Love this painter

Joshua Reynolds. I didn't even know of him until today. I love the way he paints his sitters' attitudes. And the clothes! Wonderful!

Avoid rape by tying rotting chicken to your breasts

I was reading an article about Langobardian violence (c. 8th century) and came across a mention of Romilda and her...very unfortunate lusting after an Avar prince. Very unfortunate.

Little information is online regarding the Langobardian - Avar war and not much about Romilda. The account is perhaps only mentioned in Paul the Deacon's writings about the history of the Langobards...and there's a good chance that he has the usual biased attitude towards women (all are evil basically)(that whole Eve thing.)

(I found an 'edited for clarity' version on a forum online. Since I cannot ensure that forum does not support racism, I found the original version online (presumably where the forum poster found it since he posted the link at the bottom of his post. :D)

Chapter XXXVII.


About these times the king of the Avars, whom they call Cagan in their language, came with a countless multitude and invaded the territories of Venetia. [1] Gisulf the duke of Forum Julii (Friuli) boldly came to meet him with all the Langobards he could get, but although he waged war with a few against an immense multitude with indomitable courage, nevertheless, he was surrounded on every side, and killed with nearly all his followers. The wife of this Gisulf, by name Romilda, together with the Langobards who had escaped and with the wives and children of those who had perished in war, fortified herself [2] within the enclosures of the walls of the fortress of Forum Julii (Cividale). She had two sons, Taso and Cacco, who were already growing youths, and Raduald and Grimuald, who were still in the age of boyhood. And she had also four daughters, of whom one was called Appa and another Gaila, but of two we do not preserve the names. The Langobards had also fortified themselves in other fortresses which were near these, that is, in Cormones (Cormons), Nemas (Nimis), Osopus (Ossopo), [3] Artenia (Artegna), [4] Reunia (Ragogna), Glemona (Gemona), [5] and also in Ibligis (Iplis) [6] whose position was in every way impregnable. Also in the same way they fortified themselves in the remaining castles, so that they should not become the prey of the Huns, that is, of the Avars. But the Avars, roaming through all the territories of Forum Julii, devastating everything with burnings and plunderings, shut up by siege the town of Forum Julii and strove with all their might to capture it. While their king, that is the Cagan, was ranging around the walls in full armor with a great company of horsemen to find out from what side he might more easily capture the city, Romilda gazed upon him from the walls, and when she beheld him in the bloom of his youth, the abominable harlot was seized with desire for him and straightway sent word to him by a messenger that if he would take her in marriage she would deliver to him the city with all who were in it. The barbarian king, hearing this, promised her with wicked cunning that he would do what she had enjoined and vowed to take her in marriage. She then without delay opened the gates of the fortress of Forum Julii and let in the enemy to her own ruin and that of all who were there. The Avars indeed with their king, having entered Forum Julii, laid waste with their plunderings everything they could discover, consumed in flames the city itself, and carried away as captives everybody they found, falsely promising them, however, to settle them in the territories of Pannonia, from which they had come. When on their return to their country they had come to the plain they called Sacred, [7] they decreed that all the Langobards who had attained full age should perish by the sword, and they divided the women and children in the lot of captivity. But Taso and Cacco and Raduald, the sons of Gisulf and Romilda, when they knew the evil intention of the Avars, straightway mounted their horses and took flight. One of them when he thought that his brother Grimoald, a little boy, could not keep himself upon a running horse, since he was so small, considered it better that he should perish by the sword than bear the yoke of captivity, and wanted to kill him. When therefore, he lifted his lance to pierce him through, the boy wept and cried out, saying: "Do not strike me for I can keep on a horse." And his brother, seizing him by the arm, put him upon the bare back of a horse and urged him to stay there if he could; and the boy, taking the rein of the horse in his hand, followed his fleeing brothers. The Avars, when they learned this, mounted their horses and followed them, but although the others escaped by swift flight, the little boy Grimoald was taken by one of those who had run up most swiftly. His captor, however, did not deign to strike him with the sword on account of his slender age, but rather kept him to be his servant. And returning to the camp, he took hold of the bridle of the horse and led the boy away, and exulted over so noble a booty - for he was a little fellow of elegant form with gleaming eyes and covered with long blonde hair - and when the boy grieved that he was carried away as a captive,

