History questions not worth their own thread V

[AnthonyBoscia]

Which of those historical figures would the Countess of Preston and Duchess of Ted be familiar with?

 

[CaptainLost]

Anyone know a reliable place to find unit costs of WW2 weapons?

 

[sydhe]

Lincoln would have known about all of them except Billy the Kid and Sigmund Freud. He was pretty well read.

I suspect Beethoven knew about Socrates, Joan of Arc and, obviously, Napoleon. Genghis Khan, who knows.

 

[CaptainLost]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingsuit_flyin
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Would some form of this have been possible in the middle ages, given the types of materials they had, if they had the science to do so?

 

[Cutlass]

Had they known how, they might have managed it with silk. Silk was the material of choice for parachutes before modern synthetic fabrics undercut it on price. And many silks were very strong, lightweight, and rip resistant.

 

[CaptainLost]

Cool, thanks. There are few things that would be more awesome than ninjas flying down from cliffs into battle...

 

[History_Buff]

They would have had to have flight largely figured out though. It's my understanding that those things are all personally tailored to your body, which implies it isn't easy to get right.

 

[r16]

so there is a new series on TV , the Vikings which claims the lands to the West were fables and nothing else just before they started raiding England and elsewhere . ı can understand the game changing impact of navigational devices and how that enabled the crossing of the North Sea , but is it really possible for people who live around "Kattegat" which ı presume to be Denmark , to be unaware of the existance of France and England ? People who regularly travel to Estonia for raids ?

 

[Plotinus]

Seems unlikely given that the Anglo-Saxons knew all about Scandinavia (Beowulf is set there).

Goods were traded throughout Europe at that time. Eadgils' Mound in Uppsala, which dates from the late sixth century, contains grave goods from France and Italy, as well as the Middle East, for example. Sutton Hoo in England, from very slightly later, contains grave goods from the Byzantine empire and throughout the Mediterranean. A lot of the objects in Sutton Hoo, including the famous helmet and also the shield, are extremely similar to Swedish artefacts of the same period. It seems incredible to suggest under these circumstances that the Scandinavians didn't know about Britain.

 

[Lord Baal]

Seems unlikely given that the Anglo-Saxons knew all about Scandinavia (Beowulf is set there).

Goods were traded throughout Europe at that time. Eadgils' Mound in Uppsala, which dates from the late sixth century, contains grave goods from France and Italy, as well as the Middle East, for example. Sutton Hoo in England, from very slightly later, contains grave goods from the Byzantine empire and throughout the Mediterranean. A lot of the objects in Sutton Hoo, including the famous helmet and also the shield, are extremely similar to Swedish artefacts of the same period. It seems incredible to suggest under these circumstances that the Scandinavians didn't know about Britain.

Especially as the Anglo-Saxons believed their ancestors originated in Scandinavia.

 

[Yeekim]

so there is a new series on TV , the Vikings which claims the lands to the West were fables and nothing else just before they started raiding England and elsewhere . ı can understand the game changing impact of navigational devices and how that enabled the crossing of the North Sea , but is it really possible for people who live around "Kattegat" which ı presume to be Denmark , to be unaware of the existance of France and England ? People who regularly travel to Estonia for raids ?

Yeah, that particular plot device made me raise my eyebrows pretty high too.

Anyway, that series is a disappointment. Looks good and has decent actors, but historical accuracy and script are like in an average Hollywood movie, i.e. horrible.
Watched it until 7th or 8th episode, then simply lost interest.

 

[Arakhor]

As of the ninth century, the Vikings had already conquered Dublin, as I recall.

 

[ParkCungHee]

The vikings didn't conquer Dublin, they founded it.

 

[Traitorfish]

Pretty much all of the major settlements along the Irish Sea and Western Isles were Norse, weren't they? The Gaels never really seemed to take to towns.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Pretty much all of the major settlements along the Irish Sea and Western Isles were Norse, weren't they? The Gaels never really seemed to take to towns.

Can't speak of the Eastern side of the Irish Sea, unfortunately, but the closest thing to fixed settlements you see in Ireland before the arrival of the Norse is the ráth.

 

[Yeekim]

Protagonist of the series is semi-mythical Ragnar Lodbrok, whose supposedly first and daring foray across the sea to the west culminated in sacking of Lindisfarne, which in real history happened in 793.

Now, after some reflection, I am willing to cut some slack to the series. Maybe my memory is hazy, but I don't think that naysayers in the series denied the existence of England as such, rather that "there is nothing to the West".

Given state of cartography at the time, it might stand to reason it was previously not known that sailing straight out to North Sea is a reliable way of reaching England.

 

[r16]

thanks for all the ideas and info .

 

[Arakhor]

Interestingly, the CK II The Old Gods bookmark spells Ragnar's surname with the eth (ð), which would seem to suggest that it should be pronounced with a hard th, instead of the typical d.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

artefacts

British spelling?

 

[ParkCungHee]

Protagonist of the series is semi-mythical Ragnar Lodbrok, whose supposedly first and daring foray across the sea to the west culminated in sacking of Lindisfarne, which in real history happened in 793.

Now, after some reflection, I am willing to cut some slack to the series. Maybe my memory is hazy, but I don't think that naysayers in the series denied the existence of England as such, rather that "there is nothing to the West".

Given state of cartography at the time, it might stand to reason it was previously not known that sailing straight out to North Sea is a reliable way of reaching England.

Could "nothing" in this context mean "nothing of import?"