Month: July 2010

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Latin Phrase of the Day #5

Today’s quotation is drawn from Classical Latin repeated in a medieval source.  It is from Virgil, as quoted in Gerald of Wales’ Description of Wales.

Tales casus Cassandra canebat.

Tales – adj.; such, so great, so excellent, of such kind

casus – noun, accusitive case (direct object); fall, overthrow, chance/fortune, accident, emergency, calamity, plight, fate

Cassandra – the tragic Seer and former lover of Apollo, Cassandra, who was of Troy

canebat (cano, canere, cani, canitus) – verb; sing, celebrate, chant, crow, recite, play music, sound horn/instrument, foretell

Cassandra was singing of the great calamity.

Clearly, this refers to Virgil’s Aeneaid; it’s from the section on the fall of Troy.

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Vignette – “The tragic tale of Ghaund and Amarestine”

This little vignette is a roughed out legend for my 3.x D&D/Pathfinder/Swashbuckling Adventures game in the original world Maraeternum.  The story is meant to explain (in part) the development of a certain type of nasty thing in the world (amongst others, I suppose…).

The tragic tale of Ghaund and Amarestine

            Once upon a time, in the uncounted centuries before the fall of the Basilica del Mare, on the shore of a great island lived the sorcerer Ghaund.  He once had been a great man, though as he grew in powers arcane, he had forgotten how to care for other living things.  His beloved lady, the prophetess Amarestine, had foreseen this and left when she could bear his growing coldness no longer, retreating to a cave at the far end of the fair isle that had been their home through all of their years.
            Ghaund came to be beside himself with pain at the loss of his beloved Amarestine and begged for her to return.  She refused him sadly, warning that she could not love a man who had forgotten how to care.
            “But you are the light of my heart, my reason for breathing!”  Ghaund protested.
            “Would that you remembered the emotions that could birth those words, my love,” replied Amarestine, for she could see in his eyes that there was no love there, only the pale memory of real feeling.  “I can only return when you have remembered how to love me and all others, as you once did.”
            And so she left him on the walls surrounding the tower they had once shared and retreated to the far end of the isle, through the villages there, over streams and across the woodlands, and abided in a cave on the shore.
            Ghaund fretted and seethed, thought and plotted, consumed by his inexplicable need to have his lady returned to him.  Though he could not remember how to feel, he knew at his core that he needed her at his side, though he knew not why.  Nothing would stop him in his quest to return her to him—not even Amarestine herself.
            For a time, he sought to remember how to feel, though her words made no sense to him.  He could cut himself, and he would bleed, and it would hurt, though it would heal in time.  He felt no pleasure from the healing, only the pain of the cut.  He felt no gladness when he gazed upon her portrait, only sadness eating away at his soul.  There was no reason to feel, no reason to care.  There was no joy in giving to others, only loss.  His heart grew cold, his heart grew hard, and all he knew was that his magic soothed the only things left he could feel—pain for the loss of his lady, ambition for the power to retrieve her, and anger for his inability to have her as he wished.
            And so he began to plot, to work, to scheme.  He read a thousand books, wrote to a thousand scholars, spent a thousand sleepless nights at work to find a way to bring her back to him until he finally found a way.
            He had created from kelp and ambergris, gelatin and water, magic and alchemy, creatures malleable and yet man-formed.  He shaped them, he honed them, and he imbued them with powerful magics and even more powerful compulsions.  These creatures—his great triumph among triumphs—would surely be able to return his Amarestine to him!  And so he sent them forth, oozing, slipping, running across rocks and cobbles, through woods and water, until they reached the cave in which Amarestine made her abode.
            The prophetess was not startled to see these strange creatures, man but not, liquid yet solid.
            “O Ghaund!”  She despaired.  “Oh, my love, what have you done?”
            The creatures fell upon her then and carried her back to their master, who felt no joy at the return of his beloved.  He looked upon her and sighed, feeling nothing.  He touched her and though his blood raced, he knew not why, kissed her and felt light-headed, knew her and yet pleasure did not truly reach him.
            And so he kept her there, in the tower, guarded by his creations, until all the days of their lives were utterly spent, and learned nothing at all.

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Latin Phrase of the day – #4

Another bit of medieval Latin today, this bit is from the Chronicon Johannis de Reading.

Postea, transiens per patrias latitudine XX miliarium omnia devastavit.

Again, let’s break it down.