"Pondering mighty thoughts within his diminutive bosom", [8]

he took out of the scabbard a sword, such as he was able to carry at that age, and struck the Avar who was leading him, with what little strength he could, on the top of the head. Straightway the blow passed through to the skull and the enemy was thrown from his horse. And the boy Grimoald turned his own horse around and took flight, greatly rejoicing, and at last joined his brothers and gave them incalculable joy by his escape and by announcing, moreover, the destruction of his enemy. The Avars now killed by the sword all the Langobards who were already of the age of manhood, but the women and children they consigned to the yoke of captivity. Romilda indeed, who had been the head of all this evil-doing, the king of the Avars, on account of his oath, kept for one night as if in marriage as he had promised her, but upon the next he turned her over to twelve Avars, who abused her through the whole night with their lust, succeeding each other by turns. Afterwards too, ordering a stake to be fixed in the midst of a field, he commanded her to be impaled upon the point of it, uttering these words, moreover, in reproach: "It is fit you should have such a husband." Therefore the detestable betrayer of her country who looked out for her own lust more than for the preservation of her fellow citizens and kindred, perished by such a death. Her daughters, indeed, did not follow the sensual inclination of their mother, but striving from love of chastity not to be contaminated by the barbarians, they put the flesh of raw chickens under the band between their breasts, and this, when putrified by the heat, gave out an evil smell. And the Avars, when they wanted to touch them, could not endure the stench that they thought was natural to them, but moved far away from them with cursing, saying that all the Langobard women had a bad smell. By this stratagem then the noble girls, escaping from the lust of the Avars, not only kept themselves chaste, but handed down a useful example for preserving chastity if any such thing should happen to women hereafter. And they were afterwards sold throughout various regions and secured worthy marriages on account of their noble birth; for one of them is said to have wedded a king of the Alamanni, and another, a prince of the Bavarians. The topic now requires me to postpone my general history and relate also a few matters of a private character concerning the genealogy of myself who write these things, and because the case so demands, I must go back a little earlier in the order of my narrative. At the time when the nation of the Langobards came from Pannonia to Italy, my great-great-grandfather Leupchis of the same nation of Langobards came with them in like manner. When he ended his last day after he had lived some years in Italy, he left five sons begotten by him who were still little boys. That misfortune of captivity of which we have spoken included these, and they were all carried away as exiles from the fortress of Forum Julii into the country of the Avars. After they had borne in that region for many years the misery of bondage, and had already come to the age of manhood, although the four others, whose names we do not retain, remained in the constraint of captivity, the fifth brother, Lopichis by name, who was afterwards our great-grand-father, determined (at the inspiration as we believe of the Author of Mercy) to cast off the yoke of bondage, and to direct his course to Italy, where he had remembered that the race of the Langobards was settled, and he made an effort to regain the rights of freedom. When he had gone and betaken himself to flight, carrying only a quiver and bow and a little food for the journey, and did not at all know whither he was proceeding, a wolf came to him and became the companion of his journey and his guide. Seeing that it proceeded before him, and often looked behind and stood with him when he stood, and went ahead when he advanced, he understood that it had been given to him from heaven to show to him the way, of which he was ignorant. When they had proceeded in this manner for some days through the solitudes of the mountains, the bread, of which the traveler had had very little, wholly failed him. While he went on his way fasting, and had already become faint with exhaustion from hunger, he drew his bow and attempted to kill with his arrow this same wolf so that he could use it for food. But the wolf, avoiding the stroke that he cast, slipped away from his sight. And he, not knowing whither to proceed, when this wolf had gone away, and made very weak moreover by the privation of hunger, now despaired of his life, and throwing himself upon the earth, he went to sleep. And he saw in his dreams a certain man saying to him the following words: "Arise! why are you sleeping? Take your way in that direction opposite to which your feet are turned, for there is Italy which you are seeking." And straightway rising he began to proceed in that direction which he had heard in his dreams, and without delay he came to a dwelling place of men; for there was a settlement of Slavs in those places. And when an elderly woman now saw him, she straightway understood that he was a fugitive and suffering from the privation of hunger. And taking pity upon him, she hid him in her dwelling and secretly furnished him food, a little at a time, lest she should put an end to his life altogether if she should give him nourishment to repletion. In fine, she thus supplied him skillfully with food until he was restored and got his strength. And when she saw that he was now able to pursue his journey, she gave him provisions and told him in what direction he ought to go. After some days he entered Italy and came to the house in which he had been born, which was so deserted that not only did it have no roof but it was full of brambles and thorns. And when he had cut them down he found within the walls a large ash-tree, and hung his quiver upon it. He was afterwards provided with gifts by his relatives and friends, and rebuilt his house and took a wife. But he could obtain nothing of the property his father had had, being now excluded by those who had appropriated it through long and continuous possession. This man, as I already said before, was my great-grandfather, and he begot my grandfather Arichis, [9] and Arichis, my father Warnefrit, and Warnefrit, from Theudelinda his wife, begot me, Paul, and my brother Arichis who was named after my grandfather. [10] These few things having been considered concerning the chain of my own genealogy, now let us return to the thread of the general history.

