Remember how I was talking about sacrifices yesterday? I guess I'd better adjust my attitude there...'round about 6:30 last night I absolutely crashed out. I mean, half-asleep at 6:30, fully asleep at 7:00...woke up a bit to listen to the Sharks game, then zonked out for good by 8:00. I guess getting up at 4:45 every morning for weeks on end does have an affect on the body. Who knew? :D

Today, just because it felt right, a few history links.

The Labyrinth, Georgetown's venerable resource for everything medieval. I say venerable, because I recall the beginnings of this site wayyyyy back when I was in grad school. A broad set of topics, a robust search engine, and lots of depth within many of the topics. Great for a wander through, even if you're not writing anything in the period.

Sharan Newman's 6 Fallacies of the Middle Ages. Sharan writes, among other things, the Catherine LeVendeur mysteries, set in 12c France, and has done a ton of research on the era. This is a quick, clever primer. I wish she still had her outstanding bibliography posted somewhere - it was a great starting point for my research when I was writing the pilgrim sections of The Pilgrim Glass. And if you're even remotely interested in murder mysteries, and like historicals, I really recommend the Catherine LeVendeur series.

Costumer's Manifesto costume history page. What can I say? If I could sew, or, you know, cut in a straight line, I might actually start doing costuming myself. But it's not in the cards, methinks, so I just go to sites like the Costumer's Manifesto and sigh over the gorgeous plates from throughout history. The costume history page is simple and organized chronologically, so if you need to know what hair or headdresses were common in ancient Rome, or need to know exactly what was fashionable during the reign of Louis XIII, they've got it. Beware: you could lose a lot of time clicking through these fascinating links.


Word-hoard
janiceps: a two-headed monster facing opposite directions


Myths, symbols, and folklore
dwarfs: "A supernatural race of master artisans who serve as donor figures to the gods in Scandinavian mythology and as donors or servants to knights and heroes in Old French, Middle High German, and medieval Scandinavian chivalric and heroic literature. Scandinavian mythological sources depict dvergar (dwarfs) as an all-male race of supernatural beings, residing in cliffs and stones, created asexually from the bones and blood of giants."