A Commonplace Book

Deeds of Arms and Other Matters Medieval and Otherwise

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Gilded Pennoncel

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My most recent flag project was a silk pennoncel, with three gold sandglasses on a blue field. Modern fabric paint was...
20 comments:
Friday, September 04, 2015

Medieval Hunting Seasons

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Hart (red deer stag) June 24 (Midsummer Day)-September 14 (Holy Rood Day) Forest Laws ,  BSA May 3-September 14 Modus Best around July 22...
3 comments:
Friday, August 28, 2015

The 2015 Hugos

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“The important thing is that we increased participation” said the arsonist as the last volunteer fire company pulled away from the extingui...
4 comments:
Thursday, August 20, 2015

Tent Toggles

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At top is one of the toggles on my pavilion. They started as commercial 1.5” toggles, with a central groove for the tie that attaches ...
Thursday, August 13, 2015

Mallomar SF

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Mallomar SF has a superficial shell of crunchy hard science, but when you bite into it’s full of fluffy, gooey magical science and bad scien...
3 comments:
Sunday, August 09, 2015

Tables: Ludus Anglicorum, Imperial and Provincial

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A clearer image of the illustration is reproduced here . The English Game There are many games of tables with dic...
1 comment:
Thursday, August 06, 2015

Seveneves

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In Neal Stephenson’s 2015 novel, the Human Race does its best to deal with an oncoming planetary catastrophe, a 5,000 year bombardment of Ea...
Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Heinlein’s Double Star Could Not Win a Hugo Today

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Because the science is rubbish , and we know it. This is a real problem for contemporary hard SF: the universe is not nearly as hospitable t...
3 comments:

OATH TO BE TAKEN BY THE FREEMEN OF THE MERCERS’ COMPANY: early 15th Century.

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In the Company's records this oath occurs immediately after a curious calendar, written in 15th century hand, and before a list of ...
Saturday, August 01, 2015

The Cut of Henry VIII's Tents.

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Inventories of Henry VIII's tents reveal some of the details of their construction. In the 1547 inventory descriptions of "round ho...
2 comments:
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Will McLean
I’ve been involved in medieval recreation since 1975. I contributed to a manual for living history that later grew into the book Daily Life in Chaucer’s England, and have written and illustrated several articles on the medieval tournament. This blog is mostly a platform for my other writing about the Middle Ages, and whatever else moves me: other history, movies, SF, space exploration, contemporary politics and economics. You can find my livejournal feed at Willscommonplac
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