tidbits cross time
Aug. 19th, 2024 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliAs Pickett's forces were preparing for Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, some of them startled a hare that ran off. One gaunt Virginian called after, "Run old heah; if I were an old heah I would run too."
Based on Linear B records, it appears Zeus was a god in Mycenaean Greece, but not the chief. Poseidon was more a chthonic god, causing earthquakes, though there are connections between him and rivers of the underworld.
Among the kennings for the sun in Old English were heaven's candle, the weather-candle and -- the peace-candle. Then, night was notorious the time for crimes up to murder, without light by which you could be seen by witnesses.
The Second Great Awakening brought about a great interest in American botanical medicines, people urging that God had surrounded them with cures.
Henry IV was accused of having used magic in his seizing the throne from Richard. Louis d'Orleans even insinuated it in a formal letter.
When Austria-Hungary made school mandatory, many rural schools could offer only half-day schooling, with morning classes trading off with afternoon ones. Many parents resented even that because school took their children from the farm work.
Chinese immigrants into Thailand came from different regions -- and had different cemeteries in Bangkok because of such differences.
The sea-elf found in Old English writings was associated with wells, springs, streams, ponds -- even though every other context the term for sea is used for salt-water.
Ancient Norse apparently made offerings of baby teeth (after they fell out) to Loki.
Swedish labor unions held English classes in the 19th century. The threat of emigration was useful in coming to terms.
In medieval Nuremberg, the right to vote was limited to several dozen families, who also had the right to dance in the city hall.
Just before the Battle of Pydna, there was a lunar eclipse, which the armies were aware was coming. One Roman consul was charged with explaining that this was a natural phenomena, but they also performed the proper rites of sacrificing to Luna and banging on pots. Macedonian forces were less cheerful, since it was held that lunar eclipses meant the fall of kings.
A Soviet citizen who returned to the USSR from the United States observed that the American roads were good. He was charged with imperialist propaganda, and the prosecutor asked for ten years. When the judge asked for a little more substantial grounds, the judge was sent to exile in another city, and the man got ten years.
A seventh-century law in Kent decreed that any stranger who strayed from the main road and didn't announce himself by shouting or horn is presumed a thief, to be killed or ransomed.
Treasure-hunters in early modern times preferred treasure that was guarded by ghosts, because the haunting would be a punishment for having either gained it from illicit means, or failing to spend it when they had a duty to. Consequently, the ghosts would eagerly aid the treasure hunters because getting rid of it was the condition for their state to end.
Eisenhower was put in charge of the D-Day operation because Stalin insisted that Roosevelt and Churchill had to give someone the responsibility to carry it through.
In medieval times, no one under the age of 14 could be outlawed, and they were leery about outlawing women.
Poles from Prussia tended to immigrate to locations in the United States where there had been heavy German immigration. Likewise, Polish Jews immigrated to the same locations as Poles -- not just in general, but by city.
One American intelligence agent was found, during Tiananmen Square, going through old reports. He explained he was looking for things that hadn't made sense at the time, but made sense now. He found some.
The most references to elves in Old English literature are found in the medical texts, how to treat injuries and illnesses caused by them.
19th century Austrian schools differed for girls and boys in that girls got sewing instruction, and less mathematics, and also their history books covered more inspiring examples of female Austrians. Though everyone got Maria Theresa as a splendid empress. They did play up her advisors, but a lot of it was that she was a wise and prudent monarch and could pick out good advisors.
In French heraldry, any animal standing on its four legs, though looking exactly like a rampant lion in all other respects, was a leopard.
Jamestown sent back to Britain for obsolete weaponry. Armor might be no more good against pikes and muskets, but it was plenty good in the colony.
Chinese official distinguished between "cooked" and "raw" barbarians. The first had had their household registered and were under the authority of a magistrate, however nominal.
Jews were elected to the Australian legislature before they were eligible to stand for the British one.
The Declaration of Independence was banned in Russia for eight decades, and in Spain for nine.
One medieval practice of magic was to have a requiem mass said for a person still alive.
