Persona/period research...

[Pug]

> Now that I'm back from vacation, let's see if I can come up with
> something that's of any use.

Now that I'm back. I'll reply. *grin*

> >Well my lady and myself have finally decided to narrow things down on
> >our personas (besides - oh, somewhere in England near Wales somewhere
> >near the 11th - 14th century). We'd like your help in this endeavor.
> >Well we believe we've narrowed it down fairly well, and want to do
> >further research on it. Now the question is, where does one find
> >*good* material for this?...The time is roughly 1066 - 1150...
> Finding "Good" material is both a loth easier and a lot harder than
> it often seems at first.  You say that you've found "Life in a Medieval 
> Village", but that it's a few centuries later.  This seems to be a standard
> problem with finding common items of day-to-day material, since we may
> not actually HAVE information on what people used the 50 years before
> and after 1100.

That is what I was guessing the answer would be. *grin*

> Also, one of the hardest things to deal with is that
> learning this stuff can be a real ongoing process, with spending *years*
> developing your knowledge and sources as best as you can, only to have
> it all trashed by a single archaeological dig, or discovering a new and
> more reasonable hypothesis.  How to learn to find *good* information is 
> very hard for me to describe, since, to me, it's like learning any skill 
> or craft.  It's not something that you can just be given (I know, you
> weren't asking that).  So, keeping this in mind...

Historical research is not something that I have started until recently.
This makes it difficult for me to judge something as useful, let along
accurate. I'm enjoying the reading though when I do find things that I
find of interest.

> You have two major tools at your disposal, those being the bibliography
> in "Life in a Medieval Village" (and if it DOESN'T have one, I'll be
> surprised, since I think the Gies' wrote that one, and they are pretty 
> good about that sort of thing);

I'm certainly going to use this for part of my research. As well, the
bibliographies from other books I find.

> as well as the CIP ("Cataloguing-in-
> publication") data on the verso of the title page (Older books won't have
> this, but it's very common in more modern materials).  The CIP will give
> you subject headings to start with, as well as suggested call numbers 
> (both Library of Congress and Dewey), although these may take some practice
> to use (I'll be happy to teach anyone how to use them, if you would like).

This I may need help with, since I've not heard of it. Most of my
searches have been through UT's catalogue as subject keyword searches.
I'm gonna try LoC to see if I can find better references, then try to
get it at UT.

> Since you want to deal with a specific era and region, learn about the
> era *before* that, in this case Anglo-Saxon England as well as Wales,
> since changes at the common level rarely take place at a rapid pace.

I'm trying to figure out how to find reliable references for the time
period even. All too often the books I've found cover 800 years, which
although good, they don't cover specific regions. I know that things
don't happen quick, but even over a couple hundred years, they are major
changes. Then again, they might have useful places in their
bibliographies.

I can at least focus down to the King(s) of the time period. Getting
things covering their reigns might be at least a little more focused.

> You also have a different tool at your disposal, although it's only useful
> as a guide to other things, and terribly solid all by itself.  The Brother
> Cadfael series is set in Shropshire (a whole county to the north of where
> you are looking) c1100.  It may be possible to backtrack the sources that
> Ellis Peters/Edith Pargenter used to create her fictional world.

This sounds great! I will see if I can find more information on this.
Getting that close to the time period and region could be a miracle.

> You might see if you can find a copy of "The Archaeology of Medieval England 
> and Wales" by John Steane (Which, btw, has no CIP, even though it's a 1984
> publication date).  HE, in turn, suggests A.L. Poole's Medieval England (Oxford,
> 1958), which is, itself a revision of F.P. Barnard's Companion to English
> History (Middle Ages)(Oxford, 1902).  I have not actually SEEN the latter
> two books, so can not verify their use one way or the other.

Great! I will start looking for them.

> Each chapter of the Stearn has its own bibliography.

As does "Life in a Medieval Village". I've already started earmarking
the ones that appear of interest to me.

> IN essence, what I am suggesting is that you shouldn't be afraid of looking
> at "less than perfect sources", if they lead you on to *better* information.
> NO sources are perfect.

Very true. I was mostly hoping for a kick in the right direction since
until now I've done no historical research. This is definately a new
leaf for me, and I find it amazing that once I get started into a book,
I don't easily pull my head out of it. Only if I could have done that
while in school. *grin*

> I'm sorry if this isn't specific enough, but it's really not my area.

It's more than I was hoping for actually! I truly appreciate it!

Btw, my lady and myself have decided to do the easy thing for us, as it
appears it was for others. Our personas are gonna be placed 900 years
earlier than current time. The year and our age will change as the years
do. This allows for easy progress of persona so it doesn't sit stagnant.

At least we don't have to worry about going out of period in the near
future. *grin*

Ciao,

-- 
Phelim Uhtred Gervas  | "I want to be called. COTTONTIPS. There is something 
Barony of Bryn Gwlad  |  graceful about that lady. A young woman bursting with 
House Flaming Dog     |  vigor. She blinked at the sudden light. She writes
pug at arlut.utexas.edu  |  beautiful poems. When ever shall we meet again?"