moving the Time forward one week. Is there anything anybody wants to have happen before I do that? If so, what (in general), and how long Real Time do you need me to delay?

I'll be posting for my set of four characters at least once more before the day's out. After all, Linduial still needs to have a chat with Eodwine .... which could be created via PM, if you're interested, Jenny..... (seems to work amazingly well for good dialogue, etc.).

I'm all for it...I used to use AIM to do that, actually, so I understand the value.

I'm going to put up a Saeryn post soon (this could be geologically speaking, but I'm going to aim for real-time soon). After that I'm good.