Month: April 2010

Wondrous Words Wednesday – King Arthur’s Bones

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

Wondrous Words Wednesday, run by Kathy (Bermudaonion),  is a weekly meme where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading.

 

This week I have a few words from King Arthur’s Bones by The Medieval Murderers, which I’m currently reading.

  • Calvarium – ‘Gingerly pulling that aside, they gazed down on a jumbled heap of mottled brown bones, some of which even their inexpert eyes recognised as human, especially as they glimpsed the rounded calvarium of a skull.’ (page 150)

I realised from the context what a calvarium is but didn’t know before that it is the upper domelike part of the skull without the jawbone or facial parts. From the Latin.

The next words all have a medieval origin as is to be expected in a book about medieval murder. No doubt I’ll come across more before I’ve finished this book. The meanings can all be surmised from the text but the dictionary definitions flesh out the words.

  • Cote-hardie – ‘A grey-haired man, dressed in a sombre but good-quality cote-hardie,  nodded his agreement.’ (page 157)

Obviously a garment of some sort – the dictionary defines it as a medieval close-fitting tight-sleeved body garment – from Old French.

  • Lymer – ‘ Before he got fifty paces, a dozen hounds broke cover, including several lymers and running dogs,  which hunted by scent rather than sight.’ (page 162)

Another word defined in the text, more specifically a lymer was  a forerunner of today’s bloodhound, used to find the lay of the game before the hunt even started, and it was therefore important that, in addition to a good nose, it remained quiet. Silence in the lymer was achieved through a combination of breeding and training. See this article on Medieval Hunting.

  • Mazer – ‘Peter lifted his eyebrows and gazed pensively at the jug as his bottler poured two mazers of wine.’ (page 201)

A mazer is a type of drinking bowl made originally of maple wood (Old French masere, of Germanic origin).

  • Murdrum – ‘ ” No need to worry about proving he was local, then. Just a murdrum fine and the usual amercements”, Sir Richard grunted.’ (page 210)

Again from the text I could understand that murdrum is a fine. Specifically as defined in the Norman Conquest Encyclopedia murdrum “derives from the Old French murdre from which the English word murder comes. The new law provided that if a Norman was killed and the killer was not apprehended within five days, the hundred within which the crime was committed should be liable for a collective penalty of whatever balance of the sum of forty-six marks of silver the lord of the hundred could not pay. The killing of a Saxon triggered no such penalty.”

  • Deodand – ‘I will say the weapon was worth at least a shilling, and that much is deodand.’ (page 219)

My Chambers Dictionary defines deodand as ‘ a personal chattel [property] which had been the immediate accidental cause of the death of a human being, forfeited to the crown for pious uses. (Latin deo to God, and dandum, that must be given from dare, to give).’

The online Free Dictionary gives additional information that it traces back to the 11th century and has been applied, on and off, until Parliament finally abolished it in 1846. In theory, deodands were forfeit to the crown, which was supposed to sell the chattel and then apply the profits to some pious use. In reality, the juries who decided that a particular animal or object was a deodand also appraised its value and the owners were expected to pay a fine equal to the value of the deodand. If the owner could not pay the deodand, his township was held responsible.

Teaser Tuesdays

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Share a couple or more sentences from the book you’re currently reading. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your ‘teaser’ from €¦ that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

My teaser is from King Arthur’s Bones by The Medieval Murderers:

Each of the individuals who stared at these remains in the abbot’s parlour was lost for a time in his imagination, seeing a great and final battle in which a warrior-king had been fatally struck down. They put out their hands – even Michael and the other labourers – to touch the scullcap, the jaw-bone, the mighty shin-bone, the fragments of ribcage, as if some trace of Arthur’s spirit might be transmitted to their own blood and sinew. (page 22) 

This is a book of shortish interlinked stories tracing the whereabouts of King Arthur’s skeletal remains. It begins in 1191, when monks at Glastonbury Abbey discover an ancient cross and lying beneath in a hollowed out tree trunk are bones in the form of a body.

 Are these really King Arthur’s bones? As soon as the bones are found they are carried away by the ‘Guardians’ whose heritage is to protect them until the legend is fulfilled and Arthur returns to save his country. The story moves forward through the centuries and treachery, theft, blackmail  and murder follow the bones.

Happy Birthday BooksPlease!

Published on by Margaret16 Comments

Three years ago today I began to write regularly on this blog and this is my 846th post.

I started out very tentatively but now feel at home here. My intention at the beginning was to keep a more detailed record of what I was reading, but I soon realised it’s also a good place to record places we’ve visited; actually my first posts were mainly about places rather than books!

I also discovered memes. I had no idea what these were, ‘memes’ up till then were something I’d read about in Richard Dawkins’s books. Booking through Thursday soon became addictive and most weeks I still take part. Actually you could do a meme each day of the week if you want to and I then realised that this was taking me away from reading, so I’ve cut down on them.

Then there are the Challenges. I thought them too difficult at first and didn’t take part. But soon, when I realised that you don’t actually have to complete them I found that they’re a very good way of learning about new books and also of getting down to reading some books off my tbr piles.