[1] The date usually assigned to the Avar invasion is 611, though some place it as early as 602. Phocas reigned from 602 to 610. If the death of Severus, patriarch of Atjuileia, occurred in 606, the Avar invasion took place after that date, since Gisulf concurred in the nomination of his successor (Hodgkin, VI, 51, note). The previous relations between the Langobards and Avars had been of the most friendly character. There had been treaties of alliance, joint invasions of Istria, injunctions sent by the Avars to the Franks to keep peace with the Langobards and Agilulf had furnished the Cagan with shipwrights for a naval expedition against the Eastern empire (IV, 24, 20, supra; Hodgkin, VI, 50, 51).
[2] I insert 'se' after 'muniit'.
[3] On the river Tagliamento (Waitz).
[4] In Carnia (Waitz).
[5] In Friuli (Waitz).
[6] Near Cividale on the way to Cormons (Waitz). According to others, Invilino (Abel).
[7] The Sacred Plain has not been identified (Hodgkin, VI, 53, note 2).
[8] Virgil, Georgics, IV, 83, where it is applied to the soldier bees. In Paul's quotation 'versant' is changed to 'versans'.
[9] Henry.
[10] Paul has probably omitted some links in his family genealogy. Four generations are very few for the period between Leupchis who came into Italy with Alboin, 568, and Paul, who was born between 720 and 730. It is remarkable too that Leupchis, a grown man in 568, should leave five little children at the time of the Avar invasion in 610 (Hodgkin, VI, 58, note l).

This was copied from Northvegr which seems to be a GREAT resource of histories and literature from the Viking era.


ETA: Okay, okay... follow me here...
How would this be possible? No, not the chicken thing. (Though I've got some confusion about the stinky Lombard princesses winding up married to other Kings.)
What I'm stumped over... the Lombards spoke a Germanic language, the Avars spoke a Turkic language.
...
How would Romilda and this Avar prince/warlord have understood each other?? O.o
Presumably, the Lombards were situated in Italy for some time by this point...how long had the Eurasian (term used by Wikipedia) Avars been invading Europe? Long enough to discard their language for another? Or was multilingualism common back then? I find that surprising...especially since the languages are not related.

Or was Romilda's offer just THAT obvious?

Or was Paul the Deacon just guilty of writing a salacious story of the past?

Hmmmm...

On the Passing of a Friend

I stopped crying halfway though the funeral service for a friend of mine. It occurred to me that he was gone and that was that...what was I crying for? I was crying for the rest of us who had him in our lives for too short of a time. I believe that to be self-pity and uncalled for for any real length of time. :) So instead I smile because I had him in my life at all.

I suppose really that the best thing for me to do is remember how to relax, laugh at myself instead of becoming angry, and how to handle difficult people with aplomb...things he tried to teach me. :)

Planning the Maleficent Costume for 2011

I'll put it here. Putting the info on fb, while good for interaction with others, isn't very smart...I can't search for it. :/

I'm thinking of making a naturalistic Mal. Kinda like a forest spirit. Think about it...there are some things in the forest in the darkness of the night that frightens people. Wouldn't that make sense for Mal.?

What gives me pause though is that, when you think about the movie, Mal. was the epitome of urbanity. She spoke smoothly. The good fairies were dumpy and named after nature. They spoke like country bumpkins. Marked contrast.

SO...how to make Mal a nature spirit?

Maybe I can't. LOL.

I thought about her long lines, the cloak, the dress. I thought of making a feathered collar similar to this.
I thought about making a black feathered cloak, but I think that will be too $$$. I have to price black feathers. I want horns. Here's a crafter that makes horns that might work. I'm not sure if I want natural looking horns or black ones.

I'm trying to figure out the dress. Mal wore robes. The long lines again. I have a silly knit long dress that I will try on again to check fit. Specifically around the bust area. I can't go with any busty outfit and I think for this character that's ok. Fortunately because I have such a small bust, I can expose more of my chest area, making another long line of contrast. Some style ideas: art nouveau (check this photo from last year's Vogue Germany where they did a photoshoot inspired by Mucha's prints), oriental, victorian/steampunk, victorian/cabaret, neo/future (with lights! :D), there are some other ideas but they escape me currently cause I'm damn sleepy.

ETA: You should see some of the art created for the character! Here's a few that caught my eye:

J. Scott Campbell
Stuntkid
Rumors of a Movie :(
Two from RPG.net (one is cute)
Did I say cute? Here's Kinkei's
From conceptart.org
J. Scott Campbell delivers again (with boobage of course)
6nailbomb's (there's the chest line I was thinking of)
I'll leave off with (another cute) NoFlutter's

There's lots more. You can look for yourself.

