Adventures in research

[telophase]

Reading about cattle raiding in medieval Spain*, in the ONLY REFERENCE I CAN FIND TO THE SUBJECT IN ENGLISH.** Mostly because there's not much out there on the subject in English, but it's frustrating figuring that out because all the scholarship out there wants to talk about the transference of the Spanish ranching system to the New World.

OTOH, I can't think of many cattle-ranch-based medieval/Renaissance fantasies...(if you had access to and read the novella I posted under lock, Burn is from a vaguely Fantasy Spanish background.)

edit: I have found an awesome resource: The Library of Iberian Resources Online. It appears to have been last updated in 2006, but contains a lot of PDF of out-of-print books that I think may be useful...end edit

Also, I have been having difficulty coming up with a basic equivalent to "Mr/Mrs/Ms" in this society. I've got the Latin-flavored domna/domnus for lady/lord, but nothing I like is coming to mind for the non-aristocratic generic title. "Ser" appears to be the traditional version for the fantasy I've read but it's in EVERYTHING including Game of Thrones so I really don't want to do it. Argh.


* Short version: borders, arid landscapes, militarized cultures and a few more things contribute to the development of a raiding culture in various areas of the world, and Reconquista Spain is one of them, with lots of raiding taking place on the (variable) border between Moorish-held and Christian-held lands.

** Because someone will ask: McGlynn, Michael. "Ecology of a master motif: cattle raiding in late medieval Spain in light of cross-cultural evidence." Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies. Mar2018, Vol. 19 Issue 1, p1-21. 21p.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

Oh, interesting. Does McGlynn's cross-cultural reach include medieval Ireland and the Táin?

[telophase]

I haven't read through it fully yet--I got partway through then skimmed down to his bibliography to check resources and see if the library had them or where else I could get them (via ILL or otherwise) and got distracted. But ISTR at least one source on Ireland and definitely one on the Scots border reivers (which I have), along with several modern-day cattle raiding cultures and assorted historical and modern bandit-ridden areas.

[indywind]

Vaguely Spanish-influenced... why not address non-noble folks as Sen~or, Sen~ora; or bend it a bit Italian-ward, Signor/a; or Portuguese-ward, Senhor/a ? Maybe swap the feminine -a suffix with -e to invent a nongendered professional form similar to Mx. The feminine form already covers both Ms. and Mrs.
Or if you want an abbreviated form that's not "Ser", perhaps "Sen" or "Sn." --if you don't have Senators to be confused with average folks?

[telophase]

I don't want to use real-world equivalents, particularly. I don't have senators (they're "councillors," pretty much) and tried "Sen" earlier and it just didn't work, although looking at your suggestion "Sor/Sora" might work, if I can get over the fact that one of our cats is named Sora.

Sinor, Sinora/e, maybe? The action is currently solidly in the Italian-ish portion of the world. I should probably also consider the European tradition of using the profession, like the Italian dottore/dottora for doctors, professore/professoressa (assuming I got those right as I'm relying on memory).

[indywind]

I actually like Sor/Sora or Sinor(a/e) better than the actual real-world equivalents (not that my preference matters, LOL)-- similar enough to be intelligible without explanation, different enough to fit an alternate world, and it looks cool. (Portuguese is a musical language but its spelling looks so awkward to my English & Spanish (& teensy bit Italian)-habituated brain. Dottore/dottora and professore and professoressa look right to me for modern Italian; Spanish is similar, doctor and doctora, professor and professora.

[adafrog]

Very cool Libro. Thanks for the link.