[ANSTHRLD] books

[tmcd at panix.com]

On Sat, 15 Oct 2005, Doug Bell <debell1 at txcyber.com> wrote:
> At least they are the most useful when I am working on Mongol or
> Tibetan names.
> This should show how useless a general question like this is but
> folks keep asking it over the years.
...
> It is up to you to pick an area that you enjoy working with and seek
> out the people who know the resources.

I would say that the general question is not utterly useless.

When I made my reply, I assumed it was a local branch herald, who
perhaps had a small budget to buy books for the group (so doesn't know
what their successors will like) or for themself -- I think that's the
most common case.  In that case, I think the priorities are to help
the largest number of submitters as possible.  Alternately, it may be
a new herald who hasn't "declared a major" and wants to have the
basics to start with.  Or it might be someone who's strong in either
names or armory but wants to have the basic book(s) in the other field
so as to not be entirely worthless.

For all such cases, I think English name books are most useful,
followed closely by Gaelic (Scots and/or Irish) and Norse (Geirr
Bassi, _The Old Norse Name_).  And in the armory field, I think it
best to have a way to learn heraldry + nice period pictures to show
submitters.

Certainly, if the buyer has specific interests, they should look into
that subfield's major sources.

Danielis Lincolia
-- 
"Me, I love the USA; I never miss an episode." -- Paul "Fruitbat" Sleigh
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at panix.com