Mal somehow captured the love of everyone even though she's evil. Perhaps BECAUSE she's evil...and does it so well.

ETA: I knew there was an artist niggling at the back of my memory for this! Aubrey Beardsley! Perfect concept don't you think?

ETA (again): This is unfortunately a second life person but I'm liking the anatomical corset, bone crown, and bone skirt

Organization...

I really need to get my projects photographed (in progress) and organized online. If I'm going to have an online db and display of my crafts...then I should probably have something to show for all the hours I'm supposedly spending on these suckers. :)

But then too...my whole craft room needs to be reorganized. Or I need a pocket dimension to have room for everything. Yep...that'd be nice.

I still want to work on my tavern idea (The Merry Merlin. Blog is over at LiveJournal). I need to gather more resources. My thought is that even if the Merry Merlin never exists in real life, at least I will have a site of resources collated to help others. :)

What Makes a Good Costume?

I've been reviewing photos of costumes recently. Mostly Japanese recreations due to the upcoming event my local SCA group is hosting. Of course it's a bit disconcerting to see a westerner wearing Asian garb, but often even western European garb looks 'off' somehow.

I wonder, is it because the person wearing the fancy garb looks like a peasant? Is it their modern eyeglasses, haircut, or make-up (or lack thereof)? Could it be the obviously modern print on the material? This seems to happen ALOT. I'll often see people wearing Japanese garb made of shiny modern fabric with "Chinese" designs of tiny cranes or technicolor bamboo. Whenever I see this fabric I think "Frederick's of Hollywood."

Honestly.

Perhaps it's just that folks should press their newly created garb. I've heard this makes all the difference in the world on how 'finished' a finished garment looks. While this makes sense to me...it's also a bit of a puzzler. Did Vikings have irons? I would think not. So why do wrinkled, puffy-seamed hangeroks looks so damn awful?

Ok, I'll go further down the road to hell...

Body size and shape. Someone shaped like a potato looks odd in a kimono with a tightly wound obi. I'm not against heavy folks wearing Asian garb...but think about the ideal shape of the culture. In Japan, think willow tree, straight-figured, no curves. If you are shaped like a potato, don't try to squish in your waist, wrap the belt carefully to ensure a straight up and down silhouette. Visually, I think it makes all the difference. Or pick a style of garb that suits your shape. I'm shaped like a stick with hips. I'm not about to go for a "traditional" cleavage-showing, tavern-wench style blouse and corset. It's not going to work on me. Even the late period noblewoman's garb with tasteful chest exposure is rather epic fail on me. There's no corset in the world that will shove up my hip fat to rest nicely against the area where my boobs should be!

Have you ever seen garb that is just so splendid and put together that you just gasped (even silently in your mind)? I have, a few times. Out of the hundreds of people I've seen at events...only a few were striking.

I wonder if all the paintings and portraits we have of medieval and renaissance people are more akin to the photoshopped models that adorn modern fashion magazines? When we look at a Bronzino or a van der Weyden, are we seeing only an ideal, unreal figure? In these paintings, everyone's clothing is perfect, their skin is flawless, the fabric colors are vibrant. Whenever clothing from period is discovered by archaeologists, I'm always shocked at how different the articles of clothing are to what I've seen worn in paintings from the times.

I would like to start posting photographs of SCAdians in what I consider exemplary garb. It doesn't necessarily need to be period-perfect, just eye-catching...sublime in some way.

Hopefully, someday I will have garb that is wow-worthy.

I don't mean for it to be that long in between posts!

Eeek!

I don't feel too terribly guilty however. Since the last post, I've gotten through my first semester in library school, gotten through the Christmas season (complete with visiting child and handmade gifts), working on belated handmade Christmas gifts (LOL), working on a tablet woven band (finally had an A-HA moment), worked on the A&S office (still a long ways to go), and co-ran the 12th Night event. Among other things... :D

As an offering, here is a recipe for hair mist to calm the frizzies. Makes 4 oz.

2 tbsp. aloe gel or liquid
1 tsp. lightweight oil (jojoba, sweet almond, grapeseed, whatever works for you)
a drop or two of essential oil for fragrance if desired
distilled water to 4 oz. mark

Shake before each use.

I used a small measuring cup that had ounce marks to mix the oils and then added clean water up to the 4 oz mark. Then I poured this into the spray bottle.

Note: If you buy organic aloe gel or liquid, it may not have the requisite preservatives to keep it from turning after a month. Keep it in the fridge.
Heavier oils may clog the spray nozzle.
Some people add a teaspoon of glycerine.

ETA: Oops! I meants TWO tablespoons of aloe. BTW, this isn't my recipe, it's available from the Long Hair Community forums. :)