Brown History Week - An Introduction

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Welcome to the Brown Ajah's first ever History Week!

 

This year's theme, the Late Middles Ages!

 

 

 

Welcome fine Lords and Ladies of Dragonmount! Come drink and eat and be merry! The Brown Ajah is known throughout the WoT series as the knowledge gathering ajah and I am delighted to bring you an event that is very much in the spirit of that tradition 

 

I know there's a lot of history buffs in the Tower and I thought it would be fun to explore different parts of history over the coming years. As stated above this year we are doing the Late Middle Ages, according to most historians that would be between the 1300s-1500s. As we are mavericks we are expanding that to all of the 1500s. Obviously that's 300 years of history and there is no way we can cover it all and still make it fun instead of just lecturing you 

 

 

We've designed these threads to be both informative and entertaining and I've got some of the best knowledge gatherers in the whole Tower here to help me.

 

We have the lovely Eclipse with our Create Your Own thread

The wonderful Cross with our Middle Ages and Literature discussion

The magnificent Dar'Jen with not only our Notable Events thread but also the Renaissance 

Join me in our Past Lives Pavillion!

 

So please join us and help make our first ever History Week a success!

Edited August 13, 2017 by blank

[Gentled Ben]

I live in America, where you don't think much about the Middle Ages in terms of American history, but I just got back yesterday from a four-day trip to Mesa Verde, a collection of native settlements in the southern part of my state that were inhabited from the Dark Ages (500's) to I guess the middle Middle Ages, since they were abandoned in the late 1200's. Since I have three days left on my vacation, I guess I get to spend the entire vacation soaking up history. Well-played, Browns, well-played, indeed! 

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Wow Ben, that looks incredible! Was it as wonderful as it looks?

 

I'm going to squirrel away that link for future potential themes as that could be really excellent. I'd love to do a smaller bit of history/cultures so we could go more in depth!

[Gentled Ben]

It was amazing! I am terrified of heights, so I didn't go up into the cliff dwellings, but there are great views of most of them from nearby overlooks, and there are lots of buildings on the ground that can be seen. They moved to the cliffs in the last days before abandoning the site. Enemies drove them there, then drought drove them out entirely, but there are lots of remains from their earlier settlements that I was able to look closely at (and in one instance, gently touch, because the sign only said not to climb on them ).

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That's awesome. 

 

I love going to places where you can just feel the weight of history press down on you

[Gentled Ben]

That's awesome. 

 

I love going to places where you can just feel the weight of history press down on you

We don't have many of those here, but I felt that way when I toured the battlefield at Yorktown, VA.

 

My mother's side had the Huguenots, my father's side has Jacobites (MacGillivrays, of Clan Chattan), and if I ever went to your country, in addition to any Celtic sites I could scour, I would visit Culloden in a hearbeat; I know I would feel that place. I was so jealous when Taymist told me she'd visited it. You lucky Scots with all your cool history...

[blank]

 

That's awesome. 

 

I love going to places where you can just feel the weight of history press down on you

We don't have many of those here, but I felt that way when I toured the battlefield at Yorktown, VA.

 

My mother's side had the Huguenots, my father's side has Jacobites (MacGillivrays, of Clan Chattan), and if I ever went to your country, in addition to any Celtic sites I could scour, I would visit Culloden in a hearbeat; I know I would feel that place. I was so jealous when Taymist told me she'd visited it. You lucky Scots with all your cool history...

 

Oh Jacobite history is really cool. I toyed with it as a theme for this years history week but I didn't want to be all biased about my history 

 

I've not been up to Culloden yet, it's quite far from where I stay but I definitely intend too at some point in my life. 

[Gentled Ben]

 

 

That's awesome. 

 

I love going to places where you can just feel the weight of history press down on you

We don't have many of those here, but I felt that way when I toured the battlefield at Yorktown, VA.

