Page 1091…
Wow.
How cool was that?
Ok. Now that you know what Merlin did for the last 10-20 years. How does the dates match up for you guys?
I got rid of 1386. According to what I’ve learned…any time after Erik the Red discovered the new world is cool. So I figure any time after 1000 AD?
The Beothuk tribes didn’t form (according to wikipedia) until 1500. So that could be a problem.
Come on smart people. Help me out here.
🙂
This is the fun part. I’ve been wanting to show you how this all ties together.
I hope youv’e been enjoying this sequence.
Next week…the dialog is just SO COOL!
Nicodemus and Arthur. So fun.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
More FREE books to read.
I’ll be uploading even more over the weekend.
That last one was my attempt at a “sexy Nastajia”…ha ha
Don’t hate me. I was young and stupid (ok…it was only 2 years ago…but it was something to try).
🙂
Have a great weekend!
Stupefied, mystified, and definitely not pleased, is how I would characterize the look on Nick today…
why would we hate you for something that looks good?
Oh! I like Merlin’s last name, “Ambrosius” it just rolls off the tounge! …That’s a lot of info for such a small parchment, or thats a very large parchment for such a small bag.
Scott, Staj doesn’t HAVE to try.
Merlin. Is. God.
How come a character that appeared only once, can have so much impact?
Plus I bet Nick now is thinking if he will be tasty marinated or with sauce.
That’s interesting. In a series of books I just read by Jack Whyte (The Camulod Chronicles) Merlyn had a half brother whose name was Ambrose. (Of course, I’m not exactly a scholar of Arthurian legend, so maybe there’s another explanation for this?)
“No one really knows how many there were in 1500. Some estimates are as high as 5,000, but 2,000 is probably closer to the truth. Only 400 were left in 1768, and by 1829 they were extinct. It would seem possible, however, that small groups of Beothuk crossed over into Labrador and merged with the Montagnais or Naskapi. ” (see more at http://www.dickshovel.com/beo.html )
If so, their height would probably have been around in the 1600s. Lets see, 400 years, if their height lasted 100 yrs and assuming started 1500, it would have been 1650-1750, which seems to fit. According to the Conrad/Demarest theory of empires (and comparing it to how America fits with the C/D) empires enable to expand decline (with appropriate ratio) soon after. 100 year height is about appropriate for a 400 yr empire.
I see such advances as this magic item being difficult to form in the rise or fall of a civilization. So probably around 1650-1750 would work. But of course these are round figures with no give and take. You could make it a little earlier to suggest that this helps spark their height or latter to suggest that this causes their decline. Once I find it, I’ll let you know the diff Arthurs durring this era.
Most any way works with historical fiction. 😀 Just to let you know though, wikipedia is not a credible source, or at least, that’s what all my professors keep telling me.
Actually, the People could have been around as far back as 1386, but the height of there civilization was probably not.
BTW, anyone know a better word for “height” as used in this context? It just seems very bland to me to say “height, height, height,” no variety and it bugs. I’m a little OCD I guess, sorry. 🙂
Perhaps it was a tactical error to show this to Nic, knowing his distaste of such “insanity.” Apparently, Arthur thinks it has gone beyond what resistance Nic can muster.
So we learned a couple of things here:
– The Sword is called “The Sword of Kings.” This may be been stated in the comic before, but I don’t recall it.
– The Sword does pass between worlds here in Arthur’s time.
As for the Beothuk, you could instead refer to the L’nu. That is the name the Mi’kmaq (micmac) people gave themselves. Take a look at their wikipedia page and see if that works better. There is evidence they were present well before 1500. www dot dickshovel dot com/mic.html
It’s unclear from the Choctaw and Choctaw language reference how long that language has been in existence, but again, there is no early limit on when words were created for their language.
I mean specifically this People, not a diff one. However, an earlier Beothuk people would have been more based in their magic. Since not much is known about their early history, they could have branched off from a different tribe. Many of the People, who lived on the new world were around well before 1500. “The Adena civilization in the Ohio Valley existed sometime between 4000 BC and 500 AD.” (see more at http://www.qsl.net/ws8g/adenamound.htm ). The Myans, who used their own “drug” to speak with the “gods”– or in this case probably the centaurs (not that i know of centaur depictions in Myan art, i would have to ask my professor)– were around from 2000 B.C – until 1500 A.D. when the coquistadors (sp?) came for the natural resources. (see http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/latinamerica/meso/cultures/maya.html )
So far I cannot find the time period of the Choctaw Nation. My searches keep popping up with info about the Trail of Tears, and besides the fact that it’s heartbreaking, it;s not what I”m looking for. But I will find it, I’m a very persistant person.
