Ghulam Cavalryman

Words of all kinds have been my constant companions, my comfort and my career since I was six years old. I can never get enough of them and I revel in learning new words. So, today I present you with a list of some additional medieval words beginning with the letters G. There were so many truly fascinating words for G, that I decided to present it all by its lonesome. The source for all spellings and definitions is “The Orb: On-line Reference Book for Medieval Studies.” To read the previous selection of words, click here.

GAENGGANG: Pregnant.

GAFOL: Rent.

GAIRTHINX: Donation, gift.

GEBUR: A dependent cultivator of the soil.

GEMOT: A meeting.

GESITH: Companion or personal follower of the king. Later became the thegn.

GESITHCUND MAN: One who belongs by birth to the class of gesiths; in the West Saxon laws appears to be of the same dignity as the eorlcund man of the Kentish laws.

GHAZI: Arabic term meaning “one who took part in a ghazwa,”; later used to designate those who took part in the jihad against the unbelievers. The name was also adopted by associations of warriors, notably in Anatolia.

GHIYAR: The compulsory mark or sign worn by the dhimmis to distinguish them from Muslims. It usually consisted of a patch of cloth of a prescribed color and sometimes also of other items of clothing.

GHULAM: A young, male slave. The term is variously used of a servant or bodyguard, a palace guard or attendant, a young mamluk, or an artisan bound to a master.

GRANGE: (1) A farm estate of a monastery, worked by hired labor and supervised by lay brethren; (2) a system of farming, created by the Cistercians and followed by other orders, which existed outside the manorial system.

GREYFRIARS: See: “Mendicant Orders.”

GRITH: Peace, protection

GRITHBRECH: Breaking of the peace.

GYNAECEA: Women’s quarters.

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Award winning gardens of the Birr Castle Demesne.

I love words. I’ve said it before and I say it again. I iterate and reiterate. I LOVE words. So, today I present you with a list of some additional medieval words beginning with the letters D, E & F. The source for all spellings and definitions is “The Orb: On-line Reference Book for Medieval Studies.” To read the previous selection of words, click here.

DANEGELD: Tribute originally paid to the Danes (Dane Gold); later the system of personal taxation used to finance the king’s activities.

DEMESNE: The part of the lord’s manorial lands reserved for his own use and not allocated to his serfs or free tenants. Serfs work the demesne for a specified numbers of days per week. The demesne may either be scattered among the serfs’ land, or a separate area, the latter being more common for meadow and orchard lands.

DEVSHIRME: The Ottoman Turkish term for the periodic levy of Christian boys, collected for training and recruitment into the Janissaries, the Imperial Household, and the administration

DIGIT: A measure of length equal to 10.48 mm.

DILATURA: Damages; a plea designed to create delay, generally founded upon some matter not connected with the merits of a case.

DOUBLE MONASTERY: Peculiar to England, a combined monastery for men and women, with separate sleeping quarters for them. Sometimes this took the form of two foundations side by side having their own buildings and cloisters but with a church in common. In either form both would be ruled in common by an abbot or abbess.

DUN: Scottish single family hill fort.

EDOR: Homestead, farmhouse.

EREMITICISM: The religious life as lived by hermits, individually or in groups (cf. “cenobiticism”).

ESCHEAT: The right of a lord to confiscate property held by a free tenant found guilty of a felony.

ESNE-WORKMAN: Laborer, servant.

EYRE (Latin Iter): The right of the king (or justices acting in his name) to visit and inspect the holdings of any vassal. This was done periodically, usually at irregular intervals of a few years. These were all-inclusive, comprehensive affairs, during which the powers of local officials such as sheriffs and coroners were suspended (and required to render account subject to heavy amercement). Large numbers of people would attend, to make account or to seek justice, and the justices would inquire into all manner of things–crimes and unexplained deaths, misconduct and negligence by officials, irregularities and shortcomings of all kinds, the feudal and fiscal rights of the Crown, and private disputes. Such eyres were known to provoke utter terror among the populace, many boroughs and counties preferring to pay heavily to ensure the eyre would not visit them (the 1233 Eyre of Cornwall caused most of the populace to flee to the woods to escape the eyre).

