ANST - Belts and their meaning..

[Tim McDaniel]

On Mon, 6 Apr 1998, Pug Bainter <pug at pug.net> wrote:
>   "Well you do know what this belt means don't you?" It
>   was a red squire's belt.
> 
>   After thinking about it, I couldn't even tell you what
>   it does mean to me. ... not what it means to someone
>   outside of that relationship.

In My Not Particularly Humble Opinion: it means nothing to
an outsider, which is why I don't really see the point of a
special-colored belt.

The only reason it could matter to me is if they're behaving
well or badly and I want to speak to their lord.  In that
case a plain red belt is utterly useless.  All it says is
that (most likely) there is someone out there who claims
this is their man (that is, man or woman; here, I simply use
"man" to mean both).  If I don't know them, I have to ask
them the name of their lord, which is exactly what I'd have
to do *without* the belt.

I know of no color-coding by belts in the Middle Ages, nor
have I heard of a generic symbol saying "I'm somebody else's
man".  In fact, almost *everyone* was someone else's man, so
it'd be a useless thing.  In period, retainership was marked
by arms, badge, livery, clothing given, and doubtless other
means.  I wish people would use known period techniques.
(Da'ud ibn Auda, for example, uses color-coded belts, but he
puts his arms at the tip of each one.)

Daniel de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com
is work address.  tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us is wrong tool.  Never use this.


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