Crossbones and Tiaera

http://www.nbc.com/crossbones

I'm looking forward to the next episode of "Crossbones." I'm eager to enjoy and learn what I can about the pirates as they brawl, pillage and cavort, and to relish the way they speak in this weekly series. The writers have won my heart for their colorful terminology as a means to depict a bygone era where words such as succeedingly generous, bastard thwarting, supplicate, recount, transpires and my favorite so far: discommoding are used. As a writer, I am impressed with the way they did not do as "Black Sails" did on Starz, mixing old English with vulgar profanity by both men and women. I suppose that pirates curse and use such words and so the actors use them, but for viewers like me, I find it very offensive and distracting. Yes, of course, I don't have to listen to them as they portray uneducated criminals who can only express themselves with four letter words and the like. Yes, many a pirate may not have been fortunate to learn how to read and write, but "Crossbones" doesn't feature only pirate characters. Some of the characters are well-educated and high ranking. And John Malkovich? Well, I better check my history book about how educated and eloquent the real Blackbeard was. John does a wonderful job so far. I was so impressed and eager to learn some of these words I sought and found a place online with scripts for TV shows. Here is the link should you wish to study the scripts for your own studies.

Crossbones - Episode Scripts

What does this pirate series have to do with Tiaera? Simple. Anyone who has read my stories here, as well as Realmwalkers and The Priestess and the Ravenknight, will know I have an affinity for using archaic words. They will also know I have pirates in my medieval fantasy world. Thus I am inspired by the dialogs in "Crossbones" as I am in many historical dramas on BBC America and PBS.  I've sat with pen and notebook while watching "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Sense and Sensibility," jotting down phrases and words that are clearly archaic or seldom used these days. I still take the trouble to look up words I'm not familiar with and check when they were first used so that I may incorporate them in my future stories about Tiaera. My aim is to make the language used in Tiaera somewhere between the 15th - 17th centuries and still try to make the stories understandable by modern readers whenever possible.

"The Musketeers" have just premiered on BBC America and I didn't get the chance to see the pilot yet, but I did record it so I can see it later today. I hope the script there is also entertaining and enlightening for this medieval fantasy writer.  No, I don't have musketeers on Tiaera, but pirates are often known as swashbucklers as are the knights, rogues, guards, etc... Tiaera has them all. If they carry a sword, let it be so. Better get my pen and notebook ready!

More Archaic Terms & Expressions

I haven't done much of these lately so I will give you a few extra for today's lesson in archaic terms and expressions. These may prove useful for your writing and renaissance fair/SCA events. I got these terms from various books and Internet glossaries.

Boggart - A goblin, hairy and short

Buckler - Small round shield

Liege-man - A loyal follower usual bound by feudal alligiance.

Panter or Pantler - In charge of the pantry where food and eating utensils are kept

Reeve - An overseer or steward of a manor

Hobnob - To converse in a friendly or casual way

League - A measure of distance, about three miles.

Excellent well! - Very good!

Pray tell - Tell me

Fie ! or Alack! or Out upon it! or Fie upon you! - All basically mean "Darn it!" or "Curse you!"

Excuse me or Pray pardon me or I cry your mercy - All mean "I beg your pardon"

I hope you find these helpful. Contact me if you have any questions and I will try to help. Have a great weekend!

Archaic Words of the Day

I hope to kick off the sharing of some of these words with three of the most commonly used in Tiaera. As many of you who have read Realmwalkers and other writings in the past, I like using words that are considered archaic - meaning that they are very old and rarely ever used anymore. When I began writing fantasy fiction years ago, I learned that English or Old English became known as Common in Middle Earth and D&D worlds. This makes it possible for various races and peoples to be able to communicate. Universal Communicators were not yet invented like the ones used in Star Trek. So aside from the elves speaking their elvish and the dwarves speak their dwarvish, etc... almost all in such fantasy worlds grew up to speak some Common (or universal language). Those of you who enjoy writing historical fiction/non-fiction might find these archaic word posts useful in order to give that Old World feel to your stories. I welcome any comments from you.

According to a WOW wikia: "Common is derived from the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game. In that game, the Common tongue is a lingua franca, or a universal language, spoken natively by humans and bilingually by other races. The concept is derived from Westron, the "common tongue" of Tolkien's Middle Earth, hence the name. It is the language of humans, halflings, half-elves, and half-orcs . The Common tongue also has great hints of the Icelandic tongue."

When John and I began RPing and writing stories, I started doing more research about archaic words and I find them very fascinating. I recognized many words from the King James Bible. But I wanted Realmwalkers to be easy to read while incorporating words that the Tiaerans spoke whenever they used Common. I tried to use words that were used before the 15th century, the earlier the better.  I usually checked such words with the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

So here are few words to start us out today.

Afore = Before  
chiefly dialect

Middle English, from Old English onforan, from on + foran before — more at before

First Known Use: before 12th century

Aught = Anything, all, everything, at all
Middle English, from Old English āwiht, from ā ever + wiht creature, thing — more at aye, wight

First Known Use: before 12th century

Beseech = To beg earnestly, to implore
Middle English besechen, from be- + sechen to seek

First Known Use: 12th century

Archaic Words of the Day?

As some of you know, who have read Realmwalkers, archaic words were often used in the dialogue of Tiaerans.  I use the word "archaic" instead of "Old English" and will explain why.

Over the years, when reading historical novels and watching historical dramas on TV, I learned to appreciate and enjoy the words of old that are no longer commonly used today. Then AOL came along in the 70's and chat rooms were invented. I discovered the graphical chat rooms called "The Realms." What a joy it was to find beautifully decorated webpages filled with icons of AOL members talking in Old English, or what I thought was Old English. In any case, I jumped in and created my own realm through self-teaching and The Dark Forest Realm was created.

Dark Forest Realm map by EV Medina

When Jack and I decided to write a book together, I began to study more about the use of Old English only to discover that such was not really what we are all used to. The kind of Old English we hear in movies these days is a watered-down version of Elizabethan English or Early Modern English.
Even though we created a medieval world, Jack and I agreed we needed to keep Realmwalkers easily readable, so we made changes as Artistic License would allow. Not wanting our book to read like the King James Bible, we removed all the thee's and thou's and only used "thy" infrequently. But in an effort to keep the flavor of an ancient world, we checked various glossaries and dictionaries to show the Tiaerans spoke using words that were used around the 12th-16th centuries. I know I spent much time during the writing process to look up many many words in this endeavor.

Lately, it has come to me that some of these words should be shared here from time to time in the interest to educate and explain how the words were used in Realmwalkers.  I hope you wordsmiths find it interesting and entertaining, especially if you are an avid reader of historical novels.  Even roleplayers (RPers) may find this helpful with their roleplaying in MMORPGs or RP websites.

As I like to explain aspects about Tiaera here through my artwork and stories, brief posts on the Tiaeran "Common" language may also be of interest. Let me know what you think of this idea. I welcome your comments and suggestions.