When reading about the Rus and their Scandinavian origin, there is something which stand out to me and I am a little confused by it. You have all these princes with Slavic names, like Oleg, Igor, Vladimir, etc. but all those names are also attested in Germanic styles like Helgi, Ingvar and Valdemar. So I am a little confused as to which names they would have used themselves.
I know that Sviatoslav was the the first of these to have a Slavic name according to the Primary chronicle but his mother Olga was described as having a Scandinavian origin and her name is also attested as Helga. But she also converted to Christianity while her son remained Pagan.
So I guess my first question is, did the Rurikids use Norse names or Slavic names, and if so when did it switch?
I have the same question regarding their religion, because I'd assume that the early Rus would have been worshiping the Germanic gods, by Sviatoslav's time they were invoking Perun and Veles, who were Slavic gods. But it could also have been basically believing in Thor with a Slavic name, because those two are basically the same gods but in different faith sysems. Vladimir the great also canonized the faith in a way, basically by affirming that these gods are which we believe in, and build a temple to a variety of Slavic, Iranic, Finnish and Germanic gods before later forcibly converting everyone to Christianity.
Cheers :)
1 Answers 2019-11-28
Thursday Reading and Recommendations is intended as bookish free-for-all, for the discussion and recommendation of all books historical, or tangentially so. Suggested topics include, but are by no means limited to:
Asking for book recommendations on specific topics or periods of history
Newly published books and articles you're dying to read
Recent book releases, old book reviews, reading recommendations, or just talking about what you're reading now
Historiographical discussions, debates, and disputes
...And so on!
Regular participants in the Thursday threads should just keep doing what they've been doing; newcomers should take notice that this thread is meant for open discussion of history and books, not just anything you like -- we'll have a thread on Friday for that, as usual.
9 Answers 2019-11-28
I heard that when the Romans left Britain that the Irish raided England a lot was this normal in their history to sail to other lands to raid?
1 Answers 2019-11-28
As far as I understand, Thomas Edison's phonograph was the first device that could play back recorded sounds, including human voices. Today, everyone seems to hate their sound of their own recorded voice. How did they react back then? Did people notice their own voices sounded different?
1 Answers 2019-11-28
In Life on the Mississippi Mark Twain attributes the southern concept of Chivalry and honor to Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, I've quoted a portion of the text, is there any fact to this idea, or was Twain restricted by his perspective?
Then comes Sir Walter Scott with his enchantments, and by his single might checks this wave of progress, and even turns it back; sets the world in love with dreams and phantoms; with decayed and swinish forms of religion; with decayed and degraded systems of government; with the sillinesses and emptinesses, sham grandeurs, sham gauds, and sham chivalries of a brainless and worthless long-vanished society. He did measureless harm; more real and lasting harm, perhaps, than any other individual that ever wrote. Most of the world has now outlived good part of these harms, though by no means all of them; but in our South they flourish pretty forcefully still. Not so forcefully as half a generation ago, perhaps, but still forcefully.
...
Sir Walter had so large a hand in making Southern character, as it existed before the war, that he is in great measure responsible for the war. It seems a little harsh toward a dead man to say that we never should have had any war but for Sir Walter; and yet something of a plausible argument might, perhaps, be made in support of that wild proposition. The Southerner of the American Revolution owned slaves; so did the Southerner of the Civil War: but the former resembles the latter as an Englishman resembles a Frenchman. The change of character can be traced rather more easily to Sir Walter`s influence than to that of any other thing or person.
1 Answers 2019-11-28
Here is the paper, are this conclusions sound at all?, how is that enough genetic diversity to keep a population healthy indefinitely?
And if they are, how do we explain the different language families we observe in the americas?
1 Answers 2019-11-28
When Nazi Germany did the Holocaust, did they pass laws that made what they did legal (e.g. allowing the summary execution of civilians), or did they break their own laws?
1 Answers 2019-11-28
"Poverty, though it no doubt discourages, does not always prevent mar- riage. It seems even to be favourable to generation. A half-starved Highland woman frequently bears more than twenty children, while a pampered fine lady is often incapable of bearing any, and is generally exhausted by two or three. Barrenness, so frequent among women of fashion, is very rare among those of inferior station. Luxury in the fair sex, while it inflames perhaps the passion for enjoyment, seems always to weaken, and frequently to destroy altogether, the powers of generation."
[Link to searchable PDF](https://www.ibiblio.org/ml/libri/s/SmithA_WealthNations_p.pdf)
Smith goes on to talk about how the death rate for peasant children is much higher because they cannot afford to feed or care for their children as much as the wealthy can.