I wonder how Nic can actually read that…
lol, yeah. I thought dragons read draconic script not old english
One would think the advisor to the king should know his king’s language. Hey! There’s a limit when facts start making it difficult for fiction to develop…
Height – Altitude, Top Part … Synonyms: acme, apex, apogee, brow, ceiling, crest, crown, cusp, elevation, extent, highness, hill, loftiness, mountain, peak, pinnacle, pitch, prominence, rise, solstice, stature, summit, tallness, tip, tiptop, vertex, zenith
Height – Climax; importance … Synonyms: acme, crest, crisis, crowning point, culmination, dignity, eminence, end, exaltation, extremity, grandeur, heyday, high point, limit, loftiness, maximum, ne plus ultra, prominence, sublimity, top, ultimate, utmost degree, uttermost
Hope that helps lol
lol my issue isnt that he cant read it cause of the language (he’s speaking it just fine so he should be able to read it lol) … but that the page is SOOOOO far from his face and SOOOO small so how can he even see the letters lol … must be damn tiny lol
Oh come on…he’s a DRAGON. They can spot a gold coin at 5 kilometers!
😉
“P. S.: Nicodemus would love it out here, plenty of clear skies for flying, no airships to crash into.”
First, Merlin is a magician of the first degree, he can bend space and time to his whim. Everyone knows that. Second, it’s poetic license. It works, it produces the effect you want. Why worry. 🙂
*snicker* I can literally read Nic’s mind:
“Oh, NOO, not MORE of these stinking humans coming over here! Now the stench is gonna be all over the countryside… That’s IT, I’ve had ENOUGH already! Time to put my foot down… hmm, well, “paw”, I mean… 😉 And I know EXACTLY what to do… hehehehe… yessss…. my preccccccious kingdom of Dreamland… yessssss…!!! {Oops, those last words were not my lines were they? ‘Gohh… Goe Lum’? Who is that? Is he in this story?} Ah, never mind, back to my plot! ‘ARTHUR…’ “
I’m surprised apex isn’t in those lists.
Sorry just reread the first list. Second one in. *wipes glasses*
I’ve enjoyed getting to see more of Nic, than just the ‘I’m a big, red dragon. I’m sly and cunning. RAAAWR!’ Not that that’s all Nic has done, but that’s my impression of him so far.
Being a “Viking” myself, I feel I must correct a few things: Eirik the Red did not, in fact, discover Vinland (the New World). He discovered Greenland, and started a settlement there that existed until the 1400s, when they for unknown reasons disappeared. It was Eirik’s son, Leif Eriksson (Leif, Son of Erik) that actually discovered Vinland, apparently after hearing about a sighting from someone that had drifted off course for the settlement on Greenland. Leif wanted his father along for the journey, but due to some circumstances, Eirik refused to leave home. As far as I know, he was never in the New World.
By the way, the term “New World” is a modern day term, the Norsemen did not consider it a New World, just more land. Their trade, both in the east, south, and west, told them there were a lot of land they had never seen. 😉
The Norsemen, as mentioned, called it “Vinland”.
The colony in Vinland was short-lived. The Norsemen themselves only lived there one or two years at a time, and less than a hundred years after the discovery, it seems it was abandoned. There was very litte traffic to Vinland from Iceland and the countries further east, if at all, as it was too far, and there were nothing there they did not already have, to justify the cost of the long journey.
Anyway, all communication with Greenland stopped in the mid-1300-1400s, but if you want to be historically accurate, any time between 1000AD to sometime before 1100AD would be good.
The Beothuk existed in Newfoundland long before the 1500s, (I’ve seen sources indicating AD 1 – AD 200) but their Beothuk culture formed in the 1500s. There were a bit of trade between the Norsemen and the “Skræling” tribe, as the Greenlanders called them, until the relationship later turned sour. The word “Skræling” were actually meant somewhat derogatory (the sagas describe them as “ugly”), and the norse folk did not separate Indians from Eskimos. In modern-day Icelandic, the word “skrælingi” means “barbarian” or “foreigner”, so you might still go with that word, as Merlin first visited and maybe picked up the name from the Norsemen. 🙂
Oh, and I say “Norsemen”, not Vikings, as the term “Viking” as a name for the people did not appear until the 1800s. During the Viking Age, the term was a verb, meaning “to go exploring”, or “to go conquering” or “-plundering”… They called themselves “Norsemen”, and Merlin should be well aware of the distinction. 😉
Rather long-winded, but you asked for help, so I hope it is of some use…
He’s a flying predator. His vision is probably 5x-10x better than a human beings’ would be. See modern examinations of hawk and eagle vision.