FAEHTH: Feud.

FAQIH: The doctors of the law in Islam are called faqih.

FEAXFANG: Seizing by the hair.

FIEF-RENT: Money paid by a lord to his vassal annually in return for homage, fealty, and military service (usually knight service), or perhaps a butt of wine, a wheel of cheese, an animal, or a cord of timber. This became more common in the later middle ages, under the system known as Bastard Feudalism.

FLYMANFYRMTH: Harboring a fugitive.

FOLKES-MOTE: Meeting of the folk or people in the shiremoot.

FORESPECA, FORSPRECA: Advocate.

FORFENGUS: Rescuing of stolen or strayed cattle.

FRAELLUS: A rush basket; also the quantity of figs or raisins in such a basket.

FRITH: Peace.

FRUMTYHTLE: First accusation.

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ADSCRIPTICIUS: A type of serf. One who is bound to the soil.

ADULTERINE CASTLE: A castle built with out one’s lord’s approval.

AMBER: A measure of four bushels.

ANGYLDE: The money compensation which a wronged person is entitled to receive.

ASSART: To turn woodlands into pasture or cropland. To assart lands within a forest without license is a grave offence.

BARID: From the Latin “veredus”, Greek “beredos”, a post-horse (cf. German “Pferd”), the term commonly applied to the post and intelligence services of Islamic states and also to the couriers, mounts, and stages. The head of the organization was called Sahib al-Barid, or “postmaster.”

BIRELE: Cup-bearer.

BLODWITE: The fine for drawing blood.

BONDES: Heads of families; freemen serving as vassals.

BOVATE: Amount of land which could be worked by a team of oxen in a year.

BYRBAN: Beer money.

CAMERA: A workshop for men, a term mostly used in Italy.

CAN, CANNE: Clearance, averment.

CARUCATE: A measurement of land, equal to a hide (used in the Danelaw), fixed at 100 acres in England in the year 1194.

CAVAGIUM: Head tax.

CEORL: In Anglo-Saxon England, the free tenantry. Occasionally, if these could acquire enough land, they might move up to become thegns.

CHANTRY: The endowment, either in perpetuity or for a term of years, of a priest to celebrate mass for the soul of the founder.

CHARTULARIUS: An officer who drew up documents; a serf freed by charter.

CISTA: A chest.

CORRODY: A pension, in the form of lodging at a monastery, or an allowance of food, clothing, etc., granted to a lay person.

CUVELLA: A bucket, pail, or tub.

CYNE: Kin.

Finally, for more word fun, check out my post on SCA jargon here.

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King and Queen of Trimaris: Thorstenn the Wronghand and Zephyrine de la Mairge

There are still a few events left this month, so you’ve got a chance to make some Monday Memories of your own. Here they are, in reverse alphabetical order, broken down by kingdom, date, event and locality. Four more kingdoms to appear tomorrow.

WEST
29 – Darkwood A&S – Darkwood
29 – Warlord Tourney – St. Katherine’s
29 – Champion – Rivenoak
29-30 – Fall Equestrian Event – West

TRIMARIS
28-30 – Harvest Festival — Oldenfeld

OUTLANDS
28-30 – Nock on Wood – Barony of al-Barran
28-30 – War of the Staked Plains XIII – Shire of Blackwater Keep
29 – Estrella War Treaty Negotiations – Kingdom of Atenveldt
29 – Newcomer’s Revel – Barony of Unser Hafen

NORTHSHIELD
29 - 30th Baronial Birthday Celebration – Windhaven
29 - Event cancelled. – Rockhaven

Oh, and if you’re headed to the Estrella War Treaty Negotiations, here’s a glimpse of what war can be like… when viewed through womens’ eyes. O_O

For more information on why I have not been posting regularly, read this. Happily, you can once more expect consistent posting.

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Amazon

Target

Finally, I wish all of my readers a happy, if thoughtful, September 11. Never forget. I won’t.

