In the modern Western world we use the Roman alphabet with 26 letters. Usually. The Swedes actually have 29 letters. What’s surprising to some folks is that we might have had more letters ourselves. Who thinks about what might have been? Except when you see an extract from an olde manuscript and spot a letter…
Author: Justin Durand
Fighting Snails
If you’ve ever wondered why so many medieval manuscripts have drawings of knights fighting snails. Vox, “Why knights fought snails in medieval art“, YouTube (Mar. 29, 2017). I won’t give it away. And the comments are as good as the video. Here’s a sample: “The answer is simple, in medieval times giant snails were a real…
Think About Culture Changes
Let’s take some time to think about how culture changes over time. Justin King talks a bit here toward the beginning about White American Southerners who tried to save their culture by moving to Brazil. It didn’t work. They assimilated. And that’s exactly what happens to people in the European diaspora. Our ancestors might have…
CE and BCE
I use CE and BCE rather than AD and BC. Surprisingly, that causes some people pain. They seem to have the idea it’s somehow an assault on Christianity. I don’t have time to argue. I roll my eyes and move on. I first encountered CE and BCE as an undergraduate in the 1970s. I didn’t…
Genealogy Requires Actual Research Skills
I like this article by James Tanner. Actually, I like most articles by James Tanner, but this one in particular. In a nutshell, “I am not denigrating genealogy in any way, I just think that the subject of doing genealogical research needs to be upgraded from a pastime to a serious pursuit on the same level…