Really liking this view into Dreamland’s past. Very cool.It’s a whole side to Dreamland that we haven’t seen before. And I see that Merlin, even as an adult, can travel between worlds. Fascinating.
One little nitpick, though. It’s kind of a pet peeve of mine: misplaced apostrophes. The rules are explained here and also in this handy graphic. In this case, it should be “Its purpose is to transfer information.” Otherwise, it’s a contraction of “it is.”
Another Norseman pointed out some details, but OTOH whether those details MATTER is really more a judgment call. This is a webcomic in which human beings transfer consciousness to a completely different universe when they dream, and in which magic allows things to physically go back and forth between worlds. This is a world whose history may not be precisely aligned with our own.
Nicodemus is actually probably thinking, “And NOW I have what, a hundred WITNESSES to kill? This blood will all be on YOUR head, Arthur! If you’d shown it to me in private, we could have DISCUSSED this, and at worst you might have had to have an ACCIDENT, but no, now the accident’s going to have to be a lot bloodier. Stupid human!”
Ah. Norsemen.
Much better. Thank you.
Matter? -Well, true, but he did ask… 😉
No problem.
In Merlin’s letter it should then probably be “I have travelled to the Norse lands…” or “I have travelled to the northern lands of the Norsemen…”
-Just an idea… 😉
Oh, man, Nastaja’s striking the MySpace pose!
Ambrosius is one of Merlin’s traditional names 🙂
Well, according to the ‘not supremely trustworthy source’ Wikipedia:
“The standard depiction of [Merlin] first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures. Geoffrey combined existing stories of Myrddin Wyllt (Merlinus Caledonensis), a North British madman with no connection to King Arthur, with tales of the Romano-British war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus to form the composite figure he called Merlin Ambrosius (Welsh: Myrddin Emrys).”
🙂 Your series is probably splitting his name into two people either a) because they want to differentiate between the two people who ended up being blended to create the man we call Merlin, or b) because the author thought it might be fun to give him a brother, and it was easier to split Merlin’s full name to come up with a second person.
I had an interesting time reading Stephen Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle for similar reasons. It was fun taking the names he’d given his characters and trying to figure out who they were supposed to be from the more traditional Arthurian legend.
She was probably convinced to do so by one of the young visitors to Dreamland who were explaining this odd phenomenon called MySpace. 🙂 I imagine that in a conversation like that, everyone involved would strike the pose and then laugh at it. *gigglefits* And now I’m stuck imagining Paddington working the MySpace “angles.”
O___O your attempt w/ Nas worked. omg.
Paddington calls it that earlier, http://thedreamlandchronicles.com/the-dreamland-chronicles/chapter-04/page-193/, but then on the next page Arvamas mentions his doubt about it being the sword’s true name. While it is a great description and could be a title I would think that it also has a name since it is sentient. You could refer to Arther as the King of Dreamland, but that wouldn’t be his name.
LOL
Neither foot nor paw…’tis claw. 😉
Even if you push it back as far as 1000 AD, it’s still problematic; our knowledge of English monarchs extends well before that. The first ruler you could call the King of England (or more accurately, South Saxon) was Ælle of Sussex, who ruled from 477 to 514 (if he even existed).
You can’t go earlier than 410 AD, because that’s when the Romans abandoned Britain. Arthur would have difficulty calling himself king of England when there’s a Roman army occupying Camelot…
This makes the 5th Century an attractive time (unless you actually had to live in it), but then we have the problems of inserting the Vikings (who didn’t start Viking until the late 8th Century) and the Beothuk, who weren’t around then either. Mind you, there were people in Newfoundland in the 5th Century…just not the Beothuk.
There’s simply no way to insert King Arthur, the Beothuk, and Norseman who discover the New World into the historic timeline…so don’t. Put Arthur in an alternate reality where all these things were contemporaneous. This is fantasy, after all. Besides, it could be fun watching Nicole trying to put all these pieces together in the “real” world!
Why does it keep asking me to pay to download the Wowio books? :/ This makes me sad. I can’t help Scott out if I can’t download ’em free – I haz no money.