Apparently this is a picture of sheep at a 2002 SCA event. What the event is, I know not. And, here’s the catch, SCA does not stand for Society for Creative Anachronism in this instance. Does anyone out there in my audience know of a sheep organization that calls itself the SCA???

Anyway, when I saw this, I just had to share it. Too bad I didn’t see it before I posted my own sheep story. J

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13 Things I Plan to Research for My SCA Persona

1) The Saxon laws regarding property
2) The Saxon laws regarding inheritance
3) Saxon Clothing circa 1000
4) Arabic Clothing circa 1000
5) Musical instruments available in England circa 1000
6) Tattoos during the Saxon dominance of England
7) Saxon hairstyles
Period Saxon Vocabulary
9) Period Saxon feasts
10) Period Saxon breakfasts
11) Saxon makeup? Not sure if this is real
12) The rights of Saxon women
13) The early crusades

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Joy to the World
Tune: Joy to the World
Words: By Sir Steven MacEanruig and Sir William the Lucky

Joy to the world, for war has come,
And we can fight again.
Let every foe know fear and woe,
And swords and axes swing,
And swords and axes swing,
And swords and swords and axes swing.

We’ll rule the world with axe and mace,
And Heaven up above.
Let battle cry ring fierce and high,
For war is what we love,
For war is what we love,
For war, for war, is what we love.

Joy to the world, for war has come,
With sword, and arrows’ flight.
We’ll maim and slay, all through the day,
And rape and loot at night,
And rape and loot at night,
And rape, and rape, and loot at night.

Hark the Heralds Loudly Cry
by Sir Steven MacEanruig

Hark! The heralds loudly cry
Who will live and who will die?
Tourney time is here once more
Kingdom’s crown we’re fighting for.

Join us on this tourney day,
Joyously we’ll maim and slay,
Hark! The heralds loudly sing,
Sword on helm is heard to ring;
Hark! The heralds loudly sing,
One of us will soon be King.

What Knight is This?
by Sir William the Lucky

What knight is this, who, laid to rest
In cold dark ground is sleeping?
The Western King destruction brings,
And Eastern men are weeping.
This, this ? Cariadoc!
Who came to scoff and died of shock.
Haste, haste to lay the sod
O’er faded hopes of glory.

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Once upon a time, long, long ago, I worked as a newspaper reporter. The paper I wrote for was a small town biweekly. I made very little money, and that meant that I had to be very careful about how much money I spent on the SCA. Garb, in particular was limited. I bought the cheapest broadcloth at wholesale or closeout stores and made the best of it. But I seriously wanted something nicer to wear to Fettburg’s midwinter feast.

Now, as a fairly poor member of the SCA, I haunted thrift stores watching for useable items. One day, at the local Catholic thrift store, I ran across a bolt of rust colored velvet. I immediately saw that fabric’s potential. That dusty bolt of velvet meant that there was a feast gown in my future. It was great! Except for two little problems…

Firstly, I am an indifferent seamstress. Sewing with velvet was way beyond my ability and still is. Secondly, I was going through a time period when my weight was fluctuating a great deal. The result? I lived in fear that the dress, which I would have to pay to have made would quickly become too small for, possibly even before the midwinter feast had arrived.

Then good news came. Rebecca, a friend of mine in the SCA was willing to make the dress for me. Naturally, I expressed my paranoia about the fit to her. She said she could make the dress a little loose. I was thrilled.

When the first fitting came, using a cheap broadcloth mock-up, I pestered my friendly seamstress to make the dress looser and looser. She told me I was making a mistake, but she did as I wished. And so, a few days later, I was the proud owner of a rust velvet bog dress, similar to teh dress in the picture above. And I wore it to the next feast!

But all was not well.

The end result was predictable, if pitiable. The dress was big enough to hold three of me! More than ten years later, I still have the dress. And it’s still big enough to hold at least two of me. When I wear it, I look like a child playing dress up, specifically a flat chested little girl. What was I thinking?????

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