 

My mother's side had the Huguenots, my father's side has Jacobites (MacGillivrays, of Clan Chattan), and if I ever went to your country, in addition to any Celtic sites I could scour, I would visit Culloden in a hearbeat; I know I would feel that place. I was so jealous when Taymist told me she'd visited it. You lucky Scots with all your cool history...

 

Oh Jacobite history is really cool. I toyed with it as a theme for this years history week but I didn't want to be all biased about my history 

 

I've not been up to Culloden yet, it's quite far from where I stay but I definitely intend too at some point in my life. 

 

I understand. I'm looking forward to learning about and discussing all of the history that you did choose to include as themes this week.

[Elgee]

I live in America, where you don't think much about the Middle Ages in terms of American history, but I just got back yesterday from a four-day trip to Mesa Verde, a collection of native settlements in the southern part of my state that were inhabited from the Dark Ages (500's) to I guess the middle Middle Ages, since they were abandoned in the late 1200's. Since I have three days left on my vacation, I guess I get to spend the entire vacation soaking up history. Well-played, Browns, well-played, indeed! 

 

 

That sounds fascinating, Ben!

 

Wow Ben, that looks incredible! Was it as wonderful as it looks?

 

I'm going to squirrel away that link for future potential themes as that could be really excellent. I'd love to do a smaller bit of history/cultures so we could go more in depth!

 

Wonderful idea! I would love to learn more about this :)

[Elgee]

 

That's awesome. 

 

I love going to places where you can just feel the weight of history press down on you

We don't have many of those here, but I felt that way when I toured the battlefield at Yorktown, VA.

 

My mother's side had the Huguenots, my father's side has Jacobites (MacGillivrays, of Clan Chattan), and if I ever went to your country, in addition to any Celtic sites I could scour, I would visit Culloden in a hearbeat; I know I would feel that place. I was so jealous when Taymist told me she'd visited it. You lucky Scots with all your cool history...

 

 

We have a whole area here where a large amount of French Huguenots settled - the one town in the area is even called Franschhoek (French corner). Good wine area :)

I tend to forget that they emigrated to other areas too.

[Gentled Ben]

 

 

That's awesome. 

 

I love going to places where you can just feel the weight of history press down on you

We don't have many of those here, but I felt that way when I toured the battlefield at Yorktown, VA.

 

My mother's side had the Huguenots, my father's side has Jacobites (MacGillivrays, of Clan Chattan), and if I ever went to your country, in addition to any Celtic sites I could scour, I would visit Culloden in a hearbeat; I know I would feel that place. I was so jealous when Taymist told me she'd visited it. You lucky Scots with all your cool history...

 

 

We have a whole area here where a large amount of French Huguenots settled - the one town in the area is even called Franschhoek (French corner). Good wine area :)

I tend to forget that they emigrated to other areas too.

 

See, and I had no idea that they had gone as far as Africa!

[Elgee]

We tend to concentrate on our own history ... lol ... that's why I love events like this! It's a wonderful opportunity to learn surprising new things.

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We tend to concentrate on our own history ... lol ... that's why I love events like this! It's a wonderful opportunity to learn surprising new things.

Which is also exactly why I didn't do the Jacobites as this years theme 

 

I'm loving the event so far, I did so much cool research and was learning about people that I'd never came across before!

[Tamcha]

Will you lynch me when I say that I can see a castle when I look out of my window?

(It's far away though...)

[Tamcha]

Double post... again.

It drives me mad *lol*

Edited August 17, 2017 by Tamcha

[Dar'Jen Ab Owain]

Must be a lovely view, Tamcha.

[Daruya]

I won't lynch you, Tamcha, but I'll totally be jealous!

 

I love history! Some of my favorite places to visit (other than all the historical places I went to in Europe as a kid) have been to historical sites with my kids on their field trips, and once on our way home from Canada, and another I visited a few times when I was TDY.