Postea – adv.; afterwards

transiens (transeo, transire, transivii, transitus) – verb; go over, cross

per– acc. prep.; through, during, by, by means of

patrias – noun;  fatherland, country, nation

latitudine– noun; width, breadth, extent, latitude

XX – This is the number 20

miliarium – thousands OR a roman mile (1000 paces); another meaning for this is milestone

omnia – all, totally, completely

devastavit (devasto, devastare, devastavi, devastatus) – verb; devastate, lay waste (to a territory or people), ravage, slaughter

In this case, I’m taking transiens per as an accusative phrase, “crossing through.”

My translation of the phrase?

Afterwards, passing through our homeland he destroyed totally the breadth of twenty miles.

Now…this is probably a little hinky.  If you find it to be so, please let me know!  This one gave me some trouble and I’m still very rusty at this, but I find it to be good practice, at least!  Parsing phrases properly has always been hard for me…so are cases of words, to be honest.  In English, for some reason it’s very easy to construct language…probably because we lack endings the way Romance languages have.  The only case that’s really easy for me to remember is the genitive possessive!

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Latin Phrase of the Day – #3

The phrase of the day is another header out of a medieval source; this time from the Continuatio Chronicarum of Adam of Murimuth.  Are we sensing a theme here?  Oh, maybe.  I have a selection of Latin sources floating around my room and hard drive thanks to thesis research.

“Robertus le Bruys castrum Berwici cum villa acquisivit.”

Robertus le Bruys is a phonetic Latinization of “Robert the Bruce.”

castrum – noun; fort/fortress, camp (in its plural form), army, war service, a day’s march, a castle, fortress, fortified town

Berwici – noun; Berwick

cum – adv; with, together with

villa – noun; manor, house, farm/country estate, village

acquisivit (acquiro, acquiere, acquisivi, acquistus) – verb in its perfect active third person singular form; acquire, obtain, gain, get, add to stock, accrue

Robert the Bruce obtained the castle at Berwick with the village [at Berwick].

Strangely enough, this was hard to find in the text–almost everything was very long.

Stay tuned tomorrow!

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Latin phrase of the day – #2

This one was kind of a pain, I’ll admit.  You’ll see why.  It’s from the Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough.

Scoti inierunt fedus cum Rege Francorum

Scoti – noun, nom. plural; Scot, Scotsman

inierunt (ineo, inire, inivii, initus) – verb, third person perfect; enter, undertake, begin, go in, enter upon

fedus – noun, nom. singular; kid, young goat OR two stars in the Charioteer constellation – this a really strange and unusual word.

cum – adverb OR ablative preposition; with, together with OR jointly, uner the command of, at the head of, having, containing, inlcuding, by means of

Rege – this one is tricky.  It could either be a dative or ablative form of the noun rex, regis, which means King, or it could be the present active imperfect form of the verb rego, regere, rexi, rectus, which means to rule, guide, manage, or direct

Francorum – noun, gen. plural; the Franks, the French (though some will translate this as neoLatin “franc”)

The Scots enter upon….something to do with a goat?

Yeah, that doesn’t make sense.  The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the transcriber or the author himself made a mistake and the term that should be where fedus is is actually a form of foedus, foederis, which means “treaty, league, formal agreement OR, between states, Alliance, peace, amity.”

That would make a lot more sense, wouldn’t it?

That would mean the phrase is really

Scoti inierunt foedus cum Rege Francorum

Which would translate to

The Scots having entered upon an alliance with the King of the Franks

…yeah, there’s no really good translation for the past perfect into English sometimes.

And there you have it!  Stay tuned for more….

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Latin phrase of the day – #1

Today’s Latin phrase of the day is a fragment from a manuscript in the British Public Records Office (PRO E32/30, m. 14) found in Peter Coss’s 1994 article, “Knights, Esquires and the Origins of Social Gradation in England” from Transactions of the Royal Historical Society sixth series, Vol. 5, published in 1995 by the Royal Historical Society.

qui tunc fuit armiger eius et modo est miles

Let’s break this down.

qui – pronoun; who, that, which, what

tunc – adverb; then, thereupon, at that time

fuit (sum, esse, fui, futurus) – verb; to be, exist (this is the verb to be and gives students of Latin fits until they figure it out)

armiger – noun; armor bearer, squire

eius (also appears as ejus in some texts – is, ea, id)- they, them (this is he/she/it)

et – and, and even, also

modo – adverb; just now, recently, lately, presently, only, merely

est (sum, esse, fui, futurus) – verb; the verb to be again, this time in the third person singular form.

miles – noun; knight

My translation?  “who at that time had been squires and presently are knights.”

Whew!  I’m rusty at this…