Didn’t you know that Dragon’s eyes are naturally configured like bi-focals?
I thought everyone knew that.
🙂
For everyone’s info, you have to create an account on Wowio and log into it before you get access to the 5 free downloads. You do NOT have to put in any payment info in order to set up your account. For the moment you only get those 5. Soon you will be able to get more (when more sponsors show up for Wowio).
I clicked on the covers in Scott’s notes which opens a browser window on Wowio, then logged into my account, then clicked the covers again to open another Wowio Browser window. Now when I click “Download PDF”, I get the option to “GET GIFT” from Logic Wireless, which is cool!
FYI, the Animated versions have several panels of the pdf document that, once clicked, show a brief animation for that scene.
More fun than the static versions! Be warned, though! My kids keep asking to see the animations again and again (and again and again. . . . .).
WOWIO doesn’t have enough sponsors to pay Scott for unlimited downloads. So there is a limit of 5 total books you can get currently. They are searching for more sponsors but until they find them they won’t be able to give away more books.
Don’t think Scott is so much caring for the matters or not, if it fitts the story. However if he can add real times/events/people into the story it appears to be more realistic to the readers that have heard the names and dates before.
It also has the added benefit of creating interest in the things that the story is referencing. You actually end up learning a little bit in a fun and interesting way. Not something that is usually associated with reading comics. But I like it alot this way.
Kudos for explaining why Arthur called them “the red men” without showing any disrespect in this PC age (which I am finding more and more reasons to loathe it day by day) I can’t wait to see how Nick reacts to this little revelation.
Umm, the beothuk were indigenous. Their culture became more defined around 1500AD but it’s estimated they were in Newfoundland as early as 1AD, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. When the vikings landed in the year 1000AD, they were here, but the norse called them skrælingjar which just means “barbarian”
So, they were here, but their culture really defined itself around 1500. Before that I guess it was scattered.
It would be very interesting if Gollum were in this story….
Once again i have to agree. There is nothing lewd or untoward about the picture. It is not even risqué. I just found it to be yet another attractive piece of artwork.
It doesn’t matter if you mess up time, its a fantasy story, you could just say alternate history to our own.
Look up Alternate history fan fiction, you will see what i mean. Some of the more hilarious ones involve Hilter being from England, lol
I thought everyone knew that dragons are farsighted. They need reading glasses to read something right in front of their snouts, but hold it out at arms’ length and they can read just fine. 🙂
^ this. I would have loved to see Merlin go toe to toe with Nic
Tee-hee, I love the look on Nic’s face.
‘You sonova…!’
With Nic’s tolerance (or lack thereof ) of humans, I’m not surprised that this is what made him go ‘SNAP’.
I love this comic and the story it tells, I really do, but every time “its” and “it’s” are confused, I cry a little inside. If grammar isn’t your strong point, please have someone glance over the script before you post it. Please. All of the effort that makes the rest of the comic so professional, so beautiful, makes errors like this all the more embarrassing when they are so easily avoided.
*looks at Nas cover* … And her chest grew three sizes that day. Some fanservice for your older readers?
That explains my trouble – I’ve hit the limit. Thanks for the info.
Hey Aileen…
Isn’t that what YOU guys are for?
😛
Honestly I try my best. But my editors don’t kick in until the book goes to print.
So I have to rely on the kindness of you all until then.
So thank you.
That was a LOT of work getting those boobs bigger for that shot.
I’m not sure I’m ready for fan service.
Thanks for hitting the limit.
I’ll let everyone know when more sponsors come up.
Thank you all for the wonderful feedback.
Please keep it coming.
Great. Thank you.
While I believe that the possible “real Arthur” could only be put in 400-500 AD…the “mythical Arthur” has a lot of leeway. Right?
And since Arthur WAS a mythical character…why not 1100 AD?
Hi Scott, just checked the grammar and, unless my eyes are playing tricks on me, in the fourth box second sentence beginning with “But …” you’ve used “it’s”, meaning it is or it has, instead of “its” (no apostrophe) meaning possessed by it.
Keep up the great work.
Cool! That Merlin really got around considering the time period…
Nic is going to flip out. I can’t wait to see next week!
Trust me Scott. If the other readers are anything like me they all loved the “sexy Nastajia”. This might be an all ages comic but that doesn’t mean she can’t look good. 😉
i second that, youch
Having worked in 3D modelling before I can’t help but agree. It’s always a nice treat though.
