the saga continues ...

Sunday in August.
Ran a few ‘strange’ words past Encarta, turned up two or three definitions, not anywhere near enough to make me wish I hadn’t spent all that money … emprise turns out to be chivalrous adventure or undertaking, so I have left it in, with an explanatory note at the start of the ‘translation.’ Some of the medieval English is clear to me, some of it is extremely difficult, especially as people had a bad habit of using ‘ and chopping up words, ‘which he p’posid’ is easy to work out but often it isn’t. I found, through Google, two of the ‘strange’ words relating to armour. That helped as well as puzzled me, why would anyone fighting a duel use a Pavis, a full body shield that archers used to protect themselves when fitting a new arrow? Unless he felt he had to offer his opponent the chance of using a pavis.
Oxford University finally said they couldn’t help, so I have turned to another translation firm. As it happens, the man I am in contact with is retiring this week, he is making it his last project, determined to get an answer for me. His early translation is opposite to that proposed by the Librarian at Oxford University, would you not know it … but still deeply religious. It is still unofficial, mere theory. I wait …
I went onto ebay (again) and typed in Earl Rivers (again) and turned up the print I have been searching for – purchased immediately. I have a beautiful print of Elizabeth Woodville, she of the hair and the eyes and the ability to capture a king and change a path of history, all grist to the Earl Rivers mill/biography. His life is so bound up with hers, it would not be possible to leave her out.
Work on The Duel goes on, 11 pages ‘translated’ into modern English and a 3 page list of ‘odd’ words to work on when the dictionary arrives. The more I read of the medieval English, though, the clearer it becomes in my mind and some words are now crossed off the list; I have worked out what they are.
My daughter called me earlier to see the programme on Windsor Castle, the man measuring the distance of the chairs to the table. ‘So much fuss,’ she commented, ‘so much ceremony.’ It was in fact reminiscent of the ceremony which accompanied this duel, the preparations for it, the ceremonial sending of the Herald to the knight to invite him to fight, the way the knight received the invitation, the return of the Herald, the arrival of the knight, and all this before they strike a single blow! Very elaborate, very ritualistic, life was dictated by rules and formalities. I need to bring this over in the book without overdoing it. The Duel will do the job well for me, it sets out the formalities of court life in Medieval times beautifully. ‘The king’s highness, my said sovereign lord’ every time the king is mentioned, without fail.
More work tomorrow…