Grand unified books thread

[garbon]

That's really interesting - the recent Rest is History series on the Franks was literally the first thing I'd actually learned about them so it was interesting. I had no idea.

Sort of similarly I just read a review for a new translation of Y Gododdin which I knew nothing about. It is believed the be the earliest British poem and probably from precisely that period (before Bede) and is basically a series of elegiac poems for heroes who fought in a battle between Britons and Angles, which I'm going to get because it sounds interesting and I know nothing about any of it. It's a poem about being defeated and knowing you're defeated by barbarians in some ways. But I am very ignorant about this so for example the reviewer said the poem is clearly from a Christian society and it was something I'd never really thought of (despite knowing the story of St Patrick) about how the society of the Britons was Christian. Apparently I'm not alone as he mentioned a museum near the site of the battle talking about pagan Anglo-Saxon religion as well as pagan Celtic traditions (which, apparently, there's very little evidence of).

Edit: Similarly which I had no idea of, apparently Welsh has absolutely loads of Latin origin works - which makes sense, the Welsh football team's big song references  Magnus Maximus leaving Wales in 383. But just never occurred to me.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Queens-Bloody-Rivalry-Medieval/dp/180110915X

[crazy canuck]

Is there enough detail/actual known history of what life was like to do a historical novel?

There's actually a surprising amount of information known, as there was still some continuity with Roman culture and the literary tradition survived within the Church.  Gregory of Tours' history survives, and he was a contemporary of all the major players, knew them personally. There's quite a bit of other written material, such as legal codes, legislation and decrees, lives of saints etc. It's not like England where we basically know virtually nothing before Bede other than what can be guessed from the archaeology.

Yeah, the criticism of Gregory of Tours is that he spent too much time on the details of day to day life of people within the realm, and not enough on the matters that dominate the writings of the classical authors - battles, political intrigue etc.  But he does do a good job telling us who the badies were and who had whom killed.

[The Minsky Moment]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Queens-Bloody-Rivalry-Medieval/dp/180110915X

Huh.  Pretty recent too.

[Maladict]

That's really interesting - the recent Rest is History series on the Franks was literally the first thing I'd actually learned about them so it was interesting. I had no idea.

Sort of similarly I just read a review for a new translation of Y Gododdin which I knew nothing about. It is believed the be the earliest British poem and probably from precisely that period (before Bede) and is basically a series of elegiac poems for heroes who fought in a battle between Britons and Angles, which I'm going to get because it sounds interesting and I know nothing about any of it. It's a poem about being defeated and knowing you're defeated by barbarians in some ways. But I am very ignorant about this so for example the reviewer said the poem is clearly from a Christian society and it was something I'd never really thought of (despite knowing the story of St Patrick) about how the society of the Britons was Christian. Apparently I'm not alone as he mentioned a museum near the site of the battle talking about pagan Anglo-Saxon religion as well as pagan Celtic traditions (which, apparently, there's very little evidence of).

Edit: Similarly which I had no idea of, apparently Welsh has absolutely loads of Latin origin works - which makes sense, the Welsh football team's big song references  Magnus Maximus leaving Wales in 383. But just never occurred to me.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Queens-Bloody-Rivalry-Medieval/dp/180110915X

the Rest is History drew pretty heavily on that book for the series.

[Sophie Scholl]

I read the first two Dragonlance books recently (too lazy to order the third one yet).  For me they were a fun blast of nostalgia, but not sure how they'd hold up to a first time reader.  They're a quick read - really these were aimed at teen-agers.  The characters are two-dimensional - but at least they're not one dimensional?  (Tanis half-elven, trapped between the two sides of his heritage, and in love with both a human, and a elf, woman.  Sturm Brightblade, trying to ive up to his father's legacy.  Raistlin, the mage driven by a pursuit for power, but who still cares for his twin brother Caramon).  It's nothing all that nuanced, but at least they tried?

The second trilogy is a time-travel story where some of the characters travel back in time.  It was also allright - but definitely don't go any further into Dragonlance books.

I considered giving the original trilogy a read semi-recently (I ordered a copy of the books but was sent Icewind Dale's trilogy by accident), but realized I just... don't overly enjoy the characters involved. My first Dragonlance book was The Legend of Huma, and that, along with its sequel Kaz the Minotaur, remain favorites to this day I re-read on occasion. aside from those two, though, I'm not sure if there are any books I'd bother reading or re-reading from the setting. I never liked Tas or Raistlin and Caramon, and that eliminated a solid percentage of the books right there. I was always much more of a fan of the Knights of Solamnia due to my Huma introduction and personal tastes.

For England between 410 and Bede the only real contemporary historical source is Gildas (there is an account of the visit of Germanus in 429 but it was written 40 years after his death).  And Gildas is very frustrating because he clearly knows things that would be interesting and useful for a historian but his own interests lie elsewhere and we are left drawing inferences from his dribbles and breadcrumbs.

A little later in time, but I just borrowed Hild and Menewood by Nicola Griffith to read (along with some Knights of the Round Table inspired books/comics) after reading her relatively short work Spear about a gender swapped Arthurian character. I absolutely loved Spear and its super meaty style, so I figured I'd give the other two a shot. From what I've read, they are very dense, very meaty, and very good.