History of Medieval England - Thursday 6th Period: Discussion 1: Introduction and Pre-history to 500

[prof-methos.livejournal.com]

Good afternoon, class. Now I get to torture you all by making you all stand up and introduce yourselves to your classmates. This is because I'm sadistic want to get you used to the concept of talking during our discussion sessions. Please give your name and what one thing you'd like to find out in this class.

Your homework, due next Tuesday but to be posted in this post is to pick a topic from the once-optional-now-mandatory reading list I gave you on Prehistoric Britain and Roman Britain and give me ETA a minimum of one hundred Wikipedia words on it. Got it? Good.

[[OOC comment threads are done!]]

[[ETA: OOC: At some point I stopped receiving comment notifications for this post. I'm scanning and trying to jump into discussions. But since I'm trying to foster discussion *amongst* all of you, I try not to jump in everywhere.]]

Comments

Re: DISCUSSION 3: General Medieval English History Questions

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Okay, here's my question," Parker said, tapping a fingernail on her desk. "History is written by the winners. We have Roman accounts of Boudicca's revolt in Latin, saying it was inspired by one rotten prefect who grabbed property and dishonored the British tribal leader's heirs in order to keep it for himself. Where are the accounts from the other side? Did the Britons even have a system of writing? What backs this up? And why did he have Boudicca lashed and her daughters raped? I don't get it. That seems like something that would *definitely* start a rebellion."

"We've got the Roman view on the Druidical rites on Mona-- that they were bloody, and devoted to sacrifice. I checked and other sources confirm that they *did* practice human sacrifice sometimes, but I have no idea what sources they were using. Does anything from the Isle of Mona back this up? Or were the Romans just killing the local power structure, and justifying it later?"

"And we've got the two speeches given by the two opposing sides-- Boadicea saying that 'On this spot we must either conquer, or die with glory. There is no alternative.' Which she later backed up by committing suicide when her army was defeated. But then you contrast that with Postumius killing himself because he didn't let his legion fight against the rebellion, so he thought he robbed them of honor. Plus what I mentioned before about the numbers on each side. Who even reported this?"

"I guess my overarching question is, did all of British history get recorded by Roman legions and Irish monks, or is there anything where we don't have to question the reporter's veracity? It was the Middle Ages. How literate *were* they?"

_{[ooc: and the geek Parker is not really expecting answers to *all* of these, but she'd like some kind of a idea of what to take as accepted history.]}

Re: DISCUSSION 3: General Medieval English History Questions

[swerval_zero]

"None of it from that far back can really be accepted as pure fact. There's all sorts of stuff smack alongside what we take as fact that's just...pure fiction. Sea monsters and fairies and the like. The story of how Christianity came to Britain is absolutely hilarious."

Zero blinks a few times before realizing, "Actually, considering what I know now, the sea monsters and the fairies might be on the level, too."

Re: DISCUSSION 3: General Medieval English History Questions

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"I get annoyed at what's taken as fact," Parker grumbled. "People need to be called on it." Then she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Yeah, Fandom's warped my ability to take anything I've believed was fiction as accepted fiction either. I guess we just keep re-examining the sources."