As Samuel Coleridge said, “Willing suspension of disbelief.” Suspend what you know is true for the sake of simply enjoying the story. Although I greatly appreciate you trying to be a correct historically as possible. Ohhh everybody run! Nicodemus is gonna roar soon! I doubt he will be as keen to accept this invitation, I bet he will say, “This is madness!”
To me, Merlin will always be like T. H. White’s depiction – living backwards in time. So, maybe that’s why he would know of a tribe who had yet to form. It’s worth a thought.
Some other bits of “historical” info:
Norsemen re-discovered “New World” many centuries after ancients Greeks first went there.
Unfortunately there are no writing evidence of this fact but only scattered artifacts all over American continent (mini sculptures with obvious Greek influence, architectural designs i.e meander designs, double axe etc).
The only writing evidence are the voyages of Pytheas of Massalia (a Greek colony in ancient times) where he mentioned the discovery of “distant Thule” around 325 BC – so we can suggests that if such voyages where possible during these times, it was also possible to cross the “great ocean” and reach the continent beyond.
Also some text of Greek mythology suggests a land beyond the great ocean where the mythological “apples of hesperides” where grown, or in Plato’s reference for Atlantis.
Anyway all of the above are speculations because (as i mentioned above) there are no clear and cogent evidence, but having in mind that Scott’s story is fictional and depicts mythological persons(Odysseus for example was one of the human rulers of Dreamland as it was mentioned before by Arthur), i can find it amusing that this story goes REALLY back in history, where the mists of time shrouds the picture.
Keep up the good work Scott!
Your story is a masterpiece!!!
But, according to some sources, Ambrosius Aurelianus had a brother, Uther, who became Arthur’s father.
My own theory is similar: Ambrosius Aurelianus had a brother; when they invaded and defeated Vortigern (about 437), Ambrosius became Vortimer (roughly = “Overking”) and his brother was named Catigern (“Battle Lord”). After the Catigern died in battle with the Saxons–the same battle when Horsa died–Uther was named his successor. But Arthur was already conceived by Ambrosius’ brother before he died, and born in 439. By then Vortimer Ambrosius was likely dead, leaving nobody to lead the government but Catigern Uther, until Arthur came of age.
In 454, a sick and crippled Uther gave his sword to Arthur in a battle, and Arthur won the battle. This made him Catigern, Battle Lord; his blood tie to a previous High King allowed him to become High King; his military and political prowess allowed him to keep the job and wallop the Saxons–until he died in 470 in the middle of Gaul fighting the Visigoths.
Now, how to fit this into the alternate universe of Dreamland?
I suggest, to be historically more accurate, Arthur has to be a British king. That means, most likely, Welsh, perhaps Scottish. A time in the High Middle Ages would fit, anything from about 1100-1350. That fits the Vikings, although they are past their prime.
To go pre-850, you could use the Saxons (or Angles or Jutes) and have them go a-viking, (since the original term was a verb, not a proper name) without too much distortion. These tribes, from the area of Denmark and North Germany, were the vikings of the 5th and 6th centuries. And some indication that they Celts (Irish) and Saxons knew more about the New World than they admitted to.
As for the American tribes, I don’t know. Use their ancestors? Extend them back? It wouldn’t be too hard, since there is no written pre-Columbian history north of the Aztecs that I’m aware of.
Also, Arthur could have been Welsh or even Irish, (just a thought), if so I’m pretty sure that Roman control didn’t truly extend there. (I’m more versed on my American history than my European history.) The angles and the saxons eventually interbreed with eachother to become the anlgo-saxons, which is what Beowulf was. Most King Arthurs are after Beowulf’s time, but an Arthur during his time could have lived pretty much anywhere on the British Isles, right?
Let me know if I’m wrong or missing something, but this is my understanding of it. I could try and track down my highschool lit teacher, he was pretty knowledgable about this stuff.
Personally Scott, even in sci/fi I like, if earth is involved I like the past to be as ligitamately viable as possible. Sure creative liscnence–especially since there is no specific recorded history of many places during the 1000-early 1400s–is always good and I love variation when the author takes actual events and puts his own spin on it. As long as it somewhat meshes with real history and I can follow the storyline dates, I love it. It’s really the futuristic stuff you have to watch out for, no bondaries.
nic must be boiling with rage inside right now. nic: more humans in dreamland! do not want!.
Oh, so like the Myans, Incans, or Aztecs were the Atlantians??? Koolness! I never thought of that before, what a cool idea!