A researcher trying to get more iron into Cambodian diets found that he had to shape it into the form of a lucky fish. Then they were willing to boil it in their pots. (Though it did cure only iron-deficiency anemia.)
Based on Linear B records, it appears Zeus was a god in Mycenaean Greece, but not the chief. Poseidon was more a chthonic god, causing earthquakes, though there are connections between him and rivers of the underworld.
Among the kennings for the sun in Old English were heaven's candle, the weather-candle and -- the peace-candle. Then, night was notorious the time for crimes up to murder, without light by which you could be seen by witnesses.
The Second Great Awakening brought about a great interest in American botanical medicines, people urging that God had surrounded them with cures.
Henry IV was accused of having used magic in his seizing the throne from Richard. Louis d'Orleans even insinuated it in a formal letter.
When Austria-Hungary made school mandatory, many rural schools could offer only half-day schooling, with morning classes trading off with afternoon ones. Many parents resented even that because school took their children from the farm work.
Chinese immigrants into Thailand came from different regions -- and had different cemeteries in Bangkok because of such differences.
The sea-elf found in Old English writings was associated with wells, springs, streams, ponds -- even though every other context the term for sea is used for salt-water.
Ancient Norse apparently made offerings of baby teeth (after they fell out) to Loki.
Swedish labor unions held English classes in the 19th century. The threat of emigration was useful in coming to terms.
In medieval Nuremberg, the right to vote was limited to several dozen families, who also had the right to dance in the city hall.
Just before the Battle of Pydna, there was a lunar eclipse, which the armies were aware was coming. One Roman consul was charged with explaining that this was a natural phenomena, but they also performed the proper rites of sacrificing to Luna and banging on pots. Macedonian forces were less cheerful, since it was held that lunar eclipses meant the fall of kings.
A Soviet citizen who returned to the USSR from the United States observed that the American roads were good. He was charged with imperialist propaganda, and the prosecutor asked for ten years. When the judge asked for a little more substantial grounds, the judge was sent to exile in another city, and the man got ten years.
A seventh-century law in Kent decreed that any stranger who strayed from the main road and didn't announce himself by shouting or horn is presumed a thief, to be killed or ransomed.
Treasure-hunters in early modern times preferred treasure that was guarded by ghosts, because the haunting would be a punishment for having either gained it from illicit means, or failing to spend it when they had a duty to. Consequently, the ghosts would eagerly aid the treasure hunters because getting rid of it was the condition for their state to end.
Eisenhower was put in charge of the D-Day operation because Stalin insisted that Roosevelt and Churchill had to give someone the responsibility to carry it through.
In medieval times, no one under the age of 14 could be outlawed, and they were leery about outlawing women.
Poles from Prussia tended to immigrate to locations in the United States where there had been heavy German immigration. Likewise, Polish Jews immigrated to the same locations as Poles -- not just in general, but by city.
One American intelligence agent was found, during Tiananmen Square, going through old reports. He explained he was looking for things that hadn't made sense at the time, but made sense now. He found some.
The most references to elves in Old English literature are found in the medical texts, how to treat injuries and illnesses caused by them.
19th century Austrian schools differed for girls and boys in that girls got sewing instruction, and less mathematics, and also their history books covered more inspiring examples of female Austrians. Though everyone got Maria Theresa as a splendid empress. They did play up her advisors, but a lot of it was that she was a wise and prudent monarch and could pick out good advisors.
In French heraldry, any animal standing on its four legs, though looking exactly like a rampant lion in all other respects, was a leopard.
Jamestown sent back to Britain for obsolete weaponry. Armor might be no more good against pikes and muskets, but it was plenty good in the colony.
Chinese official distinguished between "cooked" and "raw" barbarians. The first had had their household registered and were under the authority of a magistrate, however nominal.
Jews were elected to the Australian legislature before they were eligible to stand for the British one.
The Declaration of Independence was banned in Russia for eight decades, and in Spain for nine.
One medieval practice of magic was to have a requiem mass said for a person still alive.
A researcher trying to get more iron into Cambodian diets found that he had to shape it into the form of a lucky fish. Then they were willing to boil it in their pots. (Though it did cure only iron-deficiency anemia.)