So, after three years of blogging what has changed? I written about most of the books I’ve read – see the tabs above for my book reviews and indexes and I’ve learnt a lot, found many other book bloggers who share my love and enthusiasm for books and added loads of books both to my tbr piles and my wishlists, but most of all I’ve enjoyed it all immensely. I love the contact from all over the world and the comments I’ve had -I hope you all keep on visiting!

Crime Fiction Alphabet: Z is for Pariah by Dave Zeltserman

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

I’ve really enjoyed taking part in Kerrie’s Crime Fiction Alphabet – many thanks Kerrie! For the last letter I’ve chosen Pariah by Dave Zeltserman.

I toyed with the idea of writing about Carlos Ruiz Zafon, but it’s been a long time since I read The Shadow of the Wind, so my memory is a bit rusty about the details and I haven’t started his latest book The Angel’s Game.

I don’t think the only other book I have by a ‘Z’  author, Gem Squash Tokoloshe by Rachel Zadok, qualifies as crime fiction and I don’t have any books with titles beginning with Z. So it was off to the library to see what they had – not a lot! But Pariah by Dave Zeltserman was sitting on the shelf and I borrowed it although the quote on the front cover made me doubt whether any book could live up to such praise:

‘The perfect pitch of reality, history, crime, celebrity, plagiarism, and sheer astounding writing.’ Ken Bruen

Now I’ve read it, in my opinion it doesn’t. I’ve recently joined the Cozy Mystery Challenge and this book just doesn’t qualify for that category – it has everything a ‘cozy’ mystery doesn’t.

As I began it I thought I wasn’t going to like this at all – too much swearing, too much gratuitous violence, too much blood and gore, just too much ‘reality’ (but not reality as I know it). So I put the book down and began another one. But somehow I found myself thinking about Pariah and wondering how it would turn out and I just had to go back and finish it.

It’s a study in evil. The narrator is Kyle Nevin, a killer without a conscience, just released from an eight-year prison sentence, determined to get revenge on Red Mahoney, South Boston’s head mobster, who had set him up with the FBI. But he needs money to track down Red and carry out his plan. He stops at nothing to get what he wants, killing, maiming, robbery, drugs, drink, sex, etc, etc – until it all goes wrong that is.

All though I wanted things to go wrong for him the irony is that it’s through writing a novel that it finally happens. He’s approached by a publisher to fictionalise his crimes:

I want this to be a tough, hard-hitting crime novel, something where there are no winners, only losers, and with the authenticity that you are more than capable of providing. (page 222)

I really enjoyed this part of the book. Dropped in between some of the chapters are Kyle’s notes to the editor, so I knew all along that this was a book he was writing, but it is onlyin the last few chapters that this comes to the fore. Part of the pleasure for me was the contrast between creative fiction writing – there is a character who has an MFA in creative writing who Kyle pays to write the book for him, until the publisher rejects his submission, telling him that it’s unacceptable because it ‘screamed MFA’ (Master of Fine Arts). He wanted writing with ‘raw energy’.

And I loved it when it came to the ‘celebrity’ interiews, the plagiarism charge and the reaction of book reviewers and book bloggers.

The papers had a field day with me, but the bloggers were the worst. Jesus they were unmerciful. During those four days I couldn’t sleep and spent my time reading all that shit written about me on those blogs. (page 267)

This is a tough tale, a dark thriller, written with confidence and fluency. Kyle is an anti-hero, a real pariah and I disliked him intensely. I may not have liked the characters, the language or the content of this story but it certainly has great impact and has lingered in my mind for days.

Sunday Salon

Published on by Margaret1 Comment

Not much reading here today as D and I are off out with the family this afternoon.

This morning I’ll be reading more from Griff Rhys Jones’s memoir Semi-Detached, which is coming on nicely. I’m now up to the part where Griff is in his final year at school. I loved his description of cricket that I read yesterday.

I hate and abhor cricket. I loathe cricket. I abominate cricket. There is only one thing more boring than the abysmal English habit of watching a game of cricket and that is an afternoon playing the wretched game. It is sport for the indolently paralysed. Only three people out of twenty two are engaged in any proper activity. The rest simply sit and wait their turn.

The excruciating tedium of ‘fielding’ – standing about, like a man in a queue with nothing to read, in case a sequence of repetitive events, ponderously unfolding in front of you, should suddenly require your direct intervention … (page 179)

Football is a game. Tiddly-winks is a game. A sack race involves energy and fun. Cricket is like a cucumber sandwich: indulged in for reasons of tradition, despite being totally eclipsed by every other alternative on offer. (page 181)

I can well imagine that fielding would be much more pleasurable if one could read at the same time. One of my fond memories of childhood is going with my parents to watch cricket, but then I did used to lie in the grass making daisy chains.

I’d like to finish reading Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig this evening, if I have time before I fall asleep. I have very mixed ideas about it right now, varying from liking it to wishing I’d never bothered to pick it up. It’s a tough read – from a subject point of view, that is. This is by no means a ‘comfy’ read, more of a rollercoaster to batter and bruise. But I must finish it before writing about it properly.

Coming up next week I’m looking forward to reading one of these books:

At the moment it’s King Arthur’s Bones that is calling out to me. It’s five interlinked mysteries from Michael Jecks, Susanna Gregory, Bernard Knight, Ian Morson and Philip Gooden.