Thanks! This helps. Gosh, i really need to start carrying a thesaurus around with me. 🙂
Just a minor correction, I think that it should say “its” and not “it’s” the 4th textbox 3rd line. Maybe Merlin would have written however instead of but in the beginning of that same sentence as well. It’s always good to get things suggested or pointed out even if it’s small bagatelles.
I love the fact that Merlin is a part of this story and that he visited Norway makes it even more fun!
~ Proud Norwegian
Actually Atlantis was in the Mediterranean but the Greeks didn’t know it’s real location and as they (like others) had stories of lands to the west it suited as being exotic enough for a “mythical” lost land.
I’m glad you say that. Fanservice disgusts me. It would take all respect out of the great work you have put into this. Who would even suggest something like this?
hehe i would cry out in glee that i knew it was from merlin, but man i didnt know he did all that!
Really it was a test to see if it would get more downloads.
It did.
I was noticing many books on Wowio that were getting a lot of downloads because of “sexy girls” on the cover.
So I asked the readers (this was 2 years ago) if I should give it a shot and see if it would make a difference.
I did…and…yes. There were many more downloads than normal.
Was a good experiment. But I’m not so great with the sexy.
There’s an art to cheesecake pinups.
and you just caused me to die laughin. i hope your happy!
i love this comic i really do. so much fun reading. keep it up scott! oh and scott. love the “sexy Nastajia” 😀
dictionary.com …. lol
Up until the method of sword transfer, your version sounds quite a bit like the Stephen R. Lawhead retelling.
Actually Atlantis was “beyond the Herakleian Gates” (as was the name of Gibraltar in ancient times) as Plato suggests.
The Mediterranean location hypothesis was conceived in modern times due to finding at the island of There (also known as Santorini) that was nearly destroyed from a massive volcaninc eruption in ancient times.
According to Plato though the location of Atlantis was in the middle of the Great Ocean at the West and also there were stories of a land beyond Atlantis.
The strange thing is that some names of the heroes of the gods of the ancient native american civilizations have the -atl- in them i.e. Quetzalcoatl and the majority of them “came from the east sea” etc. exlpaining why the natives americans nearly worshiped like gods the first Spanish explorers.
But all these are pure speculations, as i mentioned before
“…peace may reign in both lands.” I never knew Merlin was such a naive dreamer. Ah, well. Keep up the amazing work, Scott! 🙂
Nick must have VERY good eyes to see so much writing on something so small!
Yeah that result doesn’t surprise me. I didn’t mean any disrespect to anything had done, Scott. I’m sorry if it seemed that way. I just reacted to the question asked about introducing fanservice to this series, and my view on fanservice in general.
Just a minor spelling correction: In the 4th box it says “it’s purpose is…” while it should be “its purpose is…”. I don’t know if it was already pointed out, but at first glance I didn’t see anyone saying so.
Idk, i’ve never been good about following the new grammar rules. According to the rules I learned in elementary school (or primary school, depending on where you live) it’s is both the possesive form and ‘it is’
@Mintark: I made a similar observation about the apostrophe beng incorrect, earlier in this page’s thread.
@Megadorkynerdgoddess: No, the apostrophe in “it’s” only signifies the contraction of “it is” and “it has”, the possessive is “its” it is one of the few exceptions to the apostrophied possesive. I am a proofreader/copyeditor, and it is my job to know these things.
However, picking up typos in my own messages is another thing entirely! First line of my reply, the word should read “being”.
Perhaps–I haven’t had a chance to read Lawhead. But I think the dates and places make a big difference too. One of the problems I have with Jack Whyte’s Camolud Chronicles is that he makes a big thing about retelling it historically–but then makes choices that make some of the things we know impossible. For example, Lot came from Lothian,both in the stories and in historical fact. It’s called “Lothian” because it was “Lot-ia”, or Lot’s place. But, to make his version work, Whyte moves Lot to Cornwall. And has similar problems with the Saxons.
Truth is, Arthur had to come early enough, and with enough Roman structure still existing, for Arthur to be running over the whole Roman diocese, from Cornwall and Wales, to London, to Hadrian’s wall and parts north. That means, to me, late 5th century.
Well, Scott, you seem to have hit a nerve, or several. That’s the sign of a good story, not?
(That is, judging by the number of comments, and the historical arguments in them.)
Hate you? Thats a sight to behold
Nice Nastajia pic. When’s Felicity’s turn?