I feel like I have seen the idea of the infertility of noblewomen echoed elsewhere but I can't remember where. Was this just a persistent myth?
My Potential Explanations:
-Inbreeding among the noble class
-People with genes that made them bad at reproducing were given the best possible circumstances for reproduction and so those genes were able to propagate and build up in the population. This dovetails with inbreeding.
-Rich men spent more time paying for prostitutes and less time sleeping with their wives, especially after a couple pregnancies. Peasants could not afford to do so.
-Rich men got STDs like syphillis because they used prostitutes frequently which they then gave to their wives causing eventual infertility in one or both parties.
-Rich girls with rich fathers had more access to and knowledge of abortificants of the time. They also would lose much more value than a peasant girl if they were discovered to be pregnant before marriage. A common side effect of abortificants of the day was infertility.
1 Answers 2019-11-28
I'd extend the question to the later stages of the Warring States period too.
The Kingdom and later Empire of Qin was organized along the theories of Legalism with an extensive code of law that was theoretically to apply equally to all citizens. But how were these laws enforced? Who was responsible for investigating crimes and bringing the guilty (or suspect) to court?
1 Answers 2019-11-28
I was reading a post that was really similar to this, but didn't quite answer the exact part I was thinking of, so I was wondering if someone would be able to answer this for me, even though it's probably real simple to answer;
Why do so many ancient buildings (namely ones that are in the desert or something) end up underground? Or is it just a Hollywood trope to set up some sort of plot point?
1 Answers 2019-11-28
Did they believe those women would refuse to separate from their children? Or that they might try to smuggle their children into the camp, just as they often tried to hide them under piles of clothing before going into the gas chambers?
1 Answers 2019-11-28
1 Answers 2019-11-28
Hello beautiful hive-mind of the inter-webs!
Context : I've been a reenactor for 2 years and my group is doing 14th century (1375-1390 but flexible) Italian mercenary company, meaning we can do basically any cultural group because of the cosmopolitan nature of the country at the time. I want to move towards archery and I've got myself a recurve bow and might be getting into mounted archery soon!
Question : of all the archery and mounted archery culture, is there one at the time which uses pants? rather than the typical hose-braies combination that I see everywhere in the illustration?
I started looking into hungarian but I have a hard time getting good images of the time period. I'M looking for depiction of the time period or even written manuscripts. If you have pictures or a Pinterest Library you could direct me towards, that'd be awesome! I'll be getting into the rest of the clothing as well as armor soon enough, so if you've got info on that as well, I'll gladly take the help! Fabric type would also help me sew the thing together.
I'll keep trying to make internet magic happen, but if you can give me a hand, I'll give your comment bunch of fake internet points!
PS : I know reenacting is not finding ONE image which proves you are right, but i'm really uncomfortable for a full weekend wearing braes and hosen. I also want to do something a bit different than the rest of my group.
1 Answers 2019-11-28
I've tried finding stuff about it but it all conflicts the BBC says it became tribal, Wikipedia seems to say it was a mix of the old roman way with more native stuff mixed in. and others say some form of feudalism. So what did the Early welsh have?
1 Answers 2019-11-28
Did Hitler accumulate any wealth before a World War II, or during the war?
1 Answers 2019-11-28
1 Answers 2019-11-28
[deleted]
1 Answers 2019-11-28
I think the standard interpretation is that Japan surrendered in WWII as a result of the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. But why wait until Nagasaki to surrender?
I've read and understand Japan was, much like Hitler, willing to fight to the last man, woman and child against the USA. If this is the case, what difference did it make whether the Japanese were killed by American bullets or atomic bombs in the defence of their homeland?
Finally, is there any record of politicians or generals stating a preference for invasion and occupation by America, as opposed to Russia who they'd seen strip East Germany of much of its wealth?
Thanks very much, and don't feel compelled to answer all three of these!
2 Answers 2019-11-27
1 Answers 2019-11-27
The Japanese Emperor was essentially worshipped as a god during the super fanatical early 1940’s and when we finally gave up there was a coup against him. Could, after Manchuria fell and Nagasaki and Hiroshima were reduced to rubble, Hirohito keep the war going on for years longer? Could he have kept Japan fighting until it was completely destroyed, or would he have been overruled?
2 Answers 2019-11-27
I know they divide country betweensons,dont need say this
Thing ı wonder is,without feudal goverment all lands belonged to kings and land-governors appointed by King ?
İf so,doesnt that make early frank kingdom bureaucratic and more advanced than all middle,late europan feudal gore kingdoms ?
Briefly,how things work in Frank kingdom ?
1 Answers 2019-11-27