 

Those are:

 

St. Augustine (school trip)

 

Colonial Williamsburg and other historic sites in the area (school trip)

 

Tallahassee (school trip to Spanish and Native American settlements and State Capitol)

 

Gettysburg (while TDY)

 

Ft. Boonesborough (on route to FL from ONT)

 

 

Gettysburg is amazing. When you are standing at Little Big Top and imagine the Confederate troops massing an assault on that position from below . . . it's sobering. I've only done quick driving tours but would absolutely love to do the tour on horseback.

 

Ft. Boonesborough was awesome. They were having re-enactments that weekend and there were some Shawnee there that had set up some shelters and they invited us (hubby, boys and I) in and told my boys the story of Chief Logan (my oldest son's name is Logan).

 

And I'd totally love to live in Colonial Williamsburg and "play" all day in period dress!

 

As a kid when we lived in Germany, I loved going to the castles. My favorite was Burg Eltz. And we used to camp outside Bundenbach in a valley next to a creek and at the top of one of the  hills you could see the ruins of a castle. Oh, the times we had tramping through the woods there, through the caves, and through the ruins . . . I'm sure they've closed off the caves by now but back then they were our playground! BTW, our parents didn't know . . . they were depending on two teenage boys to keep us smaller kids safe but the teenage boys wanted to explore the caves so . . .   Truly haunting history there, with the ruins on the hill and the iron-barred cell in one of the caves . . .

Edited August 17, 2017 by Daruya

[Gentled Ben]

I won't lynch you, Tamcha, but I'll totally be jealous!

 

I love history! Some of my favorite places to visit (other than all the historical places I went to in Europe as a kid) have been to historical sites with my kids on their field trips, and once on our way home from Canada, and another I visited a few times when I was TDY.

 

Those are:

 

St. Augustine (school trip)

 

Colonial Williamsburg and other historic sites in the area (school trip)

 

Tallahassee (school trip to Spanish and Native American settlements and State Capitol)

 

Gettysburg (while TDY)

 

Ft. Boonesborough (on route to FL from ONT)

 

 

Gettysburg is amazing. When you are standing at Little Big Top and imagine the Confederate troops massing an assault on that position from below . . . it's sobering. I've only done quick driving tours but would absolutely love to do the tour on horseback.

 

Ft. Boonesborough was awesome. They were having re-enactments that weekend and there were some Shawnee there that had set up some shelters and they invited us (hubby, boys and I) in and told my boys the story of Chief Logan (my oldest son's name is Logan).

 

And I'd totally love to live in Colonial Williamsburg and "play" all day in period dress!

 

As a kid when we lived in Germany, I loved going to the castles. My favorite was Burg Eltz. And we used to camp outside Bundenbach in a valley next to a creek and at the top of one of the  hills you could see the ruins of a castle. Oh, the times we had tramping through the woods there, through the caves, and through the ruins . . . I'm sure they've closed off the caves by now but back then they were our playground! BTW, our parents didn't know . . . they were depending on two teenage boys to keep us smaller kids safe but the teenage boys wanted to explore the caves so . . .   Truly haunting history there, with the ruins on the hill and the iron-barred cell in one of the caves . . .

Haha So many great childhood adventures begin with supposedly responsible older children leading the younger ones into mischief!

 

Williamsburg is cool! I'd like to go to the other places you've been since I can't see a castle from my window, either. So jealous of Tamcha...

[Tamcha]

It's this one:

 

 

 

 

 

But I only see the *cough* White Tower.

There are many castles around where I live and I love to visit each and any of them :-)

[Gentled Ben]

Oh man, that's so beautiful!

[Elgee]

Oh wow that's beautiful, Tamcha! White Tower indeed *grins*

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That's the end of our event then folks, I just want to extend loads of thanks to everyone who came and most especially to my thread runners and my lovely supportive Brown brothers and sisters!

 

Thanks so much, see you next year.

[Elgee]

Thank you for an absolutely awesome event!

[Gentled Ben]

That was a lot